Not every year on Wall Street is going to be a walk in the park. In 2022, all three major U.S. stock indexes fell into a bear market, with the growth stock-dependent Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) getting hit hardest. The index most responsible for taking the broader market to new highs in 2021 plunged 33% last year.

Although the volatility and uncertainty that accompanies bear markets can test investors’ resolve, optimism has a way of rewarding patient investors. Despite more than three dozen double-digit percentage corrections in the benchmark S&P 500 since the beginning of 1950, every single previous downturn was eventually fully recouped by a bull market. The story should eventually be the same with the sizable drop in the Nasdaq Composite.

This is a particularly intriguing time to scoop up discounted shares of the growth stocks that have been punished by the bear market downturn. What follows are five tremendous growth stocks you’ll regret not buying on the Nasdaq bear market dip.

Teladoc Health
The first awe-inspiring growth stock that’s ripe for the picking with the Nasdaq having tumbled from its all-time high is telemedicine kingpin Teladoc Health (TDOC3). Despite grossly overpaying for applied health signals company Livongo Health, Teladoc’s operating performance should improve notably in the years to come as it reshapes personalized care in the U.S. and abroad.

Investors certainly don’t have to look hard to find what weighed down shares of Teladoc in 2022. Following the company’s $18.5 billion acquisition of Livongo in 2020, Teladoc took three big write-downs totaling $13.4 billion. While this is a painful admission that Teladoc paid far too much for Livongo, it’s also good news that the company recognizes this and is getting it all out of the way now. With future earnings reports expected to look a lot cleaner, it’ll be much easier for investors to focus on what matters — i.e., the company’s operations.

Some skeptics have referred to Teladoc as nothing more than a fad stock, given the benefits it received from the COVID-19 pandemic. While there’s no denying that the pandemic helped fuel virtual visits, the company was growing sales by an annual average of 74% in the six years leading up to 2020.

Teladoc is completely changing the face of personalized care with its services. Virtual visits are making care more convenient for patients and allowing physicians to more closely monitor chronically ill patients. Further, patient outcomes are expected to improve, which all but guarantees that telemedicine will be a preferred treatment pathway promoted by health insurers.

Given Teladoc’s and Livongo’s abundant cross-selling opportunities, look for this dynamic duo to meaningfully improve sales and narrow operating losses in 2023.

Fiverr International
A second phenomenal growth stock that you’ll regret not scooping up during the Nasdaq bear market decline is gig economy stock Fiverr International (FVRR). Although the growing likelihood of a U.S. recession could weigh on the labor market, Fiverr’s online-services marketplace has three key catalysts working in its favor.

First, the labor market has completely shifted in the wake of the pandemic. Though some people have returned to the office, more folks than ever are working remotely. This bodes well for Fiverr’s online freelancer marketplace, which is designed to connect remote workers with buyers.

Secondly, Fiverr’s platform offers one specific trait that seems to be sitting well with its buyers. Whereas it’s customary for freelancers to list their services/tasks at an hourly rate on competing platforms, Fiverr has its freelancers price their tasks as a completed project. Buyers on Fiverr are getting superior price transparency, which has translated to an increased number of buyers and an ever-growing spend per buyer.

The third, and arguably most important, factor that differentiates Fiverr International is its take-rate. This is the percentage of each deal negotiated on its platform that it gets to keep. While most of its peers have a take-rate in the mid-teens, Fiverr’s take-rate hit 30.2% during the fourth quarter — and it’s just continued to climb. Fiverr’s ability to grow its take-rate without losing freelancers or buyers is a testament to the strength of its operating model.

Datadog
The third tremendous growth stock that you’ll regret not adding during the Nasdaq bear market plunge is cloud-driven application monitoring company Datadog (DDOG). In spite of its lofty valuation, Datadog appears to be firing on all cylinders and has a clear runway for sustained double-digit growth.

Similar to Fiverr, Datadog has benefited nicely from the permanent shift in the labor market. More people working remotely means there’s more demand than ever for cloud-based application monitoring and cloud security. Between 2022 and 2026, Datadog’s total addressable market for observability is expected to climb from $41 billion to $62 billion. Not surprisingly, the company’s compound annual sales growth rate is 66% since 2017, based on a midpoint guide of $2.08 billion in sales this year.

On a company-specific basis, two factors have really made Datadog tick: its ability to land big customers, and add-on sales from existing clients.

In terms of the former, Datadog closed out 2022 with 317 customers who were generating at least $1 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). While it’s great that the company’s total customer account has more than doubled since the end of 2019, it’s far more impressive that the number of customers with $1 million in ARR has grown sixfold in the same time frame.

Likewise, Datadog’s platform of solutions has resulted in high gross retention rates and a significant uptick in add-on sales. When 2020 came to a close, 22% of its customers were using at least four products. Two years later, this figure is 42%. This is a recipe for earnings growth to outpace sales growth for the foreseeable future.

Baidu
A fourth incredible growth stock you’ll regret not buying during the Nasdaq bear market swoon is China-based internet search company Baidu (BIDU). Even though China stocks come with added risks, two prominent headwinds that have been impacting Baidu for years have now been eliminated.

Easily the biggest challenge for Baidu has been China’s zero-COVID mitigation strategy. Chinese regulators’ attempts to slow the spread of COVID led to stringent, unpredictable lockdowns that hurt supply chains and slowed economic growth. But following domestic protests, regulators abandoned the zero-COVID strategy in December. While it could be a bumpy recovery as residents build up immunity to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, a reopened China is fantastic news for the country’s leading search engine.

Likewise, U.S. regulators had threatened to delist dozens of Chinese stocks if years’ worth of financial audits weren’t made available. In December, China granted U.S. regulators access to three years’ worth of audits for Chinese firms, thereby easing the likelihood of delisting.

Aside from these headwinds lifting, Baidu holds nearly a 50% share of China’s internet search market. Controlling such a dominant share of the search space makes Baidu the logical go-to for advertisers wanting to target consumers in China. It should also provide Baidu with ample ad pricing power.

At a forward-year price-to-earnings ratio of 11, Baidu is ripe for the picking by growth and value investors.

Upstart Holdings
The fifth tremendous growth stock you’ll regret not buying during the Nasdaq bear market dip is fintech stock Upstart Holdings (UPST). While an environment of rapidly rising interest rates isn’t ideal for Upstart, this company has demonstrated industry-changing innovations.

What makes Upstart such an intriguing company for patient investors is its reliance on artificial intelligence (AI). Instead of leaning on the costly, time-consuming old method of vetting loan applications, Upstart is utilizing AI and machine-learning software to vet loan applications. During the challenging fourth quarter, 82% of the loans processed on Upstart’s platform were instantly approved and fully automated. That saves the company’s 92 bank and credit union partners time and money.

But it’s not just about saving a buck while processing a loan application. Based on data from Upstart, its AI and machine-learning tools have led to approvals with lower average credit scores than the traditional vetting process. Despite these lower average credit scores, the delinquency rates between Upstart approvals and the traditional process have been similar. In short, Upstart’s platform can bring banks and credit unions new customers without adversely impacting the credit quality of their loan portfolios.

Although rising interest rates and the threat of U.S. economic weakness have weighed on Upstart in the short run, the U.S. economy spends a disproportionate amount of time expanding relative to contracting. This bodes well for Upstart, which has penetrated just a fraction of the $5 trillion annual loan origination market.

— Sean Williams

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