MW These 15 tech stocks could rocket up to 85% in a year - and analysts love them

By Laila Maidan

Nvidia and Alphabet are among the tech stocks that garner mostly bullish ratings from analysts - and have high upside to the average price target

Tech stocks have gotten slammed along with the rest of the stock market over the past two weeks.

Since President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on April 2, the uncertainty has unleashed a bloodbath on Wall Street: The S&P 500 SPX is off 6.9% since that day, while the Roundhill Magnificent Seven exchange-traded fund MAGS is down 10% over the same period.

The tariffs have created even more uncertainty in tech stocks that are tied to hardware sales, causing a violent pullback. Their fall from grace has been especially harsh, with stocks like Nvidia Corp. $(NVDA)$ shedding 8%, Dell Technologies Inc. $(DELL)$ losing 11% and Micron Technology Inc. $(MU)$ declining by about 22% since April 2.

The turmoil isn't over yet. Nvidia's stock has gotten pounded since the company disclosed late Tuesday that it would be required to obtain a license from the U.S. government to export its H20 chips to China, Hong Kong and Macau. The stock has fallen by over 9% since Tuesday's close.

Read also: As Nvidia's stock sinks on China setback, here's Wall Street's big question

While in certain cases, the selling may be warranted because the cost of imports and even exports will squeeze hardware companies' profit margins, the declines may have been a bit too steep for some high-quality names - at least that's what Wall Street analysts think. Many of them have been lowering their price targets to factor in tariff costs, but they're largely retaining their bullish ratings - and their new targets imply substantial room for these stocks to run higher.

For investors with a high risk tolerance and a cool head, this may be one of those "buy the dip" moments that don't come along too often.

MarketWatch looked at tech stocks for which at least 60% of analysts carry bullish ratings. The chart below shows which of those stocks have the most potential upside based on their mean price targets on FactSet.

   Company                  Ticker    Implied upside to average 12-month price target  Share of buy and overweight ratings  YTD price change 
   Micron Technology Inc.   MU                                                  84.7%                                  85%              -18% 
   First Solar Inc.         FSLR                                               80.90%                                  87%              -27% 
   Western Digital Corp.    WDC                                                 71.5%                                  79%              -19% 
   Nvidia Corp.             NVDA                                                62.7%                                  88%              -24% 
   Arista Networks Inc.     ANET                                                  54%                                  77%              -36% 
   Trimble Inc.             TRMB                                                51.8%                                  93%              -18% 
   Dell Technologies Inc.   DELL                                                50.4%                                  85%              -26% 
   Salesforce Inc.          CRM                                                 50.1%                                  79%              -26% 
   Synopsys Inc.            SNPS                                                47.6%                                  91%              -15% 
   Meta Platforms Inc.      META                                                44.6%                                  88%              -14% 
   Broadcom Inc.            AVGO                                                42.2%                                  89%              -26% 
   NXP Semiconductors NV    NXPI                                                  41%                                  79%              -18% 
   Workday Inc.             WDAY                                                38.7%                                  76%              -14% 
   ServiceNow Inc.          NOW                                                 37.4%                                  84%              -27% 
   Alphabet Inc.            GOOGL                                                 36%                                  83%              -20% 

Many of the names on the list are facing near-term uncertainty, which has caused investors to discount them negatively. However, analysts believe comebacks could be in store, owing to factors such as the companies' growth trajectories or market share.

Micron's stock (MU) has fallen by 18% this year due to macroeconomic uncertainty. But an increasing total addressable market for high-bandwidth memory in 2025 will be a tailwind for the data-storage producer, a Baird analyst wrote. The company's earnings per share are expected to grow to $8.37 in calendar 2025 and to $11.23 by calendar 2026, according to data from FactSet. Its EPS was $3.20 in the last calendar year.

First Solar Inc.'s stock $(FSLR)$ has fallen by about 29% so far this year, largely due to uncertainty around tariffs and the fate of clean-energy tax credits under the Trump administration, according to another Baird analyst. However, the solar-equipment manufacturer has a solid sales-growth forecast, which is expected to help boost its earnings per share as well. Analysts expect EPS of $17.86 in 2025, up from $12.02 the previous year, according to data from FactSet.

Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.'s stock $(META)$ has been hurt partly because investors moved to shed risk in an uncertain economic environment and partly because the company is facing an antitrust trial that could force it to break up. However, the social-media giant has benefited from advertising sales, which made up the lion's share of its $165 billion in revenue during 2024. The stock is down 14% this year, which has brought its forward price-to-earnings ratio to around 21, which is near value.

See also: Wall Street is hyperbullish on Meta's stock: 3 reasons why you should be, too

Alphabet Inc.'s stock $(GOOG)$ $(GOOGL)$ is down by 19% this year, and the Google parent company is in the midst of multiple antitrust battles with the government. On Thursday, a judge ruled that part of its advertising-technology business was a monopoly. In a separate case last year, another judge found its search business to be anticompetitive. Investors are waiting to learn what the penalties will be, including whether the company will need to sell its Chrome browser or part of its ad-tech business. However, Baird analysts recently maintained their positive view of the stock on the strength of Alphabet's scale, market share and growth trajectory.

Now read: Newer investors have been rewarded for buying market dips. That won't last forever.

-Laila Maidan

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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April 18, 2025 10:55 ET (14:55 GMT)

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