Not all stocks came roaring back in 2023. The Canadian stock market as a whole had a down year in 2022, but that led to many TSX delivering double-digit returns in the following year. The tech sector, in particular, had no shortage of market-crushing performers in 2022.
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Investing in 2024
There was lots of optimism heading into this new year. The S&P/TSX Composite Index surged more than 10% in the last two months of 2023. And with potential interest rate cuts on the horizon, there’s certainly reason to believe that Canadian investors may be in for another positive year.
Putting the short-term growth potential aside, there’s still far more volatility in the market than many would appreciate. Unfortunately, volatility has been a major theme for investors since the early days of the pandemic.
The silver lining of the extreme volatility is that it has created buying opportunities for investors who are willing to be patient. Even with a rebound year in 2023, there are still plenty of deals to be had for those looking for stocks with multi-bagger growth potential.
I’ve reviewed two growth stocks that, not long ago, delivered market-crushing gains. But as quickly as their stock prices soared, it has since plummeted. Both companies are now trading far below all-time highs, yet the businesses themselves remain loaded with growth potential.
If you’ve got some cash to spare and are willing to be patient, these two growth stocks should be on your watch list.
TSX stock #1: Lightspeed Commerce
Investors haven’t completely missed the boat yet on the tech sector’s recent rebound. Lightspeed Commerce (TSX:LSPD) is one of the few tech stocks that had a somewhat disappointing performance in 2023. While shares were just about on par with the broader market’s return last year, the stock’s return paled in comparison to what many other tech stocks delivered.
Lightspeed is currently trading more than 80% below all-time highs set in late 2021 and is barely positive from when it joined the TSX in 2019.
There was a huge amount of growth pulled forward in 2020 and 2021 for Lightspeed, which explains the struggles to return to all-time highs. But when you put the short-term headwinds aside, this international commerce player has loads of long-term growth potential.
If you can handle the volatility, this tech stock offers tons of upside at today’s bargain price.
TSX stock #2: WELL Health Technologies
The virtual healthcare space has endured all kinds of volatility over the past couple of years. Understandably, demand for telemedicine sky-rocketed during the early days of the pandemic. That translated into massive amounts of gains in a very short period of time for companies like WELL Health Technologies (TSX:WELL).
Shares of the $1 billion company managed to end 2020 up more than 400%. Today, the growth stock is down just about 50% from all-time highs.
As demand for telemedicine began cooling off, so too did the stock prices of many of the companies in the space. But if you’re bullish on the long-term rise of virtual health care, now could be an incredibly opportunistic time to be loading up.
