Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says, "The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient." There are many impatient investors right now dumping shares of companies that have been struggling over the past year or so. Two such examples are PayPal Holdings (PYPL 0.64%) and Teladoc Health (TDOC -0.07%).
If you're patient, however, and willing to buy and hold these beaten-down growth stocks, they could generate fantastic returns for your portfolio.
1. PayPal Holdings
Fintech specialist PayPal has struggled to generate much meaningful growth in recent years. In its most recent quarter, sales of just over $7 billion were up a modest 9% from the same time last year. It's a decent rate of growth, but it's nowhere near what investors have come to expect from the company.
PYPL Revenue (Quarterly YoY Growth) data by YCharts
PayPal no longer has a partnership with online marketplace eBay, and there are other rival payment services from Apple and Alphabet that customers can use when buying goods and services online. What this all means is that it has become more difficult for PayPal to dominate the market for online payments.
But the company is also dealing with a general slowdown in the economy, so it's hard to say that sales growth will continue to be lackluster. PayPal is still a well-known name when it comes to processing payments and its Venmo service is popular for transferring money between friends. And according to its recent investor update, not only are customers loyal to PayPal, but there are many incentives for merchants to use the service as well.
Image source: PayPal Q1-23 Investor Update.
It's far too early to throw in the towel on PayPal's stock. It's struggling and near its 52-week low, but the business is doing well given the macroeconomic conditions that exist today.
Investors who are willing to be patient may want to load up on the growth stock at its reduced price tag because this could prove to be an underrated buy in a few years.
2. Teladoc Health
Telehealth is a sector that hasn't done well over the past few years, as many investors have been concerned that the growth telehealth stocks experienced was tied too closely to the pandemic. But analysts at Grand View Research project that by 2030, the market will be worth more than $455 billion -- more than 4 times what analysts expect it will be worth in 2023.
Its opportunities remain plentiful, and Teladoc achieved modest gains in recent quarters. But as is the case with PayPal, it lost investors as its growth rate fell:
TDOC Revenue (Quarterly YoY Growth) data by YCharts
There's the potential yet for Teladoc to turn things around, but after a tough year in 2022 during which multiple impairment charges crippled its bottom line, the company has a long way to go in winning investors back. It has partnered with big tech giants including Amazon and Microsoft, and so there's hope that could also help lead to more opportunities down the road.
The short interest in Teladoc's stock remains high, however, and that is also keeping its stock price from rising too much.
TDOC Percent of Float Short data by YCharts
A short squeeze could be a possibility for the company if it can prove the naysayers wrong, and that could be what needs to happen for the stock to finally gain some traction.
In the long run, Teladoc is in a good position to rise in value given the potential in the telehealth industry. It just may take a while for the company to cash in on it.
