Even after the recent stock market rebound, the Nasdaq Composite remains down over 30% from its all-time high. Many individual stocks are down much more as investors digest the impact of inflation and rising interest rates on the companies they follow.
Despite these headwinds, Innoviz Technologies(NASDAQ: INVZ), ChargePoint Holdings(NYSE: CHPT), and Tetra Tech (NASDAQ: TTEK) are three growth stocks that could be worth considering.
Image source: Getty Images.
Ain't no lie: This lidar stock is worth a look
Scott Levine (Innoviz Technologies): When investors traffic in growth stocks that have a connection to the auto industry, the usual suspects that come to mind are electric vehicle (EV) companies. But that's hardly the only road worth traveling down. Lidar stocks, such as Innoviz Technologies, also represent compelling growth opportunities for investors willing to hitch a ride with a higher-risk investment.
Down 62% from its all-time high, shares of Innoviz have ridden a rocky road, but forward-looking investors who are willing to ride out the challenges in the near term might be rewarded handsomely in the years to come.
Although shares of Innoviz have plummeted this year, it's essential to recognize that the market's distaste for the stock doesn't reflect the missteps of the company. In fact, Innoviz has scored a couple of significant wins recently, illustrating the allure of its leading lidar products for major car manufacturers.
In September, Innoviz announced that a major Asian original equipment manufacturer had selected it to supply lidar -- a key component for autonomous driving -- for passenger vehicles. This follows shortly after Innoviz had announced that Volkswagen had chosen it to be a supplier of lidar for autonomous vehicles among its various brands -- an agreement that led Innoviz to increase its order book to $6.6 billion. There's certainly no guarantee that Innoviz will continue to secure awards from auto manufacturers as prominent as Volkswagen, but it's certainly an auspicious sign.
The company is generating revenue but has yet to deliver profits. With fears of a looming recession continuing to rattle investors' nerves, the market's tolerance for more-speculative investments like Innoviz has waned.
Understandable as this might be, savvy investors recognize the value of carving out a niche in their portfolio for speculative stocks like Innoviz -- a strategy that can lead to market-beating returns over the long term.
ChargePoint stock isn't cheap, but its growth is undeniable
Daniel Foelber (ChargePoint): When looking for a growth stock with the potential to be a tremendous long-term investment, it's important to find a company with a practical and easy-to-understand business model. EV charging and infrastructure company ChargePoint fits that mold perfectly.
Unlike a gas station, which makes money from the fuel it sells, ChargePoint makes most of its money by selling hardware to its residential, fleet, and commercial customers. EV adoption is growing, and ChargePoint's leading network in North America and Europe is an easy way to invest in the electrification of the transportation sector.
For the second quarter of fiscal 2023, ChargePoint booked its first quarter of over $100 million in revenue.
CHPT revenue (quarterly) data by YCharts.
For context, ChargePoint had $146.5 million in fiscal 2021 revenue and $242 million in fiscal 2022. Rising revenue and a stagnating stock price have compressed its price-to-sales ratio down to 13.4, which is still expensive. The company is free-cash-flow (FCF) negative and unprofitable, but it has a path to positive operating cash flow as EV adoption grows.
The company's strategy is to land customers early so that when the time comes to build more charging stations, they turn to ChargePoint.
Its greatest risk is the commoditization of EV charging and competition from other independent charging companies as well as from automakers that choose to build their own charging networks. But given the opportunity for increased EV charging and ChargePoint's market-leading position, the stock looks like a good high risk, high reward opportunity to consider now. Not to mention the stock is down 71% from its all-time high.
An environmental play for your portfolio
Lee Samaha(Tetra Tech): The stock of this leading water and environmental-consulting and services company is down 26% from its all-time high. But its growth prospects are increasing. For starters, management has hiked its full-year revenue guidance from a prior range of $2.65 billion to $2.80 billion to a new range of $2.78 billion to $2.83 billion.
Moreover, its backlog going into the third quarter was around $3.65 billion. It speaks to the company's favorable position in helping governments and corporations with technical solutions for their water management and environmental programs.
Furthermore, the strength of the U.S. dollar has created an opportunity for Tetra Tech to follow up on its 2019 acquisition of the U.K.'s WYG (consulting and engineering services) with a much larger (around $720 million) acquisition of another U.K. company, RPS. The deal will expand Tetra Tech's geographic reach and its exposure to renewable energy and environmental management.
In addition, around 60% of Tetra Tech's revenue traditionally comes from its government services group (GSG), primarily selling to U.S. government and worldwide development agencies. So it's fair to say it has earnings resiliency in a downturn.
Its remaining revenue comes from its commercial/international services group (CIG). And given ever-increasing regulatory requirements around the environment -- and water in particular -- its CIG also has a degree of resiliency.
There's little doubt that Tetra Tech is boosting its already attractive growth prospects by acquiring RPS, and that's precisely what you would hope a company would do in a stock market downturn. Not least from a company in a long-term growth industry.
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Daniel Foelber has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Lee Samaha has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Scott Levine has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Volkswagen AG. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
