Every investor looks for signs that a stock might be worth the leap. While no single indicator guarantees success, some signals stand out as especially powerful when they appear together.
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One of the most reliable is insider buying. These are high-level executives and directors who have an intimate understanding of their company’s operations, prospects, and challenges. They tend to put their own money on the line only when they believe the stock’s future value will be higher. Better yet, their trades must be disclosed publicly, giving everyday investors a chance to watch and follow their moves.
Another time-tested signal is the ‘buy low, sell high’ principle, spotting beaten-down stocks that have been oversold and may be poised for recovery. Price declines can sometimes signal trouble, but they can also reflect market overreactions, offering attractive entry points for those willing to look past the noise.
The picture gets even stronger when this combination is validated by a heavyweight endorsement from Wall Street. A Buy rating from a firm like Goldman Sachs is more than an opinion – it’s typically backed by deep research, robust industry modeling, and high-conviction guidance to clients. Such endorsements can boost investor confidence and help catalyze momentum.
Against this backdrop, we’ve used the TipRanks database to pinpoint two stocks where all three forces align: insiders are buying, valuations look attractive after recent pullbacks, and Goldman Sachs is flashing a green light. When these signals converge, it’s a setup that few investors can afford to ignore.
Shift4 Payments (FOUR)
We’ll start our look at insider buying with Shift4 Payments, a payment processing company based in Pennsylvania that traces its roots back to 1999, when a teenage Jared Isaacman launched it from his parents’ basement. His mission was to fill an “efficiency niche” in payment processing by reducing the time and cost for merchants to get up and running. Today, the company sports a market cap approaching $8 billion and generates more than $3 billion in annual revenue.
Over the years, Shift4 has expanded well beyond its early merchant focus. Its payment processing solutions now cater to customers across a wide range of industries, marketed as simple, safe, scalable, and smart – and tailored to individual client needs. Complementing these services, Shift4 offers point-of-sale systems, contactless commerce, and mobile payment capabilities. With offices across North America and Europe, the company supports over 100 payment methods in more than 150 currencies worldwide.
That global reach got another boost on July 3, when Shift4 completed its $2.5 billion acquisition of Global Blue, a specialty payments and tech platform focused on international transactions, including tax-free shopping and currency conversion. The deal, priced at $7.50 per share, further strengthens Shift4’s ability to serve cross-border clients.
Such moves have helped the company build an impressive footprint: more than 200,000 customers, 500-plus technology integrations, and over 5 billion annual transactions totaling more than $260 billion. Yet, despite this strong operational base, the stock is down 14% year-to-date.
The most recent spate of losses came after the August 5 earnings release for 2Q25. In that release, Shift4 showed quarterly revenues of $966.2 million, a figure that was up nearly 17% year over year but missed the forecast by just over $12 million. At the bottom line, the company’s non-GAAP EPS of $1.10 also missed the forecast, coming in 10 cents per share lower than had been expected.
Following the post-earnings pullback, founder and chairman Jared Isaacman moved quickly to buy the dip, scooping up 196,426 Shift4 shares between August 8 and August 11 for nearly $16.27 million, a move that signals strong confidence in the company’s long-term prospects.
That conviction appears to be shared on Wall Street, with Goldman Sachs analyst Will Nance viewing Shift4 as a potential growth story.
“We view FOUR as one of the top growth stories in our coverage and are constructive on the company’s unique approach to M&A that has resulted in FOUR maintaining high levels of growth without incurring outsized customer acquisition costs. We expect this M&A strategy to continue, both in existing markets and increasingly in international markets. On that note, we believe that the Global Blue deal represents a solid addition to the company’s customer acquisition funnel in Europe, and expect that FOUR has the potential to exceed its top line revenue synergy targets as it targets the low end of the Global Blue customer base, a group that historically relies on bank and legacy payment processors,” Nance opined.
