We recently compiled a list of 8 Cheap Growth Stocks to Buy According to Analysts. In this article, we will look at where Five9, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVN) ranks among the cheap growth stocks to buy according to analysts.
Why Is the Market Still Volatile After Rate Cuts?
When the Federal Reserve cut rates last week there was a general anticipation that the market would rise. However, that has not been the case. Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors managing partner and head of research joined CNBC for an interview recently to talk about why the market is not performing as expected. The Federal Reserve has unleashed an easing cycle on the market, which is supposed to have a positive effect. Tom Lee believes that the market is positive historically if we look at a 3-month or a 6-month picture. However, the behavior of the market for the next 40 days is a coin flip.
Two reasons why there is volatility are first because there was some repositioning in the market due to the rate cuts and secondly the market is now entering into the 40-day election period. Tom believes that the positive effect that the rate cut was supposed to have has not vanished but is delayed until after the elections. Talking about his personal experience coming from various conferences and meetings, he thinks that a major chunk of the population doesn’t want to commit capital before the election. Moreover, it doesn’t matter who wins, but the public just wants to have the election day in their rear mirror before they take the capital out.
We recently covered an article about 7 Cheap Blue Chip Stocks to Invest in Now, where we talked about how the S&P 500 index has been overcrowded with Technology companies and has somewhat lost its diversity. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
“Turning back to how investors might revisit their idea of S&P being a low-risk investment. This idea was pitched by Bill Nygren, the Chief Investment Officer at Oakmark Funds in a recent CNBC interview. His approach reflects a strategic shift as to how investors might view the S&P 500 and mega-cap stocks in the current market situation. He pointed out that while the index has traditionally been viewed as a diversified index, in reality, it is just a bet on a few large technology companies. Currently, around half of the S&P 500 is dominated by some 25 large tech names, which essentially diminishes its original diversification.
Bill Nygren, emphasized the importance of having a more diversified portfolio beyond just mega-cap stocks. He believes that diversification of the portfolio provides better risk-adjusted returns compared to relying solely on a few big companies. We have also discussed Matt Stucky, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management’s chief equities portfolio manager, talking about a similar strategy in 13 Most Undervalued Blue Chip Stocks To Buy According To Analysts.
The investment strategy that Nygren is vouching for suggests that the current market scenario where investors are favoring positive momentum stocks can lead to missed opportunities in other undervalued sectors such as financials and energy. He believes that the potential lucrativeness of the Tech sector has overcrowded the space creating opportunity in other sectors.”
Lee also supports the idea that the S&P 500 index is a bet on the technology sector. He believes that if the technology sector does not resume its role as the leader and declines, it is going to be difficult for the rest of the stocks to hold up.
Lee has been a fan of small-cap stocks and closely analyzes the Russell 2000 index. He acknowledges that the index has been slow, however, the fundamental investment case for small caps remains the same. Lee thinks that bottoms of the year are not always straight up and the probability of the market making record highs next year remains high. His investment thesis is to buy the dip if the market goes down during the election days as the current market condition ensures that the positive effect is just around the corner.
Our Methodology
To compile the list of 8 cheap growth stocks to buy according to analysts, we used the Finviz stock screener to aggregate an initial list of stocks. We searched for cheap stocks in various growth industries including Technology, Healthcare, Biotechnology, and Telecommunications, among others. Our criteria for “cheap” is stocks trading below the forward price-to-earnings ratio of 23.98 (the market’s forward P/E as per the Wall Street Journal) and earnings expected to grow during the year. Using this criteria we compiled a list of 20 cheap growth stocks and then ranked them as per their analyst upside potential sourced from CNN. The list is ranked in ascending order of the analyst upside potential.
Why do we care about what hedge funds do? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
Five9, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVN)
Forward P/E Ratio: 12.17
Earnings Growth This Year: 10.70%
Analyst Upside Potential: 80.83%
Five9, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVN) is a leading technology company that provides cloud-based software solutions for contact dealers. One of the key offerings of the company includes a Virtual Contact Center (VCC), which is aimed at enhancing customer service for businesses. The omnichannel platform allows businesses to seamlessly integrate voice, chat, social media, and much more into customer services.
The company has been focused on enhancing the consumer experience through integrating artificial intelligence in its platform. It stands as a differentiated leader in the said market and has incorporated features such as virtual agents that blend human interaction with AI capabilities to ensure personalized customer care for businesses.
Five9, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVN) just surpassed the $1 billion mark for its FQ2 2024 revenue in annual run rate. Revenue growth was driven by a strong subscription rate, with the last 12-month subscription revenue growing 21% year-over-year and total subscriptions growing around 17% during the same time.
The growth prospects of the company look robust as it has developed various streams that generate high annual recurring revenue. It recently signed deals with higher education enrollment management, healthcare, and pharmacy benefits management companies.
Furthermore, due to its forward price-to-earnings ratio of 12.17 and earnings growth expected at 10.7% this year, it is one of the cheapest growth stocks to buy according to analysts.
Brown Capital Management Mid Company Fund stated the following regarding Five9, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVN) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Five9, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVN) is a leader in cloud-based contact-center software, which serves as the routing engine to connect callers to agents. With the growth of e-commerce, consumers are making fewer in-person visits to stores but contacting companies more frequently, driving the need for world-class contact-center software solutions like Five9’s. It has been a tough couple of years for Five9’s stock and this quarter provided no relief. Competitive concerns, questions about AI’s long-term impact on the business and deteriorating macroeconomic conditions have all cast clouds over the company’s stock. Five9’s consumer segment, one of its largest divisions, has really struggled of late as clients hire fewer call-center agents, pressuring Five9’s seat-based revenue model. Total revenue growth decelerated to 13% year-over-year in the most recent quarter, down from 28% and 17% in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Moreover, management guided to 16% for the full year 2024, which some consider optimistic given the weak start to the year. These worsening sales trends further weighed on shares during the quarter.
Looking through the current industry doldrums, we see a bright future for Five9. The company inked its largest deal ever during the quarter, which will generate more than $50 million in annual revenue once fully rolled out. We believe this is an important signal of Five9’s long-term potential. The company is attacking a $60 billion market opportunity, is winning new business at industry-leading rates and is gaining share from legacy incumbents stuck with antiquated technology. We continue to assess the potential threat of AI, but so far it has provided an uplift to company results. The company’s AI product is very popular with large enterprises as it assists agents with customer interactions and can sometimes be used to fully automate interactions. Far from shrinking the number of industry seats, as some fear, management said revenue per seat doubles when customers adopt their AI applications. We expect sales growth to pick up markedly in the coming years, which should result in much stronger stock performance.”
Overall FIVN ranks 2nd on our list of cheap growth stocks to buy according to analysts. While we acknowledge the potential of FIVN to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for a promising AI stock that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure. None. This article is originally published on Insider Monkey.