3 Cash-Heavy Stocks Walking a Fine Line
Financial flexibility is valuable, but it's not everything - at StockStory, we help you find the stocks that can not only survive but also outperform. That said, here are three companies with net cash positions to avoid and some better alternatives instead.
Net Cash Position: $347.1 million (30.7% of Market Cap)
With courses ranging from investing to cooking to computer programming, Udemy (NASDAQ:UDMY) is an online learning platform that connects learners with expert instructors who specialize in a wide range of topics.
Why Does UDMY Give Us Pause?
Decision to emphasize platform growth over monetization has contributed to 1.6% annual declines in its average revenue per buyer
Demand is forecasted to shrink as its estimated sales for the next 12 months are flat
Excessive marketing spend signals little organic demand and traction for its platform
Udemy's stock price of $7.49 implies a valuation ratio of 12.2x forward EV/EBITDA. Dive into our free research report to see why there are better opportunities than UDMY.
Net Cash Position: $39.4 million (30.4% of Market Cap)
Initially a financial services business, Clarus (NASDAQ:CLAR) designs, manufactures, and distributes outdoor equipment and lifestyle products.
Why Is CLAR Risky?
Products and services have few die-hard fans as sales have declined by 17.4% annually over the last two years
Performance over the past five years shows its incremental sales were much less profitable, as its earnings per share fell by 16.5% annually
Shrinking returns on capital from an already weak position reveal that neither previous nor ongoing investments are yielding the desired results
At $3.30 per share, Clarus trades at 8.7x forward EV-to-EBITDA. To fully understand why you should be careful with CLAR, check out our full research report (it's free).
Net Cash Position: $1.02 billion (10.1% of Market Cap)
Founded in 1993 during the early days of offshore software development, EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM) provides digital engineering, cloud, and AI transformation services to help global enterprises and startups modernize their technology systems and create digital products.
Why Are We Hesitant About EPAM?
Constant currency growth was below our standards over the past two years, suggesting it might need to invest in product improvements to get back on track
Free cash flow margin shrank by 7.3 percentage points over the last five years, suggesting the company is consuming more capital to stay competitive
Eroding returns on capital suggest its historical profit centers are aging
EPAM is trading at $178.56 per share, or 16.4x forward P/E. Check out our free in-depth research report to learn more about why EPAM doesn't pass our bar.
Market indices reached historic highs following Donald Trump's presidential victory in November 2024, but the outlook for 2025 is clouded by new trade policies that could impact business confidence and growth.
While this has caused many investors to adopt a "fearful" wait-and-see approach, we're leaning into our best ideas that can grow regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate. Take advantage of Mr. Market by checking out our Top 5 Strong Momentum Stocks for this week. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 183% over the last five years (as of March 31st 2025).
Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,545% between March 2020 and March 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-small-cap company Comfort Systems (+782% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today for free.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Snap Stock Plunged After Earnings. Buy the Dip?
Key Points Sponsored Snaps are showing strong engagement and conversion gains. Subscription revenue from Snapchat+ is growing quickly from a small base. Heavy stock-based compensation and dilution keep valuation concerns high. 10 stocks we like better than Snap › Snap (NYSE: SNAP), the parent company of social media platform Snapchat, took a hard hit following its second‑quarter earnings release earlier this month. Shares tumbled, driven by worries about slowing growth, execution missteps, and a worsening net loss. But dig deeper, and the underlying narrative is more nuanced; there were a lot of positives in the report, too. Revenue and users continue to grow at a robust rate, free cash flow has turned positive year over year, and new ad formats, such as sponsored Snaps, are demonstrating real engagement traction. Given the mix of good and bad in its underlying business and the stock's recent sell-off, it makes sense to check whether the shares have been pushed into oversold territory. Let's look at what changed in the business and what it might mean for investors today. Momentum in key areas Snap reported second-quarter revenue of $1.345 billion, marking a 9% gain from a year earlier. Further, the lifeblood of the company -- user activity -- performed exceptionally well. Daily active users (DAUs) rose 9% to 469 million, while monthly active users (MAUs) climbed 7% to 932 million. Operating cash flow reached $88 million, and free cash flow came in positive at $24 million, a notable reversal from the previous year, when the company burned cash. Still, Snap posted a net loss of $263 million (wider than a net loss of $249 million in the year-ago