These top growth stocks and value stocks are good ways to balance a portfolio.
Although growth stocks have dominated much of the last decade, you wouldn’t know that from the early days of 2022. Some of the most richly valued stocks in the market have been the hardest hit in the wider stock market sell-off, and “boring” value stocks like AT&T Inc. (ticker: T), Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B, BRK.A) and Coca-Cola Co. (KO) have all handily outperformed the market. That said, plenty of value and growth stocks alike are trading at discounts, and investors can take their pick of some great companies in each category — which area you opt to focus on will largely depend on your risk tolerance.
Growth stock: Unity Software Inc. (U)
It’s rare to see the sort of dominance that Unity wields in its industry. Unity makes software that developers use to create all sorts of 3D content, with its most popular use in video game development, where more than 70% of mobile games are made with its software. The company is still growing quickly, with analysts expecting more than 30% revenue growth in 2022. The recent shift of tech’s focus toward the emerging world of the metaverse should also be bullish for U stock, especially if the company seizes on the opportunity to dominate the nascent field — something Unity CEO John Riccitiello has explicitly stated as a company goal.
Value stock: FedEx Corp. (FDX)
Everyone’s familiar with logistics and shipping giant FedEx, but that doesn’t mean FDX stock is getting the love it deserves. After trading sideways for the last year, FedEx is now an all-out value stock, going for just 14.5 times earnings, or a nearly half-off discount to the S&P 500’s price-earnings ratio of 28.6. Considering that analysts expect earnings growth of nearly 18% annually for the next five years, that’s a steal. There are fairly high barriers to entry in the capital-intensive logistics business, and even if Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) continues to grow, there’s plenty of business to go around for FedEx, which also pays a 1.2% dividend.
Growth stock: Latch Inc. (LTCH)
Latch, an apartment access and security company, has eye-popping expectations even by the standards of most growth stocks. An extremely young company — Latch had no revenue in 2020 — the key metric for Latch, which has to wait for apartments to be built before it can truly sell its hardware and software systems, is total bookings, an approximation of future revenue. The company expects bookings of $365 million in 2021, up 121% from the prior year. Meanwhile, revenue is expected to surge from $40.2 million in 2021 to $148.5 million in 2022, a 269% advance. LTCH trades at a steep 31 times revenue, but if those 2022 revenue numbers come to fruition, the stock is trading at less than 6 times forward revenue.
Value stock: Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC)
Value stocks don’t always have to be beleaguered, beaten-down names totally ignored by the market. Wells Fargo is a great example of a stock bucking the typical way investors think about value stocks: Shares are actually on an impressive hot streak, up 66% in the last year. Still, the stock trades for just 11 times earnings. It also pays a 1.5% dividend, and like the broader financial sector, WFC stands to benefit from the rising interest rates coming down the pike in 2022. On top of that, the company is making progress toward lifting the asset cap that the Federal Reserve placed on Wells Fargo in early 2018 in the wake of its fake-accounts scandal. While WFC has made concrete progress on improving its regulatory framework, it’s unclear whether the cap will be lifted in 2022. Either way, every day that passes is one day closer to an unconstrained Wells Fargo.
Growth stock: Meta Platforms Inc. (FB)
Facebook’s decision to change its name to Meta Platforms in late October was met with some cynicism from investors and onlookers. The company was also looking to clean up its public image after a whistleblower brought negative headlines and even testimony before Congress. But FB’s devotion to the metaverse, a virtual world where people will live, work, play and shop, doesn’t look quite so wild after Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) proposed deal to buy Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) for about $69 billion, seen in part as Microsoft’s own massive wager on the metaverse. This movement is happening, and Meta Platforms, with its more than 3 billion monthly active users and Oculus virtual reality segment, is at the forefront of a potentially game-changing technology. In the meantime, Meta and Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Google dominate the online advertising market, and the company trades for a reasonable 22 times earnings. Analysts expect 21% earnings growth over the next five years.
Value stock: AutoZone Inc. (AZO)
Don’t get scared away by the nearly $2,000-per-share price tag for this international auto parts retailer — at less than 19 times earnings, that’s actually a rather low price for a steady, high-quality business that’s resilient to economic downturns. Last quarter, the company saw revenue growth of 16.3% as domestic same-store sales, a key metric for retailers in any industry, jumped 13.6%. Company leadership appears to be confident in AutoZone’s continued success, approving an additional $1.5 billion share buyback program, on top of the roughly $1 billion that remained in its existing program. At current levels, that means AZO authorized the repurchase of more than 6% of all outstanding shares. With the average age of a car on the road in the U.S. now more than 12 years old — a record high — AutoZone has broader societal trends going for it, too.
Growth stock: SoFi Technologies Inc. (SOFI)
The San Francisco-based fintech SoFi Technologies rounds out the last of the growth stocks on this list. At a valuation of $11 billion, this Robinhood Markets Inc. (HOOD) competitor just got some big news, as it was conditionally approved by regulators to become an actual bank. Whereas previously SoFi was forced to use officially chartered banks to hold its customers’ deposits on its behalf, once the February acquisition of Golden Pacific Bancorp is complete, the company will be able to dramatically cut its interest expense by putting customer deposits directly on its own balance sheets. Although SoFi is currently unprofitable, this banking charter approval — not something easy to receive — gives SoFi a new avenue of growth that few fintechs ever enjoy.
Value stock: Steel Dynamics Inc. (STLD)
Value stocks aren’t always the timeliest opportunities, and Steel Dynamics, which has shed more than 15% to start 2022, certainly fits that bill. But this U.S. steel producer, which uses scrap metal in its more environmentally conscious and cheap production process, is trading at a valuation that’s hard to pass up for long-term investors bullish on the industry. Trading for less than 5 times earnings, STLD pays a solid 2% dividend and has plenty of room to raise it as well, as it uses just 9% of earnings to finance that payout. Although analysts are starting to tame their expectations for the industry due in part to waning steel prices and demand concerns from a slowing Chinese economy, STLD should remain comfortably profitable for the foreseeable future.
4 best growth, 4 best value stocks to buy:
— Growth stock: Unity Software Inc. (U)
— Value stock: FedEx Corp. (FDX)
— Growth stock: Latch Inc. (LTCH)
— Value stock: Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC)
— Growth stock: Meta Platforms Inc. (FB)
— Value stock: AutoZone Inc. (AZO)
— Growth stock: SoFi Technologies Inc. (SOFI)
— Value stock: Steel Dynamics Inc. (STLD)
