Subsiding inflation fears, and a dovish turn from the U.S. Fed drove tech stocks to wrap up a strong first quarter for 2024, with the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) scoring gains of 11% year-to-date, and 42% over the past year. Led by the Magnificent Seven, tech investors have been able to enjoy higher returns than the Russell 1000 Index, which notched 31% over the past year. While the economy is expected to slow down this year, investors are not showing signs of concern, driving up prices of risky assets, such as tech stocks and cryptocurrencies.
Below is an analysis of the top tech stocks for April 2024, screened for best value, fastest growth, and most momentum. All data are current as of March 28, 2024.
Best-Value Tech Stocks
Value investing is an investing strategy that holds that investors can identify stocks that are trading below their true value. At the time the market corrects this mispricing, these undervalued names
may increase in value. Investors typically attempt to identify undervalued stocks using fundamental metrics like the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. Typically, a lower P/E ratio signals an undervalued stock because the company is valued less than its fundamental value. These stocks may offer a stronger return after the market adjusts.
Best-Value Tech Stocks | |||
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Price ($) | Market Capitalization (Market Cap) ($B) | 12-Month Trailing P/E Ratio | |
Yiren Digital Ltd (YRD) | 4.5 | 0.38 | 1.4 |
Surge Pays, Inc. (SURG) | 3.9 | 0.07 | 2.7 |
Intuitive Machines, Inc. (LUNR) | 6.3 | 0.76 | 2.9 |
- Yiren Digital Ltd.: Yiren Digital is a China-based AI-driven platform offering lending, insurance, and e-commerce solutions. Yiren reported strong growth in its fiscal 2023 reports, which highlighted year-over-year net revenue growth of 43%, and net income growth of 74%.
- SurgePays, Inc.: SurgePays, Inc. is a technology and telecom company that targets underbanked and underserved populations, leveraging its platform to empower store clerks at over 8,000 convenience store locations to offer prepaid wireless and financial technology products. In 2023, the company reported revenue of $137.1 million for the year — an increase of 13% from 2022, driven by a higher subscriber count.
- Intuitive Machines, Inc.: Intuitive Machines is a diversified space company dedicated to advancing space exploration, providing a wide range of products and services aimed at facilitating sustained robotic and human missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond. On February 22, 2024, Intuitive Machines made history by successfully soft-landing its Nova-C class lunar lander, Odysseus, marking a significant U.S. milestone and becoming the first commercial entity to land and conduct science on the moon.
Fastest-Growing Tech Stocks
Growth investors believe that increases in a company's revenue and earnings per share (EPS) can be an indicator of a strong business that has the potential to increase in value. However, focusing on
just one or the other of these two metrics can give an incomplete picture of a company's growth potential. Circumstances unrelated to a company's fundamental business strength—such as tax law changes, mergers, or one-off gains—can skew these figures on their own.
Investopedia uses a dual-metric approach to reach a more balanced assessment of growth companies. We equally weight the latest year-over-year (YOY) percentage growth for both EPS and revenue. This approach aims to reduce the impact of those one-time anomalies to provide a better view of a company's true growth pattern and potential. Additionally, any companies with quarterly growth in excess of 1,000% are excluded as outliers.
Fastest-Growing Tech Stocks | ||||
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Price ($) | Market Cap ($B) | EPS Growth (%) | Revenue Growth (%) | |
Spotify Technology S.A (SPOT) | 263.9 | 51.5 | 73 | 22 |
Applied Digital Corporation (APLD) | 4.28 | 0.522 | 66 | 242 |
Simulations Plus, Inc (SLP) | 41.15 | 0.822 | 60 | 21 |
- Spotify Technology SA.: Spotify is the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service, with 602 million monthly average users (MAUs) across 184 countries, as of Dec. 31, 2023. Despite global uncertainties, Spotify reported a 23% year-over-year increase in MAUs for 2023, while premium subscribers grew 15% over the same period, reaching 236 million.
- Applied Digital Corp.: Applied Digital specializes in creating, advancing, and managing state-of-the-art data centers throughout North America, offering digital infrastructure services catered to the burgeoning high-performance computing (HPC) sector.
- Simulations Plus, Inc.: Simulations Plus has been a global leader in the biosimulation market, offering software and consulting services to support drug discovery, development, research, and regulatory submissions. Simulation Plus reported strong first-quarter 2024 results, which saw software revenue increasing by 25% year-over-year, representing 52% of total revenue.
