5 Hot Stocks to Buy Now: October's Top Picks With Upside Ahead

Something strange is happening in this market right now. The Federal Reserve just raised rates for the first time in years, and the average stock is barely treading water. So the question is simple. Where does the money go from here?

The answer is in the data. 5 stocks. 5 completely different corners of the market. Every one of them earns a top rating from our quant system, and every one of them has at least 1 top-ranked Wall Street analyst pounding the table alongside it.

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And stick around for the last one, because it has top analysts pointing to roughly 50% upside, with a major FDA decision on its biggest market landing in the coming months. Let's forge ahead.

Dell Technologies (DELL)

We are going to start with Dell Technologies (DELL).

You probably know them for laptops, but the story right now is the servers. Dell builds the physical backbone the entire AI buildout runs on, and demand has been staggering.

The stock is up more than 300% over the past year. That can make you feel like you already missed it, so here's why it may just be getting started.

Over the past year, revenue jumped about 49%, and that top-line growth translated into earnings exploding higher by about 150%. That is real operating leverage.

And this is not a one-quarter fluke. Dell has blown past Wall Street's estimates the last 5 quarters in a row, and in the two most recent, earnings more than tripled from a year earlier.

Wall Street is right there with it. Dell is covered by 22 analysts, who land on a consensus Strong Buy recommendation, and it is not the benchwarmers. The average price target isn't impressive, but look at the most bullish voices on the panel. These are analysts who rank in the top 9%, top 2%, and top 1% on the Street in terms of actual stock-picking performance, and they see plenty of upside in the cards.

Our Zen Ratings run every stock through 115 different factors, boil it down to one grade, then break it into 7 component pieces. Dell earns an A, a Strong Buy recommendation, in the top 4% of the roughly 4,600 stocks we track.

Financials, top 23%. Sentiment, top 5%, and Growth, top 6%. And the standout, Momentum, the top 1% of the entire market. That is about as high as that grade goes.

Where to be straight is Safety, which measures how steady and predictable the earnings and the price are, not the debt. It actually sits in the bottom quarter of all stocks, a real soft spot, and that fits, hardware margins are thin, and this is a cyclical business, so expect a bumpier ride. But a company growing earnings at that pace, with top-ranked analysts on board and a top 1% Momentum grade to match, that is the AI trade with a real balance sheet under it.

Dell is the obvious way to play the buildout. The next name is the opposite, a household brand the market left for cheap, on a fear that doesn't hold up…

Expedia Group (EXPE)

You already know Expedia (EXPE). And you probably remember the fear that hit this whole group, that AI chatbots would plan your trips and cut the travel sites out entirely. Investors dumped the stock on it.

Here is what the fear missed. The business never stopped performing. And the stock is down about 13% just in the past month, which is exactly the kind of pullback that hands you a better entry.

Expedia has beaten estimates for 13 quarters in a row, so they've been executing at a high level for years at this point.

And the growth underneath is real, with earnings forecast to keep compounding near 20% a year, ahead of its industry.

But the favorite thing about it is the valuation. The PEG ratio, the price-to-earnings ratio adjusted for how fast a company grows, anything under 1 is a bargain for that growth. Expedia sits at 0.87, so relative to growth prospects, it's clearly undervalued.

The analysts are circling back, too. Right now, the consensus is a Buy recommendation, but the average target sits about 20% above current levels. The most bullish analyst on the panel, from Evercore, ranks in the top 3%, and his price target implies upside of more than 50%.

In our system, Expedia earns an A, a Strong Buy recommendation, with overall fundamentals in the top 5%.

Let's pop the hood and see what's underneath that A rating. The AI grade actually comes in stronger than it might look, at top 16%, while Sentiment is more middling, around the top 23%. Value jumps to the top 4%, and the standout, Financials, is in the top 1% of the market.

The honest risk is that the AI worry is not pure fiction, over the long haul, how people book travel could genuinely shift, so expect some jumpiness. But a rock-solid, cheap travel leader with a strong balance sheet and smart money moving in, knocked down on a fear the numbers keep disproving, that's a setup worth taking.

The next one is a name almost nobody outside of pharmacy shelves is talking about, and its chart tells you the smart money already is paying close attention.

Amneal Pharmaceuticals (AMRX)

The stock is Amneal Pharmaceuticals (AMRX). 

Amneal makes affordable medicines, generics, specialty drugs, and increasingly biosimilars, which are the lower-cost versions of expensive biologic drugs coming off patent. It is a boring-sounding business quietly turning into a growth story.

Shares are up roughly 90% over the past year and sit near their highs. Here is why the trajectory can keep going, the company recently raised its full-year outlook and is expanding its biosimilar platform through a recent acquisition. And the growth ahead is not small.

Earnings are forecast to grow about 43% a year, more than double the pace of its industry.

And management keeps coming in ahead. Amneal has topped estimates 6 quarters in a row on this page.

Even better, there's no overpaying for that growth, the PEG ratio sits at 0.88, under that magic number of 1. That is Growth At A Reasonable Price, or GARP, and it's one of the better setups to find.

