Investors have already experienced years' worth of volatility in the past 10 months, but it seems the market isn't finished with its wild ride. As new cases of COVID-19 continue to surge -- both in the U.S. and abroad -- optimism regarding a swift economic recovery seems to be waning.
The outcome of the upcoming U.S. presidential election and all the uncertainty it brings could also have a negative impact on the stock market. Of course, there's no guarantee that another market crash will happen soon, but two stocks you should consider buying on the dip if it does -- or even if it doesn't -- are Abbott Laboratories (ABT 0.36%) and Netflix (NFLX -0.49%).
Find out why both companies are worth adding to your portfolio.
1. Abbott Laboratories
Abbott Laboratories has been resilient throughout the pandemic, which is somewhat surprising. The company specializes in developing medical devices, a business that was hit hard by the crisis, in part due to hospitals postponing elective and non-essential procedures. However, Abbott was able to navigate the downturn thanks to its COVID-19 diagnostic test kits.
While the coronavirus diagnostics market is less than a year old, it is already worth billions in revenue. According to Grand View Research, the segment will be worth $19.8 billion this year, and it will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.1% through 2027. The fact that we are witnessing a rise in new COVID-19 cases isn't good, but companies like Abbott Laboratories will benefit.
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Thanks to its work in the COVID-19 diagnostic market, the company should be able to offset some of the losses it will incur in its other segments. During its third quarter ending Sept. 30, Abbott recorded sales of $8.9 billion, 9.6% higher than the prior-year quarter. The company's diagnostics segment reported $2.6 billion in sales -- a 38.2% year-over-year increase -- largely thanks to its COVID-19-related products. Abbott Laboratories offers other growth prospects as well, especially within the diabetes segment.
The company's FreeStyle Libre is a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) that has had rapidly growing sales. During the third quarter, the company's diabetes care segment generated $843 million in sales, 26.9% higher than the year-ago period. This was driven by the FreeStyle Libre, which had sales for the quarter increase by 37.9% year over year. Abbott Laboratories is well-positioned to keep profiting from the growing CGM market, and thanks to its COVID-19 (and other) efforts, the healthcare stock will probably keep outperforming the market.
2. Netflix
Netflix's paid memberships soared earlier this year as governments worldwide imposed stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of the coronavirus. However, the company's pandemic-related boom seems to have come to a halt. During its third quarter ending Sept. 30, the tech giant added 2.2 million net paid subscribers, short of the 2.5 million it expected. This metric is often the most scrutinized by investors and analysts, and given that it came up short of expectations, it's no surprise that Netflix's stock dropped on the heels of its third-quarter earnings release.
But with a new surge in COVID-19 cases worldwide, the company could experience yet another boost. It seems likely that the pandemic won't end as soon as we had hoped. Will there be more stay at home orders? At this point, no one knows for sure, but even without government-imposed restrictions, people continue to spend more time at home than they did before the pandemic, which is good news for Netflix. But Netflix's prospects don't hinge on the pandemic dragging on.
Note that roughly 37.4% of the company's paid subscriptions are in North America, and there is still a large opportunity to tap into international markets. Netflix is well aware of this and plans on attracting more customers abroad. One way it is doing so is by producing original content in local languages.
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Netflix's content library has been instrumental to its success over the years. As the company seeks to reproduce that winning formula abroad, expect its subscriber growth to increasingly come from international markets. Should investors worry about the competition from other streaming platforms?
Last year, Netflix said it expected "modest headwinds" in the near term due to the launch of Disney's Disney+ and other platforms. But the company noted that customers are typically attracted to competing streaming services because of their unique content libraries.
In other words, these streaming platforms can coexist -- and even thrive -- at the same time. Netflix may have lost some clients because of the competition, but it will undoubtedly retain the bulk of its customer base. What's more, the company has proven it can continue to attract new subscribers despite these challenges. In short, Netflix's growth story is far from over, and adding shares of this top tech stock to your portfolio in a market crash would be a great move.
