If you type the phrase "value investor" into your favorite search engine, there's a good chance that you'll get plenty of results relating to Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A -0.28%) (BRK.B -0.68%) CEO Warren Buffett. While the famously successful moneyman is almost synonymous with value investing, his investment conglomerate also owns equity positions in some riskier, potentially more explosive growth stocks.
With the Nasdaq Composite index still down roughly 29% from its high and deep in bear market territory, now could be a good time for risk-tolerant investors to build positions in beaten-down growth stocks with the potential to deliver market-crushing long-term returns. Read on for a look at two stocks in the Berkshire portfolio that look like great growth plays on the heels of big valuation pullbacks.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
1. Snowflake
Trading at a potentially daunting 15.6 times expected forward sales and barely generating profits on a non-GAAP (adjusted) basis, Snowflake (SNOW 2.53%) is farther away from the traditional value-investing mold than any other stock in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio.
SNOW PS Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts
Berkshire's Snowflake position is also unusual in the sense that the investment conglomerate purchased shares leading up to the company's initial public offering (IPO) in September 2020. It then purchased shares at the company's IPO debut price -- something a Buffett-led company hadn't done since Ford Motor Company made its public debut in 1956.
While Berkshire has yet to offer a detailed rationale for its seemingly uncharacteristic investment in Snowflake, it looks like the move was driven by Berkshire portfolio manager and GEICO CEO Todd Combs. GEICO, which is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, has been a customer of Snowflake's, and Combs was apparently quite impressed with the data services company and wanted to be an early investor.
Snowflake's Data Cloud is a data-warehousing platform that makes it possible to combine and analyze information that is generated from otherwise walled-off cloud-infrastructure services. While the company has a highly growth-dependent valuation, it is expanding rapidly and posting strong free-cash-flow margins. The company grew product revenue by 70% annually last year and posted an adjusted FCF margin of 25%, and it expects to grow sales by roughly 40% with the same FCF margin this year.
Snowflake is a pick-and-shovel play on the evolution of cloud services and data analytics. With the company growing quickly and potentially building a powerful moat and the stock trading down roughly 65% from its lifetime high, the data specialist looks like a worthwhile long-term play for risk-tolerant investors.
2. Amazon
Amazon (AMZN -1.64%) has already proven to be one of the most disruptive companies in history. Not only has it shaped the e-commerce and cloud-infrastructure services markets, but it's also rapidly built a strong position in the digital advertising space.
Between investors generally giving growth stocks the cold shoulder in light of macroeconomic pressures and business-specific pressures impacting performance, Amazon stock is facing something of a perfect storm right now. The company's share price is down 44% over the last year and trades down 49% from its high.
In addition to rising costs impacting margins for its core e-commerce and cloud services businesses, Amazon is seeing its sales growth decelerate substantially. While the company saw record revenue of $514 billion last year, sales were up only 9% on an annual basis. With guidance for revenue to come in between $121 billion and $126 billion in this year's first quarter, suggesting roughly 6% year-over-year sales growth, it looks like the business could be on track for a mid-to-high single-digit sales increase in 2023.
No doubt about it, recent sales momentum has looked paltry in comparison to the levels that the company's long-term shareholders and stock watchers had become accustomed to. On the other hand, the market seems to be overly fixated on short-term pressures facing the business, and Amazon's valuation has been pushed down to a level that presents an attractive combination of value and growth potential.
AMZN PS Ratio data by YCharts
With the company valued at less than 1.9 times trailing revenue, Amazon has rarely looked cheaper on a price-to-sales (PS) basis over the last decade. Based on forward estimates the tech giant trades at approximately 1.74 times this year's expected sales.
While sales growth has slowed dramatically, comparing the strength of the business today to the last time it traded at comparable (PS) multiples suggests that shares are undervalued at today's prices. Amazon's profit-driving cloud business has grown by leaps and bounds since the middle of the last decade, and it has seen its percentage of overall sales more than double to hit 14% despite continued growth for the e-commerce business.
The e-commerce and cloud-services leader faces the strain of macro pressures right now, but the company still looks very strong, and there's a good chance that it will eventually enjoy a more favorable operating backdrop. For long-term investors seeking growth stocks with attractive risk-reward profiles, Amazon looks like a great buy.
