Solus’ Dan Greenhaus, and Invesco’s Brian Levitt together appeared on CNBC’s ‘Closing Bell’ on April 15 to talk about tariffs, market uncertainty, and risk concerns. The discussion started with Dan Greenhaus expressing his belief that many worst-case scenarios are already priced into the market. He acknowledged that he’s cautious but not overly worried. He pointed out recent events, like the exemptions on auto part imports and the 90-day delay on tariff implementation, as evidence that President Trump is listening to advisors and avoiding pushing toward extreme outcomes. Greenhaus attributed these actions to the rebound seen in the stock market. At the same time, he agreed that the administration has been rather inconsistent, in the context of Morgan Stanley’s comment that investors should prepare for more inconsistencies. But he argued that many investors are assuming scenarios closer to the worst rather than the best. He emphasized that while frightening predictions about skyrocketing prices are taking over media right now, these scenarios are unlikely to materialize.
Brian Levitt built on Greenhaus’ optimism while acknowledging the ongoing uncertainty as well. He attributed this uncertainty to the reliance on decisions from the White House rather than traditional policy mechanisms. He compared the current situation to 2018 when markets fell 20% in a quarter before rebounding due to trade pauses and Fed intervention. He cautioned that the current S&P 500 multiples are not at recession levels so there are potential downside risks if uncertainty remains. While Levitt thinks that business investment and consumer confidence metrics show signs of prolonged volatility, Greenhaus further emphasizes that periods of heightened uncertainty often end up presenting long-term investment opportunities. He acknowledged risks such as sudden tariff increases but also encouraged investors to take advantage of these moments when risk premiums rise.
That being acknowledged, we’re here with a list of the 11 most promising penny stocks according to analysts.
Phone with stocks chart
Our Methodology
We sifted through the Finviz stock screener to compile a list of the top penny stocks that were trading below $5 and had the highest analysts’ upside potential (at least 40%). The stocks are ranked in ascending order of their upside potential. We have also added the hedge fund sentiment for each stock, as of Q4 2024, which was sourced from Insider Monkey’s database.
Note: All data was sourced on April 15.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
11 Most Promising Penny Stocks According to Analysts
11. Lumen Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LUMN)
Share Price as of April 15: $3.47
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 44
Average Upside Potential as of April 15: 44.09%
Lumen Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LUMN) is a networking company that provides integrated products and services. It operates in two segments: Business and Mass Markets. It primarily offers products and services that range from dark fiber & conduit to VPN data network service. It serves under the Lumen, Quantum Fiber, CenturyLink, and Black Lotus Labs brands.
The company helps businesses use AI by providing networking edge cloud security and other services that support AI processing. Wells Fargo recently upgraded the stocks due to the company’s private connectivity fabric-related sales and potential for its quantum fiber unit. Lumen continues to enhance network connectivity and utilization to meet the growing AI demand. On February 21, Erick Luebchow of Wells Fargo raised the stock’s rating from an Underweight to Equal Weight with a $5 price target.
In 2024, the company closed deals valued at a total of $8.5 billion with leading technology firms, such as Microsoft, AWS, Google, and Meta. These agreements are building the network infrastructure required by these companies for their AI operations. Due to such partnerships, Lumen Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LUMN) anticipates an increase in its network capacity. The total inter-city fiber network is projected to grow from 12 million miles in 2022 to a potential 47 million miles by 2028.
ClearBridge Small Cap Strategy stated the following regarding Lumen Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:LUMN) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Stock selection in the communication services sector was a significant detractor during the period, largely due to not owning Lumen Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:LUMN), which provides products and services including dark fiber, edge cloud services and internet protocol, among others. The company, which began the quarter with a $1.1 billion market cap, skyrocketed after it signed agreements with Microsoft and Corning to use its network and technologies to support their AI data center buildouts, resulting in a nearly 350% return and ending the quarter with a $7.2 billion market cap. However, despite this meteoric rise, we believe that the company remains a highly risky asset with a significantly leveraged balance sheet, and one not suitable for our focus on high-quality, long-term compounders.”
10. Grab Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRAB)
Share Price as of April 15: $3.98
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 57
Average Upside Potential as of April 15: 44.47%
Grab Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRAB) provides a superapp and operates in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It operates through four segments: Deliveries, Mobility, Financial Services, and Others. It offers the Grab ecosystem, which is a single platform with superapps for mobility, delivery, and digital financial services.
