Since the Great Recession ended, growth stocks have handily outperformed value stocks thanks to historically low lending rates that have facilitated borrowing and business expansion. But that could be about to change.
Last year brought with it two stock market corrections, of which the ongoing correction is the steepest we've witnessed in about a decade. With Wall Street and investors clearly concerned about the near-term direction of the economy, more focus is probably going to be paid to "value" in 2019. And, just in case you'd forgotten, a Bank of America/Merrill Lynch report found that value stocks pretty sizably outperformed growth stocks over a 90-year stretch between 1926 and 2016.
As you can imagine, value stocks can be found in every sector of the stock market. But not every value stock is obvious. Many are in fact going unnoticed by Wall Street and investors. If you're looking for deep discounts in 2019, then perhaps one or more of these under-the-radar value stocks is perfect for you.
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Innoviva
There's a pretty good chance that you've never heard the name Innoviva (INVA -1.09%) before, but that shouldn't stop healthcare investors from digging into this incredibly cheap company that's valued at just over eight times its 2019 consensus earnings per share (EPS).
Innoviva is the partner that helped to develop the next generation of long-lasting COPD and asthma inhalers that GlaxoSmithKline brought to market. These include the duo's most successful launches, Breo Eliipta and Anoro Ellipta, as well as the newer Trelegy Ellipta.
Initially, these long-lasting medicines struggled to find insurance coverage, and had difficulty penetrating a market that had a number of well-known COPD and asthma medicines with long track records. Although it took years of marketing and physician re-education, Breo has generated $960 million in sales through the first nine months of 2018, with Anoro chipping in $422 million through September. Year-over-year sales growth for Breo and Anoro has totaled 11% and 48%, respectively, through Q3.
As a royalty partner, Innoviva receives a percentage of sales, which through the third quarter equaled $181.1 million. Since Innoviva has no research and development ongoing (and therefore incredibly low operating expenses), it's able to simply sit back and count its high-margin royalty revenue. With Innoviva working hard to repay debt that it took on in 2014, and on track for more than $2 in EPS in 2019, this under-the-radar value stock could be worth a look.
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Allegiant Travel
Generally speaking, the airline industry is one to avoid over the long run, but it's hard to ignore the value that discount airline Allegiant Travel (ALGT -3.02%) brings to the table at eight times next year's EPS, and with a PEG ratio below 0.7.
Allegiant has lost more than half of its value since the midpoint of 2015 as a result of lower crude oil prices. Scratching your head as to how that makes sense? The gist is that Allegiant's key competitive advantage is its ability to undercut major airlines on ticket price. But with crude prices remaining relatively low for years, major players were able go toe-to-toe with Allegiant and its bare-bones fare peers.
However, things are changing in a big way. Allegiant has upgraded to an all-new Airbus fleet. The company previously had one of the oldest fleets in the skies, which certainly helped with plane acquisition costs, but was a killer on the fuel-efficiency front. Although it's had some higher expenses in recent years that've weighed on the company's bottom line as the result of this decision, its fleet is significantly more fuel efficient now and therefore able to give this discount airline its competitive edge over the major airlines once again.
Allegiant's efforts to reward its shareholders aren't unnoticed, either. Share repurchases, along with a $0.70-per-quarter dividend, have provided some stability in an otherwise volatile industry. The sky remains the limit for this profitable airline.
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ANI Pharmaceuticals
Not to focus on drugmakers, but there are quite a few under-the-radar bargains with single-digit forward P/E ratios and double-digit sales growth potential. Minnesota-based ANI Pharmaceuticals (ANIP -0.81%), which develops generic and branded medicines, happens to be one of them.
The past year has been very unkind to ANI Pharmaceuticals, with its stock losing a third of its value. Interestingly, you won't find anything among ANI's press releases that merits this decline. Instead, it's likely the result of weaker investor sentiment that comes with a falling stock market, and generic-drug price weakness for all generic-drug makers in 2018.
However, it's unlikely that this generic-drug pricing weakness lasts long, or that it affects ANI's growth potential. This is a company that had just 10 commercial products on pharmacy shelves in 2014 and was generating $56 million in sales. As of the end of September 2018, ANI had 42 products on pharmacy shelves (31 of which were generic) and was on pace for approximately $200 million in sales. Per Wall Street, ANI's consensus estimate is close $300 million in sales by 2021.
How can such incredible growth (and the company's sub-nine forward P/E) go unnoticed? Well, that's because ANI tends to acquire and recommercialize previously approved medicines, rather than develop new therapies in-house, like most drug companies. This suggests Wall Street is overlooking the product diversity and low-cost nature of ANI's approach, and is the perfect reason why you shouldn't.
Check out the latest Allegiant Travel and ANI Pharmaceuticals earnings call transcripts.
