Posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2018 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 - Akoustis Technologies (NASDAQ:AKTS)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 6 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $11.4167 (142.9% Upside)
Akoustis Technologies, Inc., through its subsidiary, Akoustis, Inc., develops, designs, manufactures, and sells radio frequency (RF) filter products for the mobile wireless device industries in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Foundry Fabrication Services and RF Filters. The Foundry Fabrication Services segment provides engineering review services; and smart systems technology and commercialization center foundry, as well as manufacturing and microelectromechanical systems foundry services. The RF Filters segment consists of amplifier and filter products. It offers RF filters for mobile wireless devices, such as smartphones and tablets, cellular infrastructure equipment, and Wi-Fi premise equipment. Akoustis Technologies, Inc. is headquartered in Huntersville, North Carolina.
#2 - OptimizeRx (OTCMKTS:OPRX)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 3 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $17.50 (25.4% Upside)
OptimizeRx Corporation provides digital health messaging to the pharmaceutical industry. The company offers a direct channel for pharmaceutical companies to communicate with healthcare providers. 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 a network of pharmacies; and brand messaging services, such as various brand awareness and clinical messaging services consisting of brand awareness messages, reminder ads, clinical messages, and unbranded messages that could be 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. OptimizeRx Corporation is based in Rochester, Michigan.
#3 - Altice USA (NYSE:ATUS)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.9
Ratings Breakdown: 16 Buy Ratings, 2 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $25.0438 (41.7% Upside)
Altice USA, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides broadband communications and video services in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Cablevision and Cequel. It delivers broadband, pay television, telephony services, Wi-Fi hotspot access, proprietary content, and advertising services to approximately 4.9 million residential and business customers. The company also offers wireless routers and Internet security software; and pay television services, which include delivery of broadcast stations and cable networks, and advanced digital pay television services, such as video-on-demand, high-definition channels, digital video recorder, and pay-per-view. In addition, it provides Ethernet, data transport, IP-based virtual private networks, Internet access, and telephony services; hosted telephony, managed Wi-Fi, managed desktop and server backup services; managed collaboration services, including audio and Web conferencing; managed services, including business e-mail, hosted private branch exchange, Web space storage, and network security monitoring; data-driven television, digital, and other multi-platform advertising services; and data-driven and audience-based advertising solutions. Further, the company operates local news channels, as well as traffic and weather channels; News12.com, a destination for local news on the Web; and News 12 To Go, a mobile app for phones and tablets. Altice USA, Inc. is headquartered in Long Island City, New York. Altice USA, Inc. operates independently of Altice N.V. as of June 8, 2018.
#4 - i3 Verticals (NASDAQ:IIIV)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 4 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $22.6667 (19.3% Upside)
i3 Verticals, Inc. provides integrated payment and software solutions to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and organizations in education, non-profit, public sector, property management, and healthcare markets in the United States. The company offers payment processing services, including merchant onboarding, risk and underwriting, authorization, settlement, chargeback processing, and other merchant support. Its payment processing services enable clients to accept electronic payments, facilitating the exchange of funds and transaction data between clients, financial institutions, and payment networks. The company also licenses software; and provides ongoing support, and other POS-related solutions. It offers its solutions to its clients through direct sales force, as well as through a network of distribution partners, including independent software vendors, value-added resellers, independent sales organizations, and other referral partners, such as financial institutions. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.
#5 - ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.9
Ratings Breakdown: 26 Buy Ratings, 3 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $203.4444 (18.9% Upside)
ServiceNow, Inc. provides enterprise cloud computing solutions that define, structure, manage, and automate services for enterprises worldwide. The company offers service management solutions for customer service, human resources, security operations, and other enterprise departments. It operates ServiceNow platform that provides workflow automation, electronic service catalogs and portals, configuration management systems, data benchmarking, performance analytics, encryption, and collaboration and development tools. The company also provides information technology (IT) solutions, such as IT service management product suite for enterprise's employees, customers, and partners; IT operations management that connects a customer's physical and cloud-based IT infrastructure with applications and platforms; and IT business management product suite that enables customers to manage their IT priorities. In addition, it offers customer service management product for customer service cases and requests; human resources service delivery product; and security operations product for security operations management requirements of third-party. Further, the company provides professional services, training services and certification programs, and customer support services. It serves enterprises in various industries, including financial services, consumer products, IT services, healthcare, government, education, and technology. The company sells products through its direct sales team, as well as indirectly through third-party channels by partnering with systems integrators, managed services providers, and 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.
