Investors looking for a silver lining in this year’s growth stock slump may be able to find it in the form of lower valuations.
Entering this year, many of the marquee components in growth-heavy exchange traded funds such as the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) and the Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF (QQQM) were richly valued, but as growth stocks rapidly fell out of favor due to rising Treasury yields, multiples on some Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) components are becoming more attractive than they’ve been in some time.
“At the start of the year, the 100 most expensive stocks in the S&P 500 (SP500) (SPY) traded at a premium of 25.8x multiple points to the rest of the market,” Credit Suisse U.S. equity strategist Jonathan Golub wrote in a note on Wednesday. “Following the market’s correction, they currently trade at a 15.1x premium, in-line with long-term averages.”
Credit Suisse has what’s known as TECH+, an equal-weight basket of tech stocks from the S&P 500 Technology Index as well as some communication services and consumer discretionary names. Stocks from those two sectors include Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Facebook parent Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META). Perhaps surprisingly, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) isn’t part of the TECH+ group.
Still, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta Platforms combine for about 17% of the QQQ and QQQM rosters. Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), another TECH+ component and a member of both ETFs’ rosters, is also considered attractively valued.
Credit Suisse’s Golub noted that internet retail and media are the industry groups experiencing the most significant valuation re-ratings. That’s relevant to QQQ and QQQM investors given the funds’ large exposure to Amazon. Additionally, several of the ETFs’ communication services holdings are considered media stocks.
The Credit Suisse report doesn’t directly mention Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), which combine for 23% of QQQ and QQQM. However, some analysts argue that weakness in those stocks is creating valuation opportunities. Additionally, some experts say that declines in software names are making cybersecurity stocks, several of which reside in QQQ and QQQM, more attractively valued than that group has been in a while.
“Non-Cyclicals are reasonably valued in aggregate, with Utilities and Staples expensive (2.9x and 3.7x premium),” added Golub.
Those sectors combine for less than 8% of QQQ and QQQM.
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The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.
