Stock market legend Peter Lynch once said: “The best stock to buy is the one you already own“.
I’m a big believer in that philosophy. After all, I own a share because I think it will rise over time and I already know a lot about the company from my research.
However, Lynch didn’t mean blindly buy more of everything in your portfolio. Valuation also matters. That’s why the star stock-picker also once said: “A correction [or crash] is a wonderful opportunity to buy your favourite companies at a bargain price“.
Putting these two things together then, here are two FTSE 100 stocks I’d like to buy more of at a lower price in a market meltdown.
Oncology leader
The first company is the second-largest on the London Stock Exchange. I’m talking about AstraZeneca (LSE:AZN), the pharmaceutical giant with a £214bn market-cap.
The share price is up 88% in the past five years, with dividends on top.
Yesterday (29 April), AstraZeneca reported a solid first quarter. Revenue was up 8% to $15.3bn and core earnings per share rose 5%. Both beat expectations, while core operating profit jumped 12% to $4.3bn.
The company is a world leader in oncology, which made up 45% of revenue in the quarter. The oncology portfolio grew 16%, driven by blockbuster cancer drugs Imfinzi (+30%), Calquence (+17%) and Enhertu (+34%).
In a win-win for patients and AstraZeneca, the UK has agreed to pay more for new medicines. And the company will invest £300m in expanding existing locations, including a “lab of the future” in Macclesfield.
Looking ahead, CEO Pascal Soriot said the firm was on track to reach its target of $80bn in revenue by 2030, up from $58.7bn last year. It expects to launch 20 new medicines by then.
The key risk is a handful of late-stage clinical trial failures. That could threaten the 2030 target, turning investors away from the stock.
However, the main reason I prefer to wait for a better chance to buy more shares is the valuation. After rising 31% over the past year, AstraZeneca’s trading on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 28. And the dividend yield‘s quite low at just 1.74%.
Top-class hotel group
The second stock is InterContinental Hotels Group (LSE:IHG). This has been another tremendous performer, doubling in price over the past five years (excluding dividends).
Now, the thing that attracted me to IHG, as it’s known, is the quality and breadth of its brands. At the luxury end, there’s Six Senses, Regent, InterContinental, and Kimpton. Then there’s Crowne Plaza, which is popular with business travellers, and Holiday Inn.
Another thing that I like about IHG is its business model. It operates on an asset-light platform, where the group franchises most of its brands rather than owning the physical hotel real estate.
This strategy has a number of benefits:
- IHG can grow rapidly with minimal capital investment.
- Earn high-margin fees.
- Return more cash to shareholders because third-party owners bear property maintenance costs.
Again though, the stock’s trading expensively, at 28 times earnings, while offering a 1.65% dividend yield. With the Middle East wars affecting flights and travel, this valuation probably doesn’t reflect the near-term risks.
However, this is a high-quality compounder I want more of, especially at a bargain price.
