Posted on Monday, May 20th, 2019 by MarketBeat StaffThere are more than 1,100 technology companies traded on public markets in the United States. Given the sheer number of hardware makers, social networks, software companies, service providers and other tech stocks, it can be hard to identify which tech companies are going to outperform the market.
Fortunately, Wall Street's brightest minds have already done this for us. Every year, analyst issue approximately 15,000 distinct recommendations for technology companies. Analysts don't always get their "buy" ratings right, but it's worth taking a hard look when several analysts from different brokerages and research firm are giving "strong buy" and "buy" ratings to the same tech stock.
This slide show lists the 15 technology companies that have the highest average analyst recommendations from Wall Street's equities research analysts over the last 12 months.
#1 - OptimizeRx (NASDAQ:OPRX)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 4 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $20.00 (21.4% Upside)
OptimizeRx Corporation provides digital health messaging services for pharmaceutical companies to communicate with healthcare providers. The company's cloud-based solutions support patient adherence to medications by providing real-time access to financial assistance, prior authorization, education, and critical clinical information; and network consists of electronic health records platforms, which provide the ambulatory patient market with access to their workflow at the point-of-care. Its products and applications include financial messaging, a virtual patient support center that allows doctors and staff to access sample vouchers, co-pay coupons, and other patient support through their EMR and/or e-prescribe systems to search, print, or electronically dispense directly to patients, as well as for a network of pharmacies; and Brand and Clinical Messaging that includes various brand awareness and clinical messaging services consisting of brand awareness messages, reminder ads, clinical messages, and unbranded messages targeted by specialty, diagnostic code, and other criteria. The company's products and applications also comprise brand support services, which focuses on educating and working with pharmaceutical manufacturers on identifying, formulating, and implementing new eRx media strategies, including drug file integration, sales force training, and strategy development services for promoting their products. It also operates Mobile Health Messenger platform that provides interactive health messaging for enhanced medication adherence, care coordination, and patient engagement; and HIPAA-compliant, an automated and mobile messaging platform that allows pharmaceutical manufactures and related entities to directly engage with patients to enhance regimen compliance. OptimizeRx Corporation is based in Rochester, Michigan.
#2 - ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 25 Buy Ratings, 3 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $267.1429 (0.8% Upside)
ServiceNow, Inc. provides enterprise cloud computing solutions that define, structure, manage, and automate services for enterprises worldwide. The company offers information technology (IT) service management applications, as well as digital workflow products for customer service, human resources, security operations, integrated risk management, and other enterprise departments. It operates the Now platform that offers workflow automation, electronic service catalogs and portals, configuration management systems, data benchmarking, performance analytics, encryption, and collaboration and development tools. The company also provides IT service management product suite for enterprise's employees, customers, and partners; IT operations management product that connects a customer's physical and cloud-based IT infrastructure with applications and platforms; IT Asset Management product to automate IT asset lifecycles with workflows; IT business management product suite to manage IT priorities; and enterprise development operations product for developers' toolchain. In addition, it offers customer service management product for customer service cases and requests; human resources service delivery product; security operations product for security operations management requirements of third-party; governance, risk, and compliance product to create policies and controls; and field service management application. Further, the company provides professional services, training services and certification programs, and customer support services. It serves enterprises in industries, such as financial services, consumer products, IT services, healthcare, government, education, and technology. The company sells its products through its direct sales team, as well as through resale partners. The company was formerly known as Service-now.com and changed its name to ServiceNow, Inc. in May 2012. ServiceNow, Inc. was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
#3 - ZIX (NASDAQ:ZIXI)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 2 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $12.00 (30.3% Upside)
Zix Corporation provides email encryption, data loss prevention (DLP), threat protection, archiving, and bring-your-own-device mobile security solutions for the healthcare, financial services, insurance, and government sectors primarily in the United States. The company offers ZixEncrypt that bundles email encryption and DLP capabilities to enable the secure exchange of email; ZixProtect, a cloud-based service that defends organizations from zero-day malware, ransomware, phishing, CEO fraud, W-2 phishing attacks, spam, and viruses in email; and ZixArchive, a cloud-based email retention solution that enables user retrieval, compliance, and e-discovery. It also provides ZixOne, a mobile email app, which offers mobile access to corporate email and does not allow data to be persistently stored on employee's device. Zix Corporation sells its services through a direct sales force; and a network of resellers and other distribution partners. The company was formerly known as ZixIt Corporation and changed its name to Zix Corporation in 2002. Zix Corporation was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
