Stocks to buy: 17 underappreciated companies set to beat the market

One strategy for beating the market is for an investor to identify stocks that are simultaneously underappreciated and brimming with upside potential. But this can be very difficult.

RBC Capital Markets has compiled a list of 17 stocks that fit the bill. The firm says any trader hunting for new ideas should buy them.

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When to comes to beating the market, stock investors have any number of potential avenues to explore.

One method is to identify the companies most owned by hedge funds and load up on their shares. A recent study from Goldman Sachs found that this strategy has outperformed in recent years.

Then there's an approach that falls firmly on the opposite side of the spectrum. It involves locating the market's most underappreciated stocks and buying the ones that offer the most upside potential.

This is, of course, easier said than done. But RBC Capital Markets is here to help.

The firm has screened the S&P 500 to find companies that offer the following three characteristics:

They fall into the second quintile of RBC's analysis of large-cap fund ownership. This means they're far from the market's popular stocks, implying that they're somewhat overlooked.

They don't appear on any of RBC's lists of “crowded” stocks, meaning they're not already owned by loads of investors.

They're rated “outperform” — or the equivalent of “buy” — by RBC.

The overall idea concept is straightforward: Buy stocks with upside potential that are also not already owned by everyone else.

Below are 17 stocks identified by RBC as both underappreciated and likely to see their prices soar. They're ranked in decreasing order of existing ownership by large-cap funds.