By Senad Karaahmetovic
Despite a strong selloff in 2022, the tech valuations are not as cheap as this year's pullback may suggest, Bernstein analysts wrote in a client note.
The analysts don't expect tech stocks to grow at a material premium to the wider market, hence they reiterated a Market Weight rating on the sector.
Here are some key stats explaining the recent performance of the tech sector, as per Bernstein:
- Tech's 2022 performance (-32% YTD) is its weakest since GFC in 2008 and the poorest relative performance (-1470 bps) since the tech bubble in 2022;
- Tech now represents ~30% of the capitalization of the top 1500 stocks, down from 38% a year ago;
- Tech is now trading at a 29% premium to the market, down from 52% in November 2021. The historical average sits at 25%;
- The percentage of unprofitable tech stocks remains elevated at 32% (vs. historical average levels of 26%);
The analysts recommended investors take a "balanced barbell between expensive/growth and inexpensive/value tech stocks" in 2023. Some of the least expensive stocks include Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Micron (NASDAQ:MU), HP (NYSE:HPQ), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE), eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), and Dell (NYSE:DELL).
On the other hand, Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW), Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG), DoorDash (NYSE:DASH), Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS), and Roblox (NYSE:RBLX) are some of the most expensive tech stocks.