#6 - Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.9
Ratings Breakdown: 14 Buy Ratings, 1 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $68.9231 (19.4% Upside)
Okta, Inc. provides identity solutions for enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses, universities, non-profits, and government agencies in the United States and internationally. The company offers Okta Identity Cloud, a platform that offers a suite of products to manage and secure identities, such as Universal Directory, a cloud-based system of record to store and secure user, application, and device profiles for an organization; Single Sign-On that enables users to access their applications in the cloud or on-premise from various devices with a single entry of their user credentials; Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication, a product that provides an additional layer of security for Web and mobile applications, and data of organization; Lifecycle Management, which enables IT organizations or developers to manage a user's identity throughout its lifecycle; API Access Management that enables organizations to secure APIs; and Mobility Management, which simplifies and automates mobile device administration and provisioning across phones, tablets, and laptops. It also offers customer support and training, and professional services. Okta, Inc. sells its products directly to customers through sales force, as well as through channel partners. The company was formerly known as Saasure, Inc. Okta, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
#7 - Smartsheet (NYSE:SMAR)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 7 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $35.8333 (34.0% Upside)
Smartsheet Inc. provides cloud-based platform for execution of work. It enables teams and organizations to plan, capture, manage, automate, and report on work. The company offers Smartdashboards that provides the status of work to align individuals, managers, and executives; Smartportals to easily locate and access from any device the resources available for a project without IT assistance; Smartcards to organize, share, and act on workflows; and Smartgrids to keep teams on task by easily tracking multiple moving parts. It also provides Smartprojects; Smartcalendars, which align teams and organizations by connecting deadlines to workflows; Smartforms enables business users to collect information in a structured and consistent format; Smartautomation that automates repetitive processes; and Smartintegrations enable organizations and teams to connect, sync, and extend enterprise applications. In addition, it offers Connectors; and Control Center that enables organizations to achieve consistent work execution. As of January 31, 2018, it served approximately 92,000 customers. The company was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington.
#8 - Zendesk (NYSE:ZEN)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.8
Ratings Breakdown: 15 Buy Ratings, 3 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $67.2941 (22.5% 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, in applications, and on mobile devices; Zendesk Talk, a cloud-based call center software; Zendesk Guide, a knowledge base that for customer self-service and support agent productivity; Zendesk Message, a customer messaging software; and Zendesk Explore that makes customer data accessible across an organization. In addition, it operates a developer platform that allows organizations to extend the functionality of its family of products, integrate into internal and third-party systems, and customize the experience for their employees and customers. It has operations in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. Zendesk, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
#9 - Domo (NASDAQ:DOMO)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.9
Ratings Breakdown: 6 Buy Ratings, 1 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $27.00 (64.9% Upside)
Domo, Inc. operates a cloud-based platform in the United States. Its platform digitally connects chief executive officer to the frontline employee with the people, data, and systems in an organization, giving them access to real-time data and insights, and allowing them to manage business from smartphones. The company also offers a Programmatic Revenue Solution that brings complex data from ad servers and sell-side platforms into a set of cards and dashboards built on practices in the ad tech industry. The company was formerly known as Domo Technologies, Inc. and changed its name to Domo, Inc. in December 2011. Domo, Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in American Fork, Utah.
#10 - Harvard Bioscience (NASDAQ:HBIO)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 2 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $9.50 (154.7% Upside)
Harvard Bioscience, Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets scientific instruments, systems, and lab consumables used in life science basic research, drug discovery, and clinical and environmental testing. The company offers physiology, cell, and molecular instruments, such as traditional syringe pump and peristaltic pump products, as well as a range of instruments and accessories for tissue, organ, and animal based lab research under the Harvard Apparatus, CMA Microdialysis, Panlab, Coulbourn, and Hugo Sachs brands; and spectrophotometers, microplate readers, amino acid analyzers, gel electrophoresis equipment, and electroporation instruments that are marketed under the Biochrom, Libra, WPA, BioDrop, Hoefer, Scie-plas, and BTX brand names. It also designs, develops, and manufactures precision electrophysiology equipment specializing in patch clamp amplifiers, and manual and automated patch clamp systems under the HEKA brand; manufactures tools for electrophysiology and cell biology research consisting of cell chambers, perfusion controllers, temperature controllers, microincubation systems, and bio-sensing systems under the Warner Instruments brand; and designs and develops in vivo neural interface systems under the TBSI brand for neuroscience research, primarily in the fields of electrophysiology, psychology, neurology, and pharmacology. In addition, the company is involved in the development and manufacture of precision scientific measuring instrumentation and equipment under the Multi-Channel Systems brand; and physiologic monitoring focused on delivering preclinical products, systems, services, and solutions. Harvard Bioscience, Inc. markets its products in approximately 100 countries through sales organization, Websites, catalogs, and distributors to research scientists at universities, hospitals, government laboratories, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The company was founded in 1901 and is headquartered in Holliston, Massachusetts.
