We recently compiled a list of the 10 Worst Performing Affordable Stocks Under $40. In this article, we are going to take a look at where LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RAMP) stands against the other worst performing affordable stocks under $40.

How’s the Market Performing after Fed Rate Cuts are Finally Here

The stock market has been anxiously waiting for the interest rate cut news. Analysts had been debating whether the Federal Reserve would make a 25-point or 50-point cut. The wait was finally over with good news for the market.

On September 18, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee decided to cut the borrowing rates by the higher end of the expectation, which was 50 basis points. The rate cut indicated that inflation is moderating and that the labor market has weakened. This marked the first rate cut since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision was not unanimous as Fed Governor Michelle Bowman wanted a quarter-point cut. Moreover, the chairman Jerome Powell called the cuts to be a “recalibration”. One thing that the committee was confident about is the fact that inflation is moving sustainably towards the 2% mark.

Right after the decision the Dow Jones index jumped 375 points and then eased a little as the market digested the news. In one of our recent articles about 10 Worst Affordable Stocks To Buy Right Now, we talked about how Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors co-founder was confident that the market will perform positively both moving in and out of the announcement. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors co-founder, joined CNBC to talk about how the market is expected to perform moving into the fed rate cuts and after the announcement. Lee believes that one of the factors leading to confusion among investors is the election period. The market is expected to stay in a fluctuating environment for the next eight weeks until the elections are over. However, fed rate cuts are coming at a crucial time to give some positive for the market.

There are two main reasons leading up to the rate cuts, one being the inflation easing and the other being the slower labor market that needs help from the Federal Reserve. Moreover, Lee thinks that regardless of the Fed deciding on a 25-point or 50-point cut, the result is going to be positive for the market. He thinks that investors should be confident for the next 12 months as whenever the Fed cuts rates, the win ratio for the markets has been almost 100%. Moreover, the markets rally post-elections regardless of who takes the seat.”

Jeremy Siegel, professor emeritus of finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Wisdom Tree chief economist, recently appeared on CNBC and expressed that he was pleasantly surprised by the Federal Reserve’s decision to make a 50 basis point cut. While talking about how the market is going to perform after the announcement, Professor Siegel said the market is going to be at an all-time high and there are not going to be any fluctuations as we have seen in the past few days.

The word “recalibration” holds significance here, the market has been 100% towards the target unemployment around 80% to 90% towards the inflation target and the Fed hadn’t moved the interest rate. Professor Siegel pointed out that the gap has been growing between the Fed Funds and the market conditions and they were thinking about a single cut by year-end until June. However, the latest announcement mentioned the Fed will cut rates at each meeting making a total of 6 cuts until June of next year. This will bring the Fed Funds rate down 200 basis points to 3.3%, which is where the professor thinks it should be.

Overall, the market and the economy seem to be heading towards a period of growth. The only foreseeable headwind is if the inflation picks up, however, analysts don’t see any signs of inflation picking up; rather they see all major industries doing well especially now that the rates have been cut.

Our Methodology

To compile the list of the 10 worst performing affordable stocks under $40, we used the Finviz stock screener. We first defined criteria to ensure we only got the worst performing affordable stocks. We selected stocks trading below the market average Forward P/E (i.e. 23.79 as per Wall Street Journal), with earnings expected to grow this year, average analyst median price target upside potential of at least 30%, and a year-to-date decline of at least 30%. Moreover, we also ensured that these stocks were trading below $40 and were widely held by institutional investors.

Once the criteria were defined, we then selected 10 stocks that fit our criteria and ranked them in ascending order of the Year-to-Date decline. Please note that all the indicators used to rank the list were recorded on September 18.

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).

LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RAMP)

Share Price: $25.81

Analyst Upside Potential: 60.79%

Forward P/E Ratio: 16.12

Earnings Growth This Year: 11.70%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 32

Year-to-Date Decline: 30.51%

LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RAMP) is a technology company that specializes in data collaboration for marketing purposes. It is recognized as one of the leading adtech companies with more than 900 direct subscription customers and 500 plus advertising activation partners. It provides a platform for businesses to share and connect their customer data security in a manner that protects customer privacy.

LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RAMP) is an adtech company that seems to be on the right side of the trending advertisement market. Moreover, its high-margin business model and target market put the company in an accelerated growth mode. The first quarter of 2025 was a testimony of just that. The company posted double-digit growth in both total revenue and subscription revenue for the second consecutive quarter.

Revenue grew 14% year-over-year to reach $176 million whereas gross margins were high at 71%. The revenue growth was driven by both its business segments, however, Marketplace revenue took the lead and grew 28% during the same time.

LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RAMP) has been under some challenges mostly originating from the recent changes in Google’s privacy policy, however, management remains confident that it will be able to take advantage of the changes. CEO, Scott Howe mentioned that the announcement by Google has not been understood properly. He acknowledges that Google is abandoning its original plan of deprecating third-party cookies in early 2025. On the other hand, it is also announcing a new plan that will make it easier for consumers to opt out of third-party tracking and a new IP protection.

Management believes that as cookies are becoming irrelevant for advertising, businesses are moving towards trusted data brands like LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RAMP) as their content destinations. Moreover, the company has made significant progress with its Authenticated Traffic Solution, a technology designed to help publishers and advertisers effectively connect and utilize user data while maintaining privacy, thereby solidifying its position in a changing environment.

Meridian Contrarian Fund made the following comment about LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RAMP) in its Q2 2023 investor letter:

“A holding that warranted an additional investment during the quarter was LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RAMP) a developer of a data connectivity platform that sharpens targeted advertisement placements while shielding consumer data privacy. The company’s technology allows improved advertising targeting and measurement across internet-based, streaming, and traditional verticals while meeting the ever-shifting data privacy regulations being enacted globally. We initially invested in the first quarter of 2023 following a difficult 2022 in which advertising spending slowed and LiveRamp rolled out new products and brought on new salespeople—which all combined to drive down earnings. In addition to the investments in future growth, however, management also reduced legacy products, which has lowered costs and improved earnings and cash flow through the first part of 2023, despite a still-tough advertising environment. We added to our position during the second quarter as the company’s internally driven earnings turn appeared to take hold, emphasizing our approach to opportunistic value and gaining access to one of the fastest-growing advertising verticals such as streaming television.”

Overall RAMP ranks 8th on our list of the worst performing affordable stocks under $40. While we acknowledge the potential of RAMP as an investment, 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.