We recently compiled a list of the 8 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Make You Richer. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:BW) stands against the other unstoppable stocks.

Navigating Volatile Equity Markets

In the current climate of extreme market volatility, finding safe and stable investments is challenging. Valuations seem overstretched following one of the longest bull runs, with major indices reaching record highs. Despite this, the focus should remain on stocks of companies with strong fundamentals and solid long-term prospects.

Similarly, it’s crucial to consider companies that can withstand uncertainties caused by various headwinds, such as rising geopolitical tensions, the US election, and the high interest rate environment. While the recent Federal Reserve rate cut, declining inflation rates, and a prolonged bull market have benefited investors, not all stocks are responding uniformly.

READ ALSO: 8 Worst Performing Tech Stocks in 2024 and 10 Worst Performing Blue Chip Stocks in 2024.

How Are Economic and Geopolitical Factors Influencing Investments?

As the US election approaches, economic issues remain the primary concern for most voters. Despite the equity market’s upward trend, the US economy has experienced several shocks, including slowdowns in the labor and real estate markets. Although inflation has decreased from a high of 9.2% to 2.4%, the Federal Reserve had to cut interest rates by 50 basis points to prevent a recession.

“Even as the data shows inflation has theoretically been slowing down, it has become more important in people’s minds over the course of the last three quarters, not less important,” said Jay Campbell, partner at Hart Research, the Democratic pollster for the survey.

The significant drop in inflation has coincided with higher growth expectations, driving upward momentum in the equity markets. Strong macroeconomic data, such as impressive GDP and retail sales figures, have supported these growth expectations. Amid these expectations, bond yields have increased, indicating that investors are selling safe-haven assets. Economists at Goldman Sachs suggest that the rise in yields is due to promising growth prospects rather than factors like the anticipation of Donald Trump’s potential presidency or concerns about the Fed’s rate cuts causing inflation to spike again.

“Yields have risen significantly over the past several weeks, which we find has owed primarily to continued strong U.S. growth momentum rather than shifts in election odds,” Goldman said in a recent note.

Conversely, escalating trade and tariff tensions between the US and China pose a threat to market sentiment. The International Monetary Fund has warned that these tensions could have costly economic consequences globally.

“We are seeing geopolitically driven trade around the world, which is why when you look at overall trade to GDP that’s holding up fine, but who’s trading with whom is certainly changing,” said Gita Gopinath, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, to CNBC on October 23, 2024.

In response to perceived unfair trade practices by Beijing, the US and EU have increased tariffs on certain Chinese goods, further escalating trade tensions this year.

Despite rising geopolitical tensions, long-term investing remains the best strategy for building a profitable portfolio and sustaining growth over time. Key factors to consider include investing in businesses rather than just share prices, understanding the underlying business, and consistently investing during both market highs and lows.

Our Methodology

For this article, we identified approximately 20 stocks with a year-to-date share price gain of over 30% as of October 25 and an average analyst price target upside of at least 30%. We then narrowed the list to the 8 stocks with the highest average analyst price target upsides, ranking them primarily by upside potential and secondarily by year-to-date gains.

At Insider Monkey, we are obsessed with 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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:BW)

Average Analysts Upside Potential as of October 25: 236.13%

Year-to-date gains: 61.56%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders as of Q2: 19

Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:BW) is a technology provider providing energy and emissions control solutions to industrial electrical utilities and municipalities. It is one of the unstoppable stocks that could make you richer as it has secured a string of substantial contracts that affirm strong demand for its solution. In the UK, it has landed an $8 million contract for a cooling system for a renewable energy facility. It has also inked a $25 million contract for upgrades and maintenance of a thermal plant in The US

Additionally, Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:BW) has agreed to sell its Italy and Sweden-based assets for about $40 million. The sale is part of a divestment strategy that Babcock Wilcox Enterprises uses to reduce its long-term debt and improve its balance sheet.

In addition to new technologies like BrightLoopTM and ClimateBrightTM, the company intends to concentrate on its core portfolio of technologies, which includes thermal, renewable, and environmental solutions. In order to satisfy emissions reduction requirements while preserving dependable base load energy generation, Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:BW) is also assisting its U.S. clients with coal-to-natural-gas conversions.

The company’s excellent operating performance propelled it into solid second-quarter results whereby revenues totalled $233.6 million, exceeding analyst expectations despite being lower than the previous quarter. Additionally, the operating income of $42.2 million and net income of $25.4 million both surpassed projections. Its year-to-date bookings of $383.1 million and implied bookings of $668.5 million, a 71% increase over the first half of 2023, are what make this cheap penny stock impressive.

While Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:BW) is already up by about 62% for the year, analysts remain optimistic about its long-term prospects, with an average price target of $8, implying 236.13% upside potential as of October 25, 2024.

At Q2’s end, a total of 19 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, up from 14 in the first quarter of 2024. According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Aaron Weitman’s CastleKnight Management has the number one position in Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises Inc (NYSE:BW), worth close to $6.17 million, accounting for 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio.

Overall BW ranks 1st on our list of the unstoppable stocks that could make you richer. While we acknowledge the potential of BW as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than BW but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.