Some corners of the market may have been overbought this year, but there are still long-term opportunities for investors, according to financial research firm Redburn. “Which stocks have the capacity to double over two to three years? Redburn analysts have chosen 12 companies where changes in the competitive or financial environment or management action could realise outsize value for shareholders,” Redburn wrote in a May 23 report. Those stocks are from diverse sectors and both the United States and Europe, the firm said. Here are four of them. Amazon Amazon’s cloud business, Amazon Web Services, is in a good position to tap the “favourable” trends of artificial intelligence, said Redburn. “Amazon is well positioned to become a Super App provider in the new AI era, reshaping the economics for the entire business by capturing a higher value share,” the firm’s analysts wrote. Its leadership in the field is also evident in its AI chip strategy, they said, noting the 2019 launch of its inaugural inference chip AWS Inferentia. Inference is a type of AI process. According to Redburn, the stock’s doubling hinges on two factors: significant earnings upgrades and a multiple expansion. “While we anticipate earnings upside for both retail and AWS, the latter holds greater significance as it is the higher multiple business,” it wrote. Vestas Redburn said it believes Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas is set for a “return to double-digit margins.” Just four firms account for around 90% of onshore wind turbine sales outside of China — and Vestas is one of them, said the analysts. “Vestas remains the most ambitious on price and yet is outperforming on order flow. Overall, ‘value over volume’ is the mantra,” Redburn said. Macro conditions are also conducive to Vestas, it added. “High power prices in much of the world, coupled with long-term support via the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the US, have dramatically improved the economics of onshore wind,” Redburn said. It expects Vestas’ EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) margin to reach 10% in 2024. “While there are inflationary pressures in some areas, supply-chain cost and performance are clearly improving and raw material costs are well below recent peaks,” the firm wrote. It added that if Vestas’ share price doubles, two metrics — enterprise value and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) — would rise to the mid-teens by the middle of this decade. “While not conventional ‘value’ territory, this is plausible for a stock with a > 30% return on capital, industry leadership in a core technology required by energy transition and substantial multi-decade growth potential as transition unfolds,” Redburn said. Bayer German pharmaceutical and biotech firm Bayer also made Redburn’s list. “The shares are very cheap and fail to discount the growth prospects across the various divisions,” Redburn said, adding that “an upgrade is due.” Redburn noted there’s one “critical first step” that may take the company a “fundamental step forward.” That’s the imminent arrival of a new CEO: Bill Anderson, said Redburn, adding that he has “a skill for pushing into the most lucrative indications.” The firm’s analysts said the current valuation “makes little sense to us.” “The easiest way to outline the path to Bayer’s share doubling is to explore our ‘sum of the parts’ modelling work,” they wrote. “The current market cap of the company is not much higher than €50bn. Wiping out the 20% conglomerate discount we apply across the group implies Pharma is worth c€40bn – arguably a lot more if the pipeline works out.” Redburn predicted that Bayer is entering a period of transition — with new management, cost reduction, and pipeline-driven growth. Sabre Redburn sees a “clear path” for shares of Sabre , a travel tech company, to “more than double.” “We see a very clear and durable pathway to reaching the company’s 2025 EBITDA target,” it said of the company, which operates distribution systems for air bookings in the United States. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
