Investors ready to bid good riddance to 2022 have several good opportunities for the year ahead, according to Wall Street analysts. The S & P 500 is down more than 19% this year, on pace for its worst year since 2008. For December, the index is down 5.7%, which would be its biggest one-month decline since September. While there’s still time for stocks to turn around for the month, hopes for an end-of-year “Santa Claus rally” have fizzled out. The new year isn’t looking much better, with many strategists expecting 2022’s turbulence to continue as inflation remains high and the Federal Reserve remains committed to its inflation-fighting plan – it said last week its benchmark interest rate is now expected rise as high as 5.1% before it pauses or pulls back. However, analysts see the potential for big gains in some stocks despite the potential volatility ahead. CNBC Pro screened for stocks poised to gain the most in the coming year, using data from FactSet. Each of the 15 stocks below has at least about 50% upside to the average analyst price target. Here the list: Dish Network and Warner Bros. Discovery each have more than 100% potential upside, according to the target calculated by FactSet. Morgan Stanley recently said Dish is perhaps the “biggest opportunity” for incremental return on investment. “The market is highly skeptical of its ability to build a successful wireless business,” Benjamin Swinburne, an equity analyst at the firm, said in a Dec. 12 note. “That skepticism has been proven to be warranted thus far, as the build-out and product launch have taken longer than expected with still minimal proof points. However, DISH likely offers the greatest upside in the bull case.” About 67% of analysts that cover Dish have a buy rating on it. Further down the list, Amazon can rise nearly almost 59% from its current price. Loop Capital wrote Monday that investor expectations for the e-commerce stock are low, citing weak near-term demand and high Amazon Web Services estimates . The firm sees “significant profit upside,” however, as the company “passes through inflation and tightens up fulfillment center operations.” “We think that getting back to pre-COVID economics on fulfilled units could drive consolidated operating margin to low-double-digits, well above the historic high of 5.9%,” the note said. Several fintech companies also made the list, such as Global Payments , PayPal , and even the crypto-focused Signature Bank . Earlier this month, Signature said it would reduce its exposure to digital assets following the blowup of FTX. That, plus “any light at the end of the tunnel for digital asset pricing stabilization and slowing Fed tightening efforts may lead value-oriented investors to consider SBNY shares,” a Janney analyst said in a recent note. Signature’s shares are at their lows of the year following the FTX collapse. Analysts see them rising some 54%. Meanwhile, PayPal’s shares have “failed to participate in the market’s rally over the past few months” but Atlantic Equities remains optimistic on the payments giant, according to a note it published last week. “Overall volumes are keeping up with ecommerce due to Braintree’s strength, underlying comps get easier for core Checkout from Q1 and there appears little downside risk to near-term EPS estimates due to the company’s cost actions, leaving the stock’s risk/reward skewing positive,” it said. More than half of PayPal analysts have a buy rating on its shares. The stock has upside potential of 51% from its current average price target. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.
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