#4 - Lenovo Group (OTCMKTS:LNVGY)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 2 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: N/A
Lenovo Group Limited, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and markets technology products and services. It offers commercial and consumer personal computers, as well as servers and workstations; mobile Internet devices, including tablets and smart phones; storage and networking products; memory and processors; rack and power infrastructure; and laptops, desktops, and accessories, as well as operating systems, security, and systems management software. The company also distributes IT products, mobile phones, smart phones and tablets, and server and storage products; retails and services consumer electronic products; develops, owns, licenses, and sells communications hardware and software; offers repair services for computer hardware and software systems; and researches and develops mobile software. In addition, it provides business planning, management, global supply chain, finance, and administration support services. The company operates in China, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. Lenovo Group Limited has a strategic partnership with the NetApp to help customers modernize IT and enhance their digital transformation; and the Veeam Software to deliver the intelligent data management required to enhance and grow businesses. The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Quarry Bay, Hong Kong, and is considered as a Red Chip company due to its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
#5 - Vocera Communications (NYSE:VCRA)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.8
Ratings Breakdown: 7 Buy Ratings, 2 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $38.7778 (17.2% Upside)
Vocera Communications, Inc. provides secure, integrated, and intelligent communication and workflow solutions that empowers mobile workers in healthcare, hospitality, energy, and other mission-critical mobile work environments in the United States and internationally. The company's communication solution integrated with other clinical systems, including electronic health records, nurse call systems, and patient monitoring, as well as to provide critical data, alerts, alarms, and clinical context that enable workflow. It also offers Vocera Communication and Workflow System, a software platform, which connects communication devices, such as hands-free, wearable, and voice-controlled communication Smartbadge and badges, as well as third-party mobile devices. In addition, the company offers Experience Innovation Network, a membership program, which partners with healthcare provider organizations for the development of innovations and solutions that enhance care team and patient experience, as well as clinical and operational performance. Further, it provides professional and technical support services; and classroom training, distance learning, or customized courseware for systems administrators, IT and industry-specific professionals, and end-user educators. As of December 31, 2018, Vocera Communications, Inc. provided its solutions to approximately 1,600 healthcare facilities, including large hospital systems, small and medium-sized local hospitals, and various clinics, surgery centers, and aged-care facilities. The company sells its products through direct sales force, resellers, and distributors. Vocera Communications, Inc. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.
#6 - salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 38 Buy Ratings, 2 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $178.4054 (14.4% Upside)
salesforce.com, inc. develops enterprise cloud computing solutions with a focus on customer relationship management. The company offers Sales Cloud to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, and gain insights through analytics and relationship intelligence, as well as deliver quotes, contracts, and invoices. It also provides Service Cloud, which enables companies to deliver personalized customer service and support, as well as a field service solution that enables companies to connect agents, dispatchers, and mobile employees through a centralized platform, which helps to schedule and dispatch work, and track and manage jobs in real-time. In addition, the company offers Marketing Cloud to plan, personalize, and optimize one-to-one customer marketing interactions; and Commerce Cloud, which enables companies to enhance engagement, conversion, revenue, and loyalty from their customers. Further, it provides Lightning Platform that offers no-code to pro-code Platform-as-a-Service tools for building, securing, integrating, and managing the business apps; Anypoint Platform enables customers to connect any system, application, data, or device; Quip collaboration platform, which combines documents, spreadsheets, apps, and chat with live CRM data; and Salesforce Customer 360, which enables companies to connect customer data across the various offerings for financial services, healthcare, and government. Additionally, the company offers consulting and implementation services; training services, including instructor-led and online courses; and support and adoption programs. It provides its services through direct sales; and consulting firms, systems integrators, and other partners. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
#7 - Smartsheet (NYSE:SMAR)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.9
Ratings Breakdown: 10 Buy Ratings, 1 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $51.20 (26.2% Upside)
Smartsheet, Inc. engages in managing and automating collaborative work. Its platform provides solutions that eliminate the obstacles to capturing information, including a familiar and intuitive spreadsheet interface as well as easily customizable forms. The company was founded by W. Eric Browne, Maria Colacurcio, John D. Creason and Brent R. Frei in June 2005 and is headquartered in Bellevue, WA.
