If you’re curious about which meme stocks are popular at the moment here’s a link to the most mentioned stocks on Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets. Meme stocks are those shares that have heavy social media sentiment.
The phenomenon began in the early stages of the pandemic and continues to evolve. These days it is less about influencing heavily shorted stocks and much more about sharing investing thoughts through social media.
The result is that there is less speculative behavior overall in meme stocks.
In fact, the meme stocks that are receiving the most attention currently are the same stocks that Wall Street is discussing and aren’t speculative for the most part.
Apple (AAPL)
There are basically two ways of interpreting Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) fiscal Q3 results. They’re either positive or negative just as are results for any stock.
I believe Apple’s 1.4% sales decline is unlikely to hurt the company for very long at all. Yes, it’s the third straight quarter of declining revenue for the largest publicly-traded company in the world.
Yes, iPhone sales declined by 2.4% to $39.7 billion which was worse than anticipated. And yes, Apple is not succeeding in replacing declining product sales with service sales.
In other words, I’m optimistic about Apple despite the clear issues. For one, Apple remains the most valuable firm in the world.
It got there because investors everywhere believe in the firm’s ability to create winning products time and again: Actually, blockbuster products that create cult followings.
Apple will begin shipping its mixed-reality Vision Pro headset next year. It expects to ship around 1 million headsets in 2024 at a price of $3,499. That’s $3.5 billion added to the top line if projections pan out.
It actually won’t move the needle much. Apple will continue to move based on iPhone sales primarily. So, if you believe in the iPhone it will continue to make sense to invest in Apple.
Raytheon (RTX)
All signs currently suggest that Raytheon (NYSE:RTX) stock is worth buying. Let’s begin with the general sentiment across Wall Street.
The consensus is that TRX shares are worth $101 yet they trade below $90. This is after Raytheon shares fell following its Q2 earnings release.
The earnings report was strong overall from a purely fundamental perspective. Sales increased by 12% net income grew and earnings and sales were ahead of Wall Street’s expectations.
However, the devil is in the details, and issues with Pratt & Whitney engines caused cash flow projections to drop by $500 million for the remainder of the year.
So, basically, a contrarian opportunity has emerged. Raytheon has been negatively affected by an unexpected turn of events yet it continues to project confidence.
Raytheon revised overall sales guidance upward by $1 billion to between $73 and $74 billion in the release. One could argue that the net effect cancels out the surprise engine recalls. That suggests an opportunity currently.
Tesla (TSLA)
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is either slightly overpriced currently or significantly undervalued depending on where you look.
Wall Street believes TSLA shares are slightly overpriced at the moment. However, independent research site Gurufocus has landed on a price of $450 for Tesla based on its proprietary pricing model. That’s roughly $200 above its current price.
It’s worth examining the buckets of metrics that go into determining that a firm like Tesla is undervalued by so much.
There are 5 such buckets: Financials, profitability, growth, value, and momentum. Tesla ranks very highly across 3 of those buckets. The issues, as you may have guessed are profitability and value.
Profitability is suffering because Tesla has lowered prices in order to increase sales volume. Value is negatively affected because investors are willing to pay so much for a dollar of Tesla’s earnings, sales, etc.
That should raise a question in the minds of potential investors as to why people pay so much for Tesla. The answer is obvious: Tesla is a once-in-a-generation firm that has propelled a revolution in the automotive industry.
It isn’t comparable to other EV firms and that’s why valuation metrics don’t apply in this case.
BJ’s Wholesale (BJ)
BJ’s Wholesale (NYSE:BJ) is the other bulk warehouse grocery stock that often gets overshadowed by Costco (NASDAQ:COST). That means it gets less headline space and as a result less investment.
However, BJ’s has undertaken a digital strategy that promises to ignite new growth at the firm. That could result in an earnings surprise when results are released on Aug. 22.
In other words, investing in BJ stock now could produce quick returns on its strategic digital implementation. BJ’s Wholesale has been investing in improving its digital capabilities recently in an effort to increase its customer base.
That has meant expansion of services like curbside pick-up and online shopping, same-day delivery, and more functionality on the online app.
The results were beginning to emerge in Q1 as membership fees increased by 6.1%. Beyond that, BJ’s Wholesale simply continues to make sense in this economy. Consumers continue to be strained even as signs of dissipating economic troubles emerge. That benefits BJ’s.
AMD (AMD)
The story to follow regarding AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) stock is all about its pursuit of Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and its dominance in AI chips.
I’ve probably written at least a half dozen times recently about AMD chips and their power relative to those from Nvidia. Even if you haven’t read one of those articles you likely know that AMD isn’t that far behind Nvidia in that regard.
Its chips are approximately 80% as capable as those of Nvidia. Further, AMD is especially technically capable in relation to software which is a critical area from which improvements emerge.
Here’s something else to consider: AMD has a history of chasing down the big dog. It ended
up catching Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) in data center CPUs. It’s now going after Nvidia and its data center GPUs. AMD expects to see data center revenues spike later this year, likely in the fourth quarter.
Buying AMD now and watching that pursuit play out is very likely to result in returns based on the market’s reaction to AMD in 2023 thus far.
Fisker (FSR)
Fisker (NYSE:FSR) released the first set of financial results following the inaugural deliveries of its Ocean One EV.
There was a lot of positive to be taken from the results which should send the stock higher.
Q2 was the first quarter in which Fisker reported automotive sales revenue. Fisker tallied $825,000 in revenues overall during the period leading to a $62,000 gross margin and a net loss of $85.48 million.
The road to EV adoption won’t be an easy one overall. Consumers continue to have legitimate concerns including range anxiety. That’s a particular bright spot for Fisker. The Fisker Ocean Extreme, starting at $69k, achieved a range of 360 miles.
That’s the highest for any new EV priced under $200,000 and sold in the U.S. today, which makes it one of the meme stocks to watch.
Fisker vehicles are currently being sold in Europe and the U.S. with deliveries to begin in India and China late this year and early in 2024, respectively.
Altria (MO)
Investing in Altria (NYSE:MO) stock, as the company pivots away from cigarettes, is a no-brainer at this point.
The maker of Marlboro cigarettes is essentially paying investors a handsome premium to get on board with its transition to smokeless tobacco products and other lower-risk offerings.
That payment comes in the form of a dividend yielding 8.55%. Sales edged downward slightly with earnings increasing due to Altria’s divestiture of JUUL.
The argument favoring investing in Altria is fairly straightforward: Marlboro sales will continue to fund the business while it searches for new revenue streams in the evolving tobacco market.
It will pay investors a very high-yield dividend for their investment capital used to fuel that search. As an investor, you don’t have to necessarily even believe that Altria will succeed in that pursuit. It’s perfectly reasonable to invest for the dividend and play it by ear.
If signs emerge that Altria might not succeed on that front, bail. You’ll have collected a bunch of dividend revenue in the process and share prices are unlikely to suffer much even if that happens, making this one of the meme stocks to watch.
On the date of publication, Alex Sirois did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