“Importantly,” the analyst added, “we believe FOUR can achieve these targets without any major enterprise wins, which we think is a common point of misunderstanding in the market, as some investors perceived the deal as FOUR looking to compete head to head with modern enterprise processors such as Adyen.”
Quantifying this stance, Nance rates FOUR shares as a Buy, with a $104 price target that implies a ~17% upside for the coming year. (To watch Nance’s track record, click here)
Overall, Shift4’s stock holds a Strong Buy consensus rating, based on 22 analyst reviews that include 17 Buys against 5 Holds. The shares are priced at $89.11, and their $107.75 average price target indicates room for a ~21% gain on the one-year horizon. (See FOUR stock forecast)
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX)
The next stock that has the combination of strong insider buys, a share price on the dip, and a bullish nod from Goldman Sachs is Vertex Pharmaceuticals. This company is a biotech researcher, with both a pipeline of drug candidates under development and a portfolio of approved medications on the market. That combination is something of a ‘Holy Grail’ for biotechs – and Vertex has reaped the rewards.
The company was founded in 1989 and has since built itself into a $100 billion player in the field. Vertex’s portfolio currently includes seven approved medications, and the company generated revenues of $11 billion last year and nearly $10 billion in 2023, with the bulk of that revenue coming from product sales.
Vertex’s product portfolio includes Trikafta, its largest revenue generator, which is a treatment for cystic fibrosis, and Kalydeco, another cystic fibrosis treatment, which was approved in 2012 and is Vertex’s first approved drug. The company’s most recently approved drugs are Casgevy, a treatment for sickle cell disease, approved in 2023; Alyftrek, a CF treatment for patients over age 6, approved in 2024; and Journavx, a non-opioid pain treatment approved in January of this year.
The company’s commercialized medications provided the bulk of its $2.96 billion in total quarterly revenue in 2Q25, the last period reported; of that total, $2.55 billion came from sales of Trikafta. Vertex’s strong revenue totals support its research pipeline, under which the company continues to develop treatments for a wide range of conditions, including kidney disease, severe pain, beta thalassemia, and diabetes, as well as additional treatments for cystic fibrosis and sickle cell disease.
The latest news about the company came from that development program, specifically as it relates to VX-993, a treatment for acute pain that was the subject of a recently completed Phase 2 clinical trial. On August 4, the same day that the company released its 2Q25 results, Vertex also announced that VX-993 failed to meet the primary endpoints of the study and will not be developed further as an acute pain monotherapy. The stock price has dropped sharply since that day and has not recovered; it is still down by 17%.
That drop has not gone unnoticed in the C-suite. On August 6, two top insiders made substantial purchases: President and CEO Reshma Kewalramani bought 10,000 shares for nearly $3.9 million, and board member Bruce Sachs acquired 5,000 shares for $1.95 million.
Goldman Sachs analyst Salween Richter shares that conviction, pointing to the company’s expanding lineup of commercial products and the strength of several clinical-stage candidates.
“We recommend owning VRTX on continued commercial execution as demonstrated by the recent launches of Alyftrek in cystic fibrosis, noting a majority of treated patients are switch patients, and Journavx in acute pain, ahead of a 2H inflection, where we acknowledge access/reimbursement progress (inclusive of two of the three largest PBMs – the last is expected by YE); and potential emergence of a third commercial lever in povetacicept, where an interim analysis of the Ph3 RAINIER trial in IgA nephropathy (IgAN) could support an accelerated approval filing in 1H26, with expansion into other autoimmune renal diseases and cytopenias,” Richter wrote.
Richter goes on to rate VRTX stock as a Buy and sets a $624 price target that indicates room for an upside of ~60% by this time next year. (To watch Richter’s track record, click here)
Overall, shares in Vertex hold a Moderate Buy consensus rating, based on 27 recent analyst reviews that split to 16 Buys and 11 Holds. The stock is priced at $390.30, and its average price target, now at $491.78, suggests a one-year upside potential of 26%. (See VRTX stock forecast)
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.