The market's starting to swing something fierce this summer, but volatility can also be a dinner bell for opportunistic investors. There are a lot of stocks on the move in August, so let's take a look at some of the names that could be moving higher soon.
Baidu (BIDU 0.72%), Roku (ROKU 1.58%), and Uber (UBER -0.07%) are some of the companies positioned nicely to appreciate in the weeks ahead. All three growth stocks will be reporting financial results later this month, and the ceiling is high if they impress the market.
Baidu
China's leading search engine has fallen out of favor, and many will argue that the slide has been well earned by the former market darling. Growth has slowed to a crawl at Baidu, and its earlier guidance calls for revenue from continuing operations to climb a mere 1% to 6% for the second quarter that it will announce in two weeks.
The slowing economy in China has cooled advertising budgets, and Baidu's long-term bets in video streaming and self-driving cars are weighing down the bottom line. Monday's sell-off pushed the shares into the single digits for the first time in six years. The stock is clearly depressed, but that also means expectations for the Aug. 19 report are bleak. Any whiff that things are turning around for its flagship online advertising business or that any of its other initiatives are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel should get the stock moving again in the right direction.
Roku
Roku is at the other end of the momentum game. The stock has more than tripled in 2019, and that naturally means that expectations are high as we approach Wednesday's quarter report. The company behind the fast-growing video streaming platform isn't sweating. It has routinely smoked expectations.
The pioneer of video streaming was a plodding player putting out low-margin devices, but everything changed the moment its operating system started gaining traction with smart-TV manufacturers. Roku is now the platform of choice for a growing number of smart TVs, opening up new revenue streams for Roku to cash in as it generates video ad revenue and collects royalties from streaming service providers that folks sign up for through its platform.
There are now 29.1 million accounts leaning on Roku to fuel their streaming video sessions, 40% more than it had a year earlier. The actual business is growing even faster, as increasing engagement is creating a surge in average revenue per user.
Image source: Uber.
Uber
The world's leading ride-hailing service went public at $45 three months ago, and it has struggled to stay above that mark in its brief exchange-listed tenure. It remains a broken IPO as we head into Thursday's financial report.
Growth has been slowing at Uber, and losses are substantial. It isn't easy keeping drivers incentivized without pricing out potential passengers, and Uber is taking the near-term hit as it grows its fleet of available rides worldwide. Bears will argue that the model may never scale to the point where it reaches profitability, but never underestimate the ability of an industry-leading disruptor to shift gears and find new ways to capitalize on the personal mobility revolution. Thursday's second-quarter report doesn't have to be great for the stock to finally reward Uber's early investors, and that's the kind of pessimism that fuels stock rallies and short squeezes.
