12 stocks for 'bottom-fishing' investors looking for cheap growth opportunities

By Philip van Doorn

Companies with stocks near 52-week lows that analysts expect to roar back include Dick's Sporting Goods, McDonald's and L3Harris

These stocks are part of a group that are near 52-week lows and are favored by analysts.

When selecting individual stocks, some investors look for quality and lower risk, while others want to scoop up shares of companies that have fallen on hard times, hoping to ride a rebound.

As shares of Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) tumbled a record 30.7% on Tuesday, an investment adviser told MarketWatch that his clients often ask him to provide lists of stocks that have hit 52-week lows. So that is the basis of the following stock screen.

Investors reacted harshly after Dick's Sporting Goods reported disappointing quarterly results on Tuesday and, perhaps more important, lowered its profit outlook for fiscal 2026. But analysts weren't as disturbed by the results, remaining bullish enough on the stock that it made the screen.

Screening for favored stocks near 52-week lows

One might begin this type of screen with the S&P 500 SPX, but Dick's Sporting Goods isn't included in the large-cap U.S. benchmark index. It is a component of the S&P MidCap 400 Index MID, so our screen started out with 900 stocks.

We narrowed the list to stocks within 3.0% of their 52-week intraday lows, excluding spun-off companies that had been independent for less than a year. This left us with a list of 22 stocks, which we narrowed to 12 companies with majority buy or equivalent ratings among analysts polled by LSEG.

Here's the list, sorted by 12-month upside potential implied by the analysts' consensus price targets:

 
Company                       12-month upside potential implied by consensus price target  Forward P/E  Share buy ratings  Date of 52-week intraday low  2026 price change 
Talen Energy                                                                          48%         11.2                89%                     3/20/2026               -18% 
Wingstop                                                                              78%         22.6                83%                     8/11/2026               -52% 
Aptiv                                                                                 48%          7.5                83%                     8/25/2026               -28% 
NRG Energy                                                                            62%         11.2                82%                     8/24/2026               -29% 
BWX Technologies                                                                      56%         29.3                76%                     8/25/2026               -13% 
VICI Properties                                                                       24%          9.2                69%                     8/17/2026                -7% 
L3Harris Technologies                                                                 39%         20.2                68%                     8/25/2026               -11% 
Cirrus Logic                                                                          48%         12.9                67%                     9/10/2025                -6% 
McDonald's                                                                            18%         19.7                59%                     7/23/2026               -12% 
Dick's Sporting Goods                                                                 47%          9.9                59%                     8/25/2026               -37% 
CMS Energy                                                                            16%         16.9                53%                     8/24/2026                -2% 
Martin Marietta Materials                                                             25%         25.9                52%                     8/18/2026               -15% 
                                                                                                                                                              Source: LSEG 

The table includes forward price-to-earnings ratios, which are based on Tuesday's closing prices and consensus 12-month earnings-per-share estimates. The P/E ratios compare with weighted valuations of 19.9 for the S&P 500 and 16 for the S&P MidCap 400, as calculated by FactSet.

For Dick's, the forward P/E is now a low 9.9. The company remains profitable, despite its challenges with fashion trends and consumers being "even more cautious than we expected, due to the geopolitical environment," as Stack said during the company's earnings call on Tuesday, according to a transcript provided by FactSet.

Now the question is whether or not all the bad news has been baked into the share prices. The analysts believe that it has, with a majority rating shares of Dick's a buy and with a consensus price target that is 47% over Tuesday's close.

Your own opinion is what counts. Before investing in any stock, you should do your own research to form your own opinion about the company's prospects to remain competitive and increase profits. One way to begin your research is to click the tickers for more information.

Don't miss: These growth stocks are still cheap, despite the S&P 500 being near a record high price-to-sales valuation

-Philip van Doorn

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08-26-26 1006ET