On March 10, Citi analyst Alicia Yap maintained a Buy rating on the company with a steady price target of $6.25. Grab focuses on using its ecosystem to drive cross-selling. For example, customers who use both the Food and Mart services have spent 4x more and have 2.5x higher frequency uplifts as compared to those who use only the food delivery services. Retention rates for such customers are also 2x.
This drives high on-demand Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) at Grab Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRAB). The company saw a 20% year-over-year rise in on-demand GMV in Q4 2024. This improvement was attributed to Grab’s product and tech-led initiatives. For instance, the company introduced Saver Rides and Priority Deliveries. Such features improve affordability and reliability at the company, which helps retain customers old customers and attract new ones.
9. Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG)
Share Price as of April 15: $2.22
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 38
Average Upside Potential as of April 15: 85.81%
Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) provides offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells. It contracts mobile offshore drilling rigs, related equipment, and work crews to drill oil and gas wells. It also operates a fleet of mobile offshore drilling units, which consists of ultra-deepwater floaters and harsh environment floaters.
The company heavily relies on its fleet of high-specification drillships, specifically the seventh-generation plus and eighth-generation rigs. In 2024, these advanced assets secured premium contracts. Day rates exceeded $500,000 for the seventh-gen plus rigs and crossed $600,000 for the eighth-generation 20k assets. Transocean’s existing fleet is almost fully booked through 2026.
The company is now focused on securing new contracts for mid to late 2026 and beyond, targeting these high-specification drillships again. In 2024, Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) achieved a major industry milestone by installing the first two 20k subsea completions on its eighth-generation drillships. It’s also implementing advanced automation systems like IntelliWell, which enable safer and more efficient drilling operations. This includes handling over 1.5 million feet of drill pipe with zero personnel in hazardous zones.
8. NexGen Energy Ltd. (NYSE:NXE)
Share Price as of April 15: $4.61
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 37
Average Upside Potential as of April 15: 90.92%
NexGen Energy Ltd. (NYSE:NXE) is an exploration and development stage company. It acquires, explores, evaluates, and develops uranium properties in Canada. It holds a 100% interest in the Rook I project which consists of 32 contiguous mineral claims that total an area of ~35,065 hectares located in the southwestern Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan.
NexGen’s flagship Rook I Project is being developed into the largest low-cost producing uranium mine globally. The Rook I Project is built under the most elite environmental and social governance standards. Notably, the company’s Arrow Deposit, which is a part of the Rook I project, has seen a 70% jump in pre-production cost, from CAD$1.3 billion to CAD$2.2 billion, causing its IRR to fall from 71.5% to 39.6%.
In December 2024, NexGen signed its first agreements with US utility companies to supply 5 million pounds of the nuclear fuel ingredient. NexGen Energy Ltd. (NYSE:NXE) also announced the beginning of a 43,000-meter exploration drill program at Patterson Corridor East, which lies in the world-class Arrow deposit. This program will be one of the largest drill programs in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan in 2025. The company anticipates annual delivery of about 1 million pounds of uranium from 2029 to 2033.
L1 Long Short Fund stated the following regarding NexGen Energy Ltd. (NYSE:NXE) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“NexGen Energy Ltd. (NYSE:NXE) (Long -10%) weakened as uranium prices fell -7% over the quarter. We continue to see the uranium market as having positive fundamental supply/demand tailwinds over the medium to long term. NexGen is preparing to develop the world’s largest undeveloped uranium deposit, Arrow, located in Saskatchewan, Canada. This would be a major, new, strategic Western source to address the anticipated uranium market deficit. We anticipate that NexGen will have completed all regulatory requirements over the course of 2024, providing a clear pathway to full scale construction of the project. Arrow has the potential to generate more than C$2b of cash flow annually, once developed (2028) – a highly attractive proposition given NexGen’s current market cap of ~C$5.5b.”
7. Fluence Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNC)
Share Price as of April 15: $4.06
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 36
Average Upside Potential as of April 15: 97.04%
Fluence Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNC) provides energy storage and optimization software for renewables and storage applications. It sells energy storage products with integrated hardware, software, and digital intelligence. It serves independent power producers, developers, conglomerates, utilities/load-serving entities, and commercial & industrial customers.
Fluence’s focus on domestic content insulates it from macro developments, as less than 15% of its $5.1 billion backlog is impacted by the recently announced 10% tariff on imports from China. The company’s domestic content battery storage solutions led it to have a record backlog of $5.1 billion at the end of 2024. This backlog represents a substantial 18.5 gigawatt hours of energy storage projects and was up 38% year-over-year.
