Three stocks to watch that have missed the record rally

Call them the market’s turkeys.

As the major averages make yet another set of closing highs heading into Thanksgiving Day, some high-profile stocks have been sitting out the record-hitting run since October.

While the S&P 500 has rallied more than 9% since the Oct. 3 bottom, shares of Twitter, Dollar Tree, Western Digital, Molson Coors, McDonald’s and eBay have had trouble catching up.

In fact, most have fallen substantially. Since Oct. 3, Twitter has dropped nearly 21.5%; Dollar Tree has fallen almost 18%; Western Digital has lost over 11%; Molson Coors has tumbled nearly 11%; eBay has shed about 6%; and McDonald’s is down almost 5%, as of Wednesday’s close.

But some of these names are set up well for a near-term push higher, says Craig Johnson, senior technical research analyst and managing director at Piper Jaffray.

“I’d pardon two turkeys here ahead of Thanksgiving,” he said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Trading Nation.” “The first one would be Western Digital.”

“The shares are definitely well off of their 52-week highs, but you’re pulling right back to support at around [$]47 and change,” Johnson said, referencing the stock’s one-year chart.

“From my perspective, given the fact that we’ve found good support and we’re starting to see momentum indicators starting to improve, that would be one that I’d be buying here,” the analyst said.

Johnson’s second pardoned turkey? Twitter.

“This stock has gapped down,” Johnson said, pointing to the one-year chart and the stock’s nearly 32% drop from its 52-week highs. “It’s now starting to improve on the chart itself, but, also, it’s starting to show improvement on the momentum indicators.”

“From my perspective, closing that big gap down that we had seen just a few months ago is certainly going to be a nice move here in the stock, and it’s one that we would be buying down here,” Johnson said.

Twitter also found a fan in Michael Binger, president of independent money management firm Gradient Investments.

For investors who can “put all the noise” around Twitter behind them, particularly negative headlines and developments in social media regulation, the stock may provide a good opportunity for gains, Binger said in the same “Trading Nation” interview.

“When you look underneath the covers of Twitter, what you see is a company next year that’s going to grow its revenue 15%, it’s going to grow its [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or] EBITDA north of 20% and it trades at less than 15 times that EBITDA,” Binger said.

Acknowledging that Twitter’s most recent quarter “was a little bit of a misstep,” Binger called the issues “totally correctable.”

“Their user metrics were, in my opinion, quite good,” he said of the third-quarter results. “It’s a service that I think people use, it’s a company that’s growing its top line very fast, and it’s profitable, too. So, Twitter, I think, is really interesting here and I wouldn’t be afraid to jump in and buy it here.”

Binger’s other pick was the stock of McDonald’s, which he said was displaying notable value at its current level of just above $196 per share.

“We’ve owned it for a long time and continue to own it,” Binger said. “McDonald’s was one of those names that got a little overvalued earlier in the year when some of the investors were looking for these staple, proxy type of names. Last quarter was just a tad bit below expectations, but nothing alarming.”

Even so, shares have “pulled back a lot” relative to the company’s not-so-hot third-quarter release, enough for investors to capitalize on the pain, Binger said.

“We think it’s set up pretty good right now,” he said. “In the U.S., they’re still doing close to a 5% comp, which is really good, so I would own McDonald’s right here. I think it’s a great name and you can hold it for quite some time.”

Disclosure: Gradient Investments owns shares of McDonald’s in its G50 and Core Select portfolios and holds shares of Twitter.

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