A stock isn't worth buying simply because it's been beaten down. But plenty of great stocks are beaten down for what are actually temporary reasons. If you can step into one of these tickers you like while they're discounted, you should.
With that as the backdrop, here's a closer look at three such beaten-down names. Each has a great long-term future currently being obscured by short-term turbulence.
1. Pinterest
The past few months haven't been horrible ones for Pinterest (PINS 4.04%) shares. The stock's down about 15% from April's high, but it is still trading up over the past year. Pinterest shares are still priced 70% below their 2021 peak, however, for reasons that don't quite hold water.
The company is a curious one. It's categorized as a social media outfit, but there's not a lot of direct communication being done between its 463 million users. Rather, users simply manage a collection of digital bulletin boards, which can be made public to other people with similar interests. The platform is monetized by inserting the occasional advertisement into all the boards and "pins" its users browse.
Interest in Pinterest exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, with millions of people effectively trapped at home and looking to the internet for entertainment. That's been a tough act to follow, though. Revenue growth rates have slowed dramatically since then. Ditto for profits. Indeed, the company's swing to a net profit during the pandemic has turned back into a net loss. That's a big part of the reason the stock's been such a subpar performer.
What's largely being overlooked is how Pinterest is undergoing a handful of evolutions that will very likely turn its fortunes around. For example, in April the company unveiled a partnership with Amazon (AMZN 3.43%) that introduces third-party ads to the platform. And late last year the social media platform introduced an expanded Pinterest Trends toolset that allows advertisers to better understand what users are searching for on the site.
These (and other) initiatives have yet to make their full impact. It's brewing, though. Analysts are calling for this year's likely 7% sales growth to accelerate to 14% growth next year, driving this year's expected operating per-share profit of $0.79 to $1.01. The stock should respond to that progress sooner or later, and probably sooner.
2. Kraft Heinz
You know the company. Kraft Heinz (KHC -0.55%) is of course the parent to Heinz ketchup and Kraft cheese. Velveeta, Kool-Aid, Jell-O, Oscar Mayer, and Maxwell House are also part of the Kraft Heinz family, just to name a few others.
It's been a tough past year and a half for consumer goods companies like this one. Inflation has been rampant for consumers because costs have been soaring for food companies. Some of these costs can be passed along to customers. Others can't. The industry was forced to walk this fine, tricky line, and investors have known it wasn't easy. That's why Kraft Heinz shares are below their April-2022 high, and currently trade at a multi-month low.
There's good news on this front, though. Inflation is cooling, and will likely continue to do so. May's annualized consumer inflation rate of 4.0% is the lowest it's been since March 2021. Meanwhile, the World Bank believes overall commodity prices will fall 21% this year, and will remain at those depressed levels through next year.
And that's the ideal backdrop for food companies like Kraft Heinz -- but not quite for the reason you might expect.
Yes, lower costs allow packaged food companies to lower their prices. They won't necessarily do so, though -- at least not to the same extent costs are going down. The end result is wider profit margins. We're already starting to see industry-wide evidence of this dynamic, in fact, including specifically from Kraft Heinz.
The kicker: Although the quarterly dividend's been stuck at $0.40 per share since 2020 thanks to the pandemic, the current dividend yield of 4.3% is well above the industry's current norm. The stage is also set for a resumption of the company's pandemic-interrupted track record of dividend growth.
3. Etsy
Last but not least, add Etsy (ETSY 0.34%) to your list of stocks that are screaming buys right now while it's trading nearly 40% below January's peak.
Etsy is of course the anti-Amazon. While Amazon is built to sell the same manufactured items over and over again by the thousands, Etsy's specialty is helping small sellers promote their one-off, hand-made items. There are some exceptions to the idea, but Etsy's craft-minded schtick is crystal clear.
The thing is, there's a market for this sort of e-commerce platform.
Market research outfit IMARC Group suggests the handicraft market was worth $750 billion last year, but should swell to nearly $1.3 trillion by 2028. That's an annualized growth rate of more than 9%. Drivers of this growth include environmental concerns that can be addressed by recycling and upcycling, an appreciation for unique, one-of-a-kind items, and even a particular item's story. The chief need of these crafters? An established platform from which to sell these goods. And Etsy fits the bill. The numbers even say as much. Etsy's sales are projected to improve by nearly 8% this year before accelerating to more than 10% next year.
The big reason Etsy is such a strong buy, however, is what you don't see just yet.
Like Pinterest, Etsy is in the midst of some serious post-pandemic overhauls. The company's (still) working to improve its on-site search results to create more personalized and relevant results, and it recently launched a television and web ad campaign to highlight its homelife, style, and gifting selections where it can dramatically differentiate itself. It's also embracing the idea that knowing its most frequent shoppers better allows the company to generate even more revenue through them.
In a sense, these are efforts that were always being made by Etsy. It's only been in the post-pandemic environment, however, that the company's been as deliberate about these business-building efforts as it is now. It's still just starting to gain traction with these rethought initiatives, though.
