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Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange, December 9, 2019.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
The S&P 500 has risen nearly 30% this year on the back of stocks like Apple and AMD. The following stocks are Wall Street analysts’ picks to lead the benchmark in 2020.
CNBC identified these stocks by searching in FactSet for S&P 500 companies with a buy rating from 80% or more of analysts, and then sorting by the upside to analysts’ average 12-month price target. Bottom line: These are the buy-recommended stocks in the benchmark that analysts predict will jump the most in 2020.
This screening found 18 stocks with widespread support among analysts, and 10 of those had more than a 10% implied upside based on the average target price.
The group is led by two companies from one of the few sectors that performed poorly in 2019. Diamondback Energy and Marathon Petroleum have missed out on the broader market rally this year as the energy sector struggled. With oil strengthening as the new year approaches, analysts are projecting a gain of more than 30% for the stocks in 2020.
Quanta Services, an infrastructure company that operates in the electrical power and oil industries, also sat on the sidelines this year as the market soared.
Other stocks on the list would be continuing recent strong runs if they reach their price targets. Facebook is up more than 50% so far in 2019, while Assurant rose 45%.
Tech giants such as Salesforce and Amazon saw double-digit gains in 2019, but their performance has lagged the broader index.
If the top performers of 2020 rise less than 40%, it would be a big shift from 2019. A few semiconductor stocks in the S&P 500, including Advanced Micro Devices, more than doubled in price this year.
