The market sell-off has driven even the strongest companies below their highs over the last year. While you won't find many companies hitting new 52-week highs right now, there are plenty of well-positioned companies destined for bright futures that are trading at discounted prices relative to their future worth.
For growth investors looking for contrarian plays to juice returns in the next bull market, a team of Motley Fool contributors recently selected three good candidates. Here's why they think Farfetch (FTCH 1.03%), Roku (ROKU 1.91%), and Coupang (CPNG -1.46%) could explode over the next seven years.
Short-term pressure could turn into long-term gains
Jennifer Saibil (Farfetch): Farfetch is a classic risk versus reward proposition. It's facing massive pressure from both internal and external factors, but there's reason to be optimistic about it's future. Farfetch stock is down about 73% over the past year and 84% since it became a public company. If the company turns itself around, the stock could seriously skyrocket.
Farfetch is a luxury e-commerce marketplace that makes most of its business from third-party vendors using its platform. It has deals with upscale brands such as Valentino and Ferragamo, and it offers them unique benefits. These kinds of brands operate on exclusivity, but they need access to the right kind of customer. Farfetch offers them worldwide access on a platform catering to the ideal consumer base.
Like many e-commerce businesses, Farfetch took off during the pandemic. However, it has struggled since demand tapered off with physical stores reopening. Revenue increased 3% over last year, demonstrating resilience, although gross merchandise volume (GMV) decreased 4%. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) declined from $1.6 billion last year to a $98 million loss this year, with loss per share sinking from $0.55 to $0.92.
Some of the headwinds it's facing today include closures in China and the war in Ukraine. China is one of any luxury company's biggest markets, so any constraints there could strongly impact its business. Russia is a large market as well, and suspension of operations there affects business. These issues are compounded by Farfetch's international focus.
As for internal issues, Farfetch made several acquisitions over the past few years that weigh on the bottom line. These could be important in expanding its presence and protecting its moat, such as its purchase of rival Yoox. They also provide a physical base that has become critical as shoppers embraced the omnichannel model. However, these will only demonstrate their full benefit over time.
At the current price, Farfetch stock trades at a dirt cheap price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of about 0.9. There's plenty of risk here, but if the financial situation improves, Farfetch could easily gain 400% over the next seven years.
Backing the leading TV operating system could pay huge returns
John Ballard (Roku): Every investor wants to land that elusive multibagger investment. One market that will undoubtedly create big winners over the next decade is connected TV. As traditional TV advertising shifts to streaming platforms, it creates an enormous growth opportunity for the leading TV operating system -- Roku.
Wall Street has made the classic mistake of dumping the stock during a temporary slump in the advertising market. The uncertainty in the economy made advertisers gun shy, which is normal. But data from Statista shows that the connected TV ad market is booming.
Annual connected TV ad spending climbed from $6.4 billion in 2019 to $21 billion last year, and it's expected to double again by 2026. We can see Roku already gaining a good share of this spending over the last three years, with quarterly revenue double what it was at the end of 2019.
Data by YCharts.
Advertisers are chasing the viewers. While Roku's top-line growth slowed last year, it added 9.9 million active accounts to its platform, bringing the year-end total to 70 million.
Roku is laying the groundwork to not only maintain its lead as the streaming aggregator of choice but also leverage its wide viewership to be the control hub for smart-home services. For example, Roku offers cameras and video doorbells that come with subscription plans. This allows users to receive AI-based alerts and view live video feeds on their TV.
The combination of streaming and smart-home products opens up a huge growth opportunity that the market is overlooking for understandable reasons. But the slowing revenue growth reflects the past, not where Roku is headed. The continued growth in active accounts and expanding product lineup open the door for more revenue-generating opportunities and a higher stock price down the road.
Just looking at the price-to-sales ratio, Roku's 2.7 multiple is a fraction of its previous trading history. Higher-margin revenue growth from subscriptions and the inevitable acceleration in ad spending would command a higher valuation by the market. Roku is an attractive contrarian bet right now that could quadruple your money by 2030.
An under-the-radar e-commerce stock
Jeremy Bowman (Coupang): Coupang might not be a household name in the U.S., but the fast-growing, e-commerce company has established itself as a major presence in South Korea, where it's based, and in other East Asian countries as it entered Japan and Taiwan in 2021.
Operating in high-density countries with fast internet connectivity gives Coupang a natural advantage as it doesn't have to cover such long delivery distances the way Amazon does in the U.S., for example.
And the company is growing fast with currency-neutral revenue up 21% to $5.3 billion in the fourth quarter. Coupang is also profitable on an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) basis with an adjusted EBITDA profit of $381.2 million, and it turned profitable in the fourth quarter with $102 million in net income.
Coupang is ramping up profitability by following a similar model to Amazon. The company launched a third-party marketplace on top of its first-party retail business and also has its own Prime-like membership program called Wow, which had 11 million paying members, or an increase of more than 20% from the year before.
The company's recent expansions to Japan and Taiwan also expand its addressable market into two nearby, high-income, densely populated countries.
Currently, the stock trades at a price-to-sales ratio of 1.2, a reasonable price to pay for a stock with Coupang's growth potential, and analysts expect the company's profitability to ramp up over the coming years
In fact, based on analyst estimates of $0.57, the stock trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of just 26. If the company could hit that number and maintain its growth rate, it looks like a good bet to guadruple by 2030.
