Top Tech Stocks for July 2021
The technology sector is comprised of businesses that sell goods and services in electronics, software, computers, artificial intelligence (AI), and other industries related to information technology (IT). The sector includes companies with the largest market capitalizations in the world, such as Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN).
Tech stocks, represented by the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK), have performed relatively on par with the broader market over the past year. XLK has provided investors with a total return of 39.3% over the past 12 months, just slightly below the Russell 1000’s total return of 39.9%. These market performance numbers and statistics in the tables below are as of June 23, 2021.
Here are the top 5 tech stocks with the best value, the fastest growth, and the most momentum.
Value investing is a factor-based investing strategy that involves picking stocks that you believe are trading for less than what they are intrinsically worth, usually by measuring the ratio of the stock’s price to one or more fundamental business metrics. A widely accepted value metric is the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. Value investors believe that if a business is cheap compared to its intrinsic value, in this case as measured by its P/E ratio, the stock price may rise faster than others as the price comes back in line with the worth of the company. These are the tech stocks with the lowest 12-month trailing P/E ratio.
| Best Value Tech Stocks | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Price ($) | Market Cap ($B) | 12-Month Trailing P/E Ratio | |
| CDK Global Inc. ( CDK) |
50.41 | 6.1 | 6.0 |
| HP Inc. ( HPQ) |
29.20 | 35.1 | 10.4 |
| Arrow Electronics Inc. ( ARW) |
111.65 | 8.2 | 11.6 |
| Intel Corp. ( INTC) |
55.26 | 223.1 | 12.4 |
| Synnex Corp. ( SNX) |
118.92 | 6.2 | 12.5 |
Source: YCharts
- CDK Global Inc.: CDK Global provides integrated technology to the automotive, heavy truck, recreation, and heavy equipment industries. The company helps automotive dealerships and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to optimize and streamline their daily operations. CDK Global has more than 30,000 retail client locations. The company announced in early June that it completed its acquisition of Roadster Inc., a digital sales platform for buying and selling cars. CDK Global paid $360 million to complete the deal.
- HP Inc.: HP is a global provider of personal computing, imaging, and printing products and services. The company’s offerings include desktop and notebook computers, workstations, retail point-of-sale systems, displays, printers and hardware, and support and services. HP serves individual consumers, businesses of all sizes, and government customers. The company holds 27,000 patents and operates in 170 countries throughout the world. HP announced in early June that it has completed its acquisition of HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Co., for $425 million. The company first announced the agreement to acquire HyperX in late February 2021.
- Arrow Electronics Inc.: Arrow Electronics is a global provider of electronic components, computer products, and enterprising computing solutions to OEMs, contract manufacturers, and other commercial customers. The company distributes batteries, displays, sensors, memory products, and a wide range of other electronic components. It also offers related services, solutions, and software. The company has roughly 20,000 employees worldwide and caters to more than 180,000 customers in technology manufacturing as well as other industries.
- Intel Corp.: Intel designs and manufactures computer components and related products, including processors, chipsets, server products, memory and storage, ethernet products, wireless connectivity products, and more. Its products are designed for a range of traditional and emerging computing technologies, including edge computing, 5G networks, cloud computing, AI, autonomous driving, and more. Intel employs a global workforce of around 110,600 people. The company recently announced the creation of two new business units, one focused on software and the other on high-performance computing and graphics. Intel appointed Greg Lavender to act as chief technology officer (CTO) and senior vice president and general manager of the new Software and Advanced Technology Group. Raja Koduri was appointed to lead the Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group.
- Synnex Corp.: Synnex is a provider of IT solutions and value-added services. It offers a range of distribution, logistics, and integration services to the technology industry. Its core competencies include IT systems and servers, system components, software, communication and security equipment, and consumer electronics. Synnex distributes over 40,000 technology products from manufacturers around the world and provides technology solutions to more than 25,000 resellers and retail customers.
These are the top tech stocks as ranked by a growth model that scores companies based on a 50/50 weighting of their most recent quarterly YOY percentage revenue growth and their most recent quarterly YOY earnings per share (EPS) growth. Both sales and earnings are critical factors in the success of a company. Therefore ranking companies by only one growth metric makes a ranking susceptible to the accounting anomalies of that quarter (such as changes in tax law or restructuring costs) that may make one or the other figure unrepresentative of the business in general. Companies with quarterly EPS or revenue growth of over 2,500% were excluded as outliers.
