As Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett has famously said: "Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." With sell-offs across the market pushing stock prices down, long-term investors have the chance to seize great value if they put their money behind the right companies.
If you've got your financial bases covered and have money available for investment, here's why buying these two Buffett-backed stocks could help you score very strong returns.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
1. Amazon
The wisdom of "being fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful" is one of Warren Buffett's most famous and oft-quoted pieces of investing wisdom. It's fair to say that the market has been fearful when it comes to Amazon (AMZN -2.56%) stock this year. Facing tough macroeconomic conditions that have depressed values for growth stocks and a combination of high operating costs and slow sales for its e-commerce business, the tech giant's stock has fallen roughly 47% across 2022's trading. It's also down approximately 53% from its high.
Facing macroeconomic challenges, a wave of headwinds for the company's e-commerce business, and signs of growth deceleration for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-infrastructure business, investors have sold out of Amazon stock. But shares now trade at prices that leave room for long-term investors to see very strong returns.
While AWS appears to be seeing some growth slowdown in conjunction with overall weakness for the economy in the near term, the segment still posted 27% year-over-year sales growth and a 26% operating income margin in the third quarter, and it will continue to play a key role in driving the growth of the cloud-services industry and expansion of the overall internet. The e-commerce business is currently the main drag on sales growth and profitability, but broader economic headwinds impacting the segment won't last forever, and the online-retail segment has the potential to become a much bigger long-term earnings driver as automation and robotics come to play bigger roles in Amazon's warehouse and distribution setup.
On the heels of recent sell-offs, Amazon's forward price-to-sales multiple has been pushed below 1.8 -- a level that looks quite low on a historical basis.
AMZN PS Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts
While the company's near-term earnings and sales growth outlook is less robust than the kind of performance investors have gotten used to over the last decade, Amazon is a great company with powerful competitive advantages, and there's a very good chance that it will deliver market-crushing returns for investors who buy today and hold for the long haul.
2. Paramount Global
Berkshire Hathaway increased its holdings in Paramount Global (PARA 13.40%) in the third quarter by 16%, indicating a belief that the stock represented one of the better risk-reward dynamics in the market that fit with the overall Berkshire portfolio composition strategy in the period. The recent investment in Paramount looks to be a classic, value-style play, and it could wind up yielding big returns if the media company continues to gain ground in the streaming space.
With the stock trading down roughly 83% from its five-year high, Paramount Global is valued at less than 9 times this year's expected earnings and pays a dividend yielding more than 5.5%.
PARA PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts
In addition to linear television channel and streaming revenues, Paramount makes money through theatrical film releases, licensing, and merchandising. This setup is comparable to a smaller-scale version of Walt Disney's model, albeit without the same parks-and-resorts component.
While some investors and analysts are worried that the collapse of traditional advertising and cable-package-based television will lead to poor performance for Paramount, Buffett appears to be betting on the company's big push into streaming and overall multipronged media strategy being successful over the long term. The media specialist owns a solid collection of franchise properties and distribution channels, it trades at nonprohibitive valuation multiples, and it pays a big dividend. With the company's market cap currently sitting at just $11.2 billion, Paramount stock has significant upside at current prices.
