3 High-Growth Stocks That Are Screaming Value Plays
Since the end of the Great Recession, growth stocks have shone brightly. Although value stocks have been the better ultra-long-term buy, historically low lending rates over the past 12 years have allowed growth stocks to aggressively borrow at cheap rates in order to hire, innovate, expand, and acquire. This probably won't change anytime soon.
As you can imagine, Wall Street and investors have been willing to pay a pretty penny for this growth. Electric-vehicle manufacturers are valued at nosebleed valuations relative to their sales, while most cloud companies sport a multiple north of 20 relative to their forward-year sales.
But not all high-growth companies have sky-high valuations, at least in a relative sense. The following three companies all offer sustainable double-digit topline growth, yet are fundamentally cheaper than they've been in years (or perhaps ever). In other words, they're
Social media kingpin Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) has faced a number of near-term challenges. The company generates 99% of its revenue from advertising, so the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic shutdowns weren't good news. Further, it faced backlash during the summer over its ad- and content-vetting processes. Nevertheless, it continues to grow by a double-digit percentage, has multiple catalysts on the horizon, and looks cheaper than it's ever been relative to its cash flow.
Facebook ended September with 2.74 billion people visiting its namesake website at least once each month. If you add unique visitors for its other owned assets, it had
We're also talking about a company that
Facebook is almost certain to
The point is, Facebook is currently trading at a little north of 21 times its cash flow, which is just a hair below its five-year average multiple of almost 23 times cash flow. By 2024, Facebook's cash flow per share will have more than doubled from 2020, placing it at a multiple of about 11 times cash flow. That would be historically low. That's why Facebook represents a screaming value in the tech space.
salesforce.com
Speaking of
Without going too far into the weeds, CRM software is a
Much like Facebook dominates the social media space, salesforce is the global share leader of cloud-based CRM solutions. Data from Gartner showed that salesforce
Salesforce also recently announced its largest acquisition in history: a
At the moment, investors can scoop up shares of salesforce for a multiple of 7.8 times forward-year sales. The last time salesforce ended a year with a sales multiple under 8 was 2017 -- and it's only gone on to more than double in value since then.
Amazon
Be honest: Did you ever think you'd see Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and "screaming value play" in the same sentence? The idea might sound completely ludicrous, but I'll show you that Amazon, like Facebook, is about as cheap as it's ever been.
Most folks are familiar with Amazon for its leading online marketplace. Depending on your preferred source, Amazon is expected to control between 39% and 44% of all online sales in the U.S. in 2021. Conservatively, that's
Amazon's overwhelming e-commerce success has allowed the company to
An even more impressive growth driver for the company is cloud infrastructure segment Amazon Web Services (AWS). Because cloud margins are superior to retail margins, AWS' rapid growth is the key to Amazon's skyrocketing cash flow. Between 2019 and 2023,
Amazon is a screaming value because of its multiple relative to cash flow. Every year between 2010 and 2019, Amazon ended at an aggressive multiple of 23 to 37 times cash flow. If Wall Street's estimate for 2023 holds true, Amazon would be valued at a cash flow multiple of under 14. That would incredibly inexpensive for a company as transformational as Amazon.
10 stocks we like better than Facebook
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