Yahoo Finance 2 Great Stocks That Just Went on Sale
The stock market just had a significant pullback, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging by more than 1,300 points over a two-day stretch.
However, market moves like this aren't a reason to panic. Instead, think about stock market corrections in the same way you would think about a sale at your favorite store -- as a great time to buy quality merchandise at lower prices. With that in mind, here are two stocks that have been beaten down recently that are on the top of my shopping list right now.
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A growing financial ecosystem
Fintech company Square's (NYSE: SQ) stock took quite a beating yesterday -- down nearly 30% from its recent highs, and that's after a bit of a rebound.
Fortunately, the move isn't due to anything that affects the company's long-term growth potential. In fact, there have been three major negative catalysts driving Square's stock price downward:
Square announced that it was tiptoeing into consumer lending with Square Installments. To be clear, this adds long-term growth potential, but it also adds an additional element of credit risk, which is likely the reason the market reacted negatively.
Square's CEO Jack Dorsey recently sold more than 103,000 shares of the stock. Simply put, this is a complete nonevent from a long-term perspective. This was a planned sale that resulted from Dorsey's exercise of stock options -- that's all.
Square's CFO Sarah Friar has decided to leave the company to pursue other opportunities. Now, Friar has been an absolute rock star in her role, and there's certainly value in having great managers. So I'm really not surprised this caused a downward move. I'm certainly curious to see who the next CFO will be, but I have no reason to doubt the ability of Dorsey and his team to find the right person for the job.
Here's the bottom line: Square has amazing long-term growth potential with several different aspects of its business. Has this changed? Not at all.
A massive consumer banking growth opportunity
I've had my eye on Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) for quite some time, and this latest downward move might finally get me to pull the trigger and add it to my portfolio. As of this writing, Goldman is down more than 13% from its recent high.
For starters, although it trades for one of the lowest price-to-book valuations in the entire financial sector, Goldman's recent results have been quite impressive. Investment banking continues to grow, wealth management assets have increased consistently, and profitability has been strong.
However, the reason I'm most excited about Goldman Sachs as a long-term investment is for its largely untapped opportunity in consumer banking. If you aren't familiar, Goldman has charged into consumer banking with its Marcus by Goldman Sachs platform, which has made billions in personal loans and offers high-yield online savings accounts. While the early results have been great, both sides of the business are still quite small by "big bank" standards.
This could just be the tip of the iceberg. We recently learned that Goldman is getting into the credit card business as Apple's co-branding partner. And in a presentation a few months ago, Goldman's then-president and COO David Solomon mentioned several other potential areas of growth, such as mortgages, auto loans, insurance products, checking accounts, and payment solutions.
Here's why I think Goldman will become a major force in consumer banking. The bank has the resources of a large-scale bank to grow its offerings as aggressively or as cautiously as it wants, and it has one of the most recognizable brand names in the financial world. And because it doesn't operate commercial banking branches, it has a major cost advantage over any banks of comparable size.
In a nutshell, Goldman Sachs has all of the advantages of a big bank but without the hinderance of a legacy branch network.
Short-term weakness in long-term winners
Are Square and Goldman Sachs worth 30% and 13% less, respectively, than they were just a few weeks ago? Of course not. These two companies both have just as much growth potential as they did prior to the recent market drop, and in many ways, they looked cheap even before the plunge. If these two stocks aren't on your radar yet, maybe they should be now.
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Matthew Frankel, CFP owns shares of Square and has the following options: short December 2018 $90 calls on Square. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Square. The Motley Fool has the following options: short January 2019 $80 calls on Square. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
