A Stock Financial Pros Are Eyeing In A Speculative Sector

One of the beauties of Trackstar, our proprietary sentiment indicator, is that we can see the tickers retail investors and financial professionals are searching for most. 

As we noted in a recent installment of The Juice:

Sometimes Trackstar helps confirm what we already know. For example, Nvidia’s (NVDA) run and investor interest in the company is real. 

Over the last month, NVDA did something that once looked impossible. Among retail investors, it became the second most searched stock only behind Tesla (TSLA), passing third place Apple (AAPL) by a whopping 74,371 views. More impressive – and maybe more telling – NVDA became the most searched stock among financial pros with 2,067 views compared to Tesla’s 1,612 and Apple’s 1,442.

Tesla (TSLA) remains king among retail, however, as you can see at the top of this email, it continues to trail Nvidia (NVDA) among the pros. But the gap is closing – from 455 views last week to just 34 this week. It’s only a matter of time before Tesla reclaims the crown of most searched stock by both types of investors. 

While it’s fun to watch that race at the top, it’s in the less-hyped areas of the market where Trackstar really shines. Let’s take a look and, in the process, put a relatively unknown stock on your radar. 

One thing we look for in Trackstar is a discrepancy between the stocks retail investors and financial professionals are searching for by sector. The idea being that, in theory, financial pros might have some sort of edge, info or additional knowledge that puts them on the trail of stocks retail might never notice. This divergence between the two types of investors often happens in super speculative sectors. 

Consider biotechnology. 

Among retail investors, the big biotech names – such as Moderna (MNRA) and Novo Nordisk (NVO) – tend to populate the top of the Trackstar list. 

However, among financial pros, Moderna didn’t make the top five (it was number six) and Novo Nordisk didn’t even make the top ten (it was number 14). Instead, financial pros searched for Crispr Therapeutics (CRSP) most, giving the midcap company 172 looks. 

While Crispr is on the radar of everyday investors – coming in at #6 – it probably doesn’t rank higher because of a lack of coverage in the financial media. As the theory goes, just maybe financial pros are doing research or have access to information that sits beyond the headlines. 

In any event, there’s stuff happening at CRSP. Amid the scant coverage the stock receives, Motley Fool recently called it a “no-brainer stock to buy for under $100” and a name that “could double in the next year.” This is because Crispr is working on a drug to deal with rare blood diseases. And this drug is, according to reports, on the verge of approval in the U.S. and Europe. For example, Crispr expects to hear from the FDA later this year and early next on two different applications for its blood disease drug. 

Crispr has been making the run, doing presentations at investment banking conferences. Certainly, this might be one reason why it caught the eyes of financial pros in Trackstar. 

If you like to speculate on these high risk/high reward biotech companies, CRSP might make sense. Of course, you’ll want to use capital designated for potential boom or bust trades. Up roughly 36% YTD, CRSP is down about 13.5% over the last month. 

This said, according to MarketBeat, 16 analysts cover the stock, giving it a consensus moderate buy rating and average price target of $71.24. Needham & Company is among the most bullish. The firm gives CRSP a buy rating and $82.00 price target. Big firms, such as Bank of New York Mellon, BlackRock and CIBC World Markets (not to be confused with Cost Plus World Market!) upped their positions in CRSP in Q1. Institutions own roughly 70% of Crispr’s outstanding shares. 

The Bottom Line: As always, The Juice searches Trackstar and other sources for ideas. We put them in front of you with some color you can use as a starting point for future research. Ultimately, your appetite for risk and other circumstances specific to your situation determine what you’ll do in relation to CRSP or any other stock. 

We’ll continue to scour Trackstar and give you insight into how we use this powerful tool in future editions of The Juice and our sister newsletter, The Spill.

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