Every

investor
wants to
find great
companies
whose
shares are
trading at
attractive
prices.
 Every investor wants to find great companies whose shares are trading at
attractive prices. Unfortunately, those opportunities are rarer than you might
think.

You can usually find plenty of companies with attractive prospects for long-
term growth. However, if you can find them, so can anyone else -- and that
typically results in the share prices of those great companies having already
gone through the roof.

You can also usually find plenty of companies whose shares are trading at
bargain prices. In many of those cases, though, the stock price is depressed
for a good reason. Just because you can pick up a cheap stock doesn’t
mean that the company’s underlying fundamental business prospects are
still sound. Countless investors have gotten caught in value traps because
they thought a stock that had lost ground couldn’t possibly suffer any further
losses.

To find truly excellent stocks in the bargain bin, it’s essential to consider the
risks and rewards a business offers. Even the best-performing stocks in
the market over the long run -- think Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), Nvidia
(NASDAQ: NVDA), and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) -- have gone through periods
of uncertainty and doubt. Investors who had the confidence in those dark
times reaped the biggest rewards.

With that in mind, we asked our team of Motley Fool analysts to identify some
promising stocks that have seen better days. The three companies you’ll see
discussed below have all gone through a lot, but we believe they have what it
takes to make it through and thrive in the long run.

Here are your three excellent stocks on sale right now!

BioNTech
The Big-Picture Opportunity
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an ongoing tragedy. Killing millions of
people, the novel coronavirus led to unprecedented public health efforts to
control its spread. The impact on the global economy was so massive that
it required concerted effort from governments around the world to keep the
impacts of the pandemic from being even worse than they were.
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 For all the harm the pandemic did, it also showed what humanity can achieve
when it focuses its attention on a particular problem. Healthcare researchers
unearthed groundbreaking discoveries within months of the beginning of
the pandemic. COVID-19 vaccines brought mRNA research pioneer Moderna
(NASDAQ: MRNA) into the limelight and also provided a huge boost for
pharmaceutical giant Pfizer (NYSE: PFE).

Pfizer’s mRNA partner, BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX), was almost unknown

among U.S. investors before 2020, but the German biotech company’s stock
jumped into the stratosphere in 2021 as COVID-19-related sales soared. Now,
share prices have sagged as the worst of the pandemic seems to be behind
us. Yet what many investors don’t realize is that for BioNTech, the COVID-19
pandemic was merely a proof-of-concept for biotechnology with far greater
applications across the healthcare industry.

Why This Business Works

BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 put the German biotech on the map,
and it remains a driving force of the company’s success. BioNTech and Pfizer
had the first approved mRNA vaccine on the market, and it has shipped more
than 4.5 billion doses to over 180 countries worldwide, preventing millions
of deaths. Even as recovery efforts from the pandemic have continued,
BioNTech distributed over 400 million vaccine doses in 2023, including over
190 million doses of monovalent vaccines specifically tailored to the latest
strains of the coronavirus. In the key U.S., European Union, and Japanese
markets, BioNTech remains the market leader.

BioNTech’s financial performance has reflected the immense success of its

COVID-19 efforts, but it also shows how successful efforts can be fleeting.
In 2020, BioNTech had revenue of 482 million euros, posting a modest 15
million euro profit due largely to favorable tax provisions. By 2021, BioNTech’s
revenue had soared to nearly 19 billion euros, and the company earned nearly
10.3 billion euros in net income. 2022 was similar to 2021, but 2023 brought
a severe pullback in COVID-related sales. In the first nine months of 2023,
revenue plunged more than 80%, and profit was down 93%. Those figures still
represented substantial growth from 2020 levels, but it’s hard to appreciate
that in light of BioNTech’s peak performance.

Yet lost in the noise of COVID-19 has been the rest of BioNTech’s business
prospects. The company has continued to work with Pfizer on combination
vaccines for COVID-19 and influenza, as well as stand-alone influenza and
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 shingles vaccines. Early-stage studies are looking at potential vaccines for
tuberculosis, malaria, mpox, and herpes simplex. And in the field of oncology,
BioNTech has dozens of ongoing clinical trials addressing various forms of
tumors and multiple types of cancer.