#8 - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.9
Ratings Breakdown: 25 Buy Ratings, 2 Hold Ratings, 1 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $136.7692 (8.4% Upside)
Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions worldwide. Its company's Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office 365 commercial products and services, such as Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams, and related Client Access Licenses (CALs); Office 365 consumer services, including Skype, Outlook.com, and OneDrive; LinkedIn online professional network; and Dynamics business solutions comprising financial management, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, supply chain management, and analytics applications for small and medium businesses, large organizations, and divisions of enterprises. The company's Intelligent Cloud segment licenses server products and cloud services, such as SQL Server, Windows Server, Visual Studio, System Center, and related CALs, as well as Azure, a cloud platform; and enterprise services, including premier support and Microsoft consulting services to assist customers in developing, deploying, and managing Microsoft server and desktop solutions, as well as provides training and certification to developers and IT professionals. Its More Personal Computing segment offers Windows OEM, volume, and other non-volume licensing of the Windows operating system; patent licensing, Windows Internet of Things, and MSN display advertising; devices comprising Surface, PC accessories, and other intelligent devices; Xbox hardware and software and services; and Bing and Bing Ads search advertising. It markets its products through original equipment manufacturers, distributors, and resellers; and online and Microsoft retail stores. Microsoft Corporation has collaboration with E.ON, NIIT Technologies Ltd., and CUNA Mutual Group; strategic alliance with Nielsen Holdings plc and PAREXEL International Corp.; and a strategic collaboration with Mastercard Incorporated. The company was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.
#9 - PROS (NYSE:PRO)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 7 Buy Ratings, 1 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $52.5714 (4.5% Upside)
PROS Holdings, Inc. offers artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that power commerce in the digital economy worldwide. The company's solutions enable buying experiences for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer companies. It delivers its cloud-based solutions through the Internet as a Service on a subscription basis. The company offers solutions for selling improvement, including PROS Smart CPQ that automates the quoting process by enabling sales teams, partners, and end customers on e-commerce platforms; and PROS Opportunity Detection solutions, which enhances sales productivity, accelerates quota attainment, and delivers data-driven product recommendations. It also provides PROS pricing solutions comprising PROS Control, a platform for price measurement, coordination, and strategy; and PROS Guidance, a prescriptive price guidance solution. In addition, the company provides PROS airline revenue optimization solutions consisting of PROS Airline Revenue Management, PROS Airline Real-Time Dynamic Pricing, and PROS Airline Group Sales for enterprises in the travel industry, including the airline, hotel, and cruise. Further, it offers Airline e-commerce suite of products, such as PROS Airline Shopping and PROS Airline Merchandising that provide airlines with shopping and merchandising capabilities. Additionally, the company offers professional services consisting of implementation and configuration, consulting, and training; and maintenance and support services. It sells its software solutions to customers in various industries, including automotive and industrial, B2B services, cargo, chemicals and energy, consumer goods, insurance, food and beverage, healthcare, high tech, and travel. The company markets and sells its software solutions primarily through its direct global sales force, as well as indirectly through go-to-market partners, resellers, and systems integrators. PROS Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
#10 - Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.9
Ratings Breakdown: 13 Buy Ratings, 2 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $54.4286 (5.6% Upside)