| Fastest Growing Tech Stocks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price ($) | Market Cap ($B) | EPS Growth (%) | Revenue Growth (%) | |
| PTC Inc. ( PTC) |
135.71 | 15.9 | 1,430 | 28.4 |
| CDK Global Inc. (CDK) | 50.41 | 6.1 | 1,390 | 1.6 |
| Advanced Micro Devices Inc. ( AMD) |
83.82 | 101.8 | 221.4 | 92.9 |
| Datto Holding Corp. ( MSP) |
26.92 | 4.3 | 952.4 | 16.2 |
| NVIDIA Corp. ( NVDA) |
762.29 | 474.9 | 106.1 | 83.8 |
Source: YCharts
- PTC Inc.: PTC is a provider of software and technology services. The company works with manufacturers to boost efficiency savings by integrating augmented reality, internet of things (IoT), computer aided design (CAD), and product lifecycle management (PLM) technology into a variety of products. PTC employs a team of roughly 6,200 on a global basis.
- CDK Global Inc.: See above for company description.
- Advanced Micro Devices Inc.: Advanced Micro Devices is a global semiconductor company. AMD sells microprocessors, chipsets, graphics processing units (GPUs), development services, server and embedded processors, and technology for game consoles. The company’s operations span more than 35 locations throughout the world.
- Datto Holding Corp.: Datto Holding provides cloud-based software and security services for delivery by managed service providers (MSPs). The company’s innovative technology solutions provide cyber resilience, efficiency, and growth for MSPs. Datto has more than 20 global locations and employs more than 1,600 people.
- NVIDIA Corp.: NVIDIA designs and develops GPUs and related software. The company’s products and platforms serve a number of growing markets, including gaming, professional visualization, data center, and automotive. Its products are used to power U.S.-based Summit, the world’s fastest supercomputer, as well as the fastest computing systems in Europe and Japan. NVIDIA recently announced that it has agreed to acquire DeepMap, a startup focused on building high-definition maps to enable the safe navigation of autonomous vehicles. Financial terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021, were not disclosed.
Momentum investing is a factor-based investing strategy that involves investing in a stock whose price has risen faster than the market as a whole. Momentum investors believe that stocks that have outperformed the market will often continue to do so because the factors that caused them to outperform will not suddenly disappear. In addition, other investors, seeking to benefit from the stock’s outperformance, will often purchase the stock, further bidding its price higher and pushing the stock higher still. These are the tech stocks that had the highest total return over the last 12 months.
| Tech Stocks with the Most Momentum | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Price ($) | Market Cap ($B) | 12-Month Trailing Total Return (%) | |
| Enphase Energy Inc. ( ENPH) |
170.24 | 23.1 | 274.2 |
| Cloudflare Inc. ( NET) |
103.74 | 32.2 | 193.1 |
| HubSpot Inc. ( HUBS) |
590.82 | 27.6 | 161.4 |
| NCR Corp. ( NCR) |
44.79 | 5.9 | 158.9 |
| CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. ( CRWD) |
252.90 | 57.1 | 142.5 |
| Russell 1000 | N/A | N/A | 39.9 |
| Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) | N/A | N/A | 39.3 |
Source: YCharts
- Enphase Energy Inc.: Enphase Energy is a global energy technology company that provides energy management solutions. It designs and manufactures solar panels, energy storage, and other products. The company has installed more than 34 million solar microinverters on over 1.4 million homes. Enphase Energy announced in early April that it has completed its acquisition of the solar design services business of DIN Engineering Services LLP. Financial terms of the transaction, which was first announced in early February 2021, were not disclosed.
- Cloudflare Inc.: Cloudflare is a global cloud services provider. Its platform delivers a range of network services that enhance the security and performance of its customers’ websites and critical business applications. Roughly 25 million Internet properties utilize Cloudflare’s services, and the company serves about 25 million HTTP requests per second.
- HubSpot Inc.: HubSpot provides a cloud-based marketing and sales software platform to help enterprises grow their business. It offers customer relationship management (CRM), content management software (CMS), marketing and sales, and other business management solutions. HubSpot serves more than 113,000 customers in over 120 countries.
- NCR Corp.: NCR manufactures automated teller machines (ATMs), self-checkout and self-service kiosks, point-of-sale systems, and other financial transaction machines and related software and services. It sells primarily to the financial services, restaurant, and retailing industries. The company employs more than 34,000 people across 160 countries. NCR recently announced that it has completed its acquisition of Cardtronics Inc., a global financial services technology company. The transaction was valued at approximately $2.5 billion and was first announced in late January 2021.
- CrowdStrike Holdings Inc.: CrowdStrike Holdings offers a cybersecurity platform that provides a range of products aimed at thwarting computer security breaches, including antivirus, endpoint detection and response, device control, vulnerability management, threat intelligence, and more. The company serves close to 9,900 customers worldwide.
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