We recently published a list of 10 Worst High-Risk High-Reward Growth Stocks To Buy. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Pagaya Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:PGY) stands against other worst high-risk high-reward growth stocks to buy.
Is the Tariff Solution Around the Corner?
On March 14, Tom Lee managing partner and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors appeared on a CNBC interview to talk about how the markets react to crises and what approach investors should take considering the broader perspectives. Lee believes that the market will recover and it has recovered every time in the past as well. He emphasized that one thing that investors have to keep in mind is that the market was at an all-time high less than a month ago. When a market falls from a 52-week high, it is a market pricing in crises and the current market is pricing in for recession which brings the “Fed Put” into play. Lee highlighted that the Fed is now in a position to cut rates, which should mitigate the downside.
Moreover, Lee noted that he thinks that there is a very high probability that a tariff solution will happen before April 2. He explained that it is simple to see that China, Europe, Canada, and Mexico have been outperforming the US. This tells that these countries are not headed towards a recession. In addition, Lee also quoted the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, highlighting that it was a 12-day crisis, however, the market bottomed only 7 days into the crisis and had recovered two-thirds, 5 days before the crisis ended.
In addition, to Tom Lee, Nancy Tengler, Laffer Tengler CIO and CEO further added that she believes that the market is still in a bullish stance, however, it is going through an overdue correction. She noted that while the sentiment is low and the expectations across the board have fallen, however, the bond market is stable which tells that the market is not headed towards a recession. Moreover, she also highlighted that most of the recession sentiment is driven by the import figures which rose 70% in January. However, it was just the purchasing managers trying to get ahead of the tariffs. Nancy believes that similar to 2022 this will also settle in, moreover, the decelerating growth is also healthy in terms of the price correcting which she believes was much needed. Lastly, Nancy pointed out that the current market volatility can be a solid buying opportunity for investors.
Our Methodology
To curate the list of 10 worst high-risk high-reward growth stocks to buy we used the Finviz stock screener, Yahoo Finance, CNN, and Seeking Alpha as our sources. Using the screener we aggregated a list of growth stocks with beta (5-year monthly) between 2 and 5, analyst upside potential of at least 30%, and 3-year sales growth of more than 20%. Next, we check the beta values from Yahoo Finance, analyst upside potential from CNN, and sales growth from Seeking Alpha. Lastly, we ranked the stocks in descending order of the analyst upside potential, from best to worst. We have also added hedge fund sentiment around each stock. Please note that the data was recorded on March 18, 2025.
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).

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Pagaya Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:PGY)
Beta (5Y Monthly): 6.01
3-Year Sales Growth: 29.57%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 24
Analyst Upside Potential: 117.77%
Pagaya Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:PGY) is a financial technology company that specializes in AI-driven credit assessment solutions for lenders. It develops machine learning and AI analytics to enhance credit underwriting for financial institutions. Its proprietary network processes over 1 application per second, enabling real-time risk assessment and customer matching for lenders.
On March 18, Benchmark Co. analyst Mark Palmer reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a price target of $25. The analyst mentioned that the company is expected to avoid the dilutive deals and substantial losses that previously pressured its stock price, as it prioritizes growth drivers and profitability. Moreover, the introduction of a pre-screen lending product is also seen as a catalyst for expanding its offerings in financial technology. Pagaya Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:PGY) in Q4 2024 achieved self-funded growth demonstrating operational resilience and financial independence. During the quarter the company exceeded expectations with $279.39 million in revenue. It is one of the worst high-risk high-reward growth stocks to buy.
Overall, PGY ranks 7th on our list of worst high-risk high-reward growth stocks to buy. While we acknowledge the potential of PGY as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than PGY but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.