10 tech value stocks that at least 75% of analysts rate as a ‘buy’ right now

Value’s comeback

Growth stocks — those of companies increasing sales rapidly that tend to trade high relative to earnings estimates — were at the forefront of the bull market, which has arguably ended as investors prepare for an expected cycle of interest-rate increases by the Federal Reserve to combat high inflation.

The $24 billion iShares S&P 500 Value ETF IVE tracks the S&P 500 Value Index, which includes a subset of the full S&P 500, scored by price-to-earnings, price-to-book-value and price-to-sales ratios.

IVE has pulled back 2% this year through Feb. 11, compared with a 12% decline for the $35 billion iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF IVW.

A 10-year chart for the ETFs tells a different story:

Growth has shined over the past decade, which has mainly been a period of rapid growth for technology companies, reflected in high valuations to earnings.

But maybe things really are different now. It has been 40 years since inflation has been this high, and the Federal Reserve’s expected policy change can alter the stock market’s dynamics for years.

This year’s decline in stock prices — especially the 11% pullback for the S&P 500 information technology sector — has moved some companies into the value camp, as you can see in the following screen.

Read: This never-before-seen evidence shows value stocks outperforming growth rivals for a lot longer than anyone knew

Tech value stock screen

Analysts at Jefferies did their own screen for value stocks among the entire S&P 500 and discussed their results in a report to clients on Feb. 11. The Jefferies screen made use of the firm’s own ratings and estimates.

The Jefferies analysts confined their list to stocks their own firm rated “buy” and which also met these criteria:

• A forward price-to-earnings ratio lower than the S&P 500 average for that sector.
• A forward free cash flow yield higher than the S&P 500 average for that sector. A company’s free cash flow is its remaining cash flow after capital expenditures. It is money that can be used for expansion, to increase dividend payouts for for stock repurchases, which can reduce the share count and boost earnings per share. A company’s forward free cash flow yield is its free-cash-flow-per-share estimate for the next 12 months divided by the current share price.

For a tech value screen using consensus estimates among analysts of brokerage firms polled by FactSet, we incorporated the above for the 76 companies in the S&P 500 information technology sector and expanded the list by adding tech-oriented companies that have been placed in other sectors by S&P Dow Jones Indices. These include video game developers, Google holding company Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG, Facebook holding company Meta Platforms Inc. FB and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN. This brought our initial S&P 500 tech list to 83 companies.

The average forward P/E ratio for this group of 83 companies was 28.1, while the average forward FCF yield was 4.54%. Among the 83 companies, 10 rated “buy” or equivalent by at least 75% of the analysts also met the P/E and FCF yield criteria.

Here they are, sorted by ascending forward P/E ratios:

You can click on the tickers for more about each company.

Then read Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

In case you are wondering, Apple Inc. AAPL just missed the cut. The stocks’s forward P/E was 26.9, but its forward FCF yield was “only” 4.08%.

Here’s the list again, in the same order, with a summary of analysts’ opinions:

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