Stocks investment

Investing in Stocks

3/2/2020

Troy Mahone

Investing in Stocks

When considering which stocks to invest in there are a few things to consider. Such as return, risk, features, stock quotes, and types of dividends. When searching for 5 companies currently traded on the NASDAQ that we thought we should invest in we considered these things. We chose PepsiCo, Apple, Microsoft, Aritzia, and Amazon.

Our Top 5 Stocks

PepsiCo is known for its popularity among the beverage and snack industry. It is a billion-dollar company which has maintained a streak of consistently increasing dividend for 47 years now. Among the reasons why people should invest in this company is the extensive product range which is still growing by the day. This extensive product line caters to billions of people and is a constant favorite which means its demand will probably never stop.

Apple is one of the biggest smartphone companies in the world. In current times, the return promised by Apple is 1.3% dividend yield and an increase can be expected by investors in May 2020. Based on Apple’s latest earnings release for the quarter ending December 31, the company reported a quarterly revenue of $91.72 billion and net profit of $22.24 billion. In comparison, last year the company earned revenue of $84.37 billion and had a net profit of $19.97 billion. As of March 1,2020, shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell as much as 6.3%. Experts are predicting that this year's revenues will grow about 10% to 11% and earnings growing 20% to 21%. Estimates keep going higher, the company keeps making more money, and margins are also going higher. It's setting up for a very good opportunity and a reasoned buy.

Microsoft is a multinational company which reaches the global market as its target market which means its demand is also global. has had constant, nearly uninterrupted growth in the last 5 years, experiencing only one major dip at the start of 2019, but fully recovering and continuing its constant upward growth. In 2015 the value of MSFT began the year at 43.05 and as of Feb 29th it closed at 163.33. There was a steep rise at the end of January of 2020. As of Feb 29th, MSFT market cap is 1,232,255,676,090, 50-day average is 31,917,072, PE ratio is 28.22. The earning's/share is $5.74. While this stock is not likely to achieve very high returns today, it's historical data shows it is a safer investment that provides predictable and constant growth due to its position in the market place as a long time and trusted tech giant.

The Aritzia (ATZAF) is one of the trendiest names in current fashion. The clothing retailer based out of Canada had six consecutive quarters of double-digit revenue growth leading into 2020. The clothing retailer invests strongly in infrastructure, talent, and marketing. Even in times of rising raw material costs, Aritzia able to maintain stable gross margins by focusing on sourcing terms and higher sales volumes. The stock while currently down, has a six-month trend of increases in price. On 02/27/20 the stock closed at $16.54, however analysts are predicting a $29 high this year. Market cap is $1.672B. This company has been a favorite among Canadian’s for years, only now starting to develop a following in the U.S. It was recently noted as a strong buy right before the holiday season. As this is currently lesser known but strong, it is beneficial to buy now.

Amazon’s mission statements says that it wants to be the most customer-centric which means customer satisfaction is very important for Amazon. Amazon is a very low risk business to invest in with high capital stock gains. As of February 28th, 2020, the Amazon Market Cap is $937,750,423,885; 50-day average vol. is $4,146,009, and their PE Ratio being 81.87. At the end of 2016, the Amazon gross profit reached $47,722,000 and their net income applicable to common shareholders were $2,371,000. Three years later, in 2019, their end of year gross profit totals were up to $114,986,000 with the net income applicable to common shareholders also being up to $11,588,000. While the stocks may be down right now by 0.03%, they shouldn’t be down too long. Amazon is a growing company and is a go to business for many people these days. It is very common for most individuals to go to the Amazon.com website to price products before their final purchase, if their final purchase is through Amazon or not ("Nasdaq", 2020).

Conclusion

All of these stocks are considered good investments as they are either proven to have great return on investment with consistency or are a solid start-up with massive growth and expected potential. We feel confident that investment in these companies would provide strength and profitability to any portfolio.

References Market Activity. (2020, Mar 01). Retrieved from Nasdaq: https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/atzaf NASDAQ. (n.d.). Retrieved FEBRUARY 29, 2020, from NASDAQ: https://www.nasdaq.com/ Retail Stocks. (2020, Mar 1). Retrieved from Yahoo: https://finance.yahoo.com/m/ad2f787b-8b67-3e64-b256-fff09e52df70/ss_2-%E2%80%98strong-buy%E2%80%99-retail-stocks.html