Stocks to Buy: These 10 Potential Compounders Could Be the Next Amazon

Wall Avenue analyst notes and consumer letters from funding execs are replete with compounder references. Most of the subsequent era of worth managers, recognized in a Barron’s cowl story in Could, are in search of such shares, quite than the normal worth fare of low-cost shares.

Their search has grow to be more difficult, as a result of consumers are paying lofty costs for high-growth tales. Actually massive winners are scarce. Solely about 35 corporations in every of an extended sequence of 10-year intervals have compounded their inventory costs at 20% or extra yearly, leading to a minimum of a sixfold enhance, in response to Sturdy Capital Companions.

Many buyers are completely satisfied to stay with massive, well-known compounders, comparable to

Alphabet

(ticker: GOOGL),

Mastercard

(MA),

UnitedHealth Group

(UNH), and

Eli Lilly

(LLY).

Barron’s sought to determine smaller candidates. We talked to funding managers and got here up with an eclectic checklist of 10 shares, most with market values beneath $10 billion. Listed here are the alternatives, in alphabetical order:

Amedisys

(AMED), a supplier of dwelling healthcare and hospice providers, has a nationwide footprint in a still-fragmented enterprise.

“There’s going to be huge consolidation of the business” predicts Dan Cole, a supervisor of the Columbia Small-Cap Progress fund. “Healthcare is shifting to the house.”

Amedisys inventory is up greater than tenfold prior to now decade. However the shares, round $185, are off practically 30% after the corporate just lately lower 2021 monetary steerage, citing Covid-related staffing and price points, principally in acquired hospice operations. The 2021 earnings estimate is now $6.13 a share, down from practically $7. The inventory trades for 30 instances projected 2021 earnings. Cole says that the corporate stays able to producing 10% annual beneficial properties in earnings per share.

Amyris

(AMRS) is a frontrunner in artificial biology. It followers say its alternative is to supplant, in an eco-friendly manner, a variety of merchandise now constituted of petrochemicals, animals, and vegetation.

Utilizing genetically re-engineered yeast and sugar cane, Amyris produces things like squalane, a high-end moisturizer previously constituted of shark livers; vanillin, the flavoring for vanilla; and a no-calorie sweetener usually derived from vegetation. The inventory trades round $13.

Barron’s wrote favorably on the corporate in July. Amyris sees gross sales reaching $2 billion by 2025, up from an estimated $400 million this 12 months, pushed by its shopper manufacturers.

“The world wants clear chemistry, and Amyris is the purpose on the spear to create it,” says Randy Baron, a portfolio supervisor at Pinnacle Associates, which owns Amyris shares. He thinks they may hit $75 by the top of 2022.

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding

(BAH) is a vital marketing consultant to the Protection Division and different companies. The U.S. authorities accounted for 97% of its income in its newest fiscal 12 months. Booz Allen has constructed sturdy ties to the federal government over time by offering an array of providers, like cybersecurity. Its inventory trades round $81, for a 1.8% yield.

“It has constructed a robust, partnership-like tradition and has an extended report of regular progress,” says Josh Spencer, supervisor of the T. Rowe Value New Horizons fund. He sees Booz Allen as able to producing 9% to 10% annual progress in income and yearly beneficial properties of 15% to 16% in earnings, according to its historic efficiency. The inventory is off 20% from its peak of $100, amid considerations about extra restrained navy spending. Spencer sees the pullback as a shopping for alternative, with the inventory valued at lower than 20 instances earnings.

J.B. Hunt Transport Providers

(JBHT) is a frontrunner in intermodal freight, which includes the fuel-efficient motion of vehicles over rail strains. It has been one of the crucial profitable trucking corporations. Its inventory has risen 30-fold over the previous 20 years, to a latest $173. “It has an unimaginable franchise,” says Henry Ellenbogen, chief funding officer at Sturdy Capital Companions and a member of the Barron’s Roundtable.

J.B. Hunt’s relationship with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad offers it a robust place in intermodal freight, he notes. J.B. Hunt additionally has a rising enterprise taking up the trucking operations of smaller corporations. And it’s concerned in digital freight brokerage—matching truckers with transport clients.

Ellenbogen says the inventory is cheap at 22 instances estimated 2022 earnings, given a mid-teens annual progress outlook for earnings.

