The month of August gave investors some intriguing opportunities to buy quality stocks on the dip. The month started off with a flash crash that took the tech-heavy U.S. NASDAQ index into correction territory, with Canadian stocks dipping to a lesser extent. Although I did not actually buy any stocks during that particular correction, I did get a few buys in slightly before and after the most obvious dip in the markets in recent memory.
TD Bank
Toronto-Dominion Bank (TSX: TD) is a Canadian bank stock that has been getting beaten down severely due to a U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) investigation into its money-laundering practices. The stock fell all the way to $74 from a previous level of about $80 when it came out that the money laundering pertained to drug smuggling. I bought the stock all the way down to the year’s lows, and it has recovered nicely.
TD Bank’s most recent earnings release did contain some alarming items. Most notably, a $2.6 billion provision for expected fines that caused reported earnings to fall below $0 (specifically to -$181 million). However, it also contained a lot of good points, such as 10% revenue growth, 13% growth in Canadian banking and 14% growth in wholesale banking (the segment that includes investment banking).
There are definite risks to TD Bank and its shareholders. If the amount of expected fines grows further still, then the profit picture could be negatively impacted once more. On a more positive note, TD’s chief executive officer said on the recent earnings call that he expected the entire investigation to be over by the end of the year. Given that fact, if business fundamentals remain solid, there is potential for a significant acceleration of performance in 2025.
PDD Holdings
PDD Holdings (NASDAQ: PDD) is a Chinese e-commerce stock, best known as the owner of TEMU, the fast-growing e-commerce app that provides cheap Chinese goods to Western consumers.
PDD Holdings released its earnings today. The release showed an 86% increase in revenue and a 120% increase in profit. Earnings beat estimates while revenue missed slightly.
Despite all of the hot growth, PDD sold off by an astonishing 30% after earnings came out. The reason was that management struck a dour town in the earnings release as well as on the post-earnings call. Specifically, it warned of intensifying competition and lower profit margins going forward.
That all sounds very alarming, but PDD’s management has been giving conservative guidance for over a year now. Specifically, it has been warning of lower margins. Despite the warnings, the company’s revenue, earnings and profit margins have risen over the last year.
While I have no doubt that there will eventually be a slowdown in growth at PDD and some pressure on profit margins, the 30% selloff in the stock seemed overdone. So, I bought a very small number of shares on the dip.
Foolish takeaway
Markets sometimes provide opportunities to buy quality stocks cheaply. They don’t come around often, but they do come around. As we saw in August, such opportunities tend to be snapped up quickly. So, I’m glad to have averaged down on TD and PDD shares.
