5 Undervalued Stocks to Buy

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undervalued stocks - 5 Undervalued Stocks to Buy

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[Editor’s note: “5 Undervalued Stocks to Buy” was previously published in October 2019. It has since been updated to include the most relevant information available.]

Overall, the stock market continued its improvement throughout 2019, compared to where it ended in 2018; it has been a complete turnaround from last year’s drop when stocks entered bear-market territory.

But even though many stocks have completely erased all of their losses and made it back into the green, not all stocks have done so well. What this means is that while there are still plenty of duds out there, there are also a few undervalued stocks to buy; it has just become a little trickier to find them amid all the flashy comeback stories.

To find the best stocks to buy now, disciplined investors might start with their own watch list, which should contain “wish list” stocks that are usually too expensive or have been put there to be on the back burner for later.

Among such stocks, companies that got left out of the rally are the most compelling. Even better, some of the best undervalued stocks to buy are those that dropped by double-digit percentages during the current rally.

Why is that?

Stocks that have already priced in current and possible negative news typically lower the risk for investors. Such companies may work to resolve the business problem at hand, which improves its prospects and leads to a higher share price in the long run. As long as the bad news reported is a temporary setback and the business model is not broken, the risks behind buying a stock on a dip are lower.

With all of that in mind, here are five undervalued stocks to buy that aren’t as scary as they seem.

Sony (SNE)

5 Undervalued Stocks to Buy
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Investors who held Sony (NYSE:SNE) stock through the Q2 2019 earnings report posted on July 30 enjoyed the rally that followed. The stock rose from $54.50 to nearly $70 recently and has been trading in the high $60 range ever since.

Surprise beats in the Q3 report really has sent the stock soaring. Now that Sony is trading at yearly highs, investors need not sell the stock just yet.

When Sony’s Playstation 5 arrives, SNE will have more power than ever. Though the PS5 release will release no sooner than mid-2020, 8K support and game refreshes should give Sony another boost in revenue when the time comes.

Sony faced a few headwinds in the quarter. Contributions from first-party software titles fell. Sales of non-first party titles declined. But PS4 hardware sales rose, as did network service sales, including sales of PlayStation Plus.

Celestica (CLS)

5 Undervalued Stocks to Buy
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In July, Celestica (NYSE:CLS) reported respectable Q3/2019 results recently, but it still took a little while to move CLS stock out of its $6 trading range. Trading in the $8 range ahead of January’s earnings suggests increased confidence.

The company supplies equipment in ATS aerospace and defense, industrial, smart energy, health tech and capital equipment.

Its enterprise unit consists of servers and storage. Why then, should investors believe the company will offset the weakness it faces in the eroding semiconductor market?

Celestica is cutting costs in operations to align the business with the lower revenue. It will continue to build its capital equipment business. Management believes the fundamentals in this space will only improve in the long run. As next-generation adoption in display continues, its OLED business, for example, will add to its bottom line.

Celestica stock is still an undervalued play worth considering. The stock may underperform a while longer and risks disappointing investors.

AbbVie (ABBV)

5 Undervalued Stocks to Buy
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Back when I first wrote this list of undervalued stocks, Allergan (NYSE:AGN) was the pick in this slot. And it paid off. Investors buying Allergan at the start of 2019 may have made up to $50 a share, peak to trough.

In June, the stock fell below $115, only to peak at around $165 in July when my new pick, AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV), agreed to buy out the firm for $63 billion. AbbVie’s rationale for acquiring Allergan is two-fold.

First, it views Allergan’s portfolio of products, including Botox, as attractive. Second, it has the time to use the strong cash flow from Humana to pay off its Allergan acquisition. Once Humana faces fierce competition from generics, AbbVie will have paid off much of the debt related to the AGN buyout. And in a few year’s time, Allergan’s drugs in the development pipeline will be ready for market.

AbbVie’s long-term future planning through the AGN acquisition makes AbbVie stock appealing for dividend-income investors. Even though shares rose from a $62.66 52-week low to $71.55, the stock still pays a dividend that yields 5%.

At a Sep. 10 Healthcare Conference, AbbVie reiterated its commitment to cut debt and to continue growing its dividend. It will also allocate some cash for smaller mid- to late-stage pipeline opportunities. Management has a good handle on integrating Allergan into its business but it will not let its existing pipeline suffer in any way.

Innoviva (INVA)

5 Undervalued Stocks to Buy
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Innoviva (NASDAQ:INVA) is another stock in the drug space whose large drop starting in late January continued throughout 2019, but after an early fall bounce, INVA looks like it’s on the right track again.

The fall began when the FDA approved Mylan’s (NASDAQ:MYL) generic version of Advair, which GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) produces. This forced investors to worry about Innoviva’s prospects because the company is paid royalties from Glaxo. In the third quarter, Innova received $65.1 million in royalty revenues from Glaxo.

Investors overreacted to the generic competition. Demand for Innoviva’s formulation didn’t drop and prices held. This helped royalty revenues stabilize.

There was more than a little hope in the company’s Q3 release, as royalties started to take a turn for the better:

“[N]et sales were again impacted in part by weaker pricing that has occurred following the launch of generic versions of Advair, non-U.S. net sales…grew strongly year over year,” according to Geoffrey Hulme, Interim Principal Executive Officer.

Vodafone (VOD)

5 Undervalued Stocks to Buy
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Telecom stocks were out of favor heading into 2019. Now, telecom stocks are no longer out of favor. But Vodafone (NASDAQ:VOD), which after cratering in May, has just barely climbed back to its pre-Christmas levels. So VOD is definitely still an undervalued stock, but maybe not for much longer.

According to Nick Read, Group Chief Executive, in it’s most recent earnings report (PDF):

“We have now secured network sharing agreements across most of our major European markets, and we recently announced a major long-term wholesale partnership with Virgin Media in the UK, in order to improve the utilisation of our network assets. And we expect our European TowerCo to be operational by May next year, enabling us to continue to unlock the significant value embedded in our tower infrastructure.”

Plus, simplifying the mobile plan offering will likely lead to higher revenue growth ahead. For example, Vodafone migrated 500,000 SIMs to a new unlimited offer. This will also increase ARPU and keep customers from switching to competitor services.

Vodafone shares pay a dividend yield of 4.93%. If Vodafone grows its UK business as it signs on users to its 5G services and cuts costs as it signs on more customers, VOD stock will finally move higher.

As of this writing, Chris Lau owned shares of Innoviva and AbbVie.

Chris Lau is a contributing author for InvestorPlace.com and numerous other financial sites. Chris has over 20 years of investing experience in the stock market and runs the Do-It-Yourself Value Investing Marketplace on Seeking Alpha. He shares his stock picks so readers get actionable insight to achieve strong investment returns.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2019/12/undervalued-stocks-to-invest-in/.

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