quarter), and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) slid lower on a year-over-year basis to $41 million, underscoring that profitability remains out of reach. An ad platform glitch -- where auction settings pushed some campaigns to clear at unusually low prices -- weighed on performance early in the quarter. Snap reversed the change mid-period, and management said that advertiser activity is of my favorite data points to support the bull case: On the diversification front, "other revenue" -- primarily from subscriptions like Snapchat+ -- grew 64% year over year, and Snapchat+ subscribers rose roughly 42%, nearing 16 million. One of the quarter's most promising developments was sponsored Snaps -- video ads delivered directly into users' inboxes. Snap co-founder Evan Spiegel said in the company's second-quarter earnings call that after a user opens a sponsored Snap from their chat feed, they "exhibit significantly higher engagement per full-screen ad view, driving a 2x increase in conversion, a 5x increase in click-to-convert ratios and a 2x increase in website dwell times compared to other inventories. That signals a powerful new lever for monetizing deeply engaged the company's fast-growing subscription business, advertising revenue growth trends after the glitch was addressed, and momentum in sponsored Snaps, management guided for continued top-line growth in Q3. Valuation remains a concern Despite a handful of promising trends at Snap, valuation remains troubling. The company has long leaned on equity dilution and stock-based compensation to fund growth. While Q2 did include a $243 million share repurchase (30 million shares), its stock-based compensation burden remains high. Full-year stock-based comp is still pegged north of $1.1 billion, even after recent downward revisions. Keep in mind that we're talking about a company with only a $12 billion market cap. Dilution continues to erode per-share value, even as Snap shows cash generation. So while the sell-off may feel overdone, the stock hasn't quite yet fallen low enough to make it a bargain. Of course, I could be wrong. A potential bull case lies not in near-term profits but in optionality -- whether Snap can scale newer revenue streams, stabilize pricing, and get to a point where it doesn't need to regularly materially dilute shareholders. Overall, Snap trades at a valuation that remains questionable given its history of dilution and heavy reliance on noncash compensation. But the emergence of fast-growing subscription revenue, sponsored Snaps, better cash flow, and an engaged user base make it extremely interesting -- worthy of a high spot on any investor's watchlist. Should you buy stock in Snap right now? Before you buy stock in Snap, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Snap wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $668,155!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,106,071!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,070% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 184% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025 Daniel Sparks and his clients have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Snap Stock Plunged After Earnings. Buy the Dip? was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
5 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Here's How This Forgotten Healthcare Stock Could Generate Life-Changing Returns
Key Points CRISPR Therapeutics' first approved therapy, Casgevy, was a breakthrough. One of Casgevy's biggest achievements may be demonstrating the viability of CRISPR Therapeutics' strategy. The biotech company could soar if it can follow up that win with more clinical and regulatory milestones. 10 stocks we like better than CRISPR Therapeutics › Over the past few years, the market hasn't been kind to somewhat speculative, unprofitable stocks. CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP), a mid-cap biotech, fits that description. The company's shares are down by 24% since mid-2022. The S&P 500 is up 50% over the same period. Despite this terrible performance, there are reasons to believe that CRISPR Therapeutics could still generate life-changing returns for investors willing to be patient. Here's how the biotech could pull it off. CRISPR Therapeutics' first success CRISPR Therapeutics' first approval was for Casgevy, a treatment for sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia (TDT), which it developed in collaboration with Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Before Casgevy, no CRISPR-based gene-editing medicine had been approved. While it became the first, it still faces some challenges. Ex vivo gene-editing therapies require a complex manufacturing and administration process that can only be performed in authorized treatment centers (ATCs). Moreover, they're expensive. Casgevy costs $2.2 million in the U.S. Getting third-party payers on board for that is no easy feat. Still, CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals are making steady progress. As of the second quarter, CRISPR Therapeutics had achieved its goal of activating 75 ATCs. It had also secured reimbursement for eligible patients in 10 countries. The two companies estimate there are roughly 60,000 eligible SCD and TDT patients in the regions they have targeted. Let's say they continue to strike reimbursement deals and can count on third-party coverage for 