Why We Trust Leadership

CEO Ugur Sahin was a co-founder of BioNTech, and the physician has
become an expert on mRNA medicines during his career. Sahin has more
than 500 filed patents on which he is a co-inventor, and he has extensive
credentials in academia and in the business world.

We like to see top executives who retain large stakes in the companies they
helped create, and Sahin’s 42.3 million shares (more than 17% of BioNTech’s
shares outstanding) have made him a billionaire even after the big declines
in BioNTech stock since late 2021. Investors can be assured that Sahin’s
financial incentives are squarely aligned with his career goals of finding
groundbreaking discoveries in the mRNA arena.

How BioNTech Could Win

BioNTech has huge aspirations for the future. Although mRNA has been
the gateway technology on which it has pinned its early success, BioNTech
also expects to embrace solutions involving cell and gene therapies, protein-
based therapies, and small molecules to fight against disease. It has also
been at the forefront of using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and
computational medicine to speed up drug discovery, design, and development
to make the entire process more efficient.

In particular, the company expects to use AI to optimize mRNA structure and

function, while also working on several facets of protein design and genome
analysis to eventually produce personalized medicines via automated and
digitized manufacturing processes. Its InstaDeep team includes over 300 AI
experts, along with a vast array of supercomputing assets, large language
models, quantum machine learning capabilities, and AI research expertise
that should inform its future developments.

Meanwhile, BioNTech’s aspirations go well beyond COVID-19. Novel cancer

therapies could revolutionize the field of oncology, combining personalized
vaccines, targeted therapies, and immuno-modulators to develop unique

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 therapeutic regimens that improve chances of success. Infectious disease
treatment development could closely resemble the process BioNTech used
to develop COVID-19 products, with prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines
based on proven mRNA technology eventually preventing a much wider array
of diseases from taking hold.

Why BioNTech is Worth an Investment Today

At recent prices, BioNTech shares trade for a bit more than double what they
fetched at the end of 2019, before the pandemic began. With prospects for
ongoing demand for COVID-19 products at reduced sales levels combined
with the potential for groundbreaking vaccines and treatments elsewhere,
now is a great time for investors to take a closer look at BioNTech as a long-
term investment.

Key Data

Industry: Biotechnology
Asset Class: Large-Cap
Region: Europe
Headquarters: Mainz, Germany
Sector: Healthcare
Market Cap: $21.9 billion
Recent Price: $92.28 (Feb. 21)
Three-Year Revenue Growth Rate: 159.2% (TTM as of 2023 Q3 vs. 2020)
Cash / Debt: 13.5 billion euros / 202 million euros

Marqeta
The Big-Picture Opportunity
Paying by cash is simple. Money literally changes hands, and the transaction
is complete. At the end of the day, merchants take their cash to their bank for
credit to their account.

With the rise of electronic payments, things have gotten more complicated.
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 When you pay with a credit or debit card, a host of different parties gets
involved in the transaction. Typically, an acquiring processor transmits
merchant data to a card network, which in turn relays that information on
to the card issuer’s processor for settlement. Banks and other financial
institutions play a vital role on all sides of the transaction, because both the
card network providers and the companies that issue cards are typically
financial institutions, and merchants also have banking relationships to
facilitate transfer of funds.

Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ) wants to help merchants retake control of financial

transactions. By creating a platform that allows merchants to set up their
own programs and make a wide variety of financial services available to their
customers, Marqeta is revolutionizing the payment space -- and it’s putting
itself in position to share in the success of its clients.

Why This Business Works

Marqeta’s core platform allows its clients to come up with customized
payment card solutions that are tailored to their particular needs. Merchants
can issue their own credit, debit, and prepaid cards, both in physical form and
as tokenized cards for use in digital wallets. Marqeta provides processing
services that give merchants greater control over how transactions get
processed, and the platform also offers ways that users can manage their
working capital and offer an even wider range of banking services to their
end-user customers.

Marqeta also has a number of applications that enhance the value of its
platform. Its risk-control features verify the identity of card applicants and
secure each online transaction, with real-time decision-making capabilities
integrating fraud avoidance and dispute management. Clients can build credit
card programs with flexible rewards to provide incentives for desired behavior,
while using tools to handle collections and compliance requirements. With
its self-service Marqeta Dashboard, the fintech disruptor makes it easier for
merchants to serve their cardholders and track data to draw valuable insights
from their customers. And with hundreds of integrated apps, Marqeta ensures
a positive user experience.

