5 Under The Radar Stocks To Buy Now

Under The Radar Stocks to Buy Now: While the biggest names in the stock market seem to stay at the forefront of the conversation without fail, there’s a lot more to the conversation than just the most controversial voices in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Hiding in the shadows of such reputable companies as Apple (AAPL), Tesla (TSLA), and Amazon (AMZN) are the stock market underdogs, rising confidently and showing promise completely on the down-low while everyone’s gaze is focused on the most popular stocks.

Forget about the household names and the meme stocks: these five companies below are the under the radar stocks to buy now.

Demand For Surgeries Benefits SeaSpine (SPNE) 

A common and recurring theme throughout these five under the radar stocks to buy is that many are in the medical field. This is for a good reason: As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on in the United States and around the world, the world of medicine is more essential and more in-demand than ever.

A designer, developer, and deliverer of incredibly advanced spinal technology for both surgeons and patients, SeaSpine has almost always been a worthy investment — However, last March, SeaSpine (and many other stocks, of course) took a massive tumble and reached record lows.

Now, in the months since, SeaSpine has climbed to rival all-time highs for the company: It’s currently priced above $20 a share after hitting $6.50/share last March. It wouldn’t be unlikely to see this number continue to rise in the months to come.

The tailwind behind SeaSpine is the resumption in demand for elective surgeries. 

When the world flipped upside down in 2020, investors focused on big-name stocks that crashed. Few paid attention to companies tethered to elective surgeries. But most retail investors weren’t aware quite how badly hospitals got hit when run-of-the-mill procedures were put on pause. The knee-jerk view among investors was that hospital ICU rooms were overburdened and the image was of hospitals over-run with sick patients: how could they possibly suffer?

The reality was in stark contrast to the widely held view. Some hospitals were in deep financial trouble.

For context, some hospital divisions are far more lucrative than others, and orthopedics is one of the money-makers. When other divisions are breakeven or lose money, bone-related surgeries rack up profits for hospitals. So, when elective surgeries like knee replacements, hip replacements, and spine fusions were placed on hold, orthopedic financial departments hit an air pocket and saw a sharp decline in revenues.

Anecdotes from some major hospitals leaked out and suggested that some departments could survive only a few months before being permanently impaired. Indeed, doctors complained at the time that they were drafted back to work not because the danger from COVID had passed but because the failure to return would mean risking bankruptcy for the hospital as a whole.

The fallout from placing these surgeries on hold was that companies providing instrumentation and devices to surgeons were hit hard. Share prices in Medtronic (MDT), Stryker (SYK) and Nuvasive (NUVA) all tumbled.

As the economy reopens, vaccinations become more widespread, and further waves of COVID diminish in impact, patients are increasingly less reticent to choose much needed surgeries that had previously been put on hold.

For investors that leads to potentially a big opportunity for SeaSpine, a company that specializes in providing devices to spine surgeons.

SeaSpine is an under the radar stock that most retail investors won’t ever have stumbled across. At first glance, it’s hard to imagine buying a company valued close to a billion dollars when a proven company like Medtronic (MDT) worth 175x more or Stryker (SYK) worth 100x more are alternative ways to invest your hard-earned money.

The more you dig into SeaSpine, though, the more there is to like. Revenues are growing rapidly and revenue projections infer higher sales for each of the next four quarters. From a financial perspective, SeaSpine earnings have been negative but are increasingly less negative. As savvy investors know, when a company flips earnings from red to green, the share price often enjoys a sharp move higher.

Before word gets out on this stock, investors have a chance to get in before the meteoric moment, which will likely come in 2022 when earnings go positive. 

Novavax (NVAX) Revenues Set To Explode

Contrary to the familiar story of SeaSpine and many other publicly traded companies, the onset of COVID-19 had the opposite effect on Novavax (NVAX) and its share price.

This might have something to do with the fact that they didn’t have anywhere to go but up in March of 2020: The price of a Novavax share has gone from under $12.50 in March 2020 to over $290 dollars in the early months of 2021.

That’s a remarkable boom, and it’s one you shouldn’t ignore (especially considering the numbers continue to climb over time).

Of course, Novavax is an enticing pick for more reasons than just its boom: they’re an American vaccine development company, and they have both a seasonal flu vaccine and a COVID-19 vaccine in development.

Both are in Phase III of their clinical trials, which means that — if everything continues to go well — these vaccines are just one phase away from being released to the general public.

This could result in an even greater climb for Novavax’s price per share, especially if their COVID-19 vaccine gets the opportunity to compete alongside the pre-existing COVID vaccines.

Genius Sports (GENI) Is A Sports Data Play

Much has changed in the world to make SeaSpine, Novavax, and other medical and technological companies seem far more alluring than usual on the stock market, but one corner of the world that has remained mostly the same despite the pandemic is the world of sports.

Sure, there might not be as many people in the crowd, and sure, some players and teams might have to sit a game or two out due to COVID-19 exposure, but the way the game is played looks the same as it always does.

This refreshing sort of normalcy is part of why Genius Sports’ stock is something of an underdog in today’s stock market. A company that provides sports data, technology, streaming video, and integrity services to sports leagues, bookmakers, and other media companies, Genius Sports shares have been steadily rising in value since debuting on the New York Stock Exchange last fall.

It has nearly doubled in value since October of 2020, going from just under $10 to just over $20 (and rising). It’s all thanks to Genius Sports’ continued success, like their recent exclusive deal with the National Football League (NFL) to serve as their official distributor of data and stats to bookmakers and the media.

Clearly, Genius Sports shows plenty of potential for continued growth.

Affirm Holdings (AFRM)

When you arrive at the checkout of your online retailer of choice, odds are you’ve seen the name Affirm pop up alongside PayPal (PYPL) and the names of all the major credit cards.

The latest and most buzzworthy financial technology company as of late, Affirm Holdings gives online shoppers the ability to buy now and pay later over the course of a number of installments, no late fees or compound interest required.

It’s a relatively straightforward, no-strings-attached approach to online shopping, and it’s clear to see why it’s been so popular among consumers and retailers alike: It pays the retailer now, and allows the consumer to pay later. It’s a win-win, and this is likely to carry over to the company’s stock price, as well.

While Affirm Holdings is newly public, it’s obvious that the signs it has shown so far indicate a promising future for the company.

It first appeared at about $115 a share in January of 2021, rose to $125 a share in February of 2021, then dropped to around $70 in March of 2021, and has been steadily rising since then — they recently hit $77 a share, but that number doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all. 

Venture capitalists have bet big on its rival Klarna, which remains private. The same VCs who bet on most of the major household Silicon Valley companies you know today invested heavily in Klarna and that would suggest the opportunity for both Affirm and Klarna has a long runway yet.

RLX Technology: e-Cig Bet On Chinese Smokers 

While e-cigarettes aren’t going to be replacing cigarettes anytime soon, they’re still a remarkably popular product among adults — not just in America, but around the world. Rules and regulations surrounding these e-cigs (sometimes referred to as vapes) continue to change on what seems like a day-to-day basis, but the products keep selling regardless.

RLX Technology is one of many e-cig manufacturers as well as a leading brand in China, but there’s one key distinction that sets them apart from a lot of the competition: they’re publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Since going public in January of 2021, RLX Technology has dropped from almost $30 a share in January down to just over $9 a share in March — However, they’ve been on a consistent rise since March. As it continues to rise, RLX could end up surpassing that initial $30 price point and soar to entirely new heights altogether.

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The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Financhill has a disclosure policy. This post may contain affiliate links or links from our sponsors.