3 New Strong Buy Ratings from Top-Rated Analysts: 03/14/2025

It’s an ugly market, but the outlook is still sunny for some stocks. Here’s a peek at the latest from our Strong Buy Stocks from Top Wall Street Analysts screener:

• Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: RIGL) offers value and growth potential — a rare combo for pharma companies. 
• CPI Card Group Inc (NASDAQ: PMTS) enjoys strong analyst support and excellent forecasts
• Mueller Water Products (NYSE: MWA) gains despite the ugly market 

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1. Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: RIGL)

Rigel Pharmaceuticals offers a rare blend of value and growth potential in one appealing package. After a strong showing in Q4, one of Wall Street’s top analysts set quite the ambitious price target on the stock. We believe there’s merit to his forecast.

Zen Rating: A (Strong Buy) — see full analysis >  

Recent Price: $19.70   — get current quote > 

Max 1-year forecast: $57.00 

Why we’re watching:

• RIGL stock is a consensus Buy at the moment — with 3 Hold ratings, 1 Buy rating, and 1 Strong Buy rating. However, that lone Strong Buy rating is the most recent one — and it came from a highly-rated analyst. See the ratings  
• Yigal Nochomovitz of Citigroup (a top 13% rated analyst) maintained an earlier Strong Buy rating on March 6. In addition, the researcher upped his price target on Rigel Pharmaceuticals stock from $49 to $55, a figure that implies a 179.10% upside.
• Nochomovitz backgrounded that "the company has quietly but deliberately built a solid commercial franchise over the past three years." Tavalisse, Rezlidhia, and the more recently acquired Gavreto are expected to generate $200M in sales in 2025, the analyst detailed. 
• Citigroup believes that business alone supports a valuation of $45 per share, or 131% upside from current levels, Nochomovitz told readers, and that Rigel Pharmaceuticals' pipeline "also has many interesting features."
• Our proprietary quant rating model seems to agree with Nochomovitz — with an overall Zen Rating of A, RIGL stock belongs to a class of equities identified as having a higher likelihood of outperforming the wider market.
• Rigel Pharmaceuticals stock appears to give a rather appealing answer to the age old question of Value or Growth — yes please. In terms of the former, it ranks in the top 1% of stocks — in terms of the latter, it is rated in the top 5%. (See all 7 Zen Component Grades here >)

2. CPI Card Group Inc (NASDAQ: PMTS)

Our second pick for today has no discernible weaknesses when it comes to metrics. In fact, it scores quite well in each category tracked by our rating system. CPI Card Group has been a key player in providing debt, credit, and prepaid cards to financial institutions since 2007, and has earned Wall Street’s confidence — analysts see plenty of upside, and with a recent pullback, we could be looking at an opportune moment to buy.

Zen Rating: A (Strong Buy) — see full analysis >  

Recent Price: $28.32  — get current quote > 

Max 1-year forecast: $40.00 

Why we’re watching:

• PMTS stock enjoys unanimous support from analysts — each of the 4 researchers currently tracking the stock issues a Strong Buy rating. Their average 12-month price forecast implies a 31.53% upside. See the ratings
• Da Davidson’s Peter Heckmann (a top 3% rated analyst) reissued a Strong Buy rating following the company’s Q4 and FY 2024 earnings. The researcher also hiked his price target from $36 to $38. 
• Heckmann said the "solid" quarter was headlined by "impressive growth in the company's Prepaid Debit segment.
• The analyst also told readers that the stock's enterprise value to expected forward EBITDA multiple of 5.5x to 6.0x is also "attractive."
• CPI Card Group stock carries an overall Zen Rating of A — in fact, once all of the 115 factors tracked by our quant system are taken into account, it actually ranks in the top 1% of the more than 4,600 equities we track.
• A closer look at CPI Card Group’s Component Grade ratings reveals a truly rare sight. All 7 Component Grade ratings are a B — in simple terms, the stock ranks in the top 20% of equities we track according to every single category.
• With that said, Momentum and Growth are still PMTS’ strong suit — where it ranks in the 94th and 93rd percentile, respectively. (See all 7 Zen Component Grades here >)

3. Mueller Water Products (NYSE: MWA)

Water! Everyone needs it, and Mueller Water Products ensures everything keeps flowing smoothly — from the tiniest of valves to large, complex leak detection systems. This $3.6 billion company has been in business for 168 years — but like most providers of infrastructure components, it hasn’t necessarily spent a lot of time in the spotlight. But as you’ll see below, it’s not your typical conservative defense play…

Zen Rating: A (Strong Buy) — see full analysis >  

Recent Price: $25.05 — get current quote > 

Max 1-year forecast:  $29.00

Why we’re watching:

• MWA is our Stock of the Week — our Editor-in-Chief, Steve Reitmeister, outlined why exactly it piqued his interest in an article on Monday. We’ll briefly go over some of his observations.
• Mueller Water Products stock is a part of Steve’s Zen Investor portfolio — and it rallied by 7.4% on March 10, with 3x the normal trading volume.
• Interestingly enough, there was no clear catalyst — no analyst upgrades, no index inclusions, buyout rumours, acquisitions, or positive developments.
• MWA ranks in the top 1% of stocks we track according to Sentiment rating — and our Editor-in-Chief believes that this provides a window as to what most likely happened. In the absence of a clear catalyst, there’s a strong chance that the Smart Money crowd knows something we don’t — and they scooped up a bunch of shares anticipating further moves to the upside.
• In the last 4 quarterly reports, the company has posted an average earnings beat of 45% — and earnings are expected to grow a total of 26% on a year-over-year (YoY) basis
• MWA carries an overall Zen Rating of A — and once you take a look at the stock’s Component Grade ratings, you’ll quickly see why.
• Although exact rankings vary from day to day, at the time of Steve’s article, Mueller Water Products stock ranked top 1% in terms of Sentiment, top 10% in terms of Financials, top 15% in terms of Safety, top 15% in terms of Momentum, and top 18% in terms of Growth. (See all 7 Zen Component Grades here >)

What to Do Next?

• 8 Stock Lists You Need Now >
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