Growth stocks have taken a beating over the past year. Investors have reset their expectations on how fast companies can grow in the future amid higher inflation and interest rates, which has weighed on valuations.

Two beaten-down growth stocks that look particularly attractive right now are Alphabet (GOOGL 1.42%) (GOOG 1.43%) and CrowdStrike (CRWD 2.30%). While they're facing some near-term headwinds, their long-term growth prospects remain bright. As a result, investors with a couple of thousand dollars to spare should consider grabbing some shares while they're down.

A dirt cheap tech giant

Shares of Google's parent, Alphabet, have lost more than a third of their value from their peak last year. While the overall tech sell-off has weighed on shares, Alphabet is also facing increased competition from Microsoft (MSFT 0.46%). The fellow tech giant struck a $10 billion deal to back artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI and integrate its ChatGPT technology into its Bing search engine. Meanwhile, Alphabet's competing AI chatbot, Bard, flubbed in its debut. 

Most analysts, however, believe the fears that Google will lose its edge in search are unlikely. Therefore, they think the decline in Alphabet's stock is a buying opportunity. For example, Jefferies analyst Brent Thill recently reiterated his buy rating on the stock and $130 price target. Shares are currently in the low $90s, implying nearly 40% upside potential. Analysts at Wells Fargo and Baird made similar calls. While they conceded that Microsoft had gotten an early edge on Google in AI, they believe it has the scale, engineering, cloud resources, and AI capabilities to capitalize on this technology in the future. For those reasons, they also affirmed their ratings and price targets of $120 for Baird and $125 for Wells Fargo.

Meanwhile, the discount on Alphabet's stock price will enable the company to buy back even more shares. It generated about $60 billion of free cash flow last year and used nearly all of it ($59.3 billion) on share repurchases. The company could generate even more free cash flow to buy back stock this year as its cost-saving initiatives increase earnings. When adding in the long-term upside potential from AI, those near-term catalysts make this beaten-down tech stock look very attractive right now. 

An enormous opportunity ahead

CrowdStrike's stock has plunged almost 50% from its peak last year. On the one hand, the slowing macroeconomic environment is starting to impact the AI-powered cybersecurity company's growth rate. As CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz noted on its last quarterly conference call: 

Organizations were starting to respond to macroeconomic conditions by adding extra layers of required approvals and extending the time it took to close some deals. As Q3 progressed and fears of a recession grew, this dynamic became more pronounced.

We expect these macro headwinds to persist through Q4. Additionally, given the increased scrutiny on budgets, we're not going to expect a typical Q4 budget flush, leading us to adjust our Q4 net new [annual recurring revenue] expectations.

Even with those headwinds, the company is still growing extraordinarily fast. Revenue surged 53% year over year in its fiscal third quarter to $581 million. Meanwhile, free cash flow has increased at a 49% year-over-year pace during the first nine months of its fiscal year.

CrowdStrike expects to continue growing rapidly in the coming years. A big driver is the enormous opportunity it sees ahead for cloud-based security. The company estimates that its total addressable market will expand from $76 billion this year to $158 billion by 2026, driven by organic market growth, new product launches, and other initiatives. That's a significant opportunity for a company generating $2.34 billion of annual recurring revenue. That upside potential makes this beaten-down stock look really attractive these days.

Growth on sale

Alphabet and CrowdStrike have gotten battered over the past year due to the broader market sell-off and some company-specific issues. While they're facing some near-term headwinds, their long-term growth prospects remain bright. As a result, they look like enticing buys right now.