15 Technology Stocks that Analysts Love in 2018

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There 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 - Smart Global (NASDAQ:SGH)

Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.9
Ratings Breakdown: 6 Buy Ratings, 1 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $49.6429 (27.5% Upside)

Smart Global Holdings Inc. is a holding company. The Company through its subsidiaries provides specialty memory solutions. The Company manufactures memory for desktops, notebooks, servers and mobile memory for smartphones. The Company also serves original equipment manufacturer (OEM), customers to develop memory solutions. The Company also provides customized, integrated supply chain services to certain OEM customers to assist them in the management and execution of their procurement processes. The Company offers its products and services under a range of categories including dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) components, DRAM modules, flash components, mobile memory and supply chain services. The Company offers a range of DRAM modules including DIMMs, nonvolatile DIMMs, load reducing DIMMs, registered DIMMs, unbuffered DIMMs, small outline DIMMs, and mini-DIMMs.

#2 - MKS Instruments (NASDAQ:MKSI)

Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 4 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $122.00 (18.5% Upside)

MKS Instruments, Inc. provides instruments, subsystems, and process control solutions that measure, control, power, deliver, monitor, and analyze critical parameters of manufacturing processes worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Vacuum & Analysis and Light & Motion. The Vacuum & Analysis segment provides analytical and control solutions products, including gas analyzers, automation control products, I/O modules, automation software, and precision machined components and electromechanical assemblies; and materials delivery solutions products comprising flow and valve technologies, as well as integrated pressure measurement and control subsystems to provide customers with precise control capabilities that are optimized for a given application. It also offers power delivery, plasma, and reactive gas generation products used in semiconductor and other thin film applications, and in medical imaging equipment applications; and direct and indirect pressure measurement and integrated process solutions. The Light & Motion segment offers lasers and laser-based systems, including lasers and amplifiers, fiber lasers, diode-pumped solid-state lasers, high-energy pulsed lasers, and tunable lasers, as well as accessories; optics products, such as precision optics, thin-film filters and coatings, replicated mirrors, and ruled and holographic diffraction gratings; and photonics products comprising optical components, vibration, lens assemblies, and isolation solutions, as well as three-dimensional non-contact measurement sensors and equipment. It markets and sells its products and services through global direct sales organization, independent distributors and sales representatives, Websites, and product catalogs. The company was founded in 1961 and is headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts.

#3 - Kulicke and Soffa Industries (NASDAQ:KLIC)

Consensus Rating: Hold
Rating Score: 2.3
Ratings Breakdown: 2 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 1 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $29.8333 (25.6% Upside)

Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells capital equipment and expendable tools to assemble semiconductor devices. It operates in two segments, Capital Equipment, and Aftermarket Products and Services (APS). The Capital Equipment segment manufactures and sells a line of ball bonders, wafer level bonders, wedge bonders, advanced packaging, and electronic assembly solutions. The APS segment manufactures and sells various tools for a range of semiconductor packaging applications, which include capillaries, which are expendable tools used in ball bonders; dicing blades that are expendable tools for semiconductor manufacturers to cut silicon wafers into individual semiconductor die or to cut packaged semiconductor units into individual units; and bonding wedges, which are expendable tools used in heavy wire wedge bonders. This segment also provides spare parts, equipment repair, maintenance and servicing, training services, and equipment upgrading services. The company serves semiconductor device manufacturers, integrated device manufacturers, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers, other electronics manufacturers, industrial manufacturers, and automotive electronics suppliers primarily in the United States and the Asia/Pacific region. Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. was founded in 1951 and is headquartered in Singapore.

#4 - 2U (NASDAQ:TWOU)

Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.9
Ratings Breakdown: 10 Buy Ratings, 1 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $87.5455 (9.1% Upside)

2U, Inc. operates as an education technology company in the United States, Hong Kong, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The company operates through two segments, Graduate Program Segment and Short Course Segment. It offers front-end technology and services, including online learning platform, student and faculty and immersion support, accessibility, admissions application advising, in-program student field placements, and faculty recruiting. The company provides back-end technology and services comprising graduate program launch and operations applications, university systems integration applications, content management system, admission application processing portal, customer relationship management, content development, student acquisition, and state authorization services. The company was formerly known as 2Tor Inc. and changed its name to 2U, Inc. in October 2012. 2U, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Lanham, Maryland.