Marriott Holidays Worldwide

(VAC) is among the high corporations within the timeshare business. It has 700,000 homeowners, a resilient enterprise mannequin with important income from charges, and extra publicity than its friends to luxurious properties in locations together with Hawaii and Orlando, Fla.

“It has the very best buyer base, with the very best spending and an impeccable steadiness sheet,” says David Baron, a supervisor of the Baron Centered Progress fund. Marriott Holidays, whose shares just lately have been buying and selling round $145, ought to reinstate its dividend later this 12 months, he provides.

The shares, Baron argues, are low-cost at a 11% free-cash-flow yield, primarily based on 2022 estimates. He says that the inventory, little modified since 2018, might produce 20% annual returns for shareholders within the coming years.

SiteOne Panorama Provide

(SITE) is the nation’s high provider of landscaping merchandise, with ample alternative to develop, on condition that it has only a 13% market share in a extremely fragmented business.

“It’s rising organically and has numerous acquisition alternatives,” says Columbia’s Cole, who considers the corporate to be able to 10% to fifteen% annual income progress.

The inventory, round $197, has a wealthy valuation, buying and selling for 43 instances projected 2022 earnings of $4.54 a share.

Staar Surgical

(STAA) has developed an implantable lens to appropriate myopia (nearsightedness). That addresses a probably large market, given the rising world incidence of that imaginative and prescient downside. The corporate expects the lens, which has been obtainable in Europe and Asia for a minimum of 5 years, to be on the U.S. market within the fourth quarter, pending Meals and Drug Administration approval.

“It might do substantial volumes,’’ says Doug Brodie, a worldwide supervisor at Baillie Gifford. “It’s early in a journey and is basically devoid of competitors.”

Lenses for each eyes may be implanted in lower than an hour, they usually don’t contain the removing of the pure lenses. The wholesale value within the U.S. might be round $1,000 per lens.

At a latest $138, Staar shares are richly valued at greater than 20 instances projected 2022 gross sales and 140 instances estimated 2022 earnings. However the market alternative is gigantic: Some 5 billion individuals worldwide might have myopia by 2050.

Sew Repair

(SFIX) has developed a subscription service for clothes, sneakers, and different equipment and boasts over 4 million clients.

“This might be the Nordstrom of the long run,” says Mario Cibelli, chief funding officer at Marathon Companions Fairness Administration, a Sew Repair holder. “This a probably large market and no one is addressing it in the identical manner.” Utilizing a employees of 6,000 private stylists and many information, Sew Repair seeks to determine subscriber tastes to generate excessive satisfaction and restrict returns on packages despatched at intervals and decided by subscribers.

Its shares, round $44, are down 60% from their degree earlier within the 12 months, on buyers’ worries about potential churn and the enterprise’s final profitability.

But Cibelli sees income progress of 20%-plus yearly, alternatives outdoors its present U.S. and U.Ok. markets, and a probably very worthwhile enterprise in two to a few years.

Trex

(TREX) is the highest producer of a high-end wooden various for decks that comes from 95% recycled materials, making it an eco-friendly housing play. The shares, at $105, commerce for 43 instances projected 2022 earnings.

T. Rowe Value’s Spencer views Trex as well worth the value, primarily based on his view that it might probably generate sustainable annual income progress of 15% to twenty%. Earnings are anticipated to climb by about 20% in 2022 and at the same tempo within the following years. “In case you roll the clock ahead three years, it doesn’t look as costly,” he says.

Upwork

(UPWK), a web-based market for freelance employees, is favored by Baillie Gifford’s Brodie, who says it presents a play on the higher acceptance of freelancers by companies.

The shares, just lately round $44, aren’t low-cost. Upwork is valued at $5.7 billion, or greater than 10 instances this 12 months’s projected gross sales of practically $500 million. It operates at a slight loss.

The funding case is about speedy gross sales progress resulting in ample earnings. Gross sales are anticipated to rise by 30%-plus this 12 months and 25% for 2022.

“Freelancers are extra accepted by small to midsize enterprise, however they’ve been frowned on by the HR departments at massive companies,” Brodie says. Upwork goals to vary that notion by vetting its freelancers and by providing hundreds of ability units. “Upwork might grow to be a trusted associate for an rising variety of enterprise-grade companions,” he says.

Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com