Stock market blues? Here’s two tech stocks that could double your money

The news these days seems to find a way to uncover bad things. From a housing correction to inflation to stocks that can’t seem to get up off the mat, it feels like a never-ending correction.

But it’s not and one day, perhaps not too far from now, we will find a bottom that the egregious year that was 2022.

In the meantime, analysts are uncovering stocks they think are gems, including some that could actually double your money. Here are two such examples.

Something’s up with Converge Technology Solutions (Converge Technology Solutions Stock Quote, Charts, News, Analysts, Financials TSX:CTS), but at this point we don’t know what, exactly. The Canadian IT and Cloud Solutions provider announced on Tuesday that it’s undergoing a strategic review, prompted by expressions of interest from a number of outside companies. Mulling over the prospects is Eight Capital analyst Christian Sgro, who in a Wednesday comment said the news is not surprising considering the drop in share price over the past year even as the company looks very much to be in good form.

Converge was flying high over the first two years of the pandemic, as the stock went from under a dollar in early 2020 to as high as $12.85 by September, 2021. It’s been mostly downhill from there, however, with the current month being a particular low point where CTS has gone from $7 at the start of the month to even under $4 before being picked up on the strategic review announcement.

For his part, Sgro said the stock has likely been under pressure due to a recent miss in its third quarter report, along with a softening macro environment more broadly.

But the analyst has faith in the name, saying its medium-term fundamentals are well-insulated with the strong software sales expected in the fourth quarter and likely product strength over the first half of 2023.

“We believe the seasonal strength in Q4 and the normalization of the company’s backlog de-risk the medium-term outlook, making the stock attractive at current prices,” he said.

On valuation, Sgro is putting Converge in a range of $7.50 to $10.00 after looking at comparable value-added resellers (VARs) and IT service providers which trade on average at around 9x EV/adj. EBITDA. He estimated CTS to be currently trading at 5.4x his EV/adj. EBITDA estimate compared to its VAR and ITSP peers at 9.2x and Global Service Providers at 12.1x. With his update, Sgro maintained a “Buy” rating on CTS and $10.00 target, which at press time represented a projected one-year return of 151 per cent.

Results are in on the latest quarter from enterprise information management company Quorum Information Technologies (Quorum Information Technologies Stock Quote, Charts, News, Analysts, Financials TSXV:QIS), with Beacon Securities analyst Gabriel Leung retaining a “Buy” rating on the stock in a Thursday report while lowering his target price on multiple contraction across the industry.

Calgary-based Quorum, which has software for automotive dealerships to automate, integrate and streamline operations, including full integration with OEM data.

On the Q3 results, Leung said the $9.9 million topline was under his forecast at $10.0 million, while EBITDA at $1.7 million was above his estimate at $1.4 million. Leung noted that SaaS revenues totalled $7.0 million on the quarter, up 7.1 per cent year-over-year, with three per cent of that growth coming organically and four per cent through acquisitions.

“Cross-selling activity remains the key catalyst for driving improvements with this metric. To that end, the company continues to move forward with its One Quorum go-to-market approach harmonizing and fully incentivizing its sales and marketing and accounts management team,” Leung wrote.

Leung has adjusted his forecast for QIS and is now calling for full 2022 revenue of $38.9 million and adjusted EBITDA of $5.8 million, while for 2023, he is estimating revenue at $42.2 million and EBITDA at $7.1 million.

With his “Buy” rating, Leung has dropped his target from $2.00 to $1.50, which is based on a 3x multiple of his 2023 EV/Sales estimate, citing general industry multiple contraction for the change. At press time, Leung’s target represented a projected return of 97 per cent.

“We continue to believe that QIS could benefit from a multiple expansion as positive data points continue to show itself in the form of improvements in auto sales, along with new rooftop wins and (continued) successful up-selling to existing customers,” Leung added.