The Underpriced Steals: 7 Stocks You Can’t Afford to Overlook This Year

Stocks to buy

Seven stocks stand out due to their strategic placement and excellent growth prospects among many investing alternatives. With careful post-merger integration, the first one has improved operating efficiency and produced significant savings, setting it up for future success. The second one keeps growing, leveraging the development of the digital payments industry and securing its sources of income. The third one’s large user base on all of its platforms highlights how effective its monetization and advertising techniques are.

The semiconductor industry’s technological achievements and durability in the fourth one indicate sustained development despite market volatility. The fifth one maintains its position as a top provider thanks to its strategic approach to broadband connections, which uses fixed and wireless technology. The sixth demonstrates flexibility and development potential through diversification initiatives and success in new areas.

Lastly, the seventh operational accomplishment highlights its dedication to strategic efforts, especially in the healthcare sector. This results in favorable financial consequences. Read more to learn about the fundamentals behind its rapid value growth potential.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)

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As of 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) has executed its post-merger integration. It saves $4 billion between merger and transformation costs, demonstrating its dedication to cost reduction and operational effectiveness. 

Furthermore, the integration initiatives make the company more flexible and streamlined. This has allowed Warner Bros. Discovery to realize further economies in production flow and enterprise systems, which helps to increase cash flow generation and profitability.

Further, Warner Bros. Discovery’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) sector has nearly 98 million members (Q4 2023). This indicates tremendous growth potential. The company is still focused on growing its direct-to-consumer (D2C) product line. Moreover, the company plans to introduce Max to important foreign markets, including Europe and Latin America.

Overall, the D2C segment has the potential for profitability and contribution to overall performance. Hence, this is reflected in the company’s positive EBITDA of almost $100 million.

PayPal (PYPL)

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In Q4 2023 and 2023, PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) delivered constant top-line growth. The company has the fundamental capacity to seize a higher portion of the digital payments industry. Revenue climbed by 9% in Q4 and by 8% in 2023. Additionally, PayPal attained a revenue boost on both a spot and a neutral foreign exchange basis. This signifies its adaptability to a range of market situations.

Additionally, PayPal’s total payment volume (TPV) was $409.8 billion in Q4 and $1.53 trillion in 2023. This was boosted by 15% in Q4 and 13% in 2023 on a spot basis. It is a core factor deriving the company’s top-line growth. The steady increase in TPV reflects PayPal’s capacity to handle rising transaction volumes, which reflects the company’s growing user base and strengthening relationships with current clients.

Finally, alongside the focus on cost control, there is a sharp effort to make strategic investments in high-growth sectors like Braintree, branded checkout, and other value-added services. Thus, by making these investments, PayPal may improve its competitive edge while preserving an efficient balance between expense reduction and top-line growth.

Meta (META)

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Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and other applications in Meta’s (NASDAQ:META) family of apps have billions of users. Moreover, Meta’s family of Daily Active People (DAP) grew 8% over 2022 to 3.19 billion in 2023. Similarly, the family of Monthly Active People (MAP) increased to 3.98 billion. This indicates 6% annual growth, reflecting Meta’s capacity to draw and hold users across all its platforms.

About Facebook, in particular, the platform’s daily active users (DAUs) averaged 2.11 billion in 2023. This is a 6% rise over 2022. In addition, as of 2023, Facebook’s Monthly Active Users (MAUs) had grown by 3%, demonstrating Facebook’s enduring popularity and massive user engagement.

To conclude, Meta’s secret to success is its capacity to maintain a large and continuously expanding user base on all its platforms. Hence, this broad audience base offers a solid basis for generating revenue from advertising and other forms of monetization

Intel (INTC)

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With sales of over $15 billion in Q4 2023, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) holds solid top-line growth. There is a considerable boost of 10% over Q4 2022, indicating the business’s ability to seize market opportunities and satisfy client demand. Intel has demonstrated its endurance and competitiveness in the semiconductor sector by generating double-digit sales growth.

Additionally, Intel still has space for potential growth; even if it forecasts the revenue to fall modestly in Q1 2024, the company projects it at $12.2 billion and $13.2 billion. Even with the range of revenues below the 2023 Q4, Intel remains optimistic, with some guidance pointing towards the underlying strength in the main business divisions.

To sum up, Intel 3’s release reflects its technical development, the first advanced node available to Intel Foundry Services (IFS) clients. Finally, Intel’s focus on tackling the problems of semiconductor innovation is demonstrated by the installation in Oregon of the first on-site high-NA EUV tool in the industry.

Verizon (VZ)

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Over 1.7 million new internet customers were added to Verizon’s (NYSE:VZ) broadband business in 2023. This demonstrates the company’s solid growth in net addition. Fios customers and fixed wireless access drove this rise, demonstrating the high demand for broadband connection options.

With more than 1.5 million net additions to Verizon’s broadband network during the year, fixed wireless access emerged as a major driver of net additions. This expansion exceeded projections and proved Verizon’s plan to use wireless technologies to increase internet coverage to be more effective.

Moreover, Verizon’s Fios Internet net additions increased, reaching 248K for the year. Although this was a slight gain over the prior year, it demonstrated Verizon’s ability to draw new customers and keep existing ones for its conventional fiber-based internet services.

Lastly, the steady increase in broadband net additions shows Verizon’s ability to take advantage of the growing demand in urban and rural regions for high-speed internet services.

Philip Morris (PM)

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The growth potential of Philip Morris (NYSE:PM) has been bolstered by its strategy of broadening its product line and venturing into new areas. The Q4 2023 off-take share data across several geographies indicates that Philip Morris saw excellent growth in low- and middle-income economies. Countries with dynamic off-take volume growth included Egypt, Morocco, Indonesia, and others.

Additionally, with over 8.5 million adult users, the IQOS brand propelled development in the heat-not-burn sector in places like Japan. The category’s proportion of the Japanese industry grew to about 40%, demonstrating how well-accepted smokeless alternatives are.

Moreover, the nicotine pouch product ZYN by Philip Morris had remarkable growth in the United States in Q4 of 2023, with volumes rising by more than 75%. Its growing retail value share reflects the product’s premium positioning and excellent brand equity.

Finally, Philip Morris’ expansion was greatly aided by the acquisition of Swedish Match; pro forma net revenues increased by 20% in 2023 and 26% in Q4 of 2023. ZYN’s exceptional performance in the U.S. further enhanced Philip Morris’s income streams and market presence.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA)

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Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) reached vital operational milestones across all its business segments, including advancing and accomplishing core projects. The U.S. Healthcare division reached a major milestone by producing its first-ever positive adjusted EBITDA quarter. The purchase of Summit Health was the primary factor in the segment’s 33% revenue boost during Q2 2024. 

In addition, the segment’s $127 million increase in adjusted EBITDA over the prior year demonstrates the success of strategic efforts meant to improve profitability and operational efficiency. 

Moreover, the international division of Walgreens Boots Alliance showed steady performance and execution. There is solid retail comp growth at Boots UK and steady market share increases. Despite slower real estate gains, the segment’s 3.2% sales increase and stable adjusted operating income demonstrate its tenacity and skill at overcoming obstacles in the market. 

To sum up, the international segment’s sustained performance highlights Walgreens Boots Alliance’s robust worldwide reach and its capacity to use local market knowledge to spur expansion and profitability.

As of this writing, Yiannis Zourmpanos held long positions in WBD, PYPL, META, INTC, VZ, PM and WBA. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Yiannis Zourmpanos is the founder of Yiazou Capital Research, a stock-market research platform designed to elevate the due diligence process through in-depth business analysis.

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