Though a 7.5% sell-off of the S&P 500 year to date may not exactly sound like a market crash, there are certainly some parts of the market that have been hit particularly hard recently. Namely, many growth stocks have been crushed. Netflix, Roku, and Zoom Video Communications are all good examples of tocks that have taken especially big hits. The three stocks have slid 35%, 33%, and 19%, year to date, respectively.
Of course, these are not the times to be net sellers of stocks. On the contrary, when things go on sale investors should be on the lookout for buying opportunities. As famed investor Warren Buffett has said, "Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful."
Here are two stocks that are beginning to look especially attractive.
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Amazon
Shares of Amazon (AMZN +1.32%) have slid 14% year to date. Though the company's decelerating revenue growth may concern some investors, there's a good explanation for it. The company has been up against some incredibly tough year-ago comparisons. Furthermore, there was undoubtedly some pent-up demand for e-commerce offerings when global COVID-19 lockdowns were more prevalent. Some cooling off is totally normal.
The stock's price-to-earnings ratio of 56 may seem expensive. But here's what investors should keep in mind. Earnings are likely to grow rapidly in the coming years because Amazon is poised to benefit from margin expansion, as it has over the last few years. The company's business model has proven to have significant operating leverage thanks to economies of scale. To this end, the consensus analyst forecast currently calls for Amazon's earnings per share to grow at an average annualized rate of 36% over the next five years. Growth like this would easily justify the stock's current valuation.
Apple
Apple's (AAPL +1.02%) shares have fallen 8% year to date, giving investors a great opportunity to buy one of the highest-quality tech companies in the world. Even in the face of supply shortages in the company's most recently reported quarter, revenue grew 29% year over year during the period.
"Our record September quarter results capped off a remarkable fiscal year of strong double-digit growth, during which we set new revenue records in all of our geographic segments and product categories in spite of continued uncertainty in the macro environment," said Apple CFO Luca Maestri in the company's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings release. "The combination of our record sales performance, unmatched customer loyalty, and strength of our ecosystem drove our active installed base of devices to a new all-time high."
On top of all of this, the company was able to return $24 billion to shareholders during the 3-month period. About $4 billion of this sum was dividends. The other $20 billion was represented in share repurchases.
If you have a hard time justifying Apple's $2.7 trillion market capitalization, take a look at the company's cash flow statement. Apple raked in about $93 billion in free cash flow in fiscal 2021 alone.
Sure, Apple's growth will likely slow from its current blistering pace. But its conservative valuation today seems to already price in this deceleration.
Investors will get updates on both companies' recent financial performance soon. Apple reports results for its first quarter of fiscal 2022 on Thursday, Jan. 27. Amazon's fourth-quarter earnings report is on Thursday, Feb. 3.