Wall Street is warming up fast. The consensus is a Strong Buy recommendation, and the average price target implies an upside of more than 20% from where things stand now. A top 11% analyst at UBS has the most bullish target, which implies more than 30% upside.

Our system agrees, and then some. Amneal earns an A, a Strong Buy recommendation, actually landing in the top 3%, a touch stronger than it first appeared. Value sits around the top 30%, and Safety is a bit stronger than that, around the top 25%. Growth comes in at the top 11%. And the real standout here is Sentiment, all the way up in the top 1%, about as strong as this grade gets. Momentum is excellent too, at top 5%, but it's Sentiment carrying this profile.

Where to be honest is the balance sheet. Amneal carries a heavy debt load from years of building out that portfolio, so if the growth stumbles, that leverage cuts both ways. But a fast-grower this cheap, beating quarter after quarter with a top analyst pounding the table, that debt is a manageable risk, not a dealbreaker.

The Zen Ratings update daily, so visit the quote pages on wallstreetzen.com to see the latest ratings for this or any other stock.

4 analysts on Amneal is still a quiet crowd by Wall Street standards, but the next name makes that look packed. Almost nobody is covering it.

Quanex Building Products (NX)

Next up is Quanex Building Products (NX). And the name gives nothing away, Quanex makes the components that go inside windows and doors, the insulating glass spacers and the vinyl profiles that the big brands build their products around. Picks and shovels for the home.

The entire case here is in the metrics, and it's simple.

Earnings are forecast to grow about 50% a year going forward, more than double the pace of its industry.

And that growth comes cheap, the PEG ratio is just 0.46. Anything under 0.5 just screams undervalued. A stock growing earnings 50% a year trading at a PEG under a half is a rare thing to see.

Now, on Wall Street coverage, this is where it gets interesting. Just 1 analyst covers it. This is a stock the big research desks have not shown up for yet, and that is the opportunity, by the time 20 analysts are pounding the table, the easy money is usually gone. The one analyst who is here ranks in the top 14%, carries a Strong Buy recommendation, and, as of this writing, sees roughly 40% upside from here.

Quanex earns an A, a Strong Buy recommendation, in the top 4%. Walking up the strengths, Financials in the top 24%, Sentiment in the top 6%, and the standout, Value, the top 3% of the market.

The honest risk is the cycle. Quanex is a smaller company tied to housing and home renovation, and with rates moving higher, that demand can soften in a hurry. That is the trade-off for getting in early on a name that's cheap, growing fast, and that Wall Street hasn't crowded into yet.

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Corcept Therapeutics (CORT)

That brings us to the closer, the biggest upside call on today's whole list. The company is Corcept Therapeutics (CORT). Corcept has spent over 25 years building treatments around one thing, the stress hormone cortisol, and the disorders that come from having too much of it. And it has quietly turned that focus into a real, profitable business.

Here is why the timing matters. Earlier this year, Corcept won its first FDA approval in cancer, a brand-new revenue stream on top of the core business. But the bigger prize is still ahead. Its lead drug for Cushing's syndrome, a serious disorder of that same cortisol system, is back in front of the FDA. Corcept resubmitted the application this summer, and a decision is expected in the coming months. If it lands, it opens up a far larger market.

The growth already on the books is big. Revenue is forecast to grow about 39% a year, and that flows through to earnings forecast to grow about 138% a year, miles ahead of the biotech industry. Revenue growing fast, profits growing nearly four times faster, that is the operating leverage worth watching.

Wall Street is lined up behind it, too. The consensus lands on a Buy recommendation. As of this writing, three of the top-ranked analysts on our entire platform are all pointing at more than 45% upside, including a top 2% analyst at HC Wainwright and a top 4% analyst at Piper Sandler.

Our own system agrees. Corcept earns an A, a Strong Buy recommendation, in the top 3% of everything we track for overall fundamentals. Walking the strengths up to the peak, Value, top 20%, Financials, top 17%, then Momentum, top 4%, and the standout, Growth, the top 4% of the market, essentially neck and neck with Momentum at the top of the profile.

Now the honest risk. That FDA decision is not a sure thing, the agency asked for more before, so an approval is not guaranteed. But here is the part that matters, the whole thesis isn't riding on it. The cancer approval is already in hand, the revenue is already growing, and the earnings are already compounding at that pace. The Cushing's decision is upside on top of a business that is working, not the thing holding it up. That is a finish worth watching closely.

That’s the Story…

So there you have it. Five A-rated names across five very different corners of the market: Dell riding the AI buildout, Expedia oversold on a fear the numbers keep disproving, Amneal quietly compounding at a bargain price, Quanex topping its whole industry before Wall Street shows up, and Corcept with the biggest upside call of the group.

Earnings season is coming up for all five, so these setups may not sit still for long. And remember, you can pull a free rating on over 4,600 stocks yourself just by typing in a ticker at wallstreetzen.com.

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