4 Outstanding Growth Stocks You'll Regret Not Buying in the New NASDAQ Resonance Bull Market

The investment world has had a tough time since the start of this decade. After four consecutive years of the major stock indices oscillating between bear and bull markets, the optimists now appear to be in control.

Growth-drivenNasdaq Resonanceindices(nasdaqindex: ^ixic)The volatility has been particularly pronounced. The NASDAQ Composite Carbon Resonance Index lost 33% in value during the bear market of 2022, but has surged by 57% since the beginning of 2023, firmly entering a new bull market.

However, the fact that most of the gains in the Nasdaq Resonance Index have come from the "Magnificent Seven" means that bargains can still be found in growth stocks. Long-term investors need only be willing to look for them.

Here are four special growth stocks you'll regret if you didn't buy into the new NASDAQ resonance bull market.

Vespa.

The first high-growth stock is a payment processor.Visa (NYSE: V)It has historically been a genius buy during any correction, and an attractive stock in a young NASDAQ resonance bull market.

As a longtime shareholder of Visa, a leading payment services provider, the only bad thing I can say about this company is that it is cyclical. A downturn in the U.S. economy is normal and inevitable. When the next recession hits, consumer and business spending is expected to decline, which will hinder Visa's ability to charge merchants for their曏.

The other flourish of the hard currency is that the US economy has been expanding for much longer than it has been contracting. Since the end of World War II, there have been two periods of economic growth longer than 10 years, and of the 12 recessions in the past 78 years, none has lasted longer than 18 months. Signature is in a prime position to benefit from long-term economic expansion.

The company has also capitalized on growth opportunities in both developed and emerging markets. For example, in the United States, the world's largest consumer market, it is the absolute leader in credit card online spending market share. In addition, the company is well-funded and has considerable room to expand its payments infrastructure organically into underbanked emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East, or into high-growth regions through acquisitions, as it did with the acquisition of Visa Europe in 2016. In the quarter ending December, cross-border transaction volumes surged by 16% compared to the same period last year.

As I noted earlier, management's decision to avoid lending was a key reason why Visa's margins remained above 50%. While some of Visa's payment processing peers act as lenders, doing so exposes these companies to potential credit defaults and loan losses during economic downturns, Visa doesn't have to worry about proceeding with a loan because it is not a lending institution.

Visa's forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 24.7 is 15% lower than its forward P/E ratio five years ago.

PubMatic

Advertising Technology CompanyPubMatic （Nasdaq ResonanceStock Code(PUBM)The second special growth stock, the Nasdaq Resonance Index is stretching its proverbial legs in a new bull market, and you'll be kicking yourself for not including it in your portfolio.PubMatic's cloud-based programmatic advertising platform helps publishing companies sell digital display space.

Similar to Visa, the health of the U.S. economy is often the biggest headwind for advertising companies like PubMatic. At the first sign of trouble, companies don't hesitate to cut their advertising budgets. But as mentioned earlier, the U.S. economy has been growing for much longer than it has been slowing down. This is good news for opportunistic long-term investors in advertising stocks.

This should be a particularly good year for ad agencies because of the U.S. election. According to GroupM, political ad spending in 2024 is expected to grow 31% from the previous election cycle in 2020, to $15.9 billion. With more ad dollars going to digital channels than ever before, something PubMatic specializes in, the company is ideally positioned to benefit from the rise in political ad spending.

Another reason investors can expect PubMatic to perform well in the coming years is that management made the smart decision (in hindsight) to build its own cloud-based programmatic advertising platform. While it would have been faster and cheaper to rely on a third-party provider, choosing to develop its own infrastructure meant it would secure more revenue as the business expanded. Marginally, this will lead to higher operating margins.

As small a company as it is, PubMatic has a lot of cash. At the end of 2023, it will have $175.3 million in cash, no debt, and last year it purchased more than $59 million worth of common stock. If a recession does occur, PubMatic's balance sheet is well-positioned.

