Goldman Sachs sees gains of up to 60% in these 3 beaten-down stocks — if you’re a risk-averse investor worried about market highs, they might be for you

With the S&P 500 Index only slightly below its all-time high, bargains remain hard to find in 2022.

If you want to go after the hottest tickers, prepare to pay a pretty penny for them.

But not every stock with potential is shooting through the roof. Goldman Sachs recently issued “buy” ratings on several stocks that definitely haven’t been market darlings of late.

Here are three companies Goldman considers hidden gems.

Twilio (TWLO)

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This cloud communications platform helps software developers interact with users through embedded features like text chat, phone calls and video calls.

The company was founded in 2008 and today has more than 250,000 active customer accounts.

Business is growing rapidly. In Q3, revenue increased 65% year-over-year to $740.2 million. For Q4, management expects revenue to be in the range of $760 million to $770 million.

And yet the stock hasn’t been a market favorite. Over just the past three months, Twilio shares have tumbled 30%, compared with the S&P 500 Index’s 7% gain in the same period.

Goldman jumped on Twilio last month, with a price target of $350 — about 60% worth of upside from current levels.

Boeing (BA)

After the stock market’s impressive climb over the past year and a half, many companies are trading above their pre-pandemic levels.

Not Boeing, though. While the company’s share price has rallied nicely over the past month, it’s still well below where it stood before COVID.

Boeing is one of the leading players in the aircraft manufacturing business, and investors have been sensibly concerned about whether airlines will bother to buy new planes as the pandemic continues to suppress the travel industry.

But things have improved, according to the latest earnings report. In Q3, revenue rose 8% from a year ago to $15.3 billion. The company had a commercial airplanes backlog of $290 billion at the end of September.

Goldman reiterated its buy rating on Boeing yesterday with a price target of $305. Since Boeing currently trades at just $224, the Wall Street giant is projecting a potential upside of over 35%.

FedEx Corporation (FDX)

Since FedEx’s delivery service is an essential part of many e-commerce businesses, one would expect the stock to thrive in this day and age.

And although FedEx shares did have an impressive rally earlier this year, they have pulled back since. In fact, over the past 12 months, the stock has gained just 4%.

But Goldman remains bullish. Last month, the investment bank reiterated its buy rating on FedEx and set a $343 target, representing roughly 33% upside from current prices.

The company reported earnings last month. The report shows that in the three months ended Nov. 30, FedEx generated $23.5 billion of revenue, up 14% year over year.

Adjusted earnings came in at $4.83 per share, unchanged from a year earlier.

The stock’s curious sluggishness reinforces just how hard it is to predict winners and losers.