With June's arrival, we're racing toward the halfway mark of 2023 -- and valuations for growth stocks have also generally been racing higher. The growth-heavy Nasdaq Composite index has now climbed 25% year to date, but there are still top tech companies trading at levels that leave room for investors to see explosive gains over the long term.
In particular, many stocks that saw explosive engagement and demand gains during the height of the coronavirus pandemic continue to trade at substantial discounts compared to previous highs and stand out as worthwhile investments. Read on to see why buying these two growth stocks this month would be a smart move.
1. Roblox
Following its initial public offering in March 2021, Roblox (RBLX 3.83%) stock went on to hit a lifetime high of nearly $135 per share in November of that year as pandemic-related conditions helped the company record stellar engagement and bookings growth. But the metaverse leader's expansion momentum was halted as the economies reopened, and investors responded by dumping the highly growth-dependent stock.
Even after rallying roughly 44% across 2023's trading, Roblox stock remains down about 69% from its high. But while the company's share price remains far away from its peak, most of the business's key performance metrics are back to reaching new heights.
With 66.1 million daily active users (DAUs), Roblox grew its total DAU count by 22% year over year in the first quarter. Meanwhile, the addition of new users helped push total engagement hours on the company's platform up 23% to hit 14.5 billion hours.
After a string of quarters in which average bookings per user declined, the metric came in at the same level that it did in the prior-year period. Thanks to big engagement growth and consistent levels of per-user monetization, Roblox was able to grow bookings 23% year over year to hit $773.8 million.
With challenging performance comparisons and engagement headwinds now in the rearview mirror, Roblox has returned to serving up strong growth, but it still has a massive runway for expansion ahead. For growth investors looking for opportunities in gaming and the metaverse, the stock stands out as worthwhile portfolio addition at today's prices.
2. MercadoLibre
MercadoLibre (MELI 1.96%) is Latin America's leading e-commerce company and a top provider of payment-processing services. The company's stock is still down roughly 38% from its high despite the business consistently serving up great results.
While many e-commerce players saw relatively muted growth as they've lapped periods of pandemic-driven performance, MercadoLibre managed to continue increasing sales at a brisk pace. Revenue grew 58.5% year over year in the first quarter, hitting $3 billion in sales. The performance was driven by a 43.3% year-over-year increase in gross merchandise volume (GMV) on its online retail platform and a 96.1% increase in total payment volume (TPV) on its payments network.
With $340 million in operating income in Q1, the business posted an operating income margin of 11% -- pretty good for a company that derives most of its revenue from the heavily cost-intensive e-commerce industry. Meanwhile, net income for the period soared roughly 209% year over year to reach approximately $201 million, and the business is in a good position to continue growing profits.
Through its core growth engines, MercadoLibre positioned itself to benefit from the rise of online retail in Latin America and from an increasing portion of payments being made through digital channels. The company is also building advertising and lending businesses, positioning it to score additional wins on the foundations of its e-commerce platform and to facilitate and benefit from the growth of businesses that could also drive increased payment-processing demand.
MELI Market Cap data by YCharts
Even with shares trading at roughly 70 times this year's expected earnings, MercadoLibre stock still looks attractively valued given how fast the business is increasing its sales and profits. At a market cap of approximately $62 billion, the Latin American e-commerce and payments leader still has huge room for growth, and its stock stands out as an attractive buy-and-hold investment.
