Few investors get rich from the stock market overnight. As a long-term investor, you should be focusing on companies that can lend consistent and durable growth to your portfolio, rather than buying based on hype or trying to time the market.
All that being said, if you're searching for investments that can supercharge your portfolio over a period of years, you've come to the right place. We're going to take a look at two top stocks that have fallen from pandemic highs, but still have tremendous upside potential and are fantastic buys for patient long-term investors.
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1. Teladoc Health
Teladoc Health (TDOC -0.38%) is one of my all-time favorite healthcare stocks, and it's one I write about frequently. With shares trading down about 30% year to date, I recently seized the opportunity to invest in this high-quality stock at a discount. Regardless of what the naysayers might think about Teladoc, I still firmly believe that it has significant runway left to explore as it expands its footprint in the highly lucrative digital healthcare space.
I'm in good company. It's no secret that CEO of ARK Invest Cathie Wood loves a bargain, and Teladoc remains the second largest holding in her ARK Innovation ETF, an actively managed fund that has generated gains more than four times those of the S&P 500 over the past five years. And in the words of one of my other favorite investors, Warren Buffett, "Whether we're talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down."
Meanwhile, Wall Street thinks that Teladoc has potential upside of more than 100% over the next 12 months alone. This isn't at all surprising. When you consider that Teladoc remains one of the world's leading digital healthcare platforms, with a robust track record of sustained balance sheet gains, and plenty of growth opportunity left to tap into within the global telemedicine market, it's not a stretch to think a continuation of these trends could easily translate to substantial share price appreciation in the years ahead.
The telehealth market is growing at an astonishing rate, catalyzed by a massive spike in healthcare consumers utilizing these services during the pandemic. In July, McKinsey & Company released an updated version of a report it originally published in 2020 entitled "Telehealth: A quarter-trillion-dollar post-COVID-19 reality?"
The report found that not only has the use of telemedicine services risen to 38 times what it was before the pandemic, but that both patients and healthcare entities in general have a more positive view of telehealth solutions than they did prior to the pandemic.
A separate report published this month by Fortune Business Insights estimates that the global telehealth market will hit a valuation of more than $636 billion as soon as 2028, way up from its current valuation of about $91 billion.
Against this backdrop, Teladoc continues to consistently deliver exceptional financial performance. In the first half of 2021, the company grew its revenue by an incredible 127% from the year-ago stretch, while total visits on the platform jumped 40% year over year.
With services that span everything from primary care to mental healthcare to complex care, further boosted by the acquisitions of InTouch Health and Livongo last year, Teladoc's long-term growth potential both as a business and investment are far from limited to the pandemic. If you're looking to invest in more healthcare stocks this month, Teladoc is a super-smart pick to buy and hold in your basket for the long haul.
2. Zoom Video Communications
Another beaten-down stock that skyrocketed earlier in the pandemic, Zoom Video Communications (ZM 0.84%), is just as great an investment now as it was then. In fact, one could argue that with shares trading at a discount of about 20% year to date, even as the company continues to record quarter after quarter of astonishing growth, there's never been a better time to buy.
Zoom's status as the go-to platform solution for school, work, and socializing in the earlier days of the pandemic caught the attention of many an investor, and its stock reacted in kind. Now that we've entered a new stage of the pandemic with vaccines widely available in many parts of the world and more people returning to in-office work, the stock's recent dip indicates that some investors are unsure about Zoom's ability to sustain notable growth in the future. This seems short-sighted.
For one, remote work isn't going anywhere. In fact, recent data provided by Global Workplace Analytics estimates that more than half of workers in the U.S. alone have a job that pairs well with a remote environment, and that up to 30% of American workers will be working remotely at least part-time by the end of this year.
Of course, new trends in remote working aren't limited to the U.S. alone, and Zoom is available all over the world. A recent study by Owl Labs found that as many as 16% of the world's companies are already 100% remote.
The durable demand for Zoom's platform and services has also been consistently evident in its financial reports. In the most recent quarter, management said that the company's revenue jumped 54% and its net income popped 71% year over year. Zoom also reported that its base of customers with over 10 employees shot up by 36% from the year-ago quarter, while the number of customers that generated over $100,000 in trailing-12-month revenue jumped 131% year over year.
Zoom also keeps expanding the options available for platform users. In July, the company announced two major launches: Zoom Apps, which "seamlessly embeds third-party apps within the Zoom Meetings," and Zoom Events, "an all-in-one platform for creating a wide range of interactive and immersive virtual events."
As for the folks on Wall Street, they think Zoom could realize an upside as high as 58% over the next year. The short of it? Now looks like a great time to buy this high-growth software-as-a-service (SaaS) stock on sale and wait for the returns to pour in.
