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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights Micron, Amphenol, Arista Networks, Spotify and Datadog

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – September 13, 2024 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Micron Technology Inc. (MU - Free Report) , Amphenol Corp. (APH - Free Report) , Arista Networks Inc. (ANET - Free Report) , Spotify Technology S.A. (SPOT - Free Report) and Datadog Inc. (DDOG - Free Report) .

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Buy 5 Beaten-Down Tech Stocks with Huge Near-Term Upside

The Wall Street rally, which started at the beginning of 2023, has sustained till today despite intermittent fluctuations. The technology sector, especially the so-called “magnificent 7” and other artificial intelligence-centric bigwigs predominantly drove the rally. However, the space started suffering to a good extent from the beginning of August.

Consequently, valuation of several technology stocks declined significantly, which makes them attractive at the current price levels. We have selected five beaten-down tech giants (market capital > $35 billion) of past month. These are — Micron Technology Inc., Amphenol Corp., Arista Networks Inc., Spotify Technology S.A. and Datadog Inc.

In the past month, these stocks have provided either negative returns or returns well below the broad-market S&P 500 Index (4%). Nevertheless, these stocks have solid price appreciation potential in the short term. Further, each of our picks carries either a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Technology Sector Melts Recently

The tech rally was led by a massive thrust toward artificial intelligence (AI), especially generative AI. The rapid penetration of digital technologies and the Internet worldwide during the lockdown led to significant adoption of AI.

During this tech-driven rally, most of the technology behemoths have become overvalued. The price of some of these AI stocks skyrocketed by 200-400%. Therefore, a correction was overdue.

Fear of a near-term recession after the release of a series of weak economic data, specifically, the labor market data, which has been resilient so far, shook U.S. stock markets. As a result, market participants rushed to book profit on overvalued tech stocks.

Buy 5 Beaten Down Tech Stocks of Past Month

Micron Technology Inc.

Zacks Rank #2 Micron Technology has been benefiting from the enormous growth of AI applications that boosted demand for its high bandwidth memory chips. MU is a major producer of memory chips used in NVIDIA’s GPUs. MU is benefiting from improved market conditions, robust sales executions and strong growth across multiple business units.

Micron Technology anticipates the pricing of DRAM and NAND chips to increase, thereby improving its revenues. The pricing benefits will primarily be driven by rising AI servers, causing a scarcity in the availability of cutting-edge DRAM and NAND supplies. Also, 5G adoption in IoT devices and wireless infrastructure will spur demand for memory and storage.

Strong Earnings Estimate Revisions for MU Stock

Micron Technology has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 61% and more than 100%, respectively, for the current year (ending August 2025). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current-quarter, current-year and next-year earnings has improved over the last 60 days.

Tremendous Price Upside Potential for MU Shares

Micron Technology has provided a negative return of 4.4% in the past month. At present, the short-term average price target of brokerage firms for the stock represents a jump of 85.3% from the last closing price of $90.65. The brokerage target price is currently in the range of $100-$225.

Amphenol Corp.

Zacks Rank #2 Amphenol witnessed strong order growth in second-quarter 2024 resulting in a strong book-to-bill ratio of 1.12:1. Acquisitions are helping APH expand its position across a broad array of technologies and markets. APH’s wide array of interconnect and sensor products boosts long-term prospects.

APH’s diversified business model lowers the volatility of individual end markets and geographies. Strong cash flow generating ability is noteworthy. APH expects to deliver strong cash flow despite a slight rise in capital expenditure as it increases spending on defense and IT datacom markets.

Solid Earnings Estimate Revisions for APH Stock

Amphenol has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 15.7% and 16.6%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current-quarter, current-year and next-year earnings has improved over the last 60 days.

Impressive Price Upside Potential for APH Shares

Amphenol has provided a negative return of 1.6% in the past month. At present, the short-term average price target of brokerage firms for the stock represents an increase of 20.8% from the last closing price of $62.06. The brokerage target price is currently in the range of $60-$82.

Arista Networks Inc.

Zacks Rank #2 Arista Networks is likely to benefit from a software-driven, data-centric approach that helps customers build their cloud architecture. Innovative product launches and steady customer additions backed by ANET’s best-in-class portfolio strength have ensured steady top-line expansion.

ANET provides routing and switching platforms with industry-leading capacity, low latency, port density and power efficiency. In addition to high capacity and easy availability, ANET’s cloud networking solutions promise predictable performance along with programmability that enables seamless integration with third-party applications for network management, automation and orchestration.

Robust Earnings Estimate Revisions for ANET Stock

Arista Networks has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 16.1% and 18.7%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current-quarter, next-quarter, current-year and next-year earnings has improved over the last 60 days.

Impressive Price Upside Potential for ANET Shares

The stock price of Arista Networks has provided a mere 1.4% in the past month. At present, the short-term average price target of brokerage firms for the stock represents an increase of 10.4% from the last closing price of $342.93. The brokerage target price is currently in the range of $265-$432.

Spotify Technology S.A.

Zacks Rank #1 Spotify Technology provides audio streaming services worldwide. SPOT operates through two segments, Premium and Ad-Supported. The Premium segment offers unlimited online and offline streaming access to its catalog of music and podcasts without commercial breaks to its subscribers.

The Ad-Supported segment provides on-demand online access to its catalog of music and unlimited online access to the catalog of podcasts to its subscribers on their computers, tablets, and compatible mobile devices. SPOT also offers sales, distribution and marketing, contract research and development, and customer support services.

SPOT Stock’s Earnings Estimate Revisions on the Rise

Spotify Technology has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 19.4% and more than 100%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current-quarter, next-quarter, current-year and next-year earnings has improved over the last 60 days.

Solid Price Upside Potential for SPOT Shares

Spotify Technology has provided a negative return of 1% in the past month. At present, the short-term average price target of brokerage firms for the stock represents an increase of 15% from the last closing price of $336.66. The brokerage target price is currently in the range of $225-$460.

Datadog Inc.

Zacks Rank #2 Datadog is benefiting from new customer additions and increased adoption of its cloud-based monitoring and analytics platform, driven by accelerated digital transformation and cloud migration across organizations. DDOG’s solid adoption of Synthetics and Network Performance Monitoring products is expected to aid customer wins in the near term.

Contributions from a solid cloud partner base, including Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, remain a key growth driver for DDOG besides an expanding portfolio. Considering the abovementioned factors, we expect 2024 net sales to increase 22% from 2023.

Strong Earnings Estimate Revisions for DDOG Stock

Datadog has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 23.4% and 23.5%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current-quarter, current-year and next-year earnings has improved over the last 60 days.

Attractive Price Upside Potential for DDOG Shares

Datadog has provided a negative return of 2.4% in the past month. At present, the short-term average price target of brokerage firms for the stock represents a surge of 33.1% from the last closing price of $109.52. The brokerage target price is currently in the range of $98-$160.

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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