Forget Nvidia. Here are 5 undervalued tech stocks every investor should own, Goldman Sachs says

Published Sat, May 11 20248:22 AM EDT

Goldman Sachs said this week that there are plenty of cheap tech stocks to buy coming out of earnings. As of Friday, 92% of the companies in the S & P 500 have reported quarterly results, and 79% of these names have posted earnings that beat estimates, per FactSet. The information technology sector has reported a year-over-year earnings growth rate of 23.2%, according to John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet. CNBC Pro combed through Goldman Sachs' research to find the most underappreciated buy-rated tech stocks. They include Microsoft, Teledyne Technologies, Arista Networks, Toast and AppLovin. Teledyne Technologies Don't miss out on Teledyne's shares, Goldman said. The company builds electronic components, including avionics systems for commercial aircraft Goldman said it's standing by the stock even after Teledyne's disappointing late April earnings report. Analyst Noah Poponak called the company a "long term cash-flow compounder" that is also well positioned for growth. "Growth should accelerate in 2H24 and then will see easy compares into 2025, while margins can expand, and there is room for capital deployment," he wrote. Despite the earnings miss, Poponak says the stock is trading at levels that are just too cheap to ignore. Indeed, shares are down nearly 12% this year. "We would take advantage of the pullback and remain Buy rated on the stock, he said. Microsoft Further upside is ahead for the tech giant following its late April earnings report , according to analyst Kash Rangan. The analyst said Microsoft has a large total addressable market with consistent long-term growth — and that is too attractive to ignore. Azure, its cloud-based business, offers "margin stability," and artificial intelligence demand remains robust, he said. "The company is well positioned to capture share of Gen-AI revenue via its broad suite of AI services and productivity-centric focus in an efficient manner that leverages the playbook from its Azure build out, " Rangan added. The stock is up 10% in 2024, which makes it especially appealing, the analyst said. "We believe Microsoft is one of the most compelling investment opportunities in the technology industry and across sectors," he wrote. Arista Networks AI is leading the way at the networking company, analyst Michael Ng said of Arista's first-quarter earnings report earlier this week. The firm said it sees a slew of positive catalysts in the months ahead as artificial intelligence begins to take center stage. Demand trends are improving, and "revenue visibility" is rising," according to Ng. "Second, ANET has growing confidence in its AI position and its > $750 mn AI revenue target for 2025," he added. Finally, Arista's guidance appears overly conservative, leading Ng to the conclude that the company should beat expectations in the quarters ahead. Arista is calling for revenue in the second quarter to range from $1.62 billion to $1.65 billion. Margins are also improving, the analyst said, an indication of good things to come. "Beat & raise with growing AI optimism," Ng said. Shares are up 33% this year. Teledyne Technologies "Short-term cyclical inputs create opportunity in this long-term cash flow compounder. … Growth should accelerate in 2H24 and then will see easy compares into 2025, while margins can expand, and there is room for capital deployment. … We would take advantage of the pullback and remain Buy rated on the stock." Microsoft "Offering durable top-line growth, margin stability despite large-scale investment cycle. …The company is well positioned to capture share of Gen-AI revenue via its broad suite of AI services and productivity-centric focus in an efficient manner that leverages the playbook from its Azure build out. … We believe Microsoft is one of the most compelling investment opportunities in the technology industry and across sectors." Toast "Results were solid, and we expect shares to react positively, reflecting the large increase in EBITDA, as well as the continued solid momentum and the company's confidence in the net add trajectory. … Putting it all together, we view TOST as the undisputed leader in next generation restaurant software, and since the IPO, the main pushback has been the amount of runway for location growth TOST has in its restaurant TAM." Arista Networks "First, ANET is seeing improved demand trends among Cloud Titans with 6-months of revenue visibility into a 2H revenue acceleration. Although this is a gross margin mix headwind, Cloud Titans investments for public cloud have improved as spending has balanced beyond just AI. Second, ANET has growing confidence in its AI position and its > $750 mn AI revenue target for 2025. … Beat & raise with growing AI optimism." AppLovin "Looking ahead, management continues to express confidence in the forward growth opportunity across greater advertiser scale, new ad formats & verticals and underlying AI model improvements – in our view, we expect APP can continue to compound growth at above-average industry growth and a strong margin profile in the coming years and see newer growth opportunities as additive to this growth outlook. We reiterate our Buy rating & raise our PT from $73 to $100."