We recently published a list of 12 Best Stocks to Invest in for a Stock Market Game. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Xeris Biopharma Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:XERS) stands against other stocks to invest in for a stock market game.

We all have heard the phrase ‘value isn’t always visible at first glance’ at least once in our lifetime and this isn’t something to overlook, particularly when you are playing the stock game. A small investment results in a big fortune, but only if you’re lucky or a contrarian genius.

In his ‘How To Start Investing in Stocks in 2025 and Beyond’ guide, Peter Gratton provides a list of 7 steps to lead the stock market game. When selecting stocks, it is pertinent to consider stocks with good track records or as he says,

“The greater the chances for outsized growth in a stock, the riskier investing in it will be. Beginners interested in growth stocks should target industries with long-term potential, such as technology or healthcare.”

The foundation of the preference of most of the stocks listed below is how deeply the company embraces AI. Since the last few years, everyone has been going on about AI, just as blockchain was once a buzzword. Research by IDC expects that AI could add around $20 trillion to the global economy by 2030. While Warren Buffett stays away from most of the technology stocks, simply because he doesn’t understand their business, he reports missing out on some golden stocks. Today, almost every investor owns a stock based on the company’s AI-related strategies.

Similarly, analyzing the global demand patterns can help in identifying highly valued sectors. A report by WHO reported that global healthcare spending reached an impressive $10.3 trillion in 2024 underscoring the demand for such a crucial sector. And when you integrate healthcare with the tech sector, that’s when you get another cutting-edge healthcare technology sector, that too is expected to lead the market in the years ahead.

Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, stated:

“In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists. The future is never clear, and you pay a very high price in the stock market for a cheery consensus. Uncertainty is the friend of the buyer of long-term values.”

Thus, it is the long run when the true value of a stock is realized as the short run just focuses on the investors’ sentiments. In making investment decisions, it is important to know the value that you will be getting not the price that you will be paying.

To assist you in getting ahead, we have compiled a list of 12 stocks that have the potential to surpass peers amid the growth of key industries like semiconductors, cybersecurity, health, and AI. These sectors are considered the most-yielding and highly safe bets in this world of extreme volatility.

Our Methodology

For this list, we screened for 12 penny stocks from Finviz and Yahoo Finance that have exhibited positive returns in the past year. These companies have been listed in descending order, with the lowest returns to the highest. The growth trend has been captured from Google’s latest stock prices, in correspondence to the returns of the respective shares.

At Insider Monkey, we are obsessed with hedge funds. 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).

Xeris Biopharma Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:XERS)

Price momentum over the past year: 136.15%

Xeris Biopharma Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:XERS) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and marketing therapies in Illinois. The core offerings of the company include Gvoke, Keveyis, and Recorlev, with a series of development programs to expand the approved uses of its commercialized products and the introduction of new ones through its proprietary technology platforms, XeriSol and XeriJect. Incepted in 2005, the company finds solutions to current medical problems through its innovative products and partnerships.

Just in, Xeris Biopharma Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:XERS) has received approval for its supplemental new drug application (sNDA) of Gvoke VialDx™ from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This has initiated a partnership with American Regent for commercialization in the U.S. While entering a growing procedural gastroenterology market, with 20 million gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures carried out annually, Xeris will be handling product supply. At the same time, American Regent will oversee the commercialization segment.

In the recent financials, Xeris Biopharma Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:XERS) announced a 20% plus revenue growth for thirteen consecutive quarters. The projection for 2025 is equally promising, with a growth of over 30% from the 2024 levels. This upward trend is mainly attributed to Recorlev, or as the company calls it, the “flagship product,” which has a small market of around 10 to 15 million patients per million in the United States, targeted by few. Steve Pieper, the CFO at Xeris Biopharma Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:XERS), made the following comment:

“Given our strong topline growth expectations, our healthy and improving gross margin profile, our disciplined expense management, and strong cash position, it is clear that Xeris will turn an important financial corner in 2025 that will position the company to execute on its priorities without the need to dilute shareholders”

All praise to the new management, 2024 was an unprecedented year of excellent commercial execution, robust pipeline development, and disciplined capital management. Moving to 2025, the company considers Recorlev and Gvoke to be its growth drivers, with demand rising above the 2024 figures. At this time, it is important to hold on to this stock.

Overall, XERS ranks 4th on our list of best stocks to invest in for a stock market game. While we acknowledge the potential for XERS as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some 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 XERS but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires

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