#5 - Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 22 Buy Ratings, 1 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $253.5350 (36.4% Upside)

Lam Research Corporation designs, manufactures, markets, refurbishes, and services semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits worldwide. The company offers thin film deposition products, including SABRE electrochemical deposition products for copper damascene manufacturing; ALTUS systems to deposit conformal atomic layer films for tungsten metallization applications; VECTOR plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and atomic layer deposition systems to deposit oxides, nitrides, and carbides for hardmasks, multiple patterning films, anti-reflective layers, multi-layer stack films, and diffusion barriers; and Striker atomic layer deposition systems that deliver conformal dielectric films for spacer-based patterning and liner applications in various advanced memory and logic structures. Its thin film deposition products also comprise SPEED high-density plasma CVD products for applications in shallow trench isolation, pre-metal dielectrics, inter-layer dielectrics, inter-metal dielectrics, and passivation layers; and SOLA ultraviolet thermal processing products for treatment of back-end-of-line (BEOL) low-k dielectric films and front-end-of-line silicon nitride strained films. In addition, the company offers plasma etch products, such as Kiyo that provide solutions for conductor etch applications; Versys metal products, which offer a platform for BEOL metal etch processes; Flex for dielectric etch applications; and Syndion to address various through-silicon via etch and complementary image sensor etch applications. Further, it provides single-wafer clean products comprising EOS, Da Vinci, DV-Prime, and SP series products for wet etch and clean applications in wafer-level packaging; and Coronus plasma-based bevel clean products to enhance die yield by removing particles, residues, and unwanted films from the wafer's edge, as well as legacy products. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.

#6 - Apptio (NASDAQ:APTI)

Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.9
Ratings Breakdown: 8 Buy Ratings, 1 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $30.2222 (1.4% Upside)

Apptio, Inc. provides cloud-based technology business management (TBM) solutions to enterprises. Its cloud-based platform and SaaS applications enable IT leaders to analyze, optimize, and plan technology investments, as well as to benchmark financial and operational performance against peers. The company's TBM solutions consist of adaptive data management, which aggregates, cleanses, and correlates large amounts of customer data from various sources; and standard IT operating model and taxonomy that offers a standard model for how IT costs are captured, categorized, and allocated to IT and business services. Its solution also comprises visual modeling, which allows users to build and manage the financial and operational model of their IT organization; powerful calculation engine that allows the models to be applied across very large data sets accessible to users through the analytics capabilities included in its applications; intuitive, self-service analytics for IT and business users; and modular applications comprising cost transparency, IT benchmarking, business insights, bill of IT, and IT planning applications. The company operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, France, Singapore, and Italy. Apptio, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington.

#7 - Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO)

Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 31 Buy Ratings, 2 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $316.2188 (38.5% Upside)

Broadcom Limited designs, develops, and supplies a range of semiconductor devices with a focus on complex digital and mixed signal complementary metal oxide semiconductor based devices and analog III-V based products worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Wired Infrastructure, Wireless Communications, Enterprise Storage, and Industrial & Other. The Wired Infrastructure segment provides set-top box system-on-chips (SoCs); cable, digital subscriber line, and passive optical networking central office/consumer premise equipment SoCs; Ethernet switching and routing application products; embedded processors and controllers; serializer/deserializer application specific integrated circuits; optical and copper, and physical layers; and fiber optic laser and receiver components. The Wireless Communications segment offers RF front end modules, filters, and power amplifiers; Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and global positioning system/global navigation satellite system SoCs; and custom touch controllers. The Enterprise Storage segment provides serial attached small computer system interface, and redundant array of independent disks controllers and adapters; peripheral component interconnect express switches; fiber channel host bus adapters; read channel based SoCs; and preamplifiers. The Industrial & Other segment offers optocouplers, industrial fiber optics, motion control encoders and subsystems, and light emitting diodes. Its products are used in various applications, including enterprise and data center networking, home connectivity, set-top boxes, broadband access, telecommunication equipment, smartphones and base stations, data center servers and storage systems, factory automation, power generation and alternative energy systems, and electronic displays. The company was formerly known as Avago Technologies Limited and changed its name to Broadcom Limited in February 2016. Broadcom Limited was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Singapore.

#8 - Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 22 Buy Ratings, 1 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $64.7826 (33.0% Upside)

Applied Materials, Inc. provides manufacturing equipment, services, and software to the semiconductor, display, and related industries worldwide. It operates through three segments: Semiconductor Systems, Applied Global Services, and Display and Adjacent Markets. The Semiconductor Systems segment develops, manufactures, and sells a range of manufacturing equipment used to fabricate semiconductor chips or integrated circuits. It offers products and technologies for transistor and interconnect fabrication, including epitaxy, ion implantation, oxidation and nitridation, rapid thermal processing, physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, chemical mechanical planarization, electrochemical deposition, atomic layer deposition, etching, and selective removal, as well as metrology and inspection tools. The Applied Global Services segment provides integrated solutions to optimize equipment and fab performance and productivity, including spares, upgrades, services, remanufactured earlier generation equipment, and factory automation software for semiconductor, display, and other products. The Display and Adjacent Markets segment offers products for manufacturing liquid crystal displays, organic light-emitting diodes, and other display technologies for TVs, personal computers, electronic tablets, smart phones, and other consumer-oriented devices, as well as equipment for flexible substrates. The company serves manufacturers of semiconductor wafers and chips, liquid crystal and organic light-emitting diode displays, and other electronic devices. Applied Materials, Inc. was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

#9 - ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW)

Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.9
Ratings Breakdown: 29 Buy Ratings, 5 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $155.9310 (-2.9% 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.

