The major market indexes may be near their recent all-time highs, but your portfolio might have missed the memo. There are a lot of stocks struggling outside of the bellwethers that are heavily weighted in the market gauges, and we're not just talking about small and obscure names.
Disney (DIS -1.92%), Twitter (TWTR), and Toast (TOST -1.17%) are all trading within 10% of their 52-week lows. They are market leaders, but investors just aren't feeling the love for the entertainment powerhouse, the social media kingmaker, and the toast of the town in restaurant tech. Let's see why these are three promising ideas for the next $5,000 you want to invest in the market.
Image source: Disney.
Disney
Disney's theme parks call themselves the happiest or merriest places on Earth, but shareholders aren't feeling the same way these days. The media maven's stock is less than 5% away from the 52-week low it hit earlier this month.
It's pretty surprising to see Disney as a market laggard this year. It's the dominant theme park operator and film studio on the planet, making it a clear beneficiary of the reopening of the economy in 2021. Unfortunately for shareholders, things are never as easy as they seem. Disney+ subscriber growth has slowed recently, and that's problematic since the platform for premium streaming video was the major reason for Disney climbing in 2020.
Disney near 52-week lows is still a sobering development. The theme parks continue to draw. The top movies this year are largely Disney's handiwork. Even its cruise lines are finally sailing again. The weight of the world may be on beleaguered CEO Bob Chapek's shoulders, but it's a small world after all.
Another shocking name skirting fresh lows is Twitter. The company behind the short-form social platform is in a funk, and even the initial 10% pop that the stock experienced after its CEO stepped down late last month proved fleeting. As of Thursday's close, Twitter is also now just 5% above the fresh low it hit two weeks ago.
The platform is working. Its daily active users have grown 13% over the past year to 211 million. Ad revenue is growing even faster, and that 41% surge is a testament to both Twitter's engagement and its ability to milk more money out of every user. New leadership should help it continue to evolve, and the recent rollout of premium features for those willing to pay a little to improve the experience should get Twitter moving in the right direction again before long.
Toast
Running a restaurant has changed dramatically just in the past couple of years, and Toast is the no-brainer cloud-based platform that keeps eateries on top of all of the trending revenue streams. It's a one-stop shop for restaurant needs. On the consumer-facing end, it helps process mobile ordering for take-out, manage incoming sales from third-party delivery services, and naturally serve as the point-of-sale for in-restaurant dining. It also helps run customer loyalty programs to keep regulars coming back.
Toast does even more on the enterprise end, tackling everything from payroll to inventory management. With chains and independent concepts emerging smarter out of the pandemic than they were before, the company simplifies the necessary functions of an eatery in the new normal.
Despite stellar growth -- revenue has soared 105% through the first nine months of this year -- the recent IPO hit an all-time low on Wednesday. It may be causing indigestion for investors who chased the new stock when it popped to double today's price by early November, but right now it feels more like a dinner bell.
