The Nasdaq 100 index is often used as a barometer of the technology sector's performance. Unfortunately, 2022 has shown a low-pressure system is dominating for most of the year, with the index losing 34% of its value. If the year ended now, it would be the worst decline since the Great Recession in 2008-09.
While that's daunting, we know the market recovered to new highs in the years following that event, so this might present a rare opportunity to buy high-quality growth stocks at a discount.
A panel of three Motley Fool contributors has identified Tenable (TENB -2.24%), MercadoLibre (MELI -0.45%), and CrowdStrike (CRWD 0.13%) as potential candidates. These tech stocks are currently trading at low points they haven't visited in years, and here's why investors should consider picking them up.
The leader in vulnerability management
Anthony Di Pizio (Tenable): Tenable stock currently trades at $30.18, a level not seen in more than two years. But since then, the cybersecurity industry has only grown in importance, and Tenable continues to attract a record number of customers and is generating the highest levels of revenue in its history. That sounds like a buying opportunity.
According to a survey conducted by global consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, the threat of cyberattacks is currently the No. 1 concern for top corporate executives. Cyber-risk outranked other concerns, including the possibility of a recession, climate change, and even war, among the 722 respondents.
Tenable is the industry leader in vulnerability management and threat detection, which are proactive tools designed to seek potential risks and neutralize them before they find a way into a given network. Its Nessus platform has been deployed in tens of thousands of organizations with more than 2 million individual downloads, thanks to its customizable nature, which makes it an ideal choice for businesses of all sizes.
As of the recent second quarter of 2022 (ended June 30), the number of customers spending at least $100,000 annually with Tenable jumped 27% year over year to 1,191. It indicates that larger organizations with big cybersecurity budgets are flocking to adopt more advanced, proactive tools to protect their valuable digital assets, which are often hosted with cloud computing technology. The cloud presents new challenges for organizations because it expands the attack surface -- in other words, cloud-based assets can be vulnerable to threats from almost anywhere in the world.
Thanks in part to its increasing customer base, Tenable kept its full-year revenue guidance steady at $676 million for 2022. That's in stark contrast to many other technology companies that slashed their forecasts, and if Tenable hits the mark, it would represent growth of 25% compared with 2021. That's even faster than last year's revenue growth rate of 23% -- so this is a unique opportunity to buy a piece of an accelerating business at a price not seen since mid-2020.
A can't-miss bargain from south of the border
Jamie Louko (MercadoLibre): This Latin American e-commerce and fintech leader is trading at a valuation rarely seen. At just 4.7 times sales, MercadoLibre is at nearly the cheapest valuation it has been at since coming public in 2007.
Some relatively cheap companies are rightly considered value traps -- a poor business facing secular decline or other risks that looks appealing due to its rock-bottom valuation. MercadoLibre doesn't fit the definition. MercadoLibre dominates the e-commerce and fintech spaces in Latin America, with more than 20% share of total retail e-commerce sales in the region in 2021, according to Statista. Additionally, the company could improve its dominance: A report published through Statista suggests MercadoLibre's market share could reach almost 22% by 2023.
On the fintech side, MercadoLibre is also a top dog. The unique demographics of the region it serves include a relatively young consumer group in larger countries like Brazil and Mexico. There is also an elevated desire for digital payment platforms, meaning fintech in Latin America is expected to grow exponentially over the coming years. MercadoLibre already has over 38 million unique fintech users. This puts it in a great spot to thrive on these tailwinds.
MercadoLibre is posting some impressive results. Over the trailing 12 months, it saw revenue surpass $8.8 billion. From that revenue, it managed to extract over $1 billion in free cash flow despite its heavy investments to capture the opportunity ahead.
With a powerful grip on the industries it operates in, MercadoLibre looks well positioned to benefit from the rising tides in Latin America. The company has attractive growth prospects over the next five years, so today's valuation looks like a gift for long-term investors.
The second-fastest growing software company in history
Trevor Jennewine (CrowdStrike Holdings): Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike went public with 10 software modules in its arsenal in 2019, but its portfolio has more than doubled in size since then. The CrowdStrike Falcon platform now features 22 modules, spanning from endpoint and cloud security to identity protection and managed services. Better yet, CrowdStrike has become the gold standard in endpoint security and managed detection and response, and it's considered a leader in threat intelligence and incident response services.
That success stems from its broad portfolio and unique architecture. CrowdStrike can replace numerous point solutions with a single platform, allowing businesses to consolidate security spend through one vendor. In addition, all 22 CrowdStrike modules are delivered through a single piece of software that can be installed without a device reboot. That means customers can deploy Falcon without disrupting their businesses, and management believes that friction-reducing quality is unique to CrowdStrike.
Better yet, as the market leader in endpoint security, CrowdStrike can collect security signals on a scale no competitor can match, and that makes its artificial-intelligence engine uniquely effective in identifying cyberattacks, according to CEO George Kurtz. Naturally, the promise of best-in-class security has fueled strong demand. CrowdStrike expanded its customer base by 51% in the past year, and the average customer increased spend by more than 20%.
To that end, CrowdStrike is growing like wildfire. Over the past year, revenue climbed 61% to $1.8 billion and free cash flow soared 49% to $543 million. But the company accomplished something even more impressive. CrowdStrike is the second-fastest software company in history to achieve a $2 billion revenue run rate. Only Zoom Video Communications got to that rate more quickly.
Investors have good reason to believe CrowdStrike can maintain that momentum. Cybersecurity is not a discretionary expense -- it is a necessity. Trends such as cloud computing, remote work, and the proliferation of connected devices have created new attack surfaces for hackers, and the problem will only become more pressing in the future. To that end, CrowdStrike puts its addressable market at $97 billion by 2025.
Currently, shares trade at 19.2 times sales -- the cheapest valuation since March 2020, when the share price cratered as the stock market crashed at the onset of the pandemic. That valuation may not be cheap in a traditional sense, but it does create a buying opportunity for risk-tolerant investors.
