The current market conditions – the NASDAQ is down 29% year-to-date, and the S&P 500 is down 21% – offer bargain hunters a target-rich environment. Plenty of sound stocks have seen their prices decline, pulled down by the general market headwinds and the overall stock trend, to levels that have left them too cheap to ignore.
At this level, investors can find the benefits of cheap stocks, which offer both learning opportunities and strong upside potential. However, in evaluating stocks to buy, it is important to look at more than just the price.
Wall Street’s analysts are taking note, and are looking for the ‘Strong Buys’ among the market’s cheapest stocks. Some of their picks make interesting reading, and we’ve opened up the database at TipRanks to pull up the details on two of these stocks. Let’s take a closer look.
Azek Company (AZEK)
First on our list today is Azek, a company in the outdoor life niche. Azek manufactures decking and home exterior siding products, and in a unique twist, the company sources its building materials from providers of 100% recycled materials. Azek boasts of the ‘green’ nature of its business, and how it can potentially recycle 500 million pounds of waste and scrap materials annually. The company products are not only sustainably sourced, but also long-lasting – and capable of replacing traditional wooden home siding.
Azek presents investors with an interesting case to follow. Some recent data (declines in new home showings, for example) have indicated that the US real estate market is slowing down – but home improvement is a lagging indicator for that, and Azek reported strong results in its financial release for Q2 of fiscal year 2022. The quarter, which ended on March 31, showed $393.3 million at the top line, up 35% year-over-year – and the best top line result in over two years. The company adjusted net income jumped 29% y/y, to reach $50.8 million, and translated into a 33-cent adjusted diluted EPS, up 32% from the year-ago quarter.
Story continues
Despite the overall positive results of the company’s…
..
