Every month, we ask our freelance writers to share their top US stocks with investors — here’s what they would like to buy for July!
[Just beginning your investing journey? Check out our guide on how to start investing in the UK.]
Liberty Media Corp
What it does: the company is a global media group owning some large brands, notably Formula 1.
By Jon Smith. Over the past year, Liberty Media (NASDAQ:LMAC.A) shares have jumped by almost 23%. The main three brands are SiriusXM, Formula 1 and the Atlanta Braves baseball team.
The diversification between broadcasting and sport gives the company multiple streams of income from uncorrelated businesses. Business is going well at the moment. For example, Q1 revenue for F1 was $381m despite only two races during the period! The Braves recorded a season opener with 42,000 fans, the largest home crowd in its history.
The best part is that I feel live sporting events are unlikely to be replaced with artificial intelligence (AI). Therefore, I think the stock is a good hedge against AI disruption.
The group is always on the lookout to acquire new businesses. There’s a risk here, as it’s a tight gap between good diversification and spreading resources too thinly.
Jon Smith does not own shares in Liberty Media.
MercadoLibre
What it does: MercadoLibre operates Latin America’s largest e-commerce marketplace and a fast-growing payments ecosystem.
By Charlie Carman. MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) is incorporated in the US, but Latin America is its domain. The company operates in 18 countries and occupies a market-leading position in each of its major jurisdictions.
The first-quarter results were strong. A 58.4% increase in net revenue on a neutral FX basis to $3bn comfortably beat analysts’ expectations.
The firm’s fintech arm, Mercado Pago, shows particular promise. Its low-cost secure payments system is proving to be increasingly popular. That’s unsurprising considering the oligopolistic nature of the banking systems in many LatAm countries where high fees are commonplace.
Of course, the stock faces risks. Regional political instability is a concern. So too is currency volatility. MercadoLibre conducts business in local currencies but takes on debt in US dollars.
Nonetheless, the company is well placed to capitalise on secular growth opportunities in emerging markets. If I have spare cash, I’ll buy this stock for my portfolio in July.
Charlie Carman does not own shares in MercadoLibre.
MongoDB
What it does: MongoDB is a software-as-a-service company operating a cloud-based platform that enables customers to handle enormous datasets.
By Zaven Boyrazian. MongoDB (NASDAQ:MDB) is one of many technology companies powering the world’s online platforms. Its database solution takes a different approach compared to traditional relational table architectures, making it highly flexible for vast quantities of unstructured data.
This has proven immensely valuable to drug development firms like AstraZeneca, cloud software platforms like those provided by Adobe, and 5G connectivity services from Vodafone, among countless others. It’s also capable of handling enormous data sets needed to train machine learning algorithms.
The growth stock isn’t cheap, and other players like Oracle operate in this space with far more financial resources at their disposal. However, MongoDB’s growth continues to defy expectations, with its latest earnings report reporting an EPS nearly 200% higher than expected.
That’s why, despite the relatively high risk, I’ve been steadily increasing my position in this business over the last 12 months.
Zaven Boyrazian owns shares in MongoDB.
