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We step into the new year with a largely unchanged macroeconomic backdrop and a recession waiting for us. However, investors can maintain a healthy portfolio if they keep a longer-term view, shutting out all the noise.

In that context, we kickstart 2023 with five stocks picked by Wall Street’s top analysts, according to TipRanks, a service that ranks analysts based on their past performance.

Medical technology company STAAR Surgical (STAA) is benefiting from solid demand for refractive corrections (surgical corrections for eye conditions) across the world. Moreover, BTIG analyst Ryan Zimmerman believes that favorable demographic trends, including an aging population and a rising number of myopia cases, are also driving demand for STAAR’s products.

Earlier in December, the company announced that its president and chief executive officer, Caren Mason, is retiring by the end of the month. Mason will be succeeded by Thomas Frinzi, who has earlier served as head of Johnson & Johnson’s vision unit and president of Abbott Medical Optics. Zimmerman said the appointment of Frinzi can appease investors, thanks to having 40 years of experience in medical optics. (See Staar Surgical Hedge Fund Trading Activity on TipRanks)​

The analyst is also upbeat about the demand environment for STAAR’s products across different time periods. “Next-gen lenses to new markets should drive near-term growth, while expanded indications, presbyopia, and cataract companion drive long-term growth,” noted Zimmerman, who reiterated a buy rating on the stock with a price target of $80.

Zimmerman ranks No. 861 among more than 8,000 analysts tracked on TipRanks. Moreover, 44% of his ratings have been profitable, with each rating generating 7.2% average returns.

Quick-service pizza chain Papa John’s (PZZA) stock has depreciated significantly this year due to challenges in the U.K. and inflationary pressures, but its longer-term outlook remains resilient. BTIG analyst Peter Saleh noted that during these times when inflation is high and a recession is on the horizon, lower-income consumers are spending less on eating out. Therefore, Papa John’s value offerings like Papa Pairings are attracting new lower-income guests.

After surveying more than 1,000 Papa John’s customers, Saleh found that only a low-single-digit percentage of them find the menu prices too expensive, even after the company raised prices by 3-4 times in 2022. Encouraged by these trends, the analyst mildly raised his 4Q22 domestic same-store sales expectations. (See Papa John’s International Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks)

Saleh reiterated a buy rating on the stock with a price target of $100. “We believe new leadership has the right strategies in place to engineer a turnaround; these efforts have already translated into better operating efficiency, stronger franchisee alignment, and improved net unit growth, and we expect these will continue to build in 2022/23. We see several near- and long-term levers to drive shareholder value that have started to unfold and will allow Papa John’s to again outperform peers, leading to our Buy rating,” said Saleh.

Saleh has a 524th position among more than 8,000 analysts on TipRanks. Each of his 59% successful ratings has garnered an average return of 10.3%.

The next on our list is Monness Crespi Hardt analyst Brian White’s stock pick, Alphabet (GOOGL), which has proved to be more resilient than its peers in the digital ad market this year. Moreover, the company could mitigate impact on its business with the help of strong growth in Google Cloud.

White said as “a challenging year nears an end, but harrowing headwinds persist in 2023,” Alphabet has started to reduce its expenditures to be better prepared. (See Alphabet Class A Stock Chart on TipRanks)

“In our view, Alphabet is well positioned to capitalize on the long-term digital ad trend, participate in the shift of workloads to the cloud, and benefit from digital transformation,” said White, justifying his stance on Alphabet’s prospects for 2023. He reiterated a buy rating on the stock with a price target of $135.

The analyst noted that Alphabet has delivered 23% sales growth per annum and 27% operating profits over the last five years. Along with a dominant position in the search engine area with leadership in digital advertising, White believes that the stock should trade at a healthy premium to the technology sector in the long run.

White, a 5-star analyst on TipRanks, stands at No. 71 among more than 8,000 tracked analysts. Moreover, 62% of his ratings have been profitable, with each rating delivering an average return of 17.2%.

Wireless and wireline communications services Verizon (VZ) is another name on our top-5 list this week. One of the picks of 5-star analyst Ivan Feinseth of Tigress Financial Partners, Verizon is well-positioned to gain from ongoing 5G wireless subscription growth as well as new growth opportunities in fiber and fixed broadband connectivity.

Feinseth expects that its “size advantage” and prospects in the rapid deployment of high-speed 5G connectivity in the U.S. should fuel further growth in wireless subscribers. (See Verizon Stock Investors sentiment on TipRanks)

Verizon boasts of a strong balance sheet and cash flow generating abilities that allow the company to invest in spectrum expansion and other growth initiatives. Moreover, a healthy financial position helps the company maintain a compelling dividend yield and consistent dividend hikes.