70% of this target population (42,000 people), then go on to treat another 30% of that group in the next decade (12,600 patients). Assuming they could extend that $2.2 million price tag to those countries, Casgevy could generate more than $27.7 billion over this period. Based on its agreement with Vertex, 40% would go to CRISPR Therapeutics, or roughly $11.1 billion over a decade. That's not bad, but it's not that impressive either. So, while Casgevy could contribute meaningfully to CRISPR Therapeutics' results -- and may even reach blockbuster status at some point -- the medicine may primarily serve as a proof of concept to demonstrate that the biotech's approach can be effective. Substantial progress with its first commercialized product will help the stock price. But the company's performance will depend even more on future clinical and regulatory milestones, especially as it shows with Casgevy that it can manage the intricacies and complexities of marketing gene-editing medicines. Can the pipeline deliver? CRISPR Therapeutics has six candidates in clinical trials, which isn't bad at all for a mid-cap biotech company. One of its leading programs is CTX310, a potential therapy designed to help reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in patients with certain conditions. CTX310 is already producing encouraging clinical trial results. Additionally, it's an in vivo medicine, meaning it bypasses the need to harvest patients' cells to manufacture therapies; in vivo gene-editing treatments are easier to handle than their ex vivo counterparts. The company's path to creating life-changing returns hinges on its ability to deliver consistent clinical and regulatory wins over the next few years for CTX310 and other important candidates. If CRISPR Therapeutics can successfully launch several new products in the next five to seven years, its shares are likely to skyrocket. In the meantime, under this scenario, the company would succeed in making gene-editing medicines more mainstream. This would encourage third-party payers to get on board -- and healthcare institutions, and perhaps even governments, to help push for more ATCs, since there'd be a greater need to accommodate these treatments. Can CRISPR Therapeutics achieve this? In my view, the biotech stock is on the riskier side, but does carry significant upside potential. There's a (small) chance the gene-editing specialist will deliver life-changing returns in the next decade, but investors need to hedge their bets. It's best to start by initiating a small position in the stock, then progressively add more if CRISPR Therapeutics lands more wins. Should you invest $1,000 in CRISPR Therapeutics right now? Before you buy stock in CRISPR Therapeutics, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and CRISPR Therapeutics wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $668,155!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,106,071!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,070% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 184% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025 Prosper Junior Bakiny has positions in Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Here's How This Forgotten Healthcare Stock Could Generate Life-Changing Returns was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
5 minutes ago
- Yahoo
AAPL Stock Price Prediction: Where Apple Could Be by 2025, 2026, and 2030
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Analysts are saying that Apple could hit $410 by 2030. Bullish on AAPL? Invest in Apple on SoFi with no commissions. If it's your first time signing up for SoFi, you'll receive up to $1,000 in stock when you first fund your account. Plus, get a 1% bonus if you transfer your investments and keep them there until December 31, 2025. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) remains one of the world's most influential and closely tracked tech stocks. Its massive installed base, iconic products, and fast-growing Services business make it a focal point for both growth and value investors. As of August 2025, Apple's share price is hovering near all-time highs as investors weigh the company's future earnings power in artificial intelligence (AI), wearables, and digital services. Below, we'll take a close look at how Apple stock is performing today, where its valuation stands, and what experts think could happen to its price in 2025, 2026, and 2030. You'll find projections from Wall Street analysts and independent models, along with an overview of the key trends, possible risks, and different opinions shaping Apple's future. Current Apple Stock Overview Market Cap: $3.25 trillion Trailing P/E Ratio: 32.36 Forward P/E Ratio: 26.95 1-Year Return: +1.86% 2025 Year to Date: Down roughly 15%, but rebounding strongly from earlier lows As of August 2025, Apple (AAPL) trades near $224 per share, recovering from a steep first-half drop of over 15% as investor sentiment improves. The stock's trailing P/E ratio of 32.36 sits well above its long-term average in the low-to-mid 20s, reflecting the market's continued premium on Apple's brand and earnings power. Over the past year, shares have inched up about 1.9%, showcasing the company's historical resilience and ability to rebound from downturns. This elevated valuation suggests investors expect steady profit growth despite competitive