Tech Stocks With the Most Momentum
Momentum investing is a strategy aiming to capitalize on pre-existing market trends by focusing on stocks that have outpaced their peers or the broader market on returns. This investment principal holds that stocks on an upward path are likely to continue to outperform, as long as fundamental aspects of the business, industry, or sector do not change.
Momentum investing is a common strategy applied to tech stocks because they regularly experience significant market disruptions. As companies launch new products, announce technological breakthroughs, and gain rapid popularity, investors have the potential to climb on board while these stocks are still ascending.
Here are the tech stocks with the highest total return in the last 12 months. We've excluded stocks with a share price of under a dollar.
Tech Stocks With the Most Momentum | |||
---|---|---|---|
Price ($) | Market Cap ($B) | 12-Month Trailing Total Return (%) | |
Cleanspark, Inc (CLSK) | 21.2 | 4.2 | 713 |
Virtra, Inc (VTSI) | 10.3 | 0.114 | 164 |
Samsara, Inc. (IOT) | 37.8 | 20.2 | 106 |
- Cleanspark, Inc.: CleanSpark, which calls itself “America’s Bitcoin Miner,” owns and operates data infrastructure that facilitates Bitcoin mining. The company’s incredible returns have tracked the price of Bitcoin, which has rallied in response to increasing mainstream acceptance of the cryptocurrency.
- VirTra, Inc.: VirTra is a global leader in screen-based simulations for law enforcement and military applications. As of January 2024, VirTra’s simulators are deployed in 40 countries worldwide, generating $37 million in trailing twelve-month (TTM) revenues for the company, along with $24 million TTM gross profits.
- Samsara, Inc.: Samsara’s platform leverages Internet of Things (IoT) technology to generate insights and create operational improvements for customers in construction, transportation, manufacturing, logistics, and the public sector. Despite economic headwinds, Samsara delivered impressive growth for fiscal year 2023, with annual recurring revenues and total revenues increasing by 39% and 44%, respectively, compared to fiscal year 2022.
Advantages of Tech Stocks
Growth potential
Tech stocks, particularly those in emerging areas, are known for experiencing some of the sharpest growth of any publicly traded company. Anticipating this, investors have sought periods in which the sector underperforms to invest heavily, as they expect significant growth over the long term.
But growth among tech stocks can vary dramatically. Many of the larger firms have limited growth potential because their market saturation and capitalization are already very high. Small-cap or penny tech stocks that experience technological breakthroughs or suddenly become incredibly popular may have periods of massive growth. Unusually, some of the biggest names in tech—including Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Meta Platforms Inc. (META), and Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL)—have continued to grow at significant rates.
Advanced innovation
Tech trends are always changing, with companies aiming to capitalize on the latest technology and to guide and follow developments in innovation. This makes the sector primed for breakthroughs. One of the most recent major trends to sweep the tech sector has been AI-related technologies, which are increasingly integrated into companies across many industries and sectors. To the extent that some tech companies continue to play a role in making this possible, they stand to benefit from the ongoing AI trend.
Disadvantages of Tech Stocks
Fluctuations in the tech sector
Tech stocks are known for their high volatility, where rapid technological changes and competitive pressures can lead to significant price fluctuations. They often carry high valuations based on growth expectations, making them susceptible to market corrections if they fail to meet these projections. Furthermore, regulatory challenges and geopolitical tensions can impact the sector, introducing additional risks and uncertainties for investors.
Trends shift quickly
The sharp gains of many tech firms can prove tempting to investors who may not be well-versed in the technologies themselves. With rapid innovation characterizing the sector, trends and prospects shift very quickly as well. Investors who are unprepared for this pace or who lack knowledge of the fundamental strengths of different tech companies may find themselves following a trend that has already changed.
Growth potential
Advanced innovation
Tech sector turbulence and rich valuations
Investors may be left behind with rapidly shifting trends
The Bottom Line
The tech sector's performance in 2024 is poised to be significantly influenced by advancements in AI, which is expected to drive long-term growth. The adoption of AI, along with ongoing digitization and cloud computing, offers promising opportunities, particularly for companies involved in semiconductor production and cloud software services. However, the macroeconomic environment will also play a key role in determining the sector's short-term performance, with the potential for volatility depending on interest-rate policies and economic conditions.
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As of the date this article was written, the author does not own any of the above securities.