Wilson: We're Still Searching For Sentiment Bottom In Internet Stocks

It could be another bumpy earnings season for Internet stocks. According to Pacific Crest analyst Evan Wilson, volatility will remain a key theme in the Internet space until market sentiment finally bottoms out.

“We are still searching for a sentiment bottom in Internet, but are getting closer as each earnings season demolishes another of the few remaining high-fliers in the comp group,” Wilson explained.

Top Picks In The Space

Pacific Crest remains bullish on a handful of Internet names, but Wilson believes that investors should remain highly-selective in the space. He prefers non-user growth-dependent stocks such as Overweight-rated Criteo SA (ADR) CRTO, LinkedIn Corp LNKD and Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL.

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In addition to these three names, Yandex NV YNDX is the only other Overweight rating in the firm's Internet coverage universe.

After last quarter’s disastrous report that nearly cut the stock’s market cap in half overnight, Wilson is calling for an earnings “beat and raise” from LinkedIn this quarter.

Sector-Weight Rated Stocks

The firm maintains Sector Weight ratings on the following Internet stocks heading into Q1 earnings season:

• Angie’s List Inc ANGI
• Facebook Inc FB
• GrubHub Inc GRUB
• MaxPoint Interactive Inc MXPT
• Twitter Inc TWTR
• Yahoo! Inc. YHOO
• Yelp Inc YELP
• Zillow Group, Inc.-Class A ZG

Disclosure: The author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.