We’re into the dog days of summer, and markets remain volatile. But volatility creates opportunities for investors. Now might be a good time to reevaluate a portfolio and seek out some new stocks to add. Many great stocks, particularly technology companies, have declined more than 10% since the start of summer, and earnings for the year’s second quarter are also causing share prices to rise and fall.
Many professional investors have been buying into the current market swings and diversifying their assets. In recent days, there have been reports of major investors adding to their cryptocurrency positions, hedge fund managers doubling down on tech stocks, and Warren Buffett accumulating more T-bills than the U.S. Federal Reserve. Opportunities seem to abound in this market and now is the time to take advantage.
Here are three stocks to buy this summer.
Reddit (RDDT)
Reddit (NYSE:RDDT) just reported its second quarterly financial results as a publicly traded company, and it was a good one. The social media company that runs online message boards announced a loss per share of 6 cents, which was much better than a loss of 33 cents that had been forecast. Revenue of $281 million topped Wall Street forecasts of $254 million. Sales were up a whopping 54% from a year earlier due to a sharp rise in online advertising on Reddit’s platform.
The company, best known for the “WallStreetBets” message board, announced its online advertising revenue increased 41% from a year ago to $253.1 million. Reddit makes nearly all its revenue from online advertising on its platform and benefits as the digital ad market rebounds this year. Reddit’s “other revenue” segment, which includes data licenses, rose 691% year-over-year to $28.1 million during Q2.
The company’s average revenue per user was $3.08 during Q2, beating consensus estimates of $3.02. Daily active users on Reddit’s message boards rose 51% year-over-year to 91.2 million, topping forecasts of 84.5 million. The Q2 results were a blowout by every metric, sending the stock up 10%. Since going public in March this year, RDDT stock has risen 20%.
Shopify (SHOP)
Speaking of blowout financial results, how about Shopify (NYSE:SHOP)? The e-commerce company’s Q2 print was so good that it sent its share price up more than 15%. Shopify reported EPS of 26 cents, which topped Wall Street estimates that called for 20 cents. Revenue in the quarter totaled $2.05 billion, beating consensus forecasts of $2.01 billion. Sales were up 21% from a year earlier.
The company also said that its gross merchandise volume increased 22% to $67.20 billion from a year ago. Shopify, which helps merchants and small businesses run their operations online, said that revenue growth is expected to grow 20% to 25% on a year-over-year basis for the current third quarter. The strong results represent a bounce back for Shopify, whose business had struggled after the pandemic as consumers returned to in-person shopping. SHOP stock is now up 22% over the last 12 months.
Palantir (PLTR)
As these words are being typed, shares of data analytics firm Palantir (NYSE:PLTR) are up 11% on the news the company is joining forces with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to sell artificial intelligence (AI) products to U.S. defense and intel agencies. The partnership with Microsoft was announced a day after Palantir posted Q2 financial results that beat Wall Street forecasts on the top and bottom lines.
Palantir reported EPS of 9 cents, which was ahead of analysts’ consensus expectation of 8 cents. Revenue in the quarter totaled $678 million, beating Wall Street’s estimate of $653 million. Additionally, Palantir reported that its customer count in the U.S. commercial market grew to 295 in the second quarter, up 83% from a year earlier, as the company continues to lessen its overall reliance on government contracts.
Looking ahead, Palantir expects revenue of $697 million to $701 million in the current third quarter. The Q3 revenue guidance topped the consensus expectation of $681 million on Wall Street. PLTR stock has gained 71% in the past 12 months.
On the date of publication, Joel Baglole held a long position in MSFT. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
On the date of publication, the responsible editor did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.