It's a tricky time to be in the market. Most investors understand stocks as a whole -- and artificial intelligence (AI) stocks in particular -- are overvalued; we're even seeing hints that a correction may be brewing. Yet it still feels like the biggest risk here isn't being in the market, but rather out of it.
Fortunately, there's a smart, strategic solution. You can remain in the market but also defend your portfolio with stocks that may be a bit off the beaten path, already beaten-down, or countercyclical names that perform independently of most other stocks.
Here's a prospect of each type.
Image source: Getty Images.
Vertiv
Vertiv (VRT +0.14%) isn't a household name. In fact, there's a good chance you've never even heard of it. The $65 billion technology-support outfit only doing about $8 billion worth of business per year just doesn't turn many heads.
What this company lacks in size, however, it more than makes up for in growth potential.
Simply put, Vertiv offers "critical infrastructure technologies," mostly to data centers. This includes power supplies, cooling solutions, racks, and more. Whereas Nvidia makes processors and Broadcom makes the equipment that links them together, Vertiv gives this tech a (literal) framework to attach to, and then helps owners/operators keep these power-hungry, heat-generating platforms up and running.
It's not the only name in the business. Companies like Applied Digital and DigitalOcean also operate in this space. There's arguably enough business to go around for each of these outfits, though. An outlook from IoT Analytics predicts the worldwide data center infrastructure market is poised to grow at an annualized pace of 23% through 2030. Vertiv can distinguish itself within the industry by leveraging its OneCore and SmartRun tech, which are pre-fabricated data center solutions that can be installed in less time than establishing a new data center would normally take. They're a big reason the company's expected to report top-line growth of 28% and 20% this year and next, respectively, in fact.
Perhaps of more interest to investors is that Vertiv's relative lack of name recognition actually works in its favor. Shares of the already profitable and fast-growing company are reasonably priced at only a little over 30 times next year's projected per-share earnings.
Meta Platforms
Vertiv may be unknown, but Meta Platforms (META +0.87%) certainly isn't. The $1.5 trillion outfit is parent to social networking platforms Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, where 3.5 billion people check in (combined) every single day.
It's curious. For all the fatigue people say they have from using the site at the same time other advertising mediums are materializing, the world certainly continues to expand its usage of these social media platforms. Last quarter's active user headcount was up 8% year over year, driving a 14% increase in ad impressions. Meanwhile, a 10% increase in ad prices contributed to a 26% year-over-year improvement in total revenue. Clearly, the company is still doing something right. That, or maybe Facebook has just become so deeply integrated into people's daily routines that they now visit the site without even thinking about it.
Either way, why is the stock a buy here and now? Mostly because -- unlike many of its consumer-facing technology peers -- this one is way down for no great reason. Indeed, shares have lost about one-fourth of their value just since September, mostly in response to news that it would be investing more in artificial intelligence this year than initially planned. At a time when Wall Street is already weary of AI spending that isn't producing a clear return on the investment, investors flinched.
NASDAQ: META
Key Data Points
This doubt arguably takes the wrong long-term view of Meta's spending on artificial intelligence, however.
See, this company is uniquely positioned to actually do something constructive with this tech, like improving the relevance of ads displayed at Facebook (or now even within Instagram), or simply offering AI-powered tools to Facebook's users.
This might help: Despite the heavy spending and the stock's subsequent weakness, analysts aren't discouraged. The analyst community still contends Meta shares are worth $838.38 apiece, up more than 40% from the ticker's present price.
Fluor
Finally, add Fluor (FLR 1.23%) to your list of top stocks to buy if you've got $1,000 you're ready to put to work.
It's a construction company, mostly, although the categorization doesn't quite do it justice. Fluor doesn't build houses. It constructs chemical plants, bridges, factories, airports, power plants (including nuclear reactors), life sciences labs, and, yes, data centers, just to name a few. All of these are increasingly in demand due to population growth, aging infrastructure, and technological leaps that justify investments in upgraded facilities. This growing demand is also largely unfazed by economic malaise; if a city or state needs a new bridge, it needs it regardless of the cost or the economy's ability to generate tax revenue.
There is an arguable downside. That is, even in a "good" year, Fluor is unlikely to produce double-digit revenue growth or consistent earnings growth. It's just the nature of the business -- even if funding is reliably available, it's often complicated and time-consuming to get this kind of money flowing to pay for such massive projects.
The long-term opportunity is there though, even if the company's hit-and-miss quarterly results are causing short-term volatility for the stock. Investors can use this volatility to their advantage, in fact, as it's recently dragged FLR shares back to where they were trading in the middle of last year. This isn't a stock that stays down this much for very long.
NYSE: FLR
Key Data Points
More importantly to investors, though, Fluor stock is different than most of the other names likely to already be in your portfolio. It moves relatively independently of the rest of the market, somewhat shielding it from any marketwide weakness that may or may not be brewing.
The kicker: The World Nuclear Association says there are 70 new nuclear power plants currently under construction plus another 110 planned, versus 440 up and running right now. If nuclear energy is going to make the comeback it looks like it's going to, Fluor features prominently in that rebirth.
