It’s natural for investors to get intimidated by words like inflation, hard-landing recession, soft-landing recession, bear market, and war that are being thrown around. However, keeping an eye on stocks with solid fundamentals and strong support from Wall Street analysts makes investment decisions easier. TipRanks’ Analyst Top Stocks tool offers a comprehensive view of the stocks that top Wall Street analysts are recommending right now. Planet Fitness (NYSE:PLNT) and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) are two stocks that have recently been recommended by the best-performing Wall Street analysts.
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Planet Fitness (PLNT)
Planet Fitness is one of the biggest and most rapidly-growing franchisors and operators of fitness centers in the U.S. The company is riding on growing memberships, robust digitalization, and a strengthening brand presence. It has recovered most of the losses incurred during the pandemic thanks to rising membership numbers.
In 2022, the company added 1.8 million members, bringing the total number to 17 million. It also opened 158 new stores. Planet Fitness now has 2,410 stores in total.
After suffering a decline in value for the better part of 2022, shares started a bull run around late September, returning 37.3% in the past three months. Piper Sandler analyst Peter Keith gave the stock a place in his top-five recession-safe stocks for 2023. The analyst anticipates the year to be marred by “murky” consumer spending behavior and thus chooses “both recession-resilient growth stocks with company-specific drivers as well as opportunistic, non-consensus stock ideas with either discounted valuation or idiosyncratic business drivers.”
What is the Price Target for PLNT Stock?
Keith, a PLNT bull, raised his price target to $93 from $79. Overall, Wall Street expects gains, as the average Planet Fitness stock price target of $93.70 implies 11% upside potential. Moreover, the analyst consensus is bullish on the stock for the long term, as evidenced by 11 unanimous Buys.
Alibaba (BABA)
E-commerce and technology giant Alibaba had a tough year in 2022, battling various economic and regulatory uncertainties as well as the sharp pessimism around Chinese stocks.
However, things have been looking better for the stock since October 2022. Shares have increased by more than 50% in the past three months. Alibaba’s strong and loyal domestic customer base has helped the company overcome challenges, supporting its profitability even as the top line suffered. Notably, BABA’s earnings have been trending higher over the past several quarters.
Analysts on Wall Street have lately been staunchly bullish on BABA stock. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) analyst Gary Yu, for instance, believes that the company’s share price will “rise in absolute terms over the next 60 days.”
Meanwhile, Citigroup (NYSE:C) analyst Alicia Yap, who maintained a Buy rating and raised the price target on the stock to $160 from $144, expects consumption in China to recover rapidly in 2023, which will be a boon for the company’s business. Other potential catalysts for Alibaba this year are a primary listing conversion to Hong Kong and a possible stock-connect approval (in which investors in Mainland China can access Hong Kong-listed shares and Hong Kong and international investors can access eligible shares listed in the exchange in Mainland China).
What is the Price Target for BABA Stock?
15 resounding Buys give Alibaba a Strong Buy consensus rating on Wall Street. Moreover, the average BABA stock price target of $137.36 indicates 19.45% upside potential over the next year.
The Takeaway
2023 is not likely to be an easy year for stocks. However, Planet Fitness, with its focused growth strategy, and Alibaba, having practically all of China as its customer base, can be great bets to stay ahead of the market, according to analysts.