pressures and rapid tech sector changes. With high margins and recurring revenue, Apple's Services division (App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, and more) is now the company's growth engine. iPhone demand, especially in China and India, remains a central driver, with an anticipated surge for the iPhone 17 launch in the third quarter of 2025. AI has been called an 'elephant in the room.' Apple's monetization strategy there has yet to emerge, with Wall Street still waiting for significant generative AI products. Competitive and regulatory headwinds are increasing, but Apple's pricing power and sticky ecosystem underpin optimism for the long-term. Don't Miss: The same firms that backed Uber, Venmo and eBay are investing in this pre-IPO company disrupting a $1.8T market — and you can too at just $2.90/share. Warren Buffett once said, "If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die." Here's how you can earn passive income with just $100. Wall Street sentiment toward Apple (AAPL) is broadly positive. According to Benzinga, 29 analysts cover the stock, with a consensus price target of $233.04, ranging from a high of $300 (Tigress Financial) to a low of $160 (HSBC). The three most recent ratings from Wedbush, B of A Securities, and DA Davidson average $256.67, implying about 12.7% upside from current levels. This reflects optimism about Apple's long-term growth despite ongoing debates over its innovation pace and competitive pressures. Quick Snapshot Table of PredictionsYear Lowest Prediction Average Prediction Maximum Prediction 2025 $170 $225 $300 2026 $218 $362 $411 2027 $245 $362 $420 2028 $290 $387 $470 2029 $320 $412 $495 2030 $287 $349 $410 The forecast range in this table is based on algorithmic projections provided by Coin Price Forecast, StockScan, CoinCodex, and Market Beat. These models use historical price trends, volatility patterns, and moving averages to estimate future stock prices over multiple time horizons. Bull & Bear Case Before making a decision on Apple stock, it's crucial to weigh both the optimistic arguments for continued growth and the potential headwinds that could limit future returns. Bull Case Growth from iPhone replacement cycle (iPhone 17 and beyond), surging Services segment, and potential upside from new AI features or augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) launches. High-margin services and wearables provide recurring revenue and ecosystem lock-in. Most analysts maintain "Buy" or "Moderate Buy" ratings for AAPL, citing balance sheet strength, buybacks, and innovation pipeline. Bear Case Regulatory and antitrust scrutiny in the U.S. and Europe could limit the percentage Apple collects from App Store sales or hamper new services. Margins pressured as hardware growth slows, especially given Chinese competition/risk of supply chain disruptions. Apple's current valuation remains rich unless earnings growth accelerates; any disappointment could prompt a sharp downside given macro risks. Despite Apple's massive resources, the company faces persistent criticism for lagging behind peers like Microsoft, Google, and even Meta in the rollout of advanced generative AI features. Apple Stock Price Prediction for 2025 Forecast Range: $170–$300 Analysts see moderate upside from today's price of around $224, with bulls eyeing further gains into late 2025 should the iPhone cycle and services outpace current estimates. A key risk is that valuation multiples could compress if revenue trends don't reaccelerate. Competitive gains from rivals and global regulation remain overhangs. Apple Stock Price Prediction for 2026 Forecast Range: $218–$411 2026 targets diverge, with some models projecting steady, earnings-driven creep, while others foresee strong upside from new platform adoption (AI, wearables). Bullish scenarios anticipate 60% to 80% upside if innovation cycles hit. Apple Stock Price Prediction for 2030 Forecast Range: $287–$478 A balanced CAGR model (8% to 12% annualized) from today suggests AAPL could close 2030 between $350 and $415. Structural upside exists if new categories (AR glasses) scale successfully. Downside risks are disruption to Apple's ecosystem, regulatory interventions, or margin erosion as competition heats up. Investment Considerations Apple remains a core blue chip, suitable for long-term growth investors, tech believers, and dividend reinvestors. Its record of buybacks, dividend hikes, and world-class brand equity keeps institutional and retail holders committed. As of mid-2025, hedge funds and pensions maintain overweight exposure, betting on Apple's proven playbook of ecosystem expansion and cash generation. Key risks: macroeconomic swings, intensified tech competition (especially in China), global regulatory action, and elevated earnings multiple. Upcoming catalysts to watch include Q3 earnings (iPhone 17 launch), Services segment margin growth, and the debut of new AI-powered features. Diversified investors should monitor Apple's valuation multiples and sector positioning. Significant drawdowns are possible if revenue growth disappoints or global tech sentiment sours. See Next: 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. You can invest today for just $0.30/share. This article AAPL Stock Price Prediction: Where Apple Could Be by 2025, 2026, and 2030 originally appeared on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
