Growth stocks were battered badly on the market this year due to multiple headwinds, including rising interest rates, surging inflation, and macroeconomic headwinds. That resulted in a steep sell-off in major indexes such as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite which slipped over 20% and 33%, respectively, so far in 2022.
However, if you're a savvy investor with $1,000 to spare right now, it may be a good idea to buy some fast-growing companies that are trading at relatively attractive valuations. Cloudflare (NET -0.07%), Cirrus Logic (CRUS 1.86%), and Airbnb (ABNB 0.43%) are three high-growth companies that have witnessed a brutal sell-off in 2022, but their latest results indicate they are built for solid long-term growth.
Let's look at the reasons why investing $1,000 in these three stocks could be a good idea.
1. Cloudflare
Shares of internet infrastructure and security provider Cloudflare were in the doghouse on Nov. 4. The stock fell over 18% in a day despite releasing terrific third-quarter results that crushed Wall Street's estimates the day before. In this uncertain economic environment, even the idea that growth might be slowing was enough to spook investors and sink the stock.
The company's revenue shot up 47% year over year to $254 million, while adjusted earnings increased to $0.06 per share from $0.00 in the prior-year period. Analysts would have settled for $250.6 million in revenue and break-even earnings per share, but healthy growth in Cloudflare's customer base and an increase in customer spending helped it ease past consensus estimates.
The company added nearly 4,200 paying customers last quarter, which took its total count to 156,000. Additionally, the number of large paying customers who spend at least $100,000 on Cloudflare's services annually increased 51% year over year to 1,908. Not surprisingly, Cloudflare's dollar-based net retention rate stood at an impressive 124% last quarter.
This metric measures Cloudflare's "ability to retain and expand recurring revenue from existing customers," comparing the company's annualized revenue from its customers in a quarter to the revenue generated by the same set of customers in the year-ago period. So, a reading of over 100% means that Cloudflare's customers increased their adoption of the company's offerings or they are spending more on its services.
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince remarked on the latest earnings conference call that the company achieved solid year-over-year growth despite a challenging economic environment. The guidance suggests its impressive growth is here to stay. The company guided for $274 million in revenue in the current quarter, along with an adjusted net income of $0.04 to $0.05 per share. The revenue guidance points toward 41% year-over-year growth, while earnings should increase once again over last year's breakeven.
Even better, Cloudflare believes that it is on its way to achieving annualized revenue of $5 billion over the next five years. That would be a big improvement over the company's current annualized revenue run rate of $1 billion. All this makes Cloudflare a top growth stock to buy right now, especially considering that it is trading at 14 times sales as compared to last year's multiple of nearly 69.
2. Cirrus Logic
Semiconductor stocks are having a horrid time on the market, but Cirrus Logic had a different story to tell when it released its fiscal 2023 second-quarter results on Nov. 1. The company's revenue increased 16% year over year to $541 million, driven by higher average selling prices (ASPs), stronger smartphone shipment volumes, and content gains in the high-performance mixed-signal (HPMS) business.
The company's non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings for the three months ended Sept. 24, 2022, increased to $1.99 per share from $1.82 per share. Cirrus' robust year-over-year growth may lead one to wonder how the company managed to do well at a time when smartphone sales are declining. But with Cirrus getting 82% of its revenue from selling chips to Apple (AAPL 0.89%) last quarter, it becomes clear why the company registered healthy growth.
Apple reportedly shipped 48.5 million iPhones in the third quarter, an increase of 6.4% over the prior-year period. Given that Cirrus is reportedly supplying five chips for each unit of the iPhone -- including audio amplifiers, audio codecs, and voice processors -- it wasn't surprising to see the chipmaker beat the weakness in the smartphone market on the back of a mix of higher volumes and more content.
Apple's dominance of the 5G smartphone space and Cirrus' close relationship with the iPhone maker suggests that the latter could sustain its momentum in the future. At the same time, investors shouldn't miss the fact that Cirrus' entry into the HPMS business unlocked a big growth opportunity. The company now sees its serviceable addressable market increasing to $7.3 billion in 2026 from $3.4 billion last year.
The company's HPMS revenue was up 23% year over year last quarter to $203 million. The segment accounted for 37% of Cirrus' top line. The company expects the HPMS business to produce half of its total revenue in the future. So, the strength of the legacy audio business and Cirrus' entry into a new vertical should turn out to be long-term tailwinds and boost the company's top and bottom lines.
With the stock trading at 11 times trailing earnings right now, investors with $1,000 to spare may want to spend some of that money on adding Cirrus Logic to their portfolios as it is available at an attractive valuation.
3. Airbnb
Airbnb is another fast-growing company that reported solid results recently, but investors decided to nitpick, and the stock witnessed a big sell-off. The vacation rental platform reported a 29% year-over-year increase in revenue in the third quarter to $2.9 billion, which was a record. The company also enjoyed strong margin growth, reporting a net income margin of 42% as compared to 37% in the year-ago period.
Airbnb's solid results were driven by an increase in the number of nights and experiences booked last quarter, as well as healthy average daily rates (ADRs) that increased 12% year over year (excluding the impact of foreign currency fluctuations) to $156 in Q3. More specifically, Airbnb's nights and experiences increased 25% year over year to 99.7 million last quarter. Its net income increased 46% year over year to $1.79 per share.
The guidance, however, was a sore point for investors. Airbnb guided for $1.84 billion in revenue this quarter at the midpoint of its range, which would translate into 20% growth over the year-ago quarter. Excluding the forex impact, Airbnb sees its revenue jumping 26% over the year-ago period. Airbnb's projected growth is impressive but just a hair short of the $1.85 billion revenue analysts were looking for.
Given that Airbnb is set to sustain its healthy growth levels in the long run thanks to the $79 billion incremental revenue opportunity in the vacation rental market through 2026, according to TechNavio, now may be a good time for savvy investors to buy the stock. Airbnb is trading at 8 times sales, which is a big discount to its 2021 average of 19. The forward price-to-earnings ratio of 31 is also way lower than last year's multiple of 128, suggesting that investors are getting a sweet deal on Airbnb stock right now.
