We recently compiled a list of the 10 Oversold Global Stocks To Buy Right Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) stands against the other oversold global stocks.
‘There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen” is apt when starting a piece about global stocks. The four weeks of November and the first two weeks of December have brought seismic shifts that have reworked the way investors expect the world to function for the next couple of years.
Brushing geopolitics aside, for Wall Street, the biggest event over this period was the 2024 US Presidential Election. A hotly contested battle, it saw President-elect Donald Trump emerge victorious. Trump’s effects on the markets were immediate as investors rushed to pile into sectors that they believed would benefit from the incoming administration’s focus on fewer regulations. Across the globe, the Chinese government also wondered about the impacts of the President-elect’s promised tariffs, while closer to home, governments in Europe wondered if they would have to fend off a glut of Chinese goods that might head their way if America constrained China’s ability to export it with cheap products.
Starting from the stock market, two sectors were notable for their performance once the election’s outcome was certain. These two sectors are the banking sector and energy. The S&P’s bank stock index surged by a whopping 13.8% after the election while energy stocks added 4%. In contrast, the benchmark index jumped by 3.8% to confirm that investors were bullish about certain sectors of the economy.
Since this is a piece about oversold global stocks, it’s important to discuss in detail how the world has responded to Trump’s win instead of analyzing its effects on domestic US stock markets. One of the President-elect’s biggest campaign promises is to enact tariffs against China. In a statement made on his social media platform after he won the election, Trump linked the Chinese tariffs with the deadly drug fentanyl making its way to America’s streets. He outlined that “On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States.” Trump added that the tariff would remain in place until “Drugs, in particular Fentanyl” stopped entering the US.
In response, Chinese leaders, who are already struggling with a weak economy are considering whether to increase economic stimulus to battle potential American tariffs. In a meeting top Communist Party officials indicated that they would undertake China’s first monetary policy loosening in 14 years, as they shared that a “more proactive fiscal policy and an appropriately loose monetary policy should be implemented, enhancing and refining the policy toolkit, strengthening extraordinary counter-cyclical adjustments.” The key concern for policymakers in China surrounds their aim of growing the Chinese economy by 5% in 2025. Should President-elect Trump’s tariffs materialize, then America’s imports from China will fall and lead to either lower Chinese economic output or a diversion of its exports to alternate countries. The latter option will be tricky due to the US’ status as the world’s largest economy.
While Trump’s victory was a boon for US stocks, European stocks displayed mixed performance. Tariffs also drove investor sentiment for European equities, whether they were from the EU or from the UK. The Euro 600 stock index added as much as 1.2% after Trump’s victory was announced, but ended up being down 1.26% by the end of the week following the election. European investors were jittery about the President-elect’s promise of 10% tariffs for all imports.
The British FTSE 100 also gained 1% after Trump’s victory but ended up losing momentum and ended in the red soon afterward. Economists believe that as the tariffs could potentially increase US prices, the Federal Reserve can keep rates higher and lead to global currencies falling. Since the election, the Euro and the Pound have lost 3.96% and 2.3% to the US dollar on the back of investor expectations of a stronger dollar in the near-term future.
Before we get to our list of the best oversold global stocks to buy, a brief look at some global stocks that surged following Trump’s win is also important. One stock that surged by 27% is a Swiss mining company with a significant presence in Ukraine. Investors bet on the shares with the hope that a Trump victory would end the conflict in Ukraine. Britain’s largest defense contractor, BAE, surged by 8% as investors tried to get an upper hand on potentially larger defense orders for the firm if the US cuts down NATO funding and asks Europe to contribute more.
Our Methodology
To make our list of the most oversold global stocks to buy, we ranked the 40 most valuable ex-US stocks with a 14-day RSI reading of 30 or lower by the number of hedge funds that had bought the shares during Q3 2024. Out of these, we picked the stocks with the highest number of hedge fund investors.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A long-distance telecommunications tower looming large against a dawn sky.
BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)
14-day RSI Score: 29.00
Number of Hedge Fund Investors In Q3 2024: 20
BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) is one of the largest telecommunications companies in Canada. The firm offers a variety of products and services such as broadband internet and television broadcasting to consumers and wholesale providers. As a result, BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) is operating in a rapidly dynamic market that is shifting to fiber and fixed wireless internet and video streaming services. The firm’s shares are down by 34.5% year-to-date driven by customer churn and a high debt load that investors would love to see resolved. During its quarter ending in September, BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) reported a whopping 76.8% postpaid customer drop for its wireless division. The firm also took a $2.1 billion impairment charge for its US Bell Media’s TV and radio properties. Therefore, resolving debt issues sits at the center of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)’s hypothesis as was clear in November when its decision to buy fiber firm Ziply led to the shares dropping by 9% as investors were disappointed that the proceeds would not be used to pay down debt.
BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)’s management believes that its postpaid churn isn’t as bad as it looks. Here’s what it shared during the Q3 2024 earnings call:
“While postpaid churn this quarter was up against the backdrop of elevated competitive activity relative to seasonal trends and higher than we’d like, it did represent a third consecutive quarter of deceleration in the year-over-year rate of increase.
So we’re moving in the right direction when it comes to churn. Prepaid net adds were up considerably versus last year, increasing to 69,085. This represents our best quarterly results since Q3 2019, and it’s a direct reflection of the strategy to increasingly address the Flanker and newcomer market with our prepaid brand. To close off on wireless, ARPU was down 3.4%. As expected, this result represents the accumulation of excessive rate plan discounting and promotional offer intensity over the past year. Until prices stabilize, we’ll continue to focus our efforts on delivering enhanced customer experiences and value and on improving wireless ARPU and margins. Although we believe that Q3 should be the peak quarter of decline, the magnitude and timing of ARPU recovery will depend on how aggressive Black Friday and holiday promotions will be this year.”
Overall BCE ranks 8th on our list of the oversold global stocks to buy now. While we acknowledge the potential of BCE as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than BCE but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.