Marqeta isn’t the only fintech out there, but its platform offers flexibility that
distinguishes it from its competitors. With multinational reach in over 40
countries worldwide, $200 billion in total payment volume in 2023, unmatched
network reliability, and a comprehensive slate of services, Marqeta has
earned the support of the majority of its clients.
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Why We Trust Leadership
CEO Simon Khalaf is new to Marqeta, having joined the company as chief
product officer in mid-2022 before taking over for company founder Jason
Gardner at the beginning of 2023. Khalaf impressed Gardner with his
experience, including over 30 years as both an executive and an entrepreneur
taking companies to the next level. Khalaf’s resume includes a mix of work
for well-established businesses like Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and
Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), as well as smaller start-ups.

Khalaf hasn’t been in place long enough to have a huge stake in the company,
but Gardner has retained a stake of about 10% in Marqeta, with super-voting
shares that give him 49% voting control of the business. It’s likely, though, that
Khalaf will receive stock and options awards as CEO that will further align his
financial interests with those of shareholders.

How Marqeta Could Win

Marqeta’s business strategy suffered a setback in 2022, because investment
in fintech companies worldwide slowed down considerably. Because
neobanks and other disruptive fintechs were prime candidates to use
Marqeta’s services, the tough environment required the company to retrench
and pivot toward the needs of large enterprises seeking embedded finance
services.

However, in some ways, Marqeta benefited from hard times. By changing

its approach away from selling individual services toward offering holistic
solutions, Marqeta put itself in a better position to handle the needs of a
wider range of potential clients.

The result has been a considerable uptick in both the number and quality
of deals that Marqeta has made with clients over the past 12 months.
New customers are coming on board even as existing clients expand their
relationship with Marqeta, with a healthy mix of consumer and commercial
clients both in embedded finance and elsewhere. The fintech disruptor is also
winning business from its rivals, with a quarter of its new customers having
previously used products from competitors. Once it wins business, Marqeta is
confident it can not only keep those clients, but also cross-sell them multiple
services.

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Why Marqeta Is Worth an Investment Today
Marqeta’s share price has fallen more than 80% from its highest levels in
2021 shortly after its initial public offering. That reflects the challenges that
it and the broader fintech industry have faced over the past two years. Yet
things are looking more favorable for Marqeta now, and that could present a
big opportunity for investors to participate in a recovery in 2024 and beyond.

Key Data

Industry: Infrastructure Software

Asset Class: Small-Cap
Region: U.S.
Headquarters: Oakland, California
Sector: Technology
Market Cap: $3.36 billion
Recent Price: $6.43 (Feb. 22)
Three-Year Revenue Growth Rate: 42% (TTM as of 2023 Q3 vs. 2020)
Cash / Debt: $1.30 billion / $0

Exelixis
The Big-Picture Opportunity
Cancer is one of the most prevalent diseases affecting humanity across the
globe. It’s the leading cause of death for people under age 85, and more than
2 million new cancer cases are projected in 2024 in the U.S. alone. More than
610,000 Americans are likely to die of cancer this year, with millions more
deaths worldwide.

Because of the frequency and severity of cancer, hundreds of companies

conduct research into fighting the disease. Although their efforts haven’t yet
identified outright cures, the treatments they’ve developed have gone a long
way toward improving the chances of survival and recovery for many patients.

Exelixis (NASDAQ: EXEL) has focused most of its attention on fighting cancer,
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 and one particular discovery has proven to be a blockbuster success for the
company. Yet Exelixis is also taking steps to broaden its pipeline in an effort
to serve a larger range of cancer patients.

Why This Business Works

The most important treatment in Exelixis’ portfolio is cabozantinib (cabo),
marketed under the names Cabometyx and Cometriq. The treatment targets
a number of enzymes that cause the production of cancerous tumors,
and it has already received six approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration to treat patients suffering from two forms of thyroid cancer,
three forms of renal cell carcinoma, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Cabo is
a huge seller for Exelixis, with net global revenue of $2.2 billion annually that
makes up the vast bulk of the company’s total sales.