Fluence’s efforts to establish US-based manufacturing through the AESC Tennessee facility, with production lines ramping up in 2025 and 2026, will strengthen its domestic supply chain. Line 1 is currently ramping up production, and Line 2 is anticipated to come online in the summer of 2026 In 2024, Fluence doubled the number of its US customers. The company’s flexible approach to sourcing components allows it to effectively utilize its US cell supply, which ensures that it can fulfill all expected domestic content requirements for projects in 2025 and 2026.
6. EVgo Inc. (NASDAQ:EVGO)
Share Price as of April 15: $2.71
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 37
Average Upside Potential as of April 15: 139.85%
EVgo Inc. (NASDAQ:EVGO) owns and operates a direct current fast-charging network for EVs in the US. It offers electricity directly to drivers, OEM charging & related services, fleet & rideshare public charging services, and commercial charging. It also provides ancillary services, such as charging data integration, loyalty programs, microtargeted advertising, and charging reservations.
In 2024, the company’s Public Charging Network business made $155.7 million in revenue, which was an improvement of 110% year-over-year. This growth is linked to increased usage by EV drivers. The average daily energy dispensed per public charger rose by 37% year-over-year. The utilization rate of EVgo’s public chargers reached 24% in Q4 2024, which was up 19%.
In the last 3 months of 2024, EVgo added a record 480 new charging stalls, which contributed to a total of 1,200+ new stalls added throughout the entire year. This brought the total operational public charging infrastructure to more than 4,000 stalls. This expansion also included the deployment of faster 350-kilowatt chargers, which now power 50% of EVgo’s charging locations. EVgo Inc. (NASDAQ:EVGO) plans to install an additional 800 to 900 new public charging stalls in 2025.
5. Geron Corp. (NASDAQ:GERN)
Share Price as of April 15: $1.32
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 46
Average Upside Potential as of April 15: 240.91%
Geron Corp. (NASDAQ:GERN) is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops therapeutics for oncology. It offers RYTELO, which is a telomerase inhibitor for the treatment of adult patients with low to intermediate-1 risk myelodysplastic syndromes (lower-risk MDS) with transfusion-dependent anemia. RYTELO was approved in the US in June 2024.
Later in August 2024, RYTELO also gained favorable placement in the NCCN guidelines and received a Category 1 treatment recommendation for second-line RS-positive and RS-negative patients. Since its launch in the US, RYTELO made $76.5 million in net product revenue by year-end. In Q4 2024 alone, RYTELO made $47.5 million in net product revenue.
RYTELO has received a positive opinion in Europe, with a final EU approval decision expected in H1 2025. This will potentially lead to a 2026 EU launch. On March 12, Wedbush analyst Robert Driscoll maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a $7 price target. Payers that cover about 80% of US-insured lives have favorable coverage for RYTELO. The US market for eligible lower-risk MDS patients is estimated to be ~15,400 in 2025.
ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“We continued to generate a number of compelling new ideas, adding five new investments that we still held at quarter end: Glaukos, Rocket Lab USA, Karman Holdings (through its IPO), Archrock, Hims & Hers and Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN).
Geron is a biotechnology company with a commercialized drug launching to treat blood cancer. Its product is newly entering a sizable market with broad applicability for patients who cycle through a variety of treatments throughout the course of the disease, allowing for a potentially larger revenue opportunity than currently appreciated by the market.”
4. Cogent Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ:COGT)
Share Price as of April 15: $4.58
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 38
Average Upside Potential as of April 15: 249.34%
Cogent Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ:COGT) is a biotech company that develops precision therapies for genetically defined diseases. Its lead product candidate is bezuclastinib (CGT9486), which is a selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor in a Phase 3 trial. It is designed to target mutations within the KIT receptor tyrosine kinase, which includes the KIT D816V mutation that drives systemic mastocytosis (SM), as well as other mutations found in patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors.
Cogent has a cash position worth $312 million, which will sustain its operations into late 2026. Its R&D expenses rose to $62 million in Q4 2024 and $232.7 million for the full year due to the accelerated development of Bezuclastinib and other research programs. In February, Cogent presented promising updates from the SUMMIT and APEX trials at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting. It showed improvements in non-advanced SM and encouraging results in advanced SM patients.
In the SUMMIT, patients on 100 mg of bezuclastinib showed a 56% average improvement in symptoms after 24 weeks. In the APEX trial, bezuclastinib achieved a 52% overall response rate (ORR) per mIWG criteria. Cogent Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ:COGT) expects top-line results from the SUMMIT trial in July 2025 and the APEX trial in H2 2025. It plans to submit the first NDA for bezuclastinib by the end of 2025.
