3 Stocks at all-time highs that you should buy without hesitation

The market flirted with new highs last week. Even though this is exciting for investors, it can keep many from buying or adding to great stocks. Against this background, we asked three employees of the motley fool to name one company each that they would buy without hesitation, no matter how high the share prices are.

They called us upstart holdings (WKN: A2QJL7), qualcomm (WKN: 883121) and atlassian (WKN: A2ABYA).

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Upstart holdings: turning lending on its head with AI

Danny vena (upstart holdings): consumer lending has long been ripe for upheaval. Those whose credit is less than perfect are at the mercy of lenders and have to pay ridiculously high interest rates – if they can get a loan at all. Even worse, some consumers have low credit scores through no fault of their own because their relationship broke up, they have health problems or simply no credit history. This is where upstart holdings comes into play.

The fintech company offers an alternative to the rules-based lending systems used by many banks and financial institutions. Instead of considering just a few variables, upstart uses a novel approach that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to account for more than 1.000 variables to consider to predict the probability that a loan will be repaid. The company's sophisticated algorithms are turning traditional lending on its head, ensuring that many more potential borrowers get a loan while receiving lower interest rates than many borrowers elsewhere.

Upstart's state-of-the-art platform incorporates a whole host of factors to predict loan defaults, including income fraud, loan stacking, fee optimization, identity fraud, targeted acquisition, prepayment prediction and time-limited default prediction – among many other indicators. Upstart's system gets smarter with each new loan, and with a rapidly growing dataset that includes more than 10.5 million repayments, its predictive power continues to expand.

The likelihood of getting a loan is much higher when using upstart's financial models: 27% more borrowers get a loan from banks using the system than those using traditional lending methods. And that's not all: as a rule, they also receive better conditions, because the effective annual interest rate (APR) for approved loans is on average 16 % lower.

None of this would matter if the loans weren't being repaid, but financial institutions using upstart's platform have reduced their loss rates by 75%, for the same number of loan approvals. This shows that the AI-based system is working, and banks are increasingly getting on board.

Upstart's sales rose to 194 million u.S. Dollars in the second quarter, or 1.018 % more than year-on-year. The company has transformed itself from a loser to a winner, with net income of 37.3 million. U.S. Dollars, compared to a loss of 6.2 million. U.S. Dollar in the previous year's quarter. Perhaps more importantly, upstart has generated a profit in every quarter since going public late last year.

Robust customer measures contributed to upstart's financial results. Bankers who use upstart's system have been working with 286.864 loans 2.8 billion. US dollars awarded, that's 1.605% more year-over-year, and the conversion rate rose from 9% to 24%.

Upstart has it on a huge market of 92 billion. U.S. Dollars in unsecured loans aside, but that's not all. The company is expanding its tools to address the auto loan, credit card and mortgage markets to expand its opportunities to $4.3 billion in U.S. Dollars. By way of comparison, upstart expects to generate $750 million in revenue this year, which illustrates the size of the opportunity.

Qualcomm: an upgrade cycle spurs this dominant 5G chipset company

Will healy (qualcomm): qualcomm's portfolio of wireless patents has made the company one of the industry's greats. The company makes chips for a variety of mobile products and could develop a new operating system for cars.

Many investors, however, associate the company with its chipsets for smartphones, a market that has become increasingly important in the wake of the 5G upgrade. Although companies like apple have tried to compete with qualcomm, right now every 5G device relies on a qualcomm chip to provide the service. That's a good outlook for qualcomm, as grand view research forecasts that this chip market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 69% through 2028.

In addition, the company must continue to defend itself against challenges. Qualcomm is heavily dependent on chips from arm holdings, a company with which nvidia is in talks about an acquisition. However, with regulators raising antitrust concerns about such a takeover, it seems increasingly likely that qualcomm will avoid becoming dependent on nvidia.

Qualcomm's strength is also evident in its recently released fiscal year 2021 numbers. During this period, GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) revenue increased 43% over fiscal year 2020 to nearly 34 billion. US $. Sales growth slightly outpaced the increase in operating costs, and qualcomm benefited from additional income from capital expenditures and lower interest costs. This resulted in a GAAP net profit of 9 bn. U.S. Dollars for the fiscal year, up 74% year over year.

Also, slowing growth may not affect qualcomm as much as it appears to be. GAAP revenue growth in the fourth quarter slowed to 12%, but revenue rose 43%, excluding the $1.8 billion fourth-quarter 2020 comparison with huawei. The company's forecast of 10 to 10.8 billion in the first quarter of 2022. However, u.S. Dollars represent a 26% year-over-year increase, so qualcomm will likely face a slowdown for a while.

Although the stock is trading at about the same level it was a year ago, it has risen about 20% since its short-term low in mid-october. Moreover, with a price-earnings ratio of only 17, it is still much cheaper than comparable companies like apple with an earnings multiple of 27 or NXP semiconductor with a price-earnings ratio of 59. As qualcomm dodges another competitive threat, its important role in the 5G upgrade cycle and low P/E ratio could make the company increasingly attractive.

Atlassian: team collaboration will never go out of style

Brian withers (atlassian): without good cooperation between team members, projects don't get done these days. With remote work and a growing trend toward workers with specialized skills, teams today face the challenge of keeping everyone up to speed on important projects. Software tools are a must in today's business world to coordinate teams that can work from almost anywhere. This is where atlassian comes in. Atlassian's mission is to help teams around the world realize their full potential. With its focused mission, exceptional metrics and a world of opportunity ahead, this company is a solid bet no matter what the market does.

Let's first take a look at the company's recent results. Customers are flocking to atlassian's broad platform of software tools. The company posted a record 216 last quarter.500 customers, that's 30% more than last year. Revenue is also at a record level of $614 million in the last quarter, up 10% from the previous quarter and 33% from a year ago. As the company moves more customers to its cloud-based tools, it's exciting for investors to see the growth of cloud offerings accelerate.

DATA SOURCE: company quarterly report

These results are outstanding, but investors are always excited about what's next. Atlassian is well poised to grow in three focus areas. The first is agile development, built on the foundation of the company's collaboration tools for software development teams. Given the boom in software development, this area will continue to be a rich source of growth in the coming years.

The second growth area is helping IT teams release software. As working from anywhere becomes the norm, users demand access to critical software tools whenever and wherever they work. With atlassian's jira service management and halp, IT teams have all the tools they need to meet increased user demands. Work management tools are the third source of growth for the company. These products help teams in all functions juggle tasks and collaborate to achieve their team's goals.

Atlassian's stock has more than doubled in the last twelve months and has experienced a tremendous upswing. But the investors have not missed the boat. I would buy the stock of the founder-led company specializing in team collaboration software without hesitation in any market.

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This article reflects the opinion of the author, which may differ from the "official" recommended position of a premium advisory service of the motley fool. We are mixed! Questioning an investment thesis – even our own – helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier and richer.

Brian withers owns shares of atlassian. Danny vena owns stock in apple, atlassian, nvidia and upstart holdings, inc. Will healy does not own any of the stocks mentioned.

This article was written in english and published on 07.11.2021 on fool.Com published. It has been translated so that our german readers can take part in the discussion.

The motley fool owns and recommends shares of apple, atlassian, nvidia, qualcomm and upstart holdings, inc. The motley fool recommends NXP semiconductors and recommends the following options: long march 2023 $120 calls on apple and short march 2023 $130 calls on apple.

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