With the revenue and cash flow that cabo generates, Exelixis has been able
to fund extensive research and development efforts to broaden the scope
of its business. The biotech company has a host of other small-molecule
treatments in its pipeline, most notably zanzalintinib (zanza), which aims to
build on the success of cabo while potentially offering more attractive traits
like increased tolerability and a more favorable risk profile. In particular,
Exelixis is positioning zanza as a potential treatment for colorectal cancer,
renal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma in the head and neck.

Exelixis also has a number of biotherapeutics in various stages of

development. These treatments could potentially expand the number of
indications and groups of patients Exelixis could serve still further, either as
standalone therapies or in combination with other treatment options.

Why We Trust Leadership

Michael Morrissey has worked at Exelixis for nearly a quarter-century, with
positions leading the research and development division before assuming
the role of CEO in 2010. Earlier in his career, Morrissey was involved directly
in clinical research, and he has been an inventor on 70 issued U.S. patents.
Extensive work on the boards of directors of several smaller companies
in biotech ensure that Morrissey remains up to date about cutting-edge
research.

In his tenure at Exelixis, Morrissey has built up a respectable 2.86 million

share stake in the company, worth more than $55 million at recent prices. The
CEO received a $14.6 million stock award that made up the lion’s share of his
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 compensation in 2022, and previous years featured options awards that could
also help Morrissey further build up his holdings of Exelixis stock.

Exelixis (NASDAQ: EXEL) has focused

most of its attention on fighting cancer, and
one particular discovery has proven to be a
blockbuster success for the company.

How Exelixis Could Win

Exelixis sees several pathways toward transformational growth. Cabo targets
enzymes that are active on over 20 different types of tumors, including
prostate, lung, breast, and urothelial cancer. In particular, there are new
market opportunities in treating metastatic castration-resistant prostate
cancer and neuroendocrine cancer that could dramatically boost the number
of patients Exelixis serves with cabo.

In addition to building on its leadership in gastrointestinal and genito-urinary

cancers, Exelixis believes it can get a foothold in lung, head and neck,
gynecological, and breast cancers. By using the lessons that cabo research
has taught it, Exelixis sees zanza and the biotherapeutic XB002 as the entry
point by which it will move more aggressively to build a diverse pipeline.
Eventually, the biotech company expects to have treatments to fight more
than a dozen types of tumors with as many as 500,000 addressable patients.

One potential catalyst for shareholders to be excited about is the successful

proxy fight from hedge fund Farallon Capital in 2023. The hedge fund’s slate
of three independent candidates for the board of directors won election, with
the goal of having Exelixis be more thoughtful in how it directs its research
and development spending. It’s possible that a greater concentration on areas
of highest potential reward could help Exelixis boost profits more quickly over
time.

Why Exelixis Is Worth an Investment Today

Despite the progress it has made on its pipeline, Exelixis stock hasn’t done
much over the past five years. With reasons for new optimism in 2024,
however, now might be a good time to take a closer look at Exelixis and its
prospects for accelerating growth in the future.
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 Key Data

Industry: Biotechnology
Asset Class: Mid-Cap
Region: U.S.
Headquarters: Alameda, California
Sector: Healthcare
Market Cap: $6.23 billion
Recent Price: $20.72 (Feb. 21)
Three-Year Revenue Growth Rate: 22.8%
Cash / Debt: $995 million / $0

The Foolish Bottom Line

When you find a stock that turns out to be a winner even after many have
counted it out, it’s a great feeling. It shows the advantages that individual
investors can have over Wall Street professionals. No one’s going to risk their
career making big bets on a down-and-out stock -- but their reluctance creates
an opportunity that you can seize.

Investing always involves risk, and it’s never 100% certain that any stock will
bounce back from adversity. Even given how promising they look, these three
stocks aren’t sure things. That’s why The Motley Fool’s investing philosophy
always includes having a diversified portfolio of 25 or more stocks.
Even with these risks, though, we like what we see in these three companies.
We’re looking forward to seeing what they do to get out of the doldrums and
start moving forward again.

Thanks so much for taking a look at this report. We wish you the best of
success in your investing endeavors, and we hope you’ll join us again here at
The Motley Fool!

The Motley Fool has a Disclosure Policy. The Author and/or The Motley Fool may have an
interest in companies mentioned.
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