We're heading into the seventh month of the year, so let's roll with that traditionally lucky number. Let's explore seven low-priced investments that all happen to trade for $7 or less.
Naturally there are plenty of risks when one dabbles in stocks with single-digit price tags, but that's also fertile soil for big winners when things go right. Let's take a closer look at Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI 1.44%), Telefonica (TEF 1.95%), Fitbit (FIT), Trivago (TRVG), Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (SKT 0.72%), Sogou (SOGO), and Zix (ZIXI).
Image source: Getty Images.
Sirius XM Holdings
One of the hottest stocks over the past 11 years is still trading under $7, but that is largely because it bottomed out at a nickel -- yes, $0.05 -- in the springtime of 2009, when it was on the brink of bankruptcy. It's been smooth sailing for the satellite radio provider since hitting rock bottom, as the stock has delivered positive returns in each of the past 11 years.
The stock is trading lower in 2020. A sharp drop in new car sales is slowing the pipeline of new subscribers, and folks working from home or unemployed are eating into its core audience of weekday commuters. However, Sirius XM's been beefing up its streaming offerings since its Pandora purchase, and it's making its newer radios more interactive.
Telefonica
Let's travel to Spain for our next entry. Telefonica is a telco giant in markets outside its home turf, even though it entered 2020 with 10 consecutive quarters of growth in Spain. Telefonica has a strong presence across Europe and Latin America, and the latter has been a drag given the geopolitical risks in the area.
Total revenue has dipped slightly in each of the past four years, but Telefonica's juicy 9.5% is going to rightfully turn heads. Telefonica is good for the money with its single-digit forward earnings multiple, and we're still in the early innings of the 5G game that will ultimately prove lucrative for established wireless providers.
Fitbit
It seems it was ages ago that Alphabet's (GOOG 0.71%) (GOOGL 0.77%) Google struck a $2.1 billion deal to acquire Fitbit. The purchase of the fitness wearables pioneer will cash out Fitbit investors at $7.35 a share, giving the stock 16% of upside if it closes in the next few months as the two companies initially expected.
The stock has been slipping lately, likely on concerns that regulatory agencies may nix the deal. Fitbit would take a hit under that scenario, but don't underestimate the cushion here. Fitbit's net cash position of $338 million finds it fetching an enterprise value of less than $1.4 billion. Alphabet would also be cutting Fitbit a check for $250 million as a termination fee if the combination fails to happen. Fitbit's product line of fitness trackers and smartwatches has slipped in popularity lately, but it has a strong enough brand to turn things around if it was a swinging single again.
Trivago
I get that travel portals have the cooties these days, but let's unpack the value in Trivago. The Germany-based online platform for hotels and other lodging options has seen its stock shed more than half of its value over the past year. It has plummeted a brutal 92% since peaking three summers ago.
Its latest quarter was an understandable disaster. Revenue plunged 33%, with its biggest slides coming in Asian and European markets where the COVID-19 pandemic struck first. The encouraging takeaway from this is that those markets are doing a better job of recovering than the U.S. right now. Developed Europe has always been Trivago's largest market, and the Americas accounted for just 37% of its business in 2019. In short, Trivago is better suited to bounce back than stateside platforms. It also helps that Trivago has control of its costs as it can choose which markets to prioritize when it comes to ad spending.
Tanger Factory Outlet Centers
Running a mall is almost as painful as operating an online travel platform, but if you're going to make a bet on physical retail, you may as well go for this operator of 39 different factory outlet centers that in merrier times would attract more than 181 million visitors a year.
The allure of Tanger is that its risk is spread across 510 different brand-name companies that have set up shop inside Tanger's upscale factory outlet centers. With the economy in a funk, it's a smart bet that most of the physical retail action will come to the factory outlets. Tanger shares got a boost earlier this month, when it announced that stores open for at least a month at its reopened outlet centers were already at 90% their prior traffic levels.
Sogou
China's second largest search engine is a distant silver medalist, commanding 18% of the market versus the 65% slice carved out by the industry leader. However, when you're playing in the world's most populous nation, even being that far back is still a potent place to be.
Sogou is in a funk right now. COVID-19 has cooled Chinese advertisers from spending on leads, and that finds Sogou posting a mere 2% increase in revenue for its latest quarter as it guides to an 8% to 14% top-line decline for the current period. There are risks when it comes to investing in international stocks, but you can't keep China's online search engines down for long. Sogou will bounce back, and the ceiling is high here if things go well.
Zix
It's fair to say that email cybersecurity is more important than ever now with more people working from home, but don't take the 79% year-over-year surge in revenue for Zix's latest quarter at face value. Last year's acquisition of AppRiver is inflating results, though organic growth is still clocking in at a healthy 15%.
The bad news here is that Zix did lower it top-line guidance for the entire year. It sees revenue clocking in between $210 million and $217 million this year, or 9% to 13% in organic growth. However, the $0.56 to $0.58 that it continues to target in adjusted earnings per share means that Zix is trading at just 11 times this year's adjusted profit.
