We recently published a list of 7 Best Low Cost Stocks To Buy Under $50. In this article, we are going to take a look at where HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) stands against other best low cost stocks to buy under $50.
Where are the Best Opportunities in the Bull Market Right Now?
A lot has happened in the stock market during the last couple of weeks. The Fed cut rates by 50 basis points to help the weakening labor market. A few days ago we saw the Chinese stimulus being announced which included a series of positive measures by the government to ease the economic pressure.
We recently covered the Chinese stimulus and its expected impact on the global economy in 7 Cheap Internet Stocks To Invest In Now. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
“Recently, China’s stock market has seen a sharp rally, driven by some aggressive measures by the government to revive the economy. China is the world’s second-largest economy and one of the key players in the technology industry. This huge economy has faced a series of challenges for the past few years in the shape of a sharp property market downturn and a lack of consumer confidence.
The government measures include interest rate cuts and liquidity injection into the market. On September 24, Reuters reported China’s central bank cut bank reserve requirement by 50 basis points and it also reduced interest rate by 20 basis points to 1.5%. Moreover, the bank also plans to issue 2 trillion yuan in special sovereign bonds.
These measures resulted in the CSI 300 index trading higher. The index closed 4.5% higher after the announcement whereas the Hong Kong Index gained 3.6%. This move by the Chinese central bank is said to have a positive effect around the globe. Analysts in the United States are already discussing the news as “China Boost”. While many analysts are calling this boost to be short-lived, others are confident that this is a positive mood and will benefit the market in the long term.”
The Fed rate cut and the Chinese stimulus are expected to affect the market positively. Adam Parker, Trivariate Research founder and CEO; Lauren Goodwin, New York Life Investments chief market strategist; and Kristina Hooper, Invesco chief global market strategist joined CNBC recently to talk about the best opportunities in the current bull market.
Adam Parker expressed that the market is outpacing the Federal Reserve’s action. He highlighted a sense of optimism surrounding AI deployment over the next few years, but he also raised concerns about market valuations exceeding economic realities. Parker likes the healthcare sector as it is driven by AI and believes that this will put the industry in a leading market position. He also believes that the Chinese Stimulus is a positive sign for the energy and industrial sectors.
On the other hand, Lauren Goodwin talked about how the rate cuts are supposed to affect the market. She thinks growth is the key indicator while analyzing the market. When the Fed is cutting rates, profit, and earnings margins typically stay where they are until growth starts to slow down. Moreover, she also pointed out that it is difficult to see the real economic catalyst that gives growth an upstart, without inflation. She also thinks that the upcoming period is going to be volatile between growth kicking up and then slowing down. Goodwin mentioned that she is going to be the buyer of the rally until unemployment starts rising and growth becomes a problem.
Lastly, Kristina Hooper mentioned the recent Fed cut to be a crisis cut in a non-crisis environment. She emphasized the Fed is cutting into growth, however, we will see a brief slowdown. The Fed has not only cut the rate by 50 basis points but is expected to cut by another 50 during the year and significantly more next year. These rate cuts are similar to throwing jet fuel in the market but that does not mean the stock market will go crazy. Hooper thinks that the fuel will help industries that have not rallied much recently benefit from the accelerating economy. She mentioned cyclicals to be one of the industries which are expected to enjoy the growth rally and also pointed out that the recent China stimulus will only help the cause.
Our Methodology
We compiled the 7 best low cost stocks under $50 using the Finviz stock screener. Using the screener we first aggregated the list of stocks that were trading below the Forward Price-to-Earning ratio of 23.98 (the market’s forward P/E as per the Wall Street Journal) and a share price of under $50. We also took into account the EPS growth rate. Then we ranked the list by the number of hedge funds to get the best stocks. Please note that the list is ranked in ascending order of the number of hedge fund holders in Q2 2024.
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).
A laptop, showing off the companys sleek notebook computers and workstations.
HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)
Share Price: $35.41
Forward P/E Ratio: 10.89
Earnings Growth This Year: 3.00%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 41
HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) is a technology company specializing in personal computing and printing solutions. The company has been facing trouble due to underperformance in its printer business. The problem persisted in the fiscal 3rd quarter of 2024. The printing segment revenue decreased 2.8% year-over-year. The pressure regarding this segment originates from a higher work-from-home trend in the industry and strong competition from its rivals.
However, this offset does not mean the company is a lost cause. In fact, despite a decline in one of its biggest segments, HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) has still been able to improve its total revenue by 2% year-over-year, which exceeded analyst expectations.
Management’s focus on enhancing their Personal Systems segment with artificial intelligence saved the day for HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ). The segment revenue amounted to $9.37 billion and was up 5.3% year-over-year.
The company has made significant leaps in the AI PC sector which seems to be boosting investor confidence. In May, this year the company launched its first generation PC, which uses the latest Qualcomm processor. Moreover, HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) has also introduced one of the world’s thinnest next-generation AI PCs which uses the latest AMD processors and delivers around 55 TOPS of NPU performance.
These developments in the AI PC industry led to strong results for the third quarter and are expected to deliver significant growth moving forward. HPQ is cheap at current levels, it is trading at 11 times its forward earnings, with analysts expecting its earnings to grow by 3% during the year. Thereby, making it one of the low-cost stocks to buy under $50.
Greenlight Capital stated the following regarding HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“In addition to gold, we had four material winners in our long portfolio this quarter. HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) jumped from $30.22 to $35.02. After seven quarters of declines, PC sales turned marginally positive during the quarter. The industry appears to be in the early stages of an upcycle, perhaps to be enhanced by recently launched AI-enabled PCs that are expected to ramp up over the next several quarters.”
Overall, HPQ ranks 7th on our list of 7 Best Low Cost Stocks To Buy Under $50. While we acknowledge the potential of HPQ 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 at Insider Monkey.
