The list of most-loved Club stocks on Wall Street entering the new year resembles the list of 2023 winners, except for two stocks: Constellation Brands and Disney . The Mexican beer importer and media-and-entertainment giant are among the 11 Club holdings with buy-equivalent ratings from at least 75% of the analysts who cover them, according to FactSet data. The companies stand out from the nine other stocks when considering recent performance: Constellation and Disney rose just 4.3% and 3.9%, respectively, in 2023, compared with the S & P 500 ‘s 24.2% gain. The rest of the most-loved stocks either significantly outperformed the S & P 500 last year — such as Amazon , up 81% and top performer Nvidia , up 239% — or were steady advancers that set a series of all-time highs. The latter description applies to industrial gas firm Linde , which narrowly bested the S & P 500 with a 26% advance but routinely reached record peaks along the way, and off-price retailer TJX Companies , which added 17.9% in 2023 and ended the year at fresh highs. When taking Wall Street’s temperature on specific stocks, it’s important to keep in mind that being almost universally loved isn’t a clear-cut positive. In some situations, it could be a sign that a lot of the good news for a stock is already priced in. Earlier Tuesday, we trimmed our positions in six of the 11 stocks on the list — Amazon, Nvidia, Microsoft , Meta Platforms , Alphabet and Palo Alto Networks . These trims were not tied directly to a belief that analysts are too positive on the stocks; there’s still reason to believe in these companies over the long term. But with the market riding a rare nine-week win streak and this group of stocks delivering monster gains in 2023, locking in profits was the prudent action to take. Apple and Salesforce, which have buy-equivalent ratings from 61% and 69% of the analysts covering them, also were part of the Tuesday’s sales. “We took something off of every single big winner. … When you do that, that’s called discipline,” Jim Cramer said Tuesday. “It’s an incremental sale, and the rest [of our position] can bounce back.” Among the 11 stocks, analysts expect Nvidia to have the biggest gains in the new year, based on price targets compiled by FactSet. The average price target for the leading artificial intelligence chipmaker is $668.11 per share, which implies an upside of nearly 35% from Nvidia’s close Friday. The market was closed Monday for New Year’s Day. Our target for Nvidia is $600 a share. With buy-equivalent ratings from 94% of analysts covering it, Nvidia is second in our portfolio to only Amazon. All but one analyst covering Amazon has a buy or overweight rating on the e-commerce and cloud-computing giant’s stock. Despite buy-equivalent ratings from 82% of analysts, Palo Alto Networks has the least projected upside, at roughly 1%, based on an average price target of $298.03 per share. The cybersecurity stock, which more than doubled in 2023 , finished Friday’s session at $294.88 per share. Our Palo Alto price target of $320 a share implies about 8.5% upside. Both outliers on the list — Constellation Brands and Disney — have recently been frustrating stocks to own. Still, 83% of analysts have buy-equivalent ratings on Constellation, while 75% do so for Disney. Respected activist investment firm Elliott Management’s involvement at Constellation gives us hope that shares of the Modelo and Corona parent can increase in value. The average price target on Wall Street is $291.31 a share, representing 20.5% upside from Constellation’s close Friday. Our per-share target of $270 suggests more muted gains. Disney has its work cut out for it with CEO Bob Iger’s turnaround plan, but plenty of analysts seem to believe progress can be made at the House of Mouse. The average Disney price target of $103.08 per share implies about 14% upside from Friday’s close. We maintain a price target of $120. Activist investor Nelson Peltz is pushing for a seat on Disney’s board of directors. If he wins, it could help the stock get back on track. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
People walk past the New York Stock Exchange, March 16, 2023.
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The list of most-loved Club stocks on Wall Street entering the new year resembles the list of 2023 winners, except for two stocks: Constellation Brands and Disney.