Warner Brothers found it.

Media GiantsWarner Brothers found it.firms(Warner) Bros. Discovery (Nasdaq resonance)Stock Code(WBD)It is the third Nasdaq resonance market to be purchased in the early part of the bull market.GorgeousGrowth Stocks. While its sales growth doesn't meet the typical definition of a "growth stock," Wall Street's projection that the company will grow annualized earnings to 20% by 2028 certainly puts the traditional media giant at the top of the list.

I don't want to sound like a cliché, but the economy is important. The weakness in ad spending has severely impacted Warner Bros. Discovery's traditional movie business. In addition, the company's switch to streaming media has resulted in a sizable operating loss for its direct-to-consumer (DTC) business.

Thankfully, PubMatic isn't the only company benefiting from a significant increase in political ad spending this year. While traditional media companies face the challenge of disconnections, the election cycle should provide a nice boost to Warner Bros. Discovery's sales and margins in 2024.

More importantly, the company's DTC division has strong pricing power. Warner Bros. Discovery's ability to increase monthly subscriber prices while keeping sales, general and administrative expenses low is the secret to the company's DTC division's ultimate recurring profitability. Despite the higher subscription price, global streaming subscriber numbers and average revenue per subscriber, including subscriptions, increased slightly last year.

And don't discount the company's ability to generate free cash flow (FCF). While the writers' strike did significantly reduce expenses last year, Warner Bros.' financial free cash flow was up 861 TP3T year-over-year. the large amount of cash generated by the company's operations should help the company address its debt issues.

Warner Bros. has found that the company's stock price and business performance will not be immediate. However, in the long run, the conditions are in place for investors to reap the rewards.

AstraZeneca

The Fourth Special Growth Stock You'll Regret Not Buying in the New Nasdaq Resonance Bull Market is Not a Drug GiantAstraZeneca (AstraZeneca) (NASDAQ: AZN)It's a good idea.

The biggest obstacle that drug developers must face is the limited period of exclusivity for marketing their new treatments. Where the patent exclusivity of a blockbuster drug ends, it seems that the pharmacy industry is always waiting for an opportunity to make a move. AstraZeneca, which has struggled to survive the patent cliff of the last decade, has now launched its vast portfolio of new drugs.

Specifically, AstraZeneca's three business units hum like a well-oiled machine: Oncology, Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolic (CVRM), and Rare Diseases, which saw currency-neutral sales growth of 20%, 18%, and 12%, respectively, last year.

AstraZeneca's Cancer Pharmaceuticals Division has four blockbuster therapies that have benefited from improvements in cancer screening and diagnostics, strong pricing power and label expansion opportunities. One of these, the monoclonal resonance Imfinzi, saw its sales soar 55% on a constant currency basis last year to $4.24 billion.

In the CVRM space, Farxiga, a next-generation type 2 diabetes treatment, was the most impressive performer. Sales jumped 39% to $5.96 billion in 2023 at constant exchange rates. In the process, Farxiga became AstraZeneca's best-selling drug, replacing non-small cell lung cancer drug Tagrisso.

Finally, there is a bright spot in rare disease therapeutics. AstraZeneca acquired the blockbuster drug Soliris and its next-generation alternative, Ultomiris, through the acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals in July 2021, which allows AstraZeneca to validate its cash flow without worrying about competition from a drug that is a successor to Soliris.

The forward P/E ratio of 13.5 seems more than fair for a rock-solid pharmaceutical company that is expected to grow earnings at an average annual rate of 13.2% through 2028.

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Sean Williams holds PubMatic, Visa, and Warner Bros.The Motley Fool has a disclosure recommendation for PubMatic, Visa, and Warner Bros.The Motley Fool recommends AstraZeneca Plc. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

4 Exceptional Growth Stocks You'll Regret Not Buying in the New Bull Market in NASDAQ Resonance was originally published by The Motley Fool.