#11 - Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.5
Ratings Breakdown: 1 Buy Ratings, 1 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $54.00 (-25.3% Upside)
Novanta Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, markets, and sells photonics, vision, and precision motion components and sub-systems to original equipment manufacturers in the medical and industrial markets worldwide. The company's Photonics segment offers photonics-based solutions, including laser scanning and laser beam delivery, CO2 laser, continuous wave and ultrafast laser, and optical light engine products for photonics-based applications, such as industrial material processing, metrology, medical and life science imaging, DNA sequencing, and medical laser procedures. Its Vision segment provides a range of medical grade technologies, including medical insufflators, pumps, and related disposables; surgical displays and operating room integration technologies; optical data collection and machine vision technologies; radio frequency identification technologies; thermal printers; spectrometry technologies; and embedded touch screen solutions. The company's Precision Motion segment offers optical encoders, precision motor and motion control technology, air bearing spindles, and precision machined components. The company sells its products through its direct sales force, resellers, distributors, and system integrators under the Cambridge Technology, Lincoln Laser, ExoTec Precision, Synrad, Laser Quantum, WOM, Lemke, NDS, NDSsi, Reach Technology, JADAK, Skyetek, ThingMagic, Photo Research, General Scanning, Celera Motion, MicroE, Applimotion, and Westwind brands. Novanta Inc. was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts.
#12 - eGain (NASDAQ:EGAN)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 4 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $14.6667 (89.0% Upside)
eGain Corporation operates as a software-as-a service provider of customer engagement solutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and internationally. It provides eGain solution, a unified cloud software solution to automate, augment, and orchestrate customer engagement, including digital-first, Omni channel desktop, artificial intelligence (AI) and knowledge, and analytics and machine learning applications, as well as platform APIs and pre-built third-party connectors. The company's suite includes various applications for digital interaction, knowledge management, and AI-based process guidance. It also provides integrated analytics for contact centers and digital properties to measure, manage, and optimize resources. In addition, the company offers subscription services and customer support services; consulting services, including implementation, custom solution development, and systems integration services; and education services, such as training programs, as well as online tutorial modules. It serves customers in various industry sectors, including the healthcare, retail, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, outsourced services, technology, utilities, government, manufacturing, and consumer electronics industries. The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
#13 - Veeva Systems (NYSE:VEEV)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.6
Ratings Breakdown: 9 Buy Ratings, 5 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $100.6154 (8.8% Upside)
Veeva Systems Inc. provides cloud-based software for the life sciences industry in North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company offers Veeva Commercial Cloud, a suite of multichannel customer relationship management applications, data solutions, and master data management solutions; and Veeva Vault, a cloud-based enterprise content management applications for managing commercial functions, including medical, sales, and marketing, as well as research and development functions, such as clinical, regulatory, quality, and safety. It also provides professional and support services in the areas of implementation and deployment planning and project management; requirements analysis, solution design, and configuration; systems environment management and deployment services; services focused on advancing or transforming business and operating processes related to Veeva solutions; technical consulting services related to data migration and systems integrations; training on its solutions; and ongoing managed services that include outsourced systems administration. The company was formerly known as Verticals onDemand, Inc. and changed its name to Veeva Systems Inc. in April 2009. Veeva Systems Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Pleasanton, California.
#14 - Splunk (NASDAQ:SPLK)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.8
Ratings Breakdown: 27 Buy Ratings, 4 Hold Ratings, 1 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $127.4667 (26.8% Upside)
Splunk Inc. provides software solutions that enable organizations to gain real-time operational intelligence in the United States and internationally. Its products enable users to collect, index, search, explore, monitor, correlate, and analyze data regardless of format or source. The company offers Splunk Enterprise, a machine data platform with collection, indexing, search, reporting, analysis, alerting, monitoring, and data management capabilities; and Splunk Cloud. The company also provides Splunk Light, which offers log search and analysis for small IT environments; and Splunk Analytics for Hadoop, a software for exploring, analyzing, and visualizing data stored in Hadoop and Amazon S3. In addition, it offers Splunk Enterprise Security that addresses security threats and information; Splunk IT Service Intelligence, which monitors health and key performance indicators of critical IT services; Splunk User Behavior Analytics that detects cyber-attacks and insider threats; Splunk Machine Learning Toolkit, an app to apply machine learning techniques and algorithms to data stored in Splunk; Splunk App for AWS that collects and analyzes data from AWS data sources; and Splunk DB Connect to get business and enterprise context. Further, the company operates Splunkbase and Splunk Answers Websites, which provide an environment to share apps, collaborate on the use of its software, and provide community-based support and education, as well as offers application programming interfaces and software development kits. Additionally, it offers maintenance and customer support, training, and consulting and implementation services. The company serves cloud and online services, education, financial services, government, healthcare/pharmaceuticals, industrials/manufacturing, media/entertainment, retail/ecommerce, technology, and telecommunications industries. Splunk Inc. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
#15 - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.9
Ratings Breakdown: 32 Buy Ratings, 1 Hold Ratings, 1 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $122.4483 (13.1% 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 for businesses, 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; 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 providing training and certification to developers and IT professionals on Microsoft products. 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. The company markets and distributes its products through original equipment manufacturers, distributors, and resellers, as well as through online and Microsoft retail stores. Microsoft Corporation has collaboration with E.ON to develop smart connected home solutions. The company was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.
