The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 0.71%) market index is down 20% year-to-date, nearly doubling the S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.16%) market tracker's 12% price drop.
As a result, some of the most expensive tech stocks of yesteryear are on fire sale in 2022. And while a few of them really deserved a radical haircut, others haven't done anything wrong and investors should consider buying them at today's modest share prices.
On that note, here are three tech stocks that look like fantastic buys right now. Will they fit your portfolio, too? Let's have a look.
NASDAQ: INTC
Key Data Points
Intel: A sleeping giant
Semiconductor giant Intel (INTC 6.79%) has been on the ropes in recent years. Management scandals and manufacturing mishaps provided an opening for smaller chip companies such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 2.27%) to chip away at Intel's dominant market share, especially in the lucrative data center market. If you sold your Intel shares in the last five years, I understand you.
But you can't keep this technology titan down for long. Intel is investing heavily in expanded and improved chip-making facilities, including a $30 billion expansion of its fabs in Chandler, Arizona. The company is many times larger than AMD or Nvidia, and eager to turns its unequaled capital reserves into a real-world business advantage again.
Meanwhile, Intel's stock is trading at five-year lows at a deeply discounted valuation of 7.5 times earnings or 9.5 times free cash flows. These metrics stand far below their 5-year averages of 13 and 16, respectively.
The stock also offers a generous dividend yield of 4.3%, among the highest yields in company history. I recommend locking in those tremendous effective dividend yields while Intel's share prices are low.
INTC Dividend Yield data by YCharts
NYSE: NOK
Key Data Points
Nokia: Don't call it a comeback
... because Nokia (NOK 5.39%) has been here for years. It just looks a bit different from what you're used to.
The Finnish telecom equipment giant has changed a lot in recent years. Smartphones are just a hobby for Nokia nowadays as the company focuses on the network providers' side of the mobile networking equation. As a global leader in that space, Nokia is a preferred provider of 5G network equipment in important markets like the U.S., Taiwan, Mexico, and Japan.
These multi-year deals give Nokia a strong operating base from which it can deliver steady top-line sales and improving profit margins even in challenging market conditions. Yet, Wall Street isn't paying attention to this proven technology leader. Nokia's shares have fallen 18% in 2022 and currently change hands at the bargain-bin valuation of 11 times forward earnings or 1.3 times trailing sales.
And if you thought the switch from handsets to telecom infrastructure was a radical strategy shift, maybe you didn't know that the same company used to sell paper products and car tires. This company is ready to roll with whatever punches the market might throw at it, and the stock is incredibly cheap. That's a reliable recipe for strong long-term returns.
NASDAQ: ROKU
Key Data Points
Roku: A market-defining pioneer
The entertainment industry is changing. I mean, the way people consume movies and TV shows is transforming before our eyes. Cable TV, broadcast stations, and movie theaters used to rule the roost but a new set of digital streaming services are eating their lunch right now. So I could recommend streaming content leader Netflix (NFLX +2.60%) or family friendly veteran Walt Disney (DIS +1.38%) here, pointing out how digital streams still account for a small portion of consumers' content consumption, both domestically and around the world. The target market is about the size of the planet and the untapped growth potential is enormous.
But then you'd have to pick a long-term winner in the streaming wars. Early leaders like Disney and Netflix are likely to hold on to their market shares for many years, but you never know when another content creator might step up to the plate with a surprisingly successful catalog.
I don't want to pick a winner here, so I own both Netflix and the House of Mouse. At the same time, I have also built a large position in streaming technology expert Roku (ROKU 0.34%), because this company will benefit from the growing digital media market no matter who comes out on top in the content battles.
Furthermore, Roku has been hanging out in Wall Street's bargain bin recently. Roku's stock was not invited to the broader market's modest rebound over the summer and the shares trade near their three-year lows today. Critics point to a slowdown in advertising sales, which led to Roku falling short of analysts' earnings and revenue estimates in last month's second-quarter report. But the bears are making a mountain out of a temporary molehill.
"The current economic state is causing TV advertisers to pause and reconsider spend, which is painful in the short term," Roku CEO and founder Anthony Wood said in the latest earnings call. "But it also causes them to seek greater efficiency and [return on investments], which will benefit Roku in the mid and long term. This reminds us of when advertisers paused spend during the 2008 recession, but it became a catalyst that accelerated the shift of ad spend from print publishing to digital."
That insight makes a ton of sense. Advertisers are seeking ultra-efficient marketing platforms right now, hoping to stretch every advertising dollar as far as possible. The lessons learned on both sides of the ad platform and advertiser relationship will come in handy when marketing budgets are going up again.
In other words, market makers are punishing the stock because results look a little weak in the short term while Roku is currently learning how to turn a richer profit in the long run. That's a no-brainer buy signal in my eyes.
