These six high-tech stocks are too cheap to ignore. The growth rates, low price-earnings multiples and high yields make them attractive value and growth stocks at the same time.
Moreover, each of these tech stocks pays a solid dividend, has positive excess free cash flow (FCF), and most of them have share buyback programs. The latter helps increase the earnings per share (EPS) and the dividend per share (DPS), as well as helps push the stocks higher.
Given the recent downturn in stocks, now is a good time to begin averaging into these stocks. This is because their valuations reflect a good deal of bad news now and fears of a recession seem to be “in” the stock prices.
Let’s dive in and look at these top tech stocks.
Tech Stocks: Micron Technology (MU)
Market Capitalization: $61 billion
Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) is a memory and storage semiconductor chip maker that is forecast to produce 31% earnings growth by August 2023. For example, earnings per share (EPS) is projected by analysts to grow from $9.58 per share this year to $12.56 next year.
At a price of $55.01 at the close on June 16, that puts its P/E multiple for 2023 at just 4.4x. That makes it one of the least inexpensive high-tech stocks.
Moreover, with its huge free cash flow, MU stock is able to pay out a dividend of 40 cents per share. Its $9.58 EPS this year will have no problem covering this dividend, given the stock a 0.7% dividend yield. In fact, there is probably room for the company to raise the dividend.
So far, Micron likes to use its excess free cash flow to buy back shares given its robust share repurchase program. It bought back $408 million in its latest quarter ending March 3, which works out to about 2.5% of its market cap on an annualized basis.
So, along with its cheap valuation and growing earnings, its buyback program will act as a catalyst to help push the stock higher. No wonder the average price target of 18 analysts surveyed by TipRanks.com is $109 per share, or double today’s stock price.
Chegg, Inc (CHGG)
Dividend Yield: $2.1 billion
Chegg (NYSE:CHGG) is an educational software direct-to-student learning platform that is forecast to grow 14% in 2023. For example, the average of 12 analysts surveyed by Seeking Alpha is that Chegg will produce EPS of $1.22 in 2023.
That puts CHGG stock, at Thursday’s closing price of $17.02 at 13.9x times earnings. This is well below its historical average of 47.5x over the past five years, according to Morningstar.com. In fact, even at 50% of that average, CHGG should trade at 23.75x, which is 72% over today’s valuation metric.
Moreover, the company announced on June 2 that it is doubling its $1 billion buyback program to $2 billion. It only had $65 million remaining from its prior $1 billion program, so in effect, it was re-upping the $1 billion program. In fact, in the first quarter, the company spent $300 million on its accelerated share repurchase, which was completed in April.
The company has plenty of FCF to fund its buybacks. The Q1, FCF was $50.5 million, which works out to 25% of its sales. That is a very high FCF margin and is the basis for the company’s confidence in re-upping its $1 billion buyback program.
As if that is not enough of a catalyst for CHGG stock, management has been buying shares. Insiders, specifically the CEO, the chief financial officer (CFO) and a director, were buying CHGG stock at the end of last year, based on information from Openinsider.com.
Look for CHGG stock to be one of the better-performing high-tech stocks over the next year.
Microsoft (MSFT)
Market Cap: $1,832 billion
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is getting hit hard along with other large-cap tech stocks. As of the June 16 close at $244.97, MSFT stock is down 27.3% year-to-date from $336.82, where it ended in 2021. Moreover, it’s down 28.6% from its peak of $343.11 on Nov. 19, 2021.
This is deflation of its forward multiple. The company is not losing money. Its earnings are forecast to rise by 15.5% this year (ending June 30, 2022) to $9.30 per share. This is up from $8.05 in 2021. Moreover, next year’s EPS (ending June 30, 2023) is forecast to grow by another 15.5% to $10.74. This is according to the average of 42 analysts surveyed by Refinitiv (Yahoo! Finance).
So, at today’s price, this puts MSFT stock on an inexpensive P/E multiple of just 22.8 times earnings. That is significantly lower than its historical five-year forward P/E average of 27.96x, according to Morningstar.
Moreover, Microsoft’s buyback and dividend program rose by 25% in its latest quarter and the company spent $12.4 billion on dividends and share repurchases. At this pace, it could spend $50 billion per year, or 2.76% of its market cap, on return of capital. That will act as a significant catalyst helping to push MSFT higher over the next year.
Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL)
Market Cap: $1,400 billion
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) is too cheap now, with its stock at $2,120.67 as of the close June 16. With 18.8% earnings growth forecast next year, and at a 16x multiple, it is much lower than its historical average.
For example, Morningstar reports that the five-year historical P/E multiple average has been 26.4x. So the stock’s multiple has fallen significantly.
Moreover, Alphabet will do a 20-for-1 stock split, which will take effect on July 15. Although this does not mean anything from a financial and mathematical standpoint, it could bring about a higher price.
For example, at today’s price of $2,120.67 for GOOG stock, the new price will be 1/20th of that or $106.03 per share.
That means that smaller investors can more easily buy the shares. American investors like to own whole shares, in part because dividend payments are typically fairly stable on a per-share basis.
In addition, this makes it much easier to purchase options. Post-split, one contract (covering for 100 shares) represents just $10,603 worth of stock. Now it will be easier, for example, to do a covered call play or an out-of-the-money short put play to earn income on GOOG stock.
No wonder the average price target of nine analysts surveyed by TipRanks is $3,146 per share, or 48% higher than today. That makes it one of the best, most undervalued tech stocks on this list.
Oracle (ORCL)
Market Cap: $183 billion
Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) is very cheap. Earnings at this cloud platform and software company are forecast to rise 12.3% to $5.93 per share in 2023. This puts ORCL stock, at $68.71 at the close on June 16, on a cheap forward multiple of just 11.6x earnings. That is well below its 15x average forward multiple in the last five years, according to Morningstar.
Moreover, the company just announced its earnings on June 13 for its fiscal Q4 ending May 31. Revenue was up 5%, most of which was from cloud services and support, which rose 19%. Its non-GAAP EPS was $4.90, also up almost 5% YoY (+4.925% from $4.67 a year earlier.
So far there is no downturn in this high-tech company’s earnings on the horizon. Analysts are still very positive about its future earnings forecasts.
Oracle spent $674 million in its fiscal Q4 on share buybacks, according to Seeking Alpha. That works out to an annualized rate of $2.7 billion or 1.48% of its $183 billion market valuation. Combined with its dividend yield of 1.8%, this means shareholders get a total yield of 3.24%.
At this rate, ORCL stock is too cheap to ignore. Analysts surveyed by TipRanks expect it will rise 29% to $88.71 over the next 12 months.
Avnet (AVT)
Market Cap: $4.1 billion
Avnet (NASDAQ:AVT) is an electronics distributor that is forecast to show nominal growth over the next year. Seeking Alpha shows that nine analysts project its EPS will rise nominally from $6.85 this year to $6.98 next year.
But at $41.89 per share as of June 16, the stock has a low 6x multiple of earnings for 2023. That is very inexpensive, especially since the company is profitable.
Moreover, AVT stock sports a 2.3% dividend yield with plenty of free cash flow (FCF) to cover the dividend. For example, last quarter ending April 30, the company produced $232.2 million in FCF. That was well more than enough to cover its dividend payment of $25.6 million as well as share repurchases of $43.4 million.
This makes Avnet one of the most inexpensive tech stocks on this list.
On the date of publication, Mark Hake did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.