Buying a quality growth stock on a dip can be a great way to position yourself for some excellent profits. While it may be difficult to invest in something that is falling in value, if a business remains in good shape, then it only becomes a better buy as its price temporarily goes lower.
Three stocks that find themselves near their 52-week lows today are Seagen (SGEN), Beyond Meat (BYND -0.47%), and Snowflake (SNOW -0.26%). Covering healthcare, plant-based products, and technology, together they can help diversify your portfolio. Here's why they are all are great buys, despite their recent struggles.
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1. Seagen
Shares of Seagen are down more than 20% year to date, while the S&P 500 has risen by 12%. At the start of 2021 investors were paying a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of more than 50 for the healthcare company, while today that ratio has fallen to less than 40. Rising concerns surrounding high valuations have likely played a role in Seagen's decline in recent months; the average stock in the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund only trades at 27 times its earnings.
However, the business itself remains solid. Seagen, a company that makes cancer-fighting drugs, has continued to post impressive numbers. On April 29 it released its first-quarter results for fiscal 2021, for the period ending March 31. Revenue of $332 million represented an increase of 42% year over year, and the company's net loss shrank from $168.4 million to $121.4 million.
Last year Seagen finished with $2.2 billion in revenue, for an increase of around 140% from 2019. One of the reasons for the strong showing was that the company received an upfront payment from Merck for $725 million in license revenue related to collaborations on two breast cancer drugs, Ladiratuzumab and Tukysa. The boost helped the company post a profit -- in each of the previous four years, its net losses were over $100 million.
With Seagen still posting impressive year-over-year sales growth and its business proving to be resilient amid the pandemic, buying shares of the stock could be a great move today. It is near its 52-week low of $133.20 -- the last time it was trading this low was April 2020.
2. Beyond Meat
Beyond has been struggling with rising competition and poor sales numbers due to restaurant shutdowns and COVID-19 restrictions. The company released its latest results on May 6, and for the quarter ending April 3 its net revenue of $108.2 million represented growth of 11.4% from the prior-year period. And in the period before that, sales were up by just 3.5% year over year. For all of 2020, however, the top line came in at $406.8 million, which was a 37% increase from the previous year and would have been even stronger if not for low demand due to the pandemic.
The food stock has fallen 12% in 2021 as investors have been unhappy with these less-than-impressive numbers. To make matters worse, Tyson Foods recently announced it was launching a vegan burger and other meat-alternative products that will compete head-on with Beyond. However, it would be premature to say that Tyson's new line of products will hurt Beyond's market share, as it will ultimately come down to taste and how well consumers like the products. Beyond also has a global partnership with McDonald's to be the fast food chain's preferred supplier for its new McPlant burger.
Beyond should get a boost from the McDonald's partnership plus the reopening of restaurants this year, which could make it an underrated buy right now. Near its 52-week low of $106.91, the last time the stock was this low was about a year ago. Although its price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 16.5 looks high compared to Tyson (which trades at a multiple of less than one), the potential long-term revenue growth for Beyond and its disruptive products are what makes it an attractive investment; analysts from ResearchAndMarkets project that the global plant-based meat industry will be worth $14.9 billion by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 15% until then. Although Tyson has entered the space, there's no guarantee its products will be nearly as popular as Beyond's.
3. Snowflake
Shares of Snowflake have declined by more than 28% in 2021, the worst performance of the stocks on this list. Like Seagen, the catalyst for the dropping share price may have more to do with the company's overall valuation than the strength of its business. In February, investors were paying a multiple of more than 130 times revenue for shares of Snowflake. Even today, the P/S ratio sits at more than 90. By comparison, top tech stock Adobe trades at just 17 times its revenue.
But one of the reasons investors may be willing to overlook that is just how strong Snowflake's revenue numbers have been. For the three-month period ending Jan. 31 which closed out its 2021 fiscal year, the data company's product revenue totaled $178.3 million and rose 116% year over year. For the full fiscal year it totaled $553.8 million and represented similar growth of around 120%.
In February the company also announced it was partnering with healthcare data integration business Abacus Insights, which should create even more opportunities for Snowflake down the road. Reaching more business bodes well for the company, as a recent survey found that all of Snowflake's customers would recommend it to other organizations. This is the fourth year in a row the report indicates such high levels of customer satisfaction.
Although Snowflake's valuation isn't cheap, the stock recently hit a new low, and is now even lower than when it first began trading in September 2020 at a price of $245. If you're bullish on cloud-based businesses, Snowflake could make for an excellent investment.
