Folks, institutional analysts have terrible timing…
I’ve spent my entire 25-year career reading reports from major investment banks. And the story is typically the same…
XYZ Company just soared 25%. And then, a week or two later, the big banks raise their price targets by 5%. Oftentimes, the banks will still undersell the potential opportunity.
I end up chuckling to myself every time. “Geez, what a big help that was.”
Fortunately, as individual investors, we can beat Wall Street’s eggheads at this game…
Today, I’ll show you how to use a secret weapon to do that. It’s a way to find stocks that analysts have either forgotten, haven’t upgraded yet, or haven’t upgraded enough.
In fact, we’ll use this secret weapon to detail an opportunity worth considering right now…
Regular Chaikin PowerFeed readers know the Power Gauge is our go-to system.
The model’s 20 factors include financial tools like price to book value, return on equity, and free cash flow. It also looks at a handful of technical indicators, as well as five earnings-related metrics.
And finally, the Power Gauge includes an “Experts” section with the following five factors…
- Earnings Estimate Trend
- Short Interest
- Insider Activity
- Analyst Rating Trend
- Industry Relative Strength
This is where it gets interesting…
The Power Gauge can screen for opportunities based on these factors. And that’s where our edge comes in…
You see, I look for stocks that institutional analysts don’t like. It sounds crazy, but here’s why…
These analysts are often just behind the curve. They’re not wrong, but they’re often late.
Knowing that, we can use the Power Gauge to beat them. Specifically, we can filter for stocks with a “bullish” or better overall rating and a “bearish” Experts category rating.
These stocks are the ones likely to see analysts’ revisions in the near future. As that happens, they’ll continue to soar as other investors catch on to what the Power Gauge already sees.
Here’s an example…
I recently ran a version of this screen on the more than 4,000 companies within our database. And I found 15 companies that fit this setup.
We’ll focus on one opportunity today. If you live near a major highway or shopping area, you’ve likely driven past its restaurants – and perhaps you’ve even eaten at one.
I’m talking about Bloomin’ Brands (BLMN).
The Florida-based company operates more than 1,450 restaurants worldwide. They’re mostly under the Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar brands.
With a roughly $2 billion market cap and $4 billion in annual sales, the stock is cheap in terms of its price-to-sales ratio. That’s why the Power Gauge is “very bullish” on this factor.
Bloomin’ Brands is trading at around $22.50 per share today. So the stock could soar to more than $45 per share and still only be trading at about 1 times sales. That’s darn cheap!
And as you can see in the following chart, the stock is headed up from a recent bottom…
Also, notice in the bottom panel of the chart that Bloomin’ Brands just started to outperform the overall market in recent weeks. That alone is typically enough reason to act.
I’ll add one more reason to like Bloomin’ Brands today…
Folks like you and I are going places again as we continue to move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s great news for these chain restaurants in the weeks and months to come.
Despite all that, Wall Street’s eggheads still aren’t fully on board yet…
A few big banks recently increased their price targets. But notably, it happened about two weeks after the Power Gauge moved to “bullish” in early February. Plus, their consensus target is roughly $30 per share – only about 30% higher than the current share price.
Waiting two weeks to listen to the big banks would’ve cost us some gains. And although the analysts now agree with the Power Gauge, they’re still underselling the potential upside.
In other words, thanks to the Power Gauge, we can still beat the eggheads at this game.
Good investing,
Pete Carmasino
