Wall Street analysts' favorite stocks for 2022 include Alaska Air, Caesars and Lithia Motors

General Motors, Salesforce and PayPal are among the 20 S&P 500 stocks that analysts both heavily favor and expect to rise to the most

Wall Street analysts on average expect the stock price of Caesars Entertainment to climb 48% over the next 12 months.

As the coronavirus pandemic has stretched out, investors have continued to pour money into stocks, in part because the alternatives have been dismal. Why bother with 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds that yield a paltry 1.52% when the S&P 500 index has a dividend yield of 1.30% to go along with its growth potential?

Things may change in 2022 as the Federal Reserve winds down its bond purchases that have kept long-term interest rates low. Then again, U.S. stocks have continued to rise since the Fed announced its policy changes on Dec. 15.

With U.S. bond yields already so much higher than they are in the rest of the developed world, foreign investors may continue to buy U.S. bonds and keep yields at historically low levels. And that might make for a continued flow of money into U.S. stocks.

Below are lists of stocks among the benchmark S&P 500 , the S&P 400 Mid Cap Index $(MID)$ and the S&P Small Cap 600 Index that are rated "buy" or the equivalent by at least three out of four of Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet that are expected to rise the most over the next year. Those lists are followed by a summary of analysts' opinions of all 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Large-cap favorites

Among the S&P 500, 93 stocks are rated a "buy" or the equivalent by at least 75% of analysts working for brokerage firms. Here are the 20 the analysts expect to rise the most over the next year, based on consensus price targets:

Alaska Air Group Inc. tops the list of analysts' favorite large-cap stocks for 2022. The shares were flat for 2021, as investors were understandably disappointed that the travel industry's recovery was stalled by new waves of coronavirus infections. Other travel and hospitality-related recovery plays on the list include Caesars Entertainment Inc.  and Southwest Airlines Co..

There are four oil-related stocks on the list, three of which rose significantly during 2021. West Texas Crude oil was up 59% for 2021 through Dec. 30 based on forward-month contracts, while the S&P 500 energy sector returned 54%.

Other stocks on the list that performed very well during 2021 and are expected to do so again in 2022 include Generac Holdings Inc., Bath & Body Works Inc. and General Motors Co..

Midcap stocks expected to show the biggest gains

The lists of "favorite" stocks are confined to those covered by at least five analysts. Among components of the S&P 400 Mid Cap Index, that leaves 92 stocks with at least 75% "buy" ratings. Here at the 20 expected to rise the most over the next year:

Small-cap favorites for 2022

Among the S&P Small Cap 600, 101 stocks covered by at least five analysts have at least 75% "buy" ratings. Analysts expect these 20 of the favored stocks to rise the most over the next 12 months:

All 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average

Here they are, ranked by how much analysts expect them to rise over the next year: