The bear market may have already hit its ultimate bottom. Or, maybe it hasn't -- we just don't know. What we do know is, a bunch of otherwise great growth stocks are much cheaper right now than they were a year ago. We also know that five years from now, it likely won't matter whether savvy investors scooped up these bargains at their exact low.
Let's take a closer look at three growth companies with a bright long-term future, but with stocks that have been unduly beaten down, and see why now is as good a time as any to buy in on them.
1. Amazon
Its roots may be in the e-commerce market, but Amazon (AMZN -1.65%) isn't exactly an e-commerce outfit anymore. It's a cloud computing and digital advertising outfit that also happens to sell stuff online.
Of last year's $24.9 billion worth of operating income, 74% of it was produced by the company's cloud computing arm. It also reported a little over $31 billion in advertising revenue for 2021. Amazon didn't divulge a whole lot of detail about the ad revenue figure, but because it's digitally driven using a platform the company already owns and operates (Amazon.com), this revenue is likely to be high-margin as well.
And that's a pretty important detail.
Investors keeping close tabs on Amazon will likely know its e-commerce operation actually lost money through the first half of this year, with higher logistics and personnel costs taking a bite out of profits that were already paper-thin. If Amazon can monetize its online-selling efforts in a different way, though, the losses linked to its e-commerce activities matter much less. In the meantime, the world needs cloud computing services regardless of the economy's strength or any inflationary pressures. Cloud revenue is usually pretty high-margin revenue, too, with roughly a third of it being converted into operating income.
Both businesses are poised to keep growing, too. Amazon's second-quarter ad revenue was up 18% year over year, and Precedence Research estimates the cloud computing market will grow at an annualized clip of more than 17% through 2030.
None of this opportunity is being priced into the stock, which is trading down 28% year to date despite its recent rebound effort.
2. Tesla
Yes, Tesla (TSLA 4.96%) fell short of its third-quarter revenue estimates. While earnings rolled in better than expected, the top line of $21.5 billion missed analysts' consensus outlook of nearly $22 billion. CEO Elon Musk also cautioned shareholders that the current quarter's deliveries won't be quite as robust as hoped. As it turns out, the company ran into some logistical hurdles largely linked to factors beyond its immediate control. The ensuing sell-off meant shares traded near half of their peak price hit last November.
Largely obscured by all the noise, however, is that this is Tesla, the company that mainstreamed electric vehicles (EVs), and a name that's almost synonymous with the term. EV-news-focused website Electrek estimates Tesla-made EVs account for two-thirds of the United States' total electric vehicle sales, while Canalys reports Tesla remains the world's single-biggest EV brand. Also bear in mind that while the company fell short of last quarter's top-line estimates, last quarter's revenue still grew 56% year over year, while EBITDA growth was up 55% for the same time frame.
And those results only scratch the surface of the long-term opportunity. The U.S. Energy Information Administration believes the number of electric vehicles traveling the world's roads will swell from a little over 10 million now to more than 670 million by 2050.
3. Applied Materials
Finally, add Applied Materials (AMAT 0.73%) to your list of beaten-down growth stocks to buy right now, while it's priced down 46% year to date. It's been caught up in the sweeping selling that's pulled most chip stocks sharply lower. Once the dust of the semiconductor shortage starts to settle, though, investors should appreciate just how well this company is positioned for growth.
Admittedly, investors likely won't see that stock price growth next year. While demand from chipmakers drove Applied Materials' 2021 revenue up 34% to a record-breaking $23.1 billion, things are already starting to slow down from that frenzy. The company's only on pace for sales growth of nearly 11% this year, and with demand finally starting to be satisfied at a time the global economy is starting to weaken and the U.S. government has banned the sale of certain chips to Chinese buyers, analysts are calling for a 5% revenue contraction next year paired with an 8% decline in per-share earnings.
As is the case with Tesla and Amazon, though, look at the long-term opportunity at hand. The need for microchips is never going to go away. If anything, it's going to continually grow to record levels. A forecast from research firm McKinsey estimates the semiconductor market will grow between 6% and 8% per year through 2030, becoming a trillion-dollar market at the end of that stretch. Applied Materials' equipment, paired with software and service offerings that optimize this equipment's output, gives the company a means of garnering more than its fair share of that growth.
