After a brutal sell-off for growth stocks last year, the growth-centric Nasdaq Composite has rebounded nearly 30% so far in 2023. While it's unclear if this is truly a new bull market forming, there are many top tech stocks that lag the broader market's return and could be fantastic buys right now.
PayPal (PYPL 2.90%) stock is trading down 6% year to date with a bargain price-to-earnings ratio of 13.5 based on 2023 earnings estimates. Another member of the Nasdaq-100 that sports a tempting valuation is Electronic Arts (EA 0.46%), a top video game producer whose stock is only up 2% this year and trades at a modest forward P/E of 18.6.
Both stocks change hands at a discount to the average P/E of the Nasdaq-100 (currently 23.7). These companies have better prospects than the market gives them credit for right now, which means long-term investors could score big returns from current share price levels once the market discovers its mistake.
Let's look at the key factors that should eventually send these two Nasdaq-100 stocks higher.
1. PayPal
PayPal's stock price fell 62% in 2022 after soaring to new highs during the pandemic. The mobile payments leader delivered consistent robust revenue growth through 2021, but momentum slowed along with the broader e-commerce market last year.
Investors clearly extrapolated the sluggish revenue growth over the last year way out in the future, which is why the stock is trading at such a low P/E. Revenue growth slowed from 18% in 2021 to single-digit levels last year.
While the 0.4% decline in active accounts in the first quarter might be keeping the stock down, the size of the customer base is still a valuable advantage for PayPal. It ended the period with 433 million active accounts, and those accounts continue to transact more frequently, which drove a 13% year-over-year increase in transactions in Q1.
One quarter doesn't make a trend, so the slight dip in the number of accounts may just be short-term noise, especially considering the economic challenges lately. Moreover, it may also reflect management's decision to focus more on driving higher customer engagement with their accounts as opposed to acquiring new users.
Most importantly, PayPal's branded checkout volumes rose 6.5%, which is more consistent with the broader growth in e-commerce sales in the first quarter. Management believes this rate of growth was good enough to gain market share in the digital payments market.
The mobile payments market is a massive long-term opportunity. It was valued at $53 billion in 2022 and is expected to increase to $607 billion by 2030, according to estimates from Facts and Factors.
PayPal still has the advantage of brand ubiquity, a large customer and merchant network, and a fully featured app that receives high review ratings in the app store. This leading fintech company can grow faster as the economy improves, and that could spell a sharp rebound in the stock over the next few years and beyond.
2. Electronic Arts
Following a decade of market-beating gains, during which Electronic Arts stock returned 485%, share prices have been flat over the last few years.
The video game producer suffers from similar symptoms as PayPal. The surge in demand for online entertainment sent the stock toward all-time highs during the pandemic, but there's been an extended hangover following the reopening of the economy in 2021. There were also inflationary headwinds that pressured consumer spending on games last year.
However, EA could be setting itself up for another great decade. The stock is modestly valued, while its core games perform well. Over the last two years, EA's player base increased from over 500 million to nearly 700 million in the most recent quarter. Despite adjusted revenue, or bookings, being down 2% in fiscal 2023 (which ended in March), the larger player network gives EA plenty of opportunities to drive top-line growth over the next several years.
Two of the company's biggest sellers are FIFA and Madden. Globally, soccer continues to grow in popularity. This translated to record-breaking sales of FIFA 23. Meanwhile, the latest version of Madden also broke franchise sales records, driven by new content updates that kept players spending time with the game.
Over the next year, EA has a strong new release pipeline for its top sports titles. EA is expected to resume publishing its classic college football franchise next year for the first time since 2013.
In soccer, the rebranding of FIFA to EA Sports FC brings with it new opportunities to engage a large player base. The World Cup appears to have bolstered the popularity of the sport recently, which could translate to another strong year of sales when EA Sports FC debuts later this year.
EA is a very profitable business, generating $1.3 billion in free cash flow on $7.4 billion of revenue. The company pays a small dividend to shareholders, which speaks to the recurring nature of players' investment in their favorite games, which, in turn, produces a steady stream of free cash flow to distribute to investors.
At a forward P/E of 18, the market is undervaluing the opportunities for a top video game producer operating in a $347 billion industry, according to Statista.