3. Terawulf Inc. (NASDAQ:WULF)
Share Price as of April 15: $2.47
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 43
Average Upside Potential as of April 15: 264.37%
Terawulf Inc. (NASDAQ:WULF) operates as a digital asset technology company in the US. It develops, owns, and operates bitcoin mining facilities in New York and Pennsylvania. It provides miner hosting services to third-party entities.
The company’s mining operations, which are primarily located at the Lake Mariner facility, majorly contributed to its 2024 financial success. In the full year, revenue for mining operations doubled year-over-year due to an increase in the amount of Bitcoin mined. This was further fueled by a rise in Bitcoin prices. By the end of 2024, the achieved hash rate was 9.7 exahash per second, which was supported by ~60,000 mining machines.
TeraWulf has been upgrading its mining fleet with new and more efficient S21 Pro miners, with over 90% of the new units received. Once fully deployed in Miner Building 5, the total power utilized for mining is expected to reach 245 megawatts, which will potentially increase the hash rate to 13.1 exahash per second and improve the fleet’s efficiency to 18.2 joules per terahash. On March 3, Kevin Cassidy of Rosenblatt reiterated a Buy rating on TeraWulf with a $10 price target.
2. Iovance Biotherapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA)
Share Price as of April 15: $3.41
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 44
Average Upside Potential as of April 15: 486.51%
Iovance Biotherapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes cell therapies using autologous tumors that infiltrate lymphocytes for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and other solid tumor cancers. It offers Amtagvi, which is a tumor-derived autologous T-cell immunotherapy for treating adult patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma.
Amtagvi is the company’s first FDA-approved TIL cell therapy for advanced melanoma post-anti-PD-1 treatment. Amtagvi made $103.6 million in revenue for the full year 2024, which was a big portion of the total product revenue of $164.1 million. In Q4 alone, revenue was $73.7 million, with Amtagvi accounting for $48.7 million. For 2025, the company predicts product revenue between $450-475 million, driven by higher demand, more treatment centers, and continuous adoption.
On March 1, analyst Joseph Pantginis from HC Wainwright reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a $32 price target. More than 200 patients were treated in Amtagvi’s initial launch phase. Iovance’s manufacturing network can now support over 1,200 patients annually. Iovance Biotherapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) established a network of around 70 authorized treatment centers (ATCs) across 32 US states and provides reimbursement access to over 95% of covered lives.
Artisan Small Cap Fund stated the following regarding Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Among our top performers in Q1 were Shockwave, Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) and Wingstop. Iovance Biotherapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on innovating, developing and delivering novel polyclonal tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) cell therapies for cancer patients. Immuno-oncology remains a key area of drug development, and Iovance is the leader in TIL development and manufacturing, having secured the technology through collaborations with the leading academic institutions in TIL reseach. Shares rallied significantly after the company announced that the FDA approved AMTAGVI™ (lifileucel) for advanced melanoma. We added to the position.”
1. Relay Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:RLAY)
Share Price as of April 15: $2.57
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 37
Average Upside Potential as of April 15: 561.48%
Relay Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:RLAY) is a clinical-stage precision medicines company that transforms the drug discovery process by enhancing small molecule therapeutic discovery in targeted oncology and genetic disease indications. Its lead product candidates include RLY-2608, PI3Ka, and aGal chaperone. RLY-2608 is a candidate for metastatic breast cancer.
On March 27, Barclays reiterated its Overweight rating on the stock and maintained a 12-month stock price target of $17 per share. Interim Phase 1b data for RLY-2608 combined with fulvestrant showed an 11.4-month median progression-free survival (PFS) in second-line patients and a 39% confirmed overall response rate (ORR) in patients with measurable disease. Relay plans to initiate the Phase 3 ReDiscover-2 trial in mid-2025.
Relay ended Q4 with $781.3 million in cash and investments, which is enough to continue the ongoing clinical trials. The company is prioritizing these funds to support the execution of the ReDiscover-2 Phase 3 trial. In 2024, Relay Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:RLAY) made $10 million in revenue, which was down from $25.5 million year-over-year. This decline was fueled by milestone payments from the Relay’s license agreements. However, the R&D costs were lower than the previous year and reached $319.1 million in 2024.
While we acknowledge the growth potential of Relay Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:RLAY), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than RLAY but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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