After a tumultuous year of volatile trading, many stocks have recovered somewhat in recent weeks. However, some promising technology stocks are still trading well below recent highs.
That's why investors currently can buy high-quality stocks on fire sale, even though they promise to deliver high returns during the downturn. Here are two well-oiled cash machines with high growth potential, trading at fantastic discounts. Both are great investment options if you have $1,000 of investable cash available.
Dropbox is learning new tricks
Data storage specialist Dropbox (DBX -0.38%) is having a rough year. Year-over-year revenue growth has slowed down from 19% in the fall of 2019 to 7.4% in November's third-quarter report. The stock is down 31% from the multiyear highs of September 2021, and there are reasons for the negative move.
At the same time, Dropbox's dark cloud has more than one silver lining. Shares are changing hands at the bargain-bin ratios of 11 times free cash flow or 13 times forward earnings. The stock looks quite affordable as long as there's any life at all in the underlying business.
I see plenty of vitality and long-term promise in this company. Dropbox has a healthy habit of exceeding expectations. The company beat Wall Street's consensus estimates across the board in at least the last 19 quarters. The average revenue surprise in the COVID-19 era was $4.5 million or 0.9%. On the bottom line, Dropbox's average report for the same period works out to a 14.1% outperformance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results, but that's a fantastic history of positive surprises.
And let's not forget about the quality of Dropbox's actual business.
Cloud-based data management services like Dropbox were thrust into the spotlight during the lockdown phase of the coronavirus crisis. Now everybody knows how to use online storage at home and at work, and Dropbox has become an integral part of the daily workflow for many teams.
The company is not content with resting on its laurels as it expands its reach into adjacent fields such as project management, secure document distribution, video messages, and backup systems. Dropbox is digging deep into the modern cloud computing toolbox, using machine learning and deep data analysis to give users a better file-storage experience.
There's much more to love about Dropbox. Sales growth may be slowing in this challenging economy, but that chart is still relentlessly moving upward. Free cash flow has nearly doubled in three years. The company generates about $2 of cash profits for every $1 of taxable operating income. And the CEO, Andrew Houston, is invested in the success of the business: He invented the original Dropbox service, founded the company, and is its largest individual shareholder, with a 2.6% personal stake in the company.
This is a great company going through some temporary macroeconomic challenges. It's a good idea to pick up some Dropbox shares while they're cheap.
8x8 is a work in progress with buyout potential
The next chart may look a little scary. Please do whatever it takes to make yourself comfortable before you go any further: Have a seat. Pour yourself a soothing beverage. Put some smooth jazz or ambient whale calls on your music player.
All right. Now I'm ready to explain why 8x8 (EGHT -2.11%) isn't as scary as its stock chart might suggest.
The cloud-based communications expert has absorbed a 75% price correction in 52 weeks. That's one of the sharpest price drops on the market, steeper than any of the components of the S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.46%) index. The company recently parted ways with CEO Dave Sipes, presumably due to the disappointing stock chart under his tenure.
I'll admit that it isn't ideal to invest in companies under an interim management team. However, 8x8 is a potential buyout target right now, as larger rival RingCentral (RNG -0.92%) reportedly has been kicking the tires of a logical plug-in acquisition target. The buyout rumors gain more substance from the deeply discounted share price, and Sipes wouldn't be the first CEO to be shown the door just before a game-changing business combination.
Whether RingCentral sends a buyout offer or not, 8x8 is getting its financial act together with solid top-line growth and a recent return to positive free cash flow:
EGHT Revenue (TTM) data by YCharts.
8x8 remains an award-winning provider of digital communications solutions on a path toward robust long-term business results. Meanwhile, the stock trades at just 12 times forward earnings and 11 times free cash flow, while top-line sales have soared higher at a five-year average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20%. In plain English, the company is growing much too fast to be priced this cheaply.
With or without a proper bid from RingCentral, you can't go wrong with 8x8's stock starting from this deeply discounted pricing level. You may want to keep a cup of chamomile tea within reach of that "buy" button, and you shouldn't bet the literal farm on 8x8 (or any single stock). A $1,000 investment would be a good start as long as you don't need that cash to pay the bills. I think it's worth taking on a little risk here, because the potential returns are enormous.
