The outlook for growth stocks was much stronger at the beginning of 2024. Back then, markets were expecting rate cuts from the Federal Reserve as early as March. Some pundits were expecting as many as four or five rate cuts in 2024.
Fast forward to late April and it remains to be seen whether there will be any rate cuts at all this year. Inflation is proving to be very sticky. The economy continues to be strong overall. It all suggests that the Federal Reserve can take its time before enacting any such cuts.
That truth continues to cause difficulty for growth stocks that thrive in low interest environments. However, growth stock valuations remain at low creating an opportunity for investors to buy shares that have been ignored by the market.
Snowflake (SNOW)
Snowflake (NASDAQ:SNOW) stock fell off a cliff in late February when it was announced that CEO Frank Slootman would step down. The announcement coincided with a drop in share price from $230 to roughly $150 a few weeks later.
The irony of the debacle is that many analysts are on record stating that the move did nothing to change their material opinion of the company. That alone should be reason enough for investors to establish a position: Given the fall off in price there’s an obvious rebound opportunity.
Top line results continue to grow in excess of 30%. Snowflake continues to be among the more unheralded cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) opportunities available to investors. Meanwhile, the company just launched a dedicated, enterprise-scale large language model (LLM). It’s clear that snowflake intends to differentiate itself in that regard. While other competitors continue to dedicate resources toward consumer facing AI products, Snowflake is aiming at the enterprise opportunity.
Synopsys (SNPS)
Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS) is a sort of middle of the road chip design firm that doesn’t get that much attention. Yet, the stock is deserving of investor focus especially in light of a few current factors.
Perhaps the most obvious is that its shares are valued at $640 while it currently trades for $530. Part of the reason for that upside is the fact that synopsis continues to grow rapidly. During the most recent quarter, sales increased by 21%. That resulted in earnings which exceeded the high end of guidance.
My guess is that the market remains hesitant because it wants further clarity regarding the proposed acquisition of Ansys (NASDAQ:ANSS). It’s an interesting buy because Ansys Provides Software that predicts how likely products are to work in the real world. Meanwhile, Synopsys provides semiconductor design software. It’s easy to see why there’s optimism around the acquisition: Synopsys is positioned to become a better, more accurate provider of chip designs more suited to real-world scenarios.
Amazon (AMZN)
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock has fallen over the past few weeks presenting an opportunity in a company that is rarely ignored for long.
I’d argue that Amazon is among the best positioned of the tech giants at this point. The company has been something of a laggard in relation to artificial intelligence. However, Amazon is also investing $150 billion in a data center build out over the coming 15 years. The company is clearly very serious about the opportunity.
It also invested billions more in Anthropic, bringing its total investment to $4 billion as promised. That investment will provide Amazon with potentially invaluable machine learning resources that could help it build powerful in-house chips for the future. Amazon, like all the other Big Tech firms, is intent on building its own AI chips for the future. It’s far too early to assign any likelihood of success to each of those firms. That said, investors have to like what Amazon has done in 2024.
On the date of publication, Alex Sirois did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