“VZ’s expected generation of $54.53 billion in Economic Operating Cash Flow (EBITDAR) over the near-term provides it with significant cash to fund its 5G high-speed network rollout, spectrum purchases, other growth initiatives, strategic acquisitions, and ongoing dividend increases,” said Feinseth, who holds the 283rd position among more than 8,000 analysts on TipRanks.

The analyst reiterated a buy rating and price target of $64 (adjusted lower from $68) on VZ stock. 

Remarkably, 58% of Feinseth’s ratings have generated profits, and each rating has brought a 10.3% average return.

General purpose database platform provider MongoDB (MDB) is among Feinseth’s buy stocks that we think is a great addition to portfolios this week. Feinseth said that the company’s “industry-leading open-source database software structure” is attracting new customers.

Despite lowering his price target to $365 from $575, the company is well-poised to profit from gradual increase in enterprise IT spending when companies adopt MongoDB’s highly customizable and scalable Database as a Service, Feinseth said. (See MongoDB Website Traffic on TipRanks)

“The rapid acceleration of hosted and hybrid cloud migration is driving increasing demands for scalable, customizable, and developer-friendly database architectures that will continue to drive growth in MDB’s subscription-based revenue model. This will drive an ongoing acceleration in Business Performance trends, which will drive an increasing Return on Capital (ROC), leading to significant gains in Economic Profit and long-term shareholder value creation,” said Feinseth, justifying his stance on MDB stock.

As the calendar turns to 2023, workers in more than half of all states have something to look forward to this year: a higher minimum wage.

That’s occurring as the federal minimum wage stands pat at $7.25 per hour — the same rate since 2009.

But many states and cities have put their own rates in place, and most of them are poised to increase in the new year.

A total of 26 states have announced that higher minimum wages will be introduced during 2023, with one more state likely to see an adjustment in July, according to research from payroll experts at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S.

Meanwhile, 23 states and Washington, D.C., according to the Economic Policy Institute, will implement higher minimum wages on Jan. 1. Those increases, which will range from 23 cents to $1.50 per hour, will affect 8 million workers.

The state poised to provide the highest minimum pay rate is Washington, at $15.74 per hour, according to Wolters Kluwer.

Workers under the age of 16 in that state will be paid $13.38 per hour starting in 2023, or 85% of the adult minimum wage.

The minimum wage in Washington, D.C., will be $16.10 per hour.

Washington, D.C., and 13 states tie their minimum wages to the consumer price index, a government measure for the average change consumers pay for certain goods and services.

“There’s quite a few states across the country that will be seeing quite big jumps in the minimum wage because of the higher rate of inflation this past year,” said Deirdre Kennedy, senior payroll analyst at Wolters Kluwer.

Other states will continue to phase in increases passed through legislation. States that are not seeing minimum wage hikes in 2023 still tie their base pay to the $7.25 per hour federal rate.

President Joe Biden has campaigned to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. He signed an executive order in 2022 raising it to that level for federal workers and contractors.

But a broader change to $15 per hour nationally would have to be done through Congress. Efforts to raise the rate nationally failed to make it into Covid-19 relief legislation in 2021.

“As the gap between that and the federal minimum wage increases, it will be interesting to see if that can kind of spur more momentum for more states to increase their wages or try and get more momentum on the federal level,” said Kevin Werner, research associate at the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute.

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Raising the minimum wage nationally to $15 per hour would affect 56 million workers, according to an Urban Institute report released in September.

The research modeled possible results where a new $15 minimum wage resulted in either no job losses and two different scenarios where extended job losses occurred.

“Even in our highest job loss scenario, we still found that on average, the average worker was better off, and that poverty declined overall,” Werner said.

“Even though some individual people who lost their jobs may have been worse off, the net effect was still positive,” he said.

The majority of workers who would be affected by a $15 minimum wage are over the age of 25, according to Werner. About one-third are the sole income earners for their families.

Workers who depend on the minimum wage are also much more likely to be people of color and living in poverty. Consequently, raising the minimum pay nationally would help vulnerable people, Werner said.

Raising minimum wages can also help increase consumer demand and put money back into local economies, said Holly Sklar, CEO of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a national network of business organizations, owners and executives that support higher minimum wages.

“Putting needed raises in minimum wage workers’ pockets [is] really the most efficient way you can boost the economy,” Sklar said. “Those are the people who have to go right back around and spend it.”

With federal action to raise the minimum wage uncertain, some big name companies have already stepped up to raise their pay rates.

Costco has raised its minimum wage for U.S. store workers to $16 per hour, while Target, Amazon and Walmart have all moved to pay hourly workers $15 per hour.

As the economy has continued to open up following the Covid shutdown, competition for workers has prompted employers to offer higher wages and starting bonuses for workers on the lower end of the income spectrum, Werner noted.

“It’s giving low-income workers more leverage than they had before,” he said.