Even with the economy in a precarious position and the stock market off its highs, plenty of businesses are still executing at a high level. Despite this, they remain well off their all-time highs and are primed to provide investors solid returns over a long-term holding period (three to five years).

Here are some stocks I believe are primed to have a strong run.

Alphabet

Even though Alphabet (GOOG -0.04%) (GOOGL 0.01%) is the third-largest stock on the U.S. exchange, I believe it is a great bargain. The stock has experienced a sell-off due to its heavy exposure to the advertisement industry, which is notoriously weak during recessions. However, this pessimism is a great opportunity to get into a stock that owns dominant brands like the Google search engine, the Android operating system, and YouTube.

Despite a challenging environment, Alphabet still managed to grow its revenue by 13% year over year (YOY), although its operating margin slipped from 31% last year to 28%. Alphabet still produced $12.6 billion in free cash flow, giving it plenty of resources to execute its ambitious buyback plan (Alphabet repurchased $15.2 billion in shares during the second quarter).

Alphabet trades at just under 22 times earnings, but keep in mind this is with reduced profitability. When the economy recovers, Alphabet's revenue will rise rapidly due to the advertisement spending influx, which will cause profits to soar. This profit rise will trigger a stock run-up, and investors will be glad they purchased the stock now when the outlook wasn't so bright.

PayPal

PayPal (PYPL 0.24%) has had a rough year. Since peaking in July 2021, the stock has lost 65% of its value. While part of this sell-off was deserved due to over-projecting user growth and mediocre financial results, it's been well overdone.

In Q2, PayPal's total payment volume (TPV) rose 9% YOY to $340 billion, and its free cash flow rose 22% YOY. While this isn't "knock your socks off" growth, it's still impressive for consumers attempting to control spending during a difficult inflationary environment.

Furthermore, its payment transactions per active account rose 16% YOY to 48.7, meaning customers are using its products more often. PayPal was left for dead by many investors, but its recent results show it's still a fintech force to be reckoned with. With a reasonable valuation of 21 times free cash flow, I wouldn't be surprised if PayPal's stock sees a nice boost when the economy recovers.

PubMatic

As mentioned earlier with Alphabet, advertising revenue wasn't easy to come by. However, businesses involved with ad tech excelled. This dichotomy makes sense as advertisers want to ensure that their ads reach their intended audiences. PubMatic (PUBM 1.62%) operates in this space and works with ad suppliers to get their inventory to ad buyers.

PubMatic delivered great Q2 results, with revenue rising 27% YOY to $63 million. Additionally, it posted a 12% net income margin, but this number was down from last year's Q2. Still, PubMatic trades at a relatively cheap 20.4 times earnings despite its small size and huge runway.

With its connected TV division growing 150% YOY in Q2 and PubMatic only owning about 3% to 4% of the industry market share, PubMatic has a substantial upside and will see its business boom when advertising spending ramps up.

Datadog

Datadog's (DDOG 0.74%) software helps IT teams monitor how their cloud computing operations are functioning. With companies becoming more integrated with the cloud, Datadog's software has become indispensable.

This necessity drove Q2 results, with revenue growing 74% YOY and third-quarter revenue projected to grow 34%. However, analysts wanted stronger guidance, which caused the stock to fall on the news.

What was overlooked was the tremendous customer growth (54% growth in customers spending $100,000 or more) and the free cash flow ($60.2 million) Datadog produced. These results show a strong future for Datadog, even though analysts focused more on the short term. With the market not appreciating Datadog's successful quarter, this stock seems primed for a rapid increase.