Rapid7, Inc. provides analytics solutions for security and information (IT) operations. Its vulnerability management solutions include InsightVM and Nexpose, which enable customers to assess and remediate their overall exposure to cyber risk; InsightAppSec, an insight platform based solution; AppSpider, an application security testing solution; and Metasploit, a penetration testing software solution. The company's incident detection and response solutions comprise InsightIDR; Managed Detection and Response, an outsourced service; and incident response services that offer customers with access to security experts and experience. In addition, it provides Logentries for cyber security; InsightOps, which simplifies IT infrastructure monitoring and troubleshooting by centralizing data from customers' network into a secure location; and Komand software. Further, the company provides consulting services in the areas of cyber security maturity assessment, incident response program development, penetration testing, security program development, Virtual CISO, IoT security, and threat modeling services. It offers its products through a combination of perpetual and term software licenses, cloud-based subscriptions, and managed services. The company serves clients in technology, energy, financial services, healthcare and life sciences, manufacturing, media and entertainment, retail, education, real estate, transportation, government, and professional services industries through sales teams, and indirect channel partner relationships, as well as directly in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. Rapid7, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
#11 - AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.5
Ratings Breakdown: 1 Buy Ratings, 1 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $8.50 (-41.3% Upside)
AudioCodes Ltd. designs, develops, and sells voice over IP (VoIP), converged VoIP, and data networking solutions, products, and applications for enterprise unified communications, contact centers, service provider business services, mobile VoIP, and cloud virtualized data centers worldwide. The company's products include IP phones, session border controllers (SBC), media gateways, multi-service business routers, huddle room solutions, managed IP Phones, and survivable branch appliances; CloudBond 365, an adaptable solution for the data center, customer premises or the branch; CloudBond 365 CCE appliances; User Management Pack 365, a software management application; VoIP management and routing, a suite of lifecycle applications for large scale cloud or premises-based unified communications deployments. It also provides MobilityPLUS, a mobile VoIP solution; VocaNOM call routing products; SmartTAP call recording products; Auto Attendant, a tool for managing inbound calls and delivery services; Fax Server, a tool for managing inbound and outbound enterprise fax transmissions; SIP Phone Support, a value-added application for SBC and gateways; signal processor chips; communications boards; and voice and data logging hardware integration board products. In addition, the company offers planning, implementation, operations, and support services, as well as consulting and training services. It primarily markets and sells its products through a direct sales force and sales representatives to original equipment manufacturers, system integrators and distributors, and network equipment providers in the telecommunication and networking industries. The company was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Lod, Israel.
#12 - AMETEK (NYSE:AME)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 13 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $91.6364 (7.6% Upside)
AMETEK, Inc. manufactures and sells electronic instruments and electromechanical devices worldwide. The company's Electronic Instruments segment offers advanced instruments for the process, aerospace, power, and industrial markets; process control instruments for the oil and gas, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, semiconductor, automation, and food and beverage industries; and instruments to the laboratory equipment, ultra-precision manufacturing, medical, and test and measurement markets. This segment also provides power quality monitoring and metering, uninterruptible power systems, programmable power equipment, electromagnetic compatibility test equipment, sensors for gas turbines, dashboard instruments for heavy trucks and other vehicles, and instrumentation and controls for the food and beverage industries; and aircraft and engine sensors, monitoring systems, power supplies, fuel and fluid measurement systems, and data acquisition units for the aerospace industry. Its Electromechanical Group segment offers engineered electrical connectors and electronics packaging used in aerospace and defense, medical, and industrial applications; advanced precision motion control products for use in a range of automation applications across the medical, semiconductor, aerospace, defense, and food and beverage industries; high-purity powdered metals, strip and foil, specialty clad metals, and metal matrix composites; blowers and heat exchangers for aerospace and defense industries; and motors for use in commercial appliances, fitness equipment, food and beverage machines, hydraulic pumps, and industrial blowers. This segment also operates a network of aviation maintenance, repair, and overhaul facilities. In addition, the company offers clinical and education communication solutions for hospitals, health systems, and educational facilities. AMETEK, Inc. was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania.
