When should investors buy stocks? Consider this advice from investing great Warren Buffett: "Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can't buy what is popular and do well."
Call it the reverse of the fear of missing out (FOMO) principle. When investors are chasing the same stocks, it sends their prices higher. For his part, Buffett wants to buy stocks at bargain prices. Therefore, he recommends looking closely at unpopular stocks.
However, he doesn't recommend being indiscriminately contrarian. As he's also said: "A contrarian approach is just as foolish as a follow-the-crowd strategy. What's required is thinking rather than polling."
For this article, I've tried to be thoughtful in considering Asian e-commerce company Sea Limited (SE 0.05%), home goods retailer Williams-Sonoma (WSM 0.17%), and travel platform Tripadvisor (TRIP 4.61%). All three stocks are unloved, and all three could beat the market from here.
1. Sea Limited
Let's call Sea Limited the most unloved stock on this list. It's down 90% from the all-time high it touched about two years ago. During that time, its price-to-sales ratio has plunged by 94% from around 30 to less than 2. Ouch.
I could criticize Sea for plenty of things in the last couple of years. But I want to focus on where the company is now.
The business has three segments: video games, e-commerce, and financial technology (fintech). All were individually profitable in the second quarter, and two put up strong growth numbers. E-commerce revenue was up by 28% year over year in Q2, and fintech revenue was up by 53%.
Considering its market capitalization is only $21 billion, Sea is in tremendous shape financially, with $7.7 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments on the books. Moreover, its net profit margin has skyrocketed to more than 10% as management prioritized profitability. Therefore, it's now in a position to get financially stronger as it grows.
SE Profit Margin (Quarterly) data by YCharts.
Finally, Sea's e-commerce and fintech operations are still growing nicely. But its video game division is showing signs of life, too. In Q2, active users for its platform grew 11% quarter over quarter -- the first sequential rise in that metric in a year.
Investors have shunned Sea stock as its growth slowed. But the company is in better financial shape than ever, its video game business might be stabilizing, and other parts of the business continue to grow at double-digit paces. These might all be reasons to show a little love to Sea stock.
2. Williams-Sonoma
Williams-Sonoma is, in my view, the most overlooked stock on this list. Selling cookware, towels, outdoor furniture, and other home goods isn't the most exciting business. But it's also the cheapest stock and the most profitable business of this trio.
In recent years, Williams-Sonoma's operating profit margin has soared from around 8% to more than 15%. In a previous article, I theorized that shares were cheap because investors were expecting the company's operating margin to revert back to pre-pandemic levels.
WSM Operating Margin (TTM) data by YCharts.
However, in the second quarter, Williams-Sonoma's operating margin stayed near 15%, and management says it expects its full-year margin to be more than 15% as well.
In other words, investors appear to be pricing in something that has thus far shown little sign of happening. Here's what this means practically: Williams-Sonoma is on pace to earn more than $1 billion in operating profits annually. Its market cap is a mere $9.2 billion, which is quite cheap when considering its profits.
With its strong cash flow, Williams-Sonoma management intends to repurchase shares at an aggressive pace and pay a dividend that currently yields 2.5%. Adding it all up, per-share profits should grow quite fast as the overall share count goes down, which will lift the stock price. And the dividend will be the icing on the value-stock cake.
3. Tripadvisor
Let's call Tripadvisor the biggest wildcard on this list. The issue here isn't its potential -- as the world's largest travel guidance platform, it's long had potential. The problem is that Tripadvisor has struggled to grow consistently or generate profits (despite a stellar gross margin of more than 90%), and the stock has underperformed the S&P 500 over any meaningful period.
However, Tripadvisor owns a platform called Viator that I believe is a hidden-gem growth vehicle. Viator allows travelers to book experiences around the world with local guides, and the idea is really catching on. Just two years ago, Viator only accounted for 17% of Tripadvisor's revenue. But as of the second quarter, it accounted for 44%, having grown from just $40 million in revenue in Q2 2021 to $216 million in Q2 2023.
As Viator increases in prominence, Tripadvisor is putting up strong overall revenue growth. In Q2, the company grew revenue by 18% year over year, thanks in large part to Viator's 59% year-over-year jump. And while its growth rate is coming down a little, it's still one of its fastest growth rates during the last decade, and has propelled its revenue to an all-time high.
TRIP Revenue (TTM) data by YCharts.
Tripadvisor is growing and profitable ($24 million in Q2 net income), which counts for something. And its growth could be supercharged as Viator continues to win in the budding travel-experience market. The stock is still a wildcard because of its lackluster history. But there's enough here for investors to give it a chance.
Sea Limited, Williams-Sonoma, and Tripadvisor are all unpopular stocks, but each is worthy of some love. If I were picking only one of these today, however, I'd choose Williams-Sonoma. To me, it's the least risky and has the clearest path to share price gains, given how strong its profits are and management's history of returning capital to shareholders.