#10 - Novanta (NASDAQ:NOVT)

Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 2 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $54.00 (-11.9% 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.

#11 - SEA (NYSE:SE)

Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 6 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $18.6667 (70.2% Upside)

Sea Limited engages in the digital entertainment, e-commerce, and digital financial service businesses in the Greater Southeast Asia. The company operates through three segments: Digital Entertainment, E-commerce and Digital Financial services. It provides Garena digital entertainment platform for users to access mobile and PC online games, and eSports operations; and access to other entertainment content, such as live streaming of online gameplay and social features. The company also operates Shopee e-commerce platform, a third-party marketplace that connects buyers and sellers through the Shopee mobile app and Websites. In addition, it offers digital financial services to individuals and businesses, including e-wallet and payment services through the AirPay mobile app and AirPay counter applications on mobile phones or computers; and payment processing services for Shopee, as well as acts as a payment processing platform for Garena's prepaid cards. The company was formerly known as Garena Interactive Holding Limited and changed its name to Sea Limited in April 2017. Sea Limited was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Singapore.

#12 - Veeva Systems (NYSE:VEEV)

Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.8
Ratings Breakdown: 10 Buy Ratings, 3 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $71.7273 (2.4% 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, which allow pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to target and support sales and marketing to physicians, other healthcare professionals, and healthcare organizations through various touch points, including in-person, email, and online; and Veeva Vault, a cloud-based enterprise content management platform and suite of applications for managing commercial functions, including medical, sales, and marketing, as well as research and development functions, such as clinical, regulatory, and quality. It also provides Veeva Network master data management solutions for the management of customer master and product master data. In addition, the company offers data solutions and services comprising Veeva OpenData, Veeva OpenData data services, Veeva OpenData email, and Veeva key opinion leader data and services, as well as territory allocation and alignment applications. Further, it 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.

#13 - Facebook (NASDAQ:FB)

Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.9
Ratings Breakdown: 43 Buy Ratings, 2 Hold Ratings, 1 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $209.41 (31.1% Upside)

Facebook, Inc. is focused on building products that enable people to connect and share through mobile devices, personal computers and other surfaces. The Company's products include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus. Facebook enables people to connect, share, discover and communicate with each other on mobile devices and personal computers. Instagram enables people to take photos or videos, customize them with filter effects, and share them with friends and followers in a photo feed or send them directly to friends. Messenger allows communicating with people and businesses alike across a range of platforms and devices. WhatsApp Messenger is a messaging application that is used by people around the world and is available on a range of mobile platforms. Its Oculus virtual reality technology and content platform offers products that allow people to enter an interactive environment to play games, consume content and connect with others.

#14 - The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD)

Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 3.0
Ratings Breakdown: 12 Buy Ratings, 0 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $67.25 (28.1% Upside)

The Trade Desk, Inc., a technology company, a self-service omni-channel software platform that enables clients to purchase and manage data-driven digital advertising campaigns in the United States and internationally. Its platform allows clients to manage integrated advertising campaigns across various advertising formats, including connected television (TV), mobile, video, audio, display, social, and native, as well as on various devices, such as smart TVs, computers, and mobile devices. The company serves advertising agencies and other service providers for advertisers. The Trade Desk, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Ventura, California.

#15 - Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU)

Consensus Rating: Buy
Rating Score: 2.8
Ratings Breakdown: 24 Buy Ratings, 4 Hold Ratings, 2 Sell Ratings.
Consensus Price Target: $63.7857 (35.4% Upside)

Micron Technology, Inc. provides semiconductor systems worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Compute and Networking Business Unit, Storage Business Unit, Mobile Business Unit, and Embedded Business Unit. It offers DDR3 and DDR4 DRAM products for computers, servers, networking devices, communications equipment, consumer electronics, automotive, and industrial applications; lower power DRAM products for smartphones, tablets, automotive, laptop computers, and other mobile consumer device applications; DDR2 DRAM and DDR DRAM, GDDR5 and GDDR5X DRAM, SDRAM, and RLDRAM products for networking devices, servers, consumer electronics, communications equipment, computer peripherals, and automotive and industrial applications, as well as for computer memory upgrades; and hybrid memory cube semiconductor memory devices. The company also provides NAND products, which are electrically re-writeable, non-volatile semiconductor memory, and storage devices; client solid-state drives (SSDs) for notebooks, desktops, workstations, and other consumer applications; enterprise SSDs for server and storage applications; cloud SSDs; and multi-chip package and managed NAND products. In addition, it manufactures products that are sold under other brand names; and resells flash memory products that are purchased from other NAND Flash suppliers. Further, the company provides 3D XPoint non-volatile memory products; and NOR Flash, which are electrically re-writeable and semiconductor memory devices for automotive, industrial, connected home, and consumer applications. It markets its products to original equipment manufacturers and retailers through its internal sales force, independent sales representatives, and distributors; and through a Web-based customer direct sales channel, and channel and distribution partners. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Boise, Idaho.

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