We asked some of our top Fool.com contributors covering tech stocks to talk about the stocks that look like good buys to them now. Read on to see whether any of these stocks might fit in your portfolio.
Ashraf Eassa: NVIDIA (NVDA -3.33%) looks pretty interesting. I'm bullish on the stock due to both its stand-alone graphics chip business as well as its impressive capital return policy.
NVIDIA indicated at its most recent analyst day that 61% of its consumer-oriented gaming GPU revenue comes from only 26% of the units that it ships. This does mean that approximately 39% of the company's consumer-oriented graphics chip revenue is at risk from integrated graphics processors.
Nevertheless, the dynamic that looks to be playing out is that NVIDIA's high-value graphics processors aimed at gaming, professional workstations, and high-performance computing are growing quickly enough to more than offset the weakness in the mainstream PC space .
Further, NVIDIA's chief rival, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD -0.35%), has signaled that it will be even more aggressive in trying to gain share in NVIDIA's higher-value segments. However, NVIDIA's competitive positioning still appears to be strong, with the company's launch of its Maxwell architecture cementing its lead.
NVIDIA has, over the last couple of years, become much more shareholder-friendly. In particular, as fellow Fool Adam Levine-Weinberg pointed out back in February, NVIDIA returned over $1 billion to shareholders last year and plans to do so again this year.
All in all, NVIDIA is a solid technology company that, despite the challenges it faces in the low-end and mainstream portions of the PC market, should continue to thrive. It's my recommendation for October.
Steve Symington: I think now is the perfect time for opportunistic investors to buy Universal Display Corporation (OLED 1.65%). Shares of the OLED technologist still haven't recovered from their plunge on Sept. 9, when Apple surprisingly didn't confirm (or deny) that the upcoming Apple Watch will contain an OLED display. Instead, Apple opted to call it a "flexible Retina display," which led many investors to mistakenly assume it was an LCD.
I argued the following day, however, that all signs still point to an OLED display in the Apple watch. And then sources at Universal Display customer LG Display (LPL 1.00%) confirmed to Asian IT news site DigiTimes that the Apple Watch will contain its OLED displays, with shipments expected to reach approximately 5 million per month in 2015.
That said, the small screen size of the Apple Watch likely means it won't have a huge impact on Universal Display's material sales, which have largely been driven to date by small and mid-sized OLED displays in Samsung's popular Galaxy series devices. But merely having Apple on board represents a huge vote of confidence in Universal Display's flagship technology.
In the meantime, investors can look forward to the impending ramp of LG Display's gen-8 large-screen OLED TV manufacturing facility, with which it hopes to take advantage of an expected ten-fold increase in the young OLED TV market next year to roughly 1 million units. In the end, when all the pieces come together, Universal Display investors should be the primary beneficiaries.
Sean O'Reilly: If you're looking for a strong buy that takes advantage of emerging tech trends, then look no further than Invensense (INVN). Ever wonder how your cell phone knows when you hold it right side up or how images are stabilized on your camera? That's made possible by Invensense.
Not only is this a minor case of "buy what you know" but, as it stands, Invensense has the most advanced sensors out there. As we all know having the best product in technology is the name of the game and Invensense has that in spades. Not only is its No. 1 customer Samsung, the largest provider of handsets globally, but we recently learned that Invensense's six-axis sensor landed a spot in the iPhone 6, which set a record for Apple in its first weekend with 10 million units sold.
On a valuation basis, an investment in Invensense requires an optimistic perspective of the company's competitive position and shares trade for nearly seven times trailing-12-month sales. The 16 analysts that cover Invensense expect revenue for the FY ending March 2016 to rise 25% over this year's estimated $372 million. EPS are also expected to rise over 45% to $1.13 by March 2016.
All told, Invensense is definitely worth a closer look by Foolish investors this October after shares pulled back recently.
Dylan Lewis: After a couple of runs, online food ordering company GrubHub (GRUB) is roughly back to where it was after its IPO in April.
In June, Amazon announced plans to enter the take-out food service market. The initial roll-out is limited to the e-tailer's hometown of Seattle, and it should take time before it is able to compete with Grubhub's 30,000 participating location in 700 cities.
GrubHub is a growth stock that is buoyed by potential. The company recently announced an integration partnership with YP (Yellow Pages), the largest local ad platform in the U.S. GrubHub estimates that phone calls and paper menus still account for over 95% of domestic takeout orders. That presents massive growth potential, especially given the continued proliferation of mobile devices and consumers' increasing comfort in using them to make purchases.
Many were disappointed that its Q2 top-line growth came in at 2.3% over the previous quarter. I expect to see stronger results when GrubHub reports Q3 as company data show that takeout orders spike roughly 10% during professional football games.
Given the current price, the likelihood of strong Q3 earnings report, and the impact of the YP partnership, I think GRUB is a buy.
