The stock market as a whole isn't crashing, but some stocks certainly are. And some of the declines look to be over the top and exaggerated. For investors, that creates buying opportunities and being able to pick up some quality stocks at reduced prices.
Both Seagen (SGEN) and PayPal (PYPL 0.34%) have fallen sharply from their highs last year. However, neither business is broken, and they could be excellent growth stocks to hang on to for the long term. Here's why you may still want to consider adding them to your portfolio.
1. Seagen
Seagen is a business you can feel good to invest in, because it makes treatments to help fight cancer. So if it succeeds, that benefits the healthcare industry and society at large. Its top-selling drug is Adcetris for treating various kinds of lymphoma, and it also has a newly approved drug for cervical cancer. What's more, it has ongoing clinical trials for breast, bladder, and colorectal cancer.
The company's challenge, however, is that it is not profitable. Seagen has reported a net loss in each of its past four quarterly results. But revenue is looking better. For the last three months of 2021, net product revenue rose 26% year over year to $369.2 million. For the full year, it increased by 38% to $1.39 billion. And in 2022, the company expects that number to reach between $1.48 billion and $1.55 billion. At the midpoint, that would represent a year-over-year increase of 9%.
There is yet hope for profitability as the company generates gross margins of 80% or better. However, right now research and development expenses typically make up similar percentages of revenue as well. That's not necessarily a bad thing as investment in the business is needed for Seagen to grow.
In the long run, there could be much more growth on the horizon. One reason is that in September 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval for the company's cancer drug, Tivdak, to treat metastatic cervical cancer. At its peak, analysts believe the drug could bring in more than $1 billion in annual revenue.
Seagen will require some patience if you're waiting for the business to get out of the red. But its stock is trading right around its 52-week low, and that could make for a solid growth investment to just buy and hold for years.
Image source: Getty Images.
2. PayPal
Fintech company PayPal fell out of favor with investors this month after the company announced guidance that wasn't what analysts were seeking. Although the company's revenue of $6.92 billion for the latest period (ended Dec. 31) came in above the $6.87 billion analysts were expecting, it was the guidance that had them worried about what lies ahead for the business.
In 2022, the company projects that its revenue will rise between 15% to 17% while analysts are hoping for growth of around 17.9%. One of the headwinds that PayPal is facing is that online marketplace eBay is moving away from PayPal and instead using its own managed payments system.
It's such a significant impact on the business that on its investor update, PayPal separates out growth numbers that exclude eBay. In 2021, for instance, the company's revenue increased 18% year-over-year to $25.4 billion. But when factoring out eBay, the growth rate is actually a more impressive 29%. (That's because eBay represented a greater portion of PayPal's revenue in 2020 than in 2021.)
Although PayPal's business may have taken a hit as a result of the change at eBay, it still has many growth opportunities ahead. For example, the company launched a digital wallet last year through a new app that allows users to manage their finances. With it, they can also buy, sell, and hold crypto -- and that can be a significant growth catalyst, given the excitement around cryptocurrencies.
PayPal's business does not look to be in dire shape, and the steep sell-off of late looks to be a significant overreaction. The guidance miss was by less than a percentage point. And if investors are worried about the impact of eBay, that has already been priced into the stock.
Today, shares of PayPal trade at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 25 -- that's a downright bargain compared to rival fintech stock Block, which is at a forward P/E of 85.
