Managing a lump sum payment can be tricky. Whether it's an employee bonus, family inheritance, or the sale of an asset, people will sometimes receive huge deposits into their personal balance sheet. Obviously, we all would like a $50,000 gift deposited into our bank account. But it does present a good problem to be solved: What to do with the money? Unless you have major outstanding debts, the best place to park the money is the stock market, which has a long track record of superior wealth generation compared to other savings vehicles.
Deciding to put your money in the stock market is only the first step, though. You then have to decide which stocks you are going to buy for your portfolio. Here are two cheap technology stocks you can buy with $50,000 today.
Coupang: The best e-commerce business in the world?
The first stock on my list is one of the most under-discussed technology companies in the world, Coupang (CPNG 1.55%). It debuted in an initial public offering (IPO) in 2021 with a valuation of $85 billion, making it one of the largest IPOs of the last few years.
NYSE: CPNG
Key Data Points
Coupang is a South Korean and Taiwanese e-commerce platform. It has arguably improved on the Amazon technology flywheel, providing incredible value to millions of customers. Coupang shoppers can get items delivered the next morning for anything ordered by midnight the previous day, receive fresh groceries, and even have service workers install home appliances. On the fourth-quarter 2024 conference call, CEO Bom Suk Kim highlighted that customers can buy tires and have Coupang change them on their vehicle.
Using its scale, Coupang now offers delivery services for third-party sellers, is selling advertising space on its platform, and offers video streaming through Coupang Play. In 2024, consolidated revenue grew to $30 billion despite major depreciation of the Korean won versus the U.S. dollar. Free cash flow was $1 billion in 2024 and has plenty of room to expand as Coupang's revenue climbs higher and profit margins expand. At a market cap of $43 billion, Coupang looks like an attractive buy right now for those looking to hold for the long term.
GOOG PE Ratio data by YCharts
Alphabet: Fading the AI fear
There have been loud calls for the death of Google Search over the last few years because of rising artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups like OpenAI. Parent company Alphabet (GOOG 0.87%) (GOOGL 0.75%) -- which also owns YouTube, Waymo, Android and other Google properties -- suffered due to this narrative. So far, this fear has not shown up in the company's financial statements.
Alphabet's revenue grew 12% year over year last quarter to $96.5 billion. Google Cloud revenue grew 30% to $12 billion. Operating margin expanded to 32% compared to 27% in the prior year. Despite these AI fears, Alphabet's business is doing just fine. Management sees a huge opportunity to deploy AI products across the Alphabet universe, from Google Maps to YouTube to Gmail, improving the customer value proposition for using Google products. More usage should turn into more advertising sales, which is how Alphabet mainly generates revenue.
NASDAQ: GOOG
Key Data Points
Alphabet's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has fallen to 21. The S&P 500 index has an average P/E of 29. For a company growing revenue at a double-digit rate and expanding its margins, Alphabet's stock looks to be trading at a significant discount to the market average right now, making it a good buy for investors today.
Both Coupang and Alphabet are fast-growing businesses trading at cheap prices. This makes them attractive investments for today's investor who plans to buy and hold their shares for at least five years (and hopefully longer).
