The broader market has had a relatively uneventful start to 2024, with the S&P 500 Index up by a modest 0.5% over the first two weeks of January. But with the latest earnings season beginning to ramp up as we speak, astute investors are positioning themselves for potentially explosive moves from their favorite individual stocks.
To that end, here are two potentially explosive stocks I think are worth buying in January.
Last year's double could be just the beginning for UiPath
Shares of robotic process automation (RPA) specialist UiPath (PATH 6.10%) rallied 96% in 2023, most recently fueled by the release of its exceptional fiscal third-quarter report in late November. But keeping in mind its relentless focus on operational efficiency, as well as the fact the leading AI stock remains more than 70% below its 2021 post-IPO highs, I think UiPath could be just getting started.
NYSE: PATH
Key Data Points
To be clear, UiPath's revenue growth is expected to modestly decelerate in the coming year; current guidance implies roughly 21.5% growth for the fiscal-year 2024 (ending Jan 31, 2023), while analysts' consensus estimates call for growth of around 19% next fiscal year.
But that deceleration is by design, as UiPath has focused on balancing growth and profitability in recent quarters rather than chasing unprofitable growth at all costs. Through the first three quarters of fiscal 2024, UiPath managed to reduce its GAAP net losses by more than half, to $0.22 per share from $0.55 per share a year earlier, while simultaneously inflecting from negative to positive GAAP operating cash flow -- $153.5 million, from negative-$104 million a year earlier. UiPath also generated positive adjusted free cash flow of $163 million, from negative-$101.2 million previously, over the same period.
We should get our first look at UiPath's guidance for its fiscal 2025 when the company releases fiscal Q4 2024 results in mid-March. If that guidance details an expectation for reasonably sustained revenue growth and a continued acceleration in operating leverage, UiPath stock could absolutely explode higher from here.
An undervalued mini-Berkshire
By contrast, shares of Boston Omaha (BOC 1.82%) plummeted more than 40% last year even as the broader markets rallied. But as I pointed out a couple of weeks ago, that wasn't for lack of progress in its underlying businesses; management has continued to steadily deploy capital into compelling deals -- well over $500 million in total as of this writing -- to steadily build shareholder value over the long term. Yet the company's entire enterprise value stands at only $464 million as of this writing.
NYSE: BOC
Key Data Points
So why do I think the market could wise up and send Boston Omaha's stock skyward in the coming quarters?
First, Boston Omaha's per-share book value, long considered the best measure of intrinsic value for financial holding companies, has been distorted over the past couple of years due to accounting quirks that increasingly skewed its reported numbers. This was largely due to Boston Omaha's penchant for hard assets such as fiber internet deployments and billboard structures, which come with unique depreciation and amortization schedules, as well as the reported values of minority investments such as its 22.9% stake in Sky Harbour Group (SKYH 1.44%), where the value can fluctuate wildly from quarter to quarter. That stake alone is worth over $175 million by itself as of this writing, by the way, as Sky Harbour stock has more than tripled since the beginning of October 2023.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Boston Omaha's co-chairmen and co-CEOs, Alex Rozek and Adam Peterson, abandoned book value as the most useful estimate for their progress back in mid-2021. They usually don't provide specific commentary surrounding their consolidated business' intrinsic value with their first, second, and third quarterly updates of each year. But they do provide a unique perspective on the business' progress in their annual letters to shareholders; the 2023 shareholder letter should be released between March and May of this year, if the timing of past releases is any indication.
Boston Omaha's consistent stated goal since its first letter to shareholders in 2015? "[G]rowing intrinsic value per share at an attractive rate, while seeking to maintain an uncompromising financial position."
In the end, I have a hard time believing Boston Omaha has truly deployed more capital at this stage of its business than its lower current enterprise value implies. And I think the stock could be poised for an explosive move higher when the market catches on.
