Banks are collapsing; stock prices are plunging. Yet, this is not the time to panic.
As Warren Buffett so astutely noted when he said, "Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful," stock market drops are terrific buying opportunities. Picking the bottom is hard, if not impossible. But picking up great stocks at bargain-basement prices? That's just savvy.
Here, three Fool.com contributors look at three stocks with excellent long-term prospects that investors should consider buying on the current dip.
Image source: Getty Images.
Latest quarter has left its shareholders breathing easy
Jake Lerch (Adobe): During periods of market turmoil, outstanding stocks are often available at a discount. And right now, that certainly looks like the case with Adobe (ADBE -1.73%).
The be-all and end-all for creative software solutions, Adobe continues to chalk up impressive earnings results. Most recently, the company reported stellar first-quarter results that surpassed consensus estimates.
Highlights include:
- Revenue of $4.66 billion -- up 9% year over year
- Raised full-year revenue and earnings guidance
- Repurchased roughly 5 million outstanding shares
Not only did this earnings report fail to show the much-anticipated slowdown many bears had expected, but there are even signs Adobe's business is accelerating.
For one thing, consider the company's largest segment, digital media. Simply put, digital media is bringing home the bacon for Adobe. It generated $3.4 billion in revenue -- ahead of analyst estimates.
Moreover, Adobe increased its full-year forecast for the segment's net new annualized recurring revenue (ARR) -- a closely watched forward-looking metric. The company had anticipated $1.65 billion in net new digital media ARR in 2023 but raised that figure to $1.7 billion last week.
In short, it's business as usual at Adobe, even if the broader market is in turmoil. And that means it could be a great time for long-term investors to build or add to a position in this software giant.
Business challenges only help this online juggernaut
Will Healy (MercadoLibre): Admittedly, the 8% drop in MercadoLibre's (MELI -1.01%) 52-week high may not seem like much of a dip. However, this stock has largely held its value for one good reason: a high level of immunity from the troubles in its home region, Latin America.
MercadoLibre combines online selling, fintech, fulfillment, and digital advertising under one ecosystem. This has built a synergistic relationship that helps it address competitive threats from the likes of Amazon and Sea Limited.
On the Q4 2022 earnings call, the company credited a broad product assortment and competitive pricing on its e-commerce side. Also, through Mercado Pago, it provides fintech services to the region, which remains heavily cash-based.
Mercado Pago shows how synergies help in unexpected ways. For example, its home country of Argentina reported 95% inflation in 2022. Mercado Pago turned this inflation to its advantage by helping customers fight rising prices through low-risk investment funds, a factor that has likely helped attract customers and deposits.
Additionally, advertising continues to claim an increasing percentage of gross merchandise volume, and its fulfillment arm, Mercado Envios, achieved record penetration levels in Q4.
Given such results, investors will find it easy to understand how the company's 2022 net revenue of $10.5 billion rose 49% versus 2021 levels. That included a 21% increase in gross merchandise volume to more than $34 billion and $5.5 billion in payment transactions, 68% more than in 2021. Consequently, the company became increasingly profitable, reporting $482 million in net income for 2022 compared with $83 million in the prior year.
Despite that growth, its price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is still less than 6, and it sells for about 24 times its free cash flow. Such valuation measures seem reasonable given the continued revenue and profit increases.
Still, such numbers do not make it immune from the troubles of Latin America. It raised its provision for doubtful accounts by 147%, a likely reflection of the region's economic woes. Also, Argentina accounts for 24% of the company's revenue in 2022, so inflation could eventually become a serious negative for MercadoLibre if it continues to worsen.
But for the most part, MercadoLibre and its ecosystem thrive despite the region's challenges. This should make the stock a winner as e-commerce and fintech grow more integral to Latin America's economy.
Strong demand for cybersecurity bodes well for CrowdStrike
Justin Pope (CrowdStrike Holdings): When companies batten down the hatches, they save money by laying off employees, cutting back on advertising, or shelving unnecessary projects. You may have seen some of that in the news lately. However, according to a survey conducted by technology research firm Gartner of chief information executives across corporate America, cybersecurity won't be facing the budgetary chopping block.
The reason? The stakes are too high. The average security breach can cost a U.S. company $9.44 million, according to annual research done by IBM.
CrowdStrike (CRWD -3.90%) is on the cutting edge of protecting enterprises from malicious attacks. It's a cloud-based network that connects all the devices it protects. It's a living network, learning in real time from threats wherever they appear on the platform.
CRWD Revenue (TTM) data by YCharts
CrowdStrike did $2.27 billion in revenue for the 2023 fiscal year ending Jan. 31, a 54% increase over 2022. Management's revenue guide for fiscal 2024 implies that growth will slow to 33% (guiding for roughly $3 billion in sales), which seems solid given the shaky economy (and additional evidence for the demand for cybersecurity). The company has also beaten analyst expectations for all of its four years as a public company.
The stock's fallen victim to a choppy market and shares are down 55% from their highs. However, CrowdStrike already gushes cash profits; the decline has raised the stock's free cash flow yield to 2.2%, near its highest point as a public company. In other words, you're getting better value on CrowdStrike's cash profits than ever, making the stock an easy buy.
