After seeing the slaughter in the market since the beginning of the year, it would be easy to throw the towel over the stocks. Dropped by more than 20% from its highest, each of S&P 500Recent rebound efforts so far seem to fade pretty quickly. We may see more downside before all is said and done, especially if summer and early fall are still hot weather for stocks.
However, as veteran investors can attest, the time to buy is in dips. And yet, trying to time any entries is often more painful than it helps. As 17th-century scholar Robert Burton said, we should not be “smart and stupid” by holding on to the exact bottom that we may not actually recognize as the lowest at the time.
With that as a backdrop, if you’re looking to score some major long -term stocks, here are five you can’t go wrong while they’re down.
Photo source: Getty Images.
1. Alphabet
This may be pretty obvious and overused as a suggested investment, but Alphabet (GOOG 0.58%) (GOOGL 0.68%) earned an “infallible” award for all the right reasons. Revenue has only declined per year over the past two quarters over the past 10 years, and one of those is linked to the arrival of COVID-19 in the United States in 2020.
The headwind was overcome in the next quarter.
You know Alphabet is the parent of search engine behemoth Google. You may or may not know that it is also the owner of the online video platform YouTube, and you probably don’t realize that it is also the name behind the Android mobile operating system. Android and Google are (so far) the dominant names in their respective arenas, according to data from GlobalStats. Although YouTube is in a category that is often alone, it is still a clear powerhouse when it comes to keeping people entertained. Market research outfit eMarketer estimates that more than 130 million consumers in the United States alone will watch YouTube videos on a real television set this year, comparing it to more traditional streaming names like Netflix as well as traditional cable TV services.
The point is, wherever the Alphabet goes, it tends to dominate.
2. Service Today
You may not be familiar with a company called Service Today (NIYEBE 12.37%), but there’s a good chance you’re a customer of a company that relies on the software it provides. In its most recent tally, ServiceNow’s clients are approximately 7,400 organizations, which collectively contributed more than $ 1.7 billion worth of revenue in the first quarter of this year alone. That’s 29% better than ServiceNow’s top line from the same quarter a year earlier, highlighting the potential growth of the software market without code workflow.
In the simplest terms, workflow software provides a way for workers to produce their own computer programs even if they do not have any coding or training experience. By empowering employees with these tools, efficiency increases, and costs decrease. ServiceNow offers custom-built workflow solutions for clients from human resources departments to risk management teams to the company’s own customers.
The industry is still in its infancy. Fortune Business Insights estimates that the workflow software market will grow rapidly an average of more than 30% per year between 2020 and 2028, which is great for ServiceNow at its shareholders.
3. Merck
Merck (MRK 3.19%) was never one of the top contenders in the race to create a vaccine with COVID-19, or in an effort to find an effective treatment for those infected with the virus. That’s the biggest reason why this stock didn’t perform as well as many other stocks of drug makers did in 2020 and 2021.
In retrospect, however, perhaps Merck’s unwillingness to hold back at all to address COVID-19 was a brilliant decision. Major players like coronavirus Modern at Pfizer now watching their stocks struggle because there is no saying a second step to ending a pandemic. Or, perhaps as problematic, the COVID-19 virus is evolving faster than drugs and vaccines specifically designed for it. The latest sub-variant of the omicron strain of the virus is surprisingly resistant to most approved vaccines aimed at the disease.
Instead of messing with short -term, highly competitive opportunities with the coronavirus, Merck has continued to develop its flagship drug, the cancer -fighting Keytruda. While most investors are looking at the pandemic and what’s happening in Washington, DC, over the past few years, Keytruda has been approved for many more uses that have helped increase its sales by more than 50% in the first quarter of years.
Sometimes it stays focused ay the smart-money move.
4. Comcast
Easy to dismiss Comcast (CMCSA 0.54%) as an investment prospect. It’s parent to cable television provider Xfinity, after all, and the cable television business is slowly dying out thanks to the ongoing cord-cutting movement.
However, from what the assumption is, cable television is only a small part of what Comcast does, and everything else Comcast does has the ability to offset the headwind of cable.
Some simple numbers give the idea. For the first quarter of the company’s year, less than 18% of its top line came from cable TV. Nearly a fifth of its revenue is made by broadband services causing so many cable customers to cancel their cable subscriptions. About one-third of its top line comes from its NBCUniversal arm, which profits TV and movie theaters in a way that avoids the headwind rising in the cable television business itself. The NBCUniversal unit operates its own streaming platform on Peacock, and also owns several theme parks. The UK’s Sky TV brand makes up Comcast’s revenue mix.
It will never be a high-growth outfit. The 36% stock sale since September, however, doesn’t make sense how many reliable revenue centers this company actually operates. Newcomers will come in as the well-supported dividend is a healthy 2.8% of the stock price.
5. Berkshire Hathaway
Finally, add Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A -0.83%)(BRK.B -0.84%) on your list of stocks to buy that you really can’t go wrong with.
In some ways, it’s a chicken’s way of actually picking stocks, punting the stock picking roles on Warren Buffett and his team. It’s also a step that sometimes leaves Berkshire shareholders second-guessing their decisions. Both Buffett and Berkshire were heavily criticized in 2020 and 2021 when its value-oriented fund continued to lag behind the performance of the S&P 500; not everyone is a fan of the fact that Berkshire would prefer to sit on idle cash that at least takes a swing at new positions. Some of those naysayers even suggested that Buffett’s careful, patient approach-and the idea of the value of the investment itself-is dead and growth is the only metric to be considered going forward.
In other words, the critics are wrong. Give Berkshire and Buffett acolytes enough time, and you’ll be glad you did. It takes tough times to remind the market that stocks of value have a place in your portfolio. We may be in the throes of difficult times.
Those criticisms also overlook the fact that while Berkshire owns many familiar stocks such as Apple at Occidental Petroleum, the company also owns a massive number of privately held, money-making corporations such as Fruit of the Loom, Lubrizol, Clayton Homes, and Duracell, just to name a few. Sometimes, it’s wise to own a piece of companies that aren’t too concerned with stock price concerns.