#13 - Zendesk (NYSE:ZEN)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.8
Ratings Breakdown: 14 Buy Ratings, 4 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $90.5389 (3.7% Upside)
Zendesk, Inc., a software development company, provides SaaS products for organizations. Its flagship product is Zendesk Support, a system for tracking, prioritizing, and solving customer support tickets across various channels. The company also offers Zendesk Chat, a live chat software to connect with customers on Websites, applications, and mobile devices; Zendesk Talk, a cloud-based call center software; Zendesk Guide, a knowledge base that powers customer self-service and support agent productivity; Zendesk Sell, a sales force automation software to enhance productivity, processes, and pipeline visibility for sales teams; Zendesk Connect that manages customer communication across channels; and Zendesk Explore, which provides analytics for businesses to measure and enhance the customer experience. In addition, it provides Zendesk Sunshine, a customer relationship management platform; Zendesk Embeddables, which allow developers to embed support, chat, and guide experiences on the Web and within mobile applications; and Zendesk application platform interfaces and Apps. The company has operations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, Asia, and South America. Zendesk, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
#14 - Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.8
Ratings Breakdown: 11 Buy Ratings, 2 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $86.4545 (25.4% Upside)
Agilent Technologies, Inc. provides application focused solutions to the life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets worldwide. It operates through three segments: Life Sciences and Applied Markets, Diagnostics and Genomics, and Agilent CrossLab. The Life Sciences and Applied Markets segment offers liquid chromatography systems and components; liquid chromatography mass spectrometry systems; gas chromatography systems and components; gas chromatography mass spectrometry systems; inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry instruments; atomic absorption instruments; microwave plasma-atomic emission spectrometry instruments; inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry instruments; raman spectroscopy; cell analysis plate based assays; flow cytometer; real-time cell analyzer; laboratory software and information management and analytics; laboratory automation and robotic systems; dissolution testing; vacuum pumps; and measurement technologies. The Diagnostics and Genomics segment provides reagents, instruments, software, and consumables; arrays for DNA mutation detection, genotyping, gene copy number determination, identification of gene rearrangements, DNA methylation profiling, and gene expression profiling, as well as sequencing target enrichment, genetic data management, and interpretation support software; and equipment focused on production of synthesized oligonucleotides for use as active pharmaceutical ingredients. The Agilent CrossLab segment offers GC and LC columns, sample preparation products, custom chemistries, and various laboratory instrument supplies; and startup, operational, training, compliance support, and software as a service, as well as asset management and consultation services. The company markets its products through direct sales, distributors, resellers, manufacturer's representatives, and electronic commerce. Agilent Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
#15 - SS&C Technologies (NASDAQ:SSNC)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.1
Ratings Breakdown: 13 Buy Ratings, 1 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $69.9286 (21.2% Upside)
SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. provides software products and software-enabled services to financial services and healthcare industries in the United States, Canada, rest of the Americas, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. The company's products and services allow its clients to automate and integrate front-office functions, such as trading and modeling; middle-office functions, including portfolio management and reporting; and back-office functions comprising accounting, transfer agency, compliance, regulatory services, performance measurement, reconciliation, reporting, processing, and clearing. It provides solutions to clients in institutional asset and wealth management, alternative investment management, brokerage, retirement, financial advisory, and financial institutions vertical markets, commercial lenders, real estate investment trusts, corporate treasury groups, insurance companies, pension funds, municipal finance groups, and real estate property managers. The company also offers health care solutions, such as claims adjudication, benefit management, care management, and business intelligence services to health care industry that include pharmacy, healthcare administration, and health optimization solutions, as well as provides professional and products support services. SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Windsor, Connecticut.
