Next month, the iconic Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.55%) will celebrate its 126th "birthday." Since its debut in May 1896, the Dow Jones has evolved from a 12-stock index that was predominantly dominated by industrial companies into a 30-component index filled with a diverse group of profitable and time-tested businesses.
Although we often think of the Dow's components as slower-growing, mature businesses, these companies can still pack a punch and make patient investors a lot richer. As we steam forward into April, three Dow stocks stand out as screaming buys.
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Intel
The first Dow Jones Industrial Average component that's begging to be bought is semiconductor kingpin Intel (INTC 0.12%).
The two big knocks against Intel at the moment are that global supply chain issues are constraining its growth potential and that Advanced Micro Devices has been making market share gains in areas where Intel previously dominated. The good news here is that supply chain problems are a relatively short-term issue that isn't affecting demand, and there's more than enough runway for Intel and AMD to coexist and thrive in legacy segments and higher-growth opportunities.
To start with the basics, Intel is a highly cyclical company, which means it does well when the U.S. and global economy are expanding and struggles when growth slows or contracts. Even though recessions are an inevitable part of the economic cycle, there's a key difference between recessions and economic expansions. Whereas recessions are typically measured in months or quarters, periods of expansion usually last for many years. Patient investors buying Intel stock should receive the benefit of increased chip demand over time as the domestic and global economy grow.
Another reason to like Intel here is the incredible cash flow being funneled from the company's legacy segments into higher-growth initiatives. Last year, the Client Computing Group and Data Center Group accounted for over $66 billion in annual revenue. While growth in these segments tends to be modest, Intel's high margins and significant share of the personal-computing market continue to result in abundant cash flow.
Meanwhile, in 2021, Intel recognized $4 billion in annual sales from its Internet of Things group, which was a 33% improvement from the previous year. It also saw sales from autonomous vehicle company Mobileye, which makes driver-assist technology chips for next-generation vehicles, jump by 43% year-over-year to $1.4 billion. Mobileye recently announced plans to go public via an initial public offering.
Long story short, while Intel's growth might seem pedestrian now, the company is investing in all the right places and generating plenty of cash flow to take advantage of long-winded bull markets. A forward-year price-to-earnings ratio of 13, based on Wall Street's consensus profit forecast for 2023, is a bargain for a company that generated $30 billion in operating cash flow last year.
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Visa
Another Dow stock that's a screaming buy in April is payment-processor Visa (V 0.50%).
Like virtually all financial stocks, Visa is a cyclical company. This means, like Intel, Visa is going to ebb and flow with the U.S. and global economy. If aggressive action from the Federal Reserve does send the U.S. into a recession, consumers and businesses are likely to spend less, thereby hurting Visa's near-term sales and profit potential.
But there are other dots to connect here. As I noted earlier, periods of expansion are considerably longer than contractions, which should allow Visa to participate in the natural expansion of the U.S. and global economy over time. What's more, inflation can actually be a positive for Visa. Since consumers and businesses are spending more for the same amount of goods and services, Visa's payment-based operating model should see a healthy boost in revenue and profits.
Investors also shouldn't overlook Visa's pole position in the most lucrative market for consumption in the world: the United States. As of 2018, Visa controlled 53% of credit card network purchase volume in the U.S., which was over 30 percentage points above its next-closest competitor. In addition, its share of credit card network payment volume grew faster than any other payment processor's since the end of the Great Recession.
Something else of interest is that Visa strictly sticks to processing payments and doesn't lend money to consumers or businesses. Even though periods of economic expansion can last a long time, lending would eventually expose Visa to loan delinquencies. Since it doesn't lend, Visa isn't required to set aside capital to cover loan losses. This avoidance of lending is precisely why its profit margin is usually in excess of 50%.
Opportunistic investors can scoop up shares of Visa right now for roughly 27 times Wall Street's forward-year consensus earnings. By comparison, Visa has averaged a price-to-earnings ratio of closer to 38 over the past five years. With sustainable double-digit growth potential, Visa looks like a great deal.
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Walgreens Boots Alliance
The third Dow stock that looks like a screaming buy in April is pharmacy chain Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA 0.49%).
Last week, Walgreens announced its fiscal second-quarter operating results, which were received in a less-than-enthusiastic fashion by Wall Street. Walgreens' results pointed to slowing growth following an initial wave of COVID-19 vaccination-related foot traffic, with the company sticking by its fiscal 2022 forecast of "low-single digit [earnings] growth." While slowing growth is never ideal, what's far more important is that the company's multipoint strategy remains intact.
For example, Walgreens' multipoint growth strategy had the company initially targeting $2 billion in annual cost savings by the end of the current fiscal year. However, the company announced in October that it had achieved more than $2 billion in annual cost reductions a full year ahead of schedule. This cost-cutting should help alleviate any near-term margin pressure.
But while Walgreens execs were throttling down spending in certain areas, they've been depressing the accelerator in others. For instance, no expense has been spared when it comes to the company's digitization efforts. Even though its brick-and-mortar locations will continue to generate the lion's share of its sales, bolstering its online store and pickup options should lift the company's organic growth rate.
For a Walgreens Boots Alliance shareholder, the most exciting aspect of the company's strategy is its partnership with and majority investment in VillageMD. The two companies are running physician-staffed, full-service clinics at Walgreens stores. More than 100 of these clinics are already open, and the goal is at least 600 in over 30 U.S. markets by the end of 2025. Their ability to handle more than just vaccines and the common cold should encourage repeat visits to these clinics and help boost demand.
Among the Dow's 30 components, a case can be made that Walgreens Boots Alliance is the deepest-discount value stock of the bunch at under nine times Wall Street's forecast earnings for fiscal 2022. Add a 4.4% dividend yield and you have a moneymaking recipe for patient investors.
