Everyone appreciates a good deal, whether it's when buying goods or buying stocks. When it comes to the latter, one of the more popular tools for identifying potential bargains on the stock market is the Relative Strength Index (RSI). The RSI considers a stock's recent performance over the past 14 trading days, and assigns a value that ranges between 0 and 100.
A reading above 70 indicates the stock may be overbought and due for a pullback, while below 30 suggests it could be oversold and due for a bounce. The more extreme the reading within this range, the more reliable the signal.
With equities in general having a weak start to Q2, mostly thanks to inflation rearing its ugly head, many stocks that benefited from the broad rally over the past two quarters are finding themselves under pressure. However, after falling an alarming 5% through the middle of last month, the S&P 500 index looks to have stabilized and is on the verge of turning up again.
Let's look at three large caps still feeling the pressure, as seen in their extreme RSI readings. If the broader market can manage to turn north, then we could be looking at some outsized gain potential.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC)
[content-module:CompanyOverview|NASDAQ:INTC]Shares of tech titan Intel have been sinking like a stone since January, as they are being left well and truly in the dust in the race for AI. But an RSI reading of 22 is almost unheard of for a company of their size. Indeed, over the past 10 years, Intel's RSI has only ever been this low on 3 other occasions, showing how rare this is.
Weak forward guidance from the company's earnings report last week didn't do them any favors either, but at some point, you have to be wondering when the worst-case scenario is fully priced in. Intel's shares are currently back trading at 1998 levels, but almost all the analysts covering the stock have price targets way higher.
Wells Fargo, for example, gave them a price target of $38 last week, while Barclays gave a target of $40. From the $30 that Intel closed at last night, that means they're targeting an upside of some 30%. In tandem with the extreme RSI reading, this screams short-term bounce.
Gartner, Inc (NYSE: IT)
[content-module:CompanyOverview|NYSE:IT]Gartner is a different story altogether but no less interesting. Their shares tagged an all-time high fairly recently, back in March to be exact, but have been sliding since then. This week then saw a sharp drop off the back of a weak earnings report, where they missed their revenue target and issued weak forward guidance.
In situations like this, it's unsurprising that a stock falls hard, as investors are forced to quickly re-price it in light of the updated outlook. But with an RSI reading that was as low as 26 on Tuesday of this week, it feels a little extreme right now.
Even though they trimmed their price targets accordingly after last week's report, the teams at UBS Group and Robert W. Baird both reiterated their Buy ratings on the stock and have a fresh price target of $510 and $517, respectively. That's pointing to an upside of some 25% from current levels, which should be enough to tempt most investors to take a closer look.
International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM)
[content-module:CompanyOverview|NYSE:IBM]Having managed to stage one of their best rallies in recent years through most of Q1, it's all been going quite badly for IBM shares since March.
The stock is down almost 20% since then, with an RSI reading of 22 showing just how harsh a slide that's been. But it's worth noting that it's only fallen this low just 3 times in the past decade, and Thursday's price action suggested the bears might be running out of steam.
IBM had sunk to fresh lows during the session
but rallied to close at their high of the day. This is a classic signal that suggests that buyers are stepping in en masse to grab a bargain, and it will be interesting to see if this continues into next week.
