Over the past few weeks, many stocks have been falling in price. And while the temptation might be to scoop up shares right now, in some cases, you could be better off waiting. There are a couple of stocks that have gotten my attention of late and look like promising buys, but I know they could soon become even cheaper: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN +0.20%) and Beyond Meat (BYND +4.42%).
In just the past month, they're down more than 4%. And although that sounds like a nice buying opportunity, you still might want to hold off, as both of them could become better buys next month.
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1. Regeneron
Biotech company Regeneron has been posting strong results this year, with its top line getting a boost from its COVID-19 treatment REGEN-COV. In the second quarter of 2021 (the fiscal period ending June 30), revenue of $5.1 billion was up an incredible 163% year over year. But once you strip out the revenue related to COVID, the growth rate falls to 22%, which is still solid, but not nearly as incredible.
Trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of less than 10, Regeneron is a cheap option for growth investors (the average healthcare stock in the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund trades at more than 27 times its earnings).
But the reason I anticipate that Regeneron's stock, which has fallen 14% in just the past month (while the S&P 500 is down just 2%), could become even cheaper is that the company's third-quarter earnings report is due to come out next month.
On its second-quarter earnings call, management hinted that it might not get a strong boost from its COVID treatment anymore. Chief financial officer Robert Landry said: "We anticipate the current U.S. government supply will be exhausted by the end of the year. We do not expect to record substantial additional sales this year in the U.S. unless the number of cases and related utilization continue to increase exponentially."
Plus, with healthcare company Merck looking for the green light from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its COVID pill, patients with the illness could soon have another option. That would likely mean even less demand for Regeneron's antibody cocktail. With a potentially less impressive result next quarter along with guidance that may underwhelm (in light of the COVID pill), I wouldn't be surprised to see Regeneron's stock fall next month.
However, the company still has a solid business, and its top-selling product, eye treatment Eylea, generated sales growth of 33% last quarter. Regeneron has also consistently posted profit margins of at least 20% in each of the past four years.
A drop in price may simply make the stock an even better buy than it is now.
2. Beyond Meat
Beyond Meat has fallen 4.75% over the past month and it, too, reports earnings in November. But things could get worse as institutional brokerage Piper Sandler recently downgraded shares of the food company, lowering its price target from $120 to just $95 on concerns that the meat-substitute maker could miss expectations when it posts earnings next month.
And given the stock's track record following earnings, it wouldn't be a huge surprise if shares of Beyond Meat were to fall after it releases its results:
BYND data by YCharts. E = Earnings Report
Given lingering concerns about COVID and the delta variant, it's certainly possible that things aren't going as well as they otherwise might for Beyond Meat. But at least things appear to be moving in the right direction. In the company's most recent earnings report (for the second quarter ending July 3), Beyond showed signs of recovery. Sales of $149.4 million grew 32% year over year compared to a year-over-year growth rate of just 11% a quarter earlier. Its net loss of $19.7 million in Q2 also shrunk from the $27.3 million loss Beyond incurred three months earlier. The stock is trading near its 52-week low, but if it doesn't continue to show improvement and falls short of expectations when it reports its third-quarter numbers, that could make this already discounted stock an even better buy in the not-too-distant future.
However, I still like Beyond Meat over the long term. With the company securing a deal with McDonald's to supply the patty in the fast-food chain's McPlant burger and its recent rollout of meatless chicken tenders, there's plenty of growth out there for the business, especially once COVID is fully behind us.
It could take a while, but Beyond Meat is a solid growth stock to bet on when that happens. And buying it at a low would position investors for some strong returns in the long run.
