As the US, the UK, and Asian economies teeter on the brink of technical recessions, there was a brief rally in some of the major benchmark indices. The S&P 500 posted its most bullish monthly performance in almost 24 months. As traders seek to find the bottom of the markets, we look at the 10 most traded stocks among Saxo’s clients in July, based on the number of individual clients trading each stock.
Q2 2022 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
The 10 Most Popular Stocks Of July
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Bavarian Nordic
Bavarian Nordic A/S (CPH:BAVA) is a leading Danish biotechnology firm, centered on the production of vaccines and immunotherapies for infectious diseases and cancers. It’s little surprise that Saxo clients have been trading this stock given that the share price has risen by over 57% in July alone.
The root cause of the surge in Bavarian Nordic shares is its closure of the world’s only monkeypox vaccine. The company retains the patent to the sole monkeypox vaccine that’s approved by both the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the US Food and Drug Agency. With the World Health Organization (WHO) issuing a high-level alert surrounding the recent monkeypox outbreak, this vaccine could prove a game-changer for the company.
During the last six months, since the monkeypox outbreak has taken hold, the Bavarian Nordic share price has risen 90%. It is currently trading at all-time highs as of August 2, 2022.
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ASML
ASML Holding NV (NASDAQ:ASML) is a semiconductor manufacturer based in the Netherlands. It posted Q2 2022 revenues of $5.79 billion, which was up 35% year-on-year and comfortably surpassed the company’s previous forecast. In addition, its net income was also up 36% year-on-year to $1.44 billion. It’s, therefore, no surprise that its share price rose by over 27% through July.
With the global chip shortage beginning to bite, ASML is handily placed to take full advantage of its increased demand. However, its future sales revenue could yet be hit by the US demands of the Netherlands to prohibit ASML from selling its technology to the mainstream Chinese market.
The move would provide a roadblock for China in becoming the world leader in chip production, but it could see ASML sales fall by as much as 10% if its deep ultraviolet tools are prevented from reaching Asia.
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Shell
Fossil fuel firm Shell PLC (NYSE:SHEL) has remained a popular pick for Saxo clients through July. It started the month in a bearish fashion, with its share price falling from 225 points in the first six days of July. It recovered strongly toward the end of the month to end July in the red by just 1%.
The continued surge in energy prices is causing many to invest in Shell to try and secure shareholder dividends. Its latest Q2 2022 results revealed adjusted earnings of $11.5 billion, effectively doubling its year-on-year income.
The earnings demonstrate the firm’s widening refining margins and its increased gas and power trading and optimization. Shell’s strong cash position is underlined by its plans to buy back up to $6 billion worth of shares.
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Tesla
The electrical vehicle (EV) giant Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) saw its share price rise by over 27% through July, which also explains its popularity among Saxo clients. In fact, Tesla shares have risen almost 50% since they experienced significant lows in May. One of the main reasons for their surge is the expectation surrounding a shareholder vote on Tesla’s stock-split plans.
The proposals would signal Tesla’s second stock split in as many years, with the company aiming to reset the “market price of its common stock”, according to its annual proxy statement. It also hopes a further stock split would make its common stock “more accessible to [its] retail shareholders”. The stock split wouldn’t alter the company’s overall value or market cap. Instead, it would triple each existing share, widening its pool of prospective investors.
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Apple
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) played a key role in the recovery of the S&P 500 through July, with its share price improving by 14% in the last month. Its third-quarter earnings for the 2022 fiscal year were up 2% year-on-year, with revenues of $83 billion, leading to quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.20.
Apple’s chief financial officer, Luca Maestri, said it had “returned over $28 billion” to shareholders in the last quarter, with a $0.23 cash dividend per share to be paid out in early August.
Robust sales of iPhones were heavily attributed to Apple’s increased revenue. The firm also unleashed a four-stage bond deal in a bid to raise up to $5.5-$6.5 billion in fresh debt that will be used to fund stock buybacks.
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ING Groep
Dutch banking and financial services giant ING Groep NV (AMS:INGA) has seen its share price remain pretty flat throughout July. That didn’t stop Saxo’s clients from showing considerable interest in the stock, despite rock-bottom interest rates continuing to weigh heavy on general investor sentiment.
One of the main reasons Saxo’s clients have gravitated towards ING Groep is its high dividend yields. With a dividend yield of 7.4%, this represents a considerable attraction for traders seeking dependable returns from their investments during these uncertain economic times.
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Just Eat Takeaway
The Just Eat Takeaway.com NV (LON:JET) share price appeared to show signs of bottoming out in July when it rebounded from 1,140.60 to close the month at 1,499.0. Just Eat’s Grubhub subsidiary secured a partnership with Amazon Prime last month, giving Prime members access to the Grubhub portal for 12 months. Just Eat shares rose rapidly after this announcement and the food delivery giant also stated its plan to sell off some or all of the subsidiaries in the months ahead.
Just Eat shares are still down some 80% since its stock was first listed on the London Stock Exchange. For a long time, the company has continued to lose money, with investors still waiting eagerly for the firm to enter the positive cash flow territory.
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Amazon
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s share price was up more than 19% throughout July, as it too showed positive signs of its market value bottoming out. Amazon’s latest trading update was promising for plenty of Saxo clients, with plenty of encouraging signs.
It successfully slashed its incremental costs from $6 billion in Q1 2022 to $4 billion in the second quarter. In addition, Amazon saw its net sales soar a further 7% year-on-year, hitting $121.2 billion – significantly higher than its initial forecast.
If it wasn’t for the strengthening of the US dollar, it would have been a growth of 10% or greater. Amazon posted a $2 billion loss for the second quarter – a loss per share of $0.20, which is down on the $0.76 loss per share in Q1 2022.
Aside from its eCommerce pressures, Amazon’s other subsidiaries appear to be thriving too. AWS, its cloud computing arm, saw a 36% rise in operating income and a 33% improvement in net sales. It has secured some lucrative new contracts in recent months too, with Delta Air Lines the latest to hand-pick AWS to underpin its digital infrastructure.
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Meta Platforms
The share price of Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) was stagnant throughout July. In fact, it closed the month almost 5% down. Unlike Amazon and Apple, the price of Meta shares did not experience a substantial uptick. One of the main reasons is the firm posting its first revenue decline as a publicly listed concern. Revenue for the three months to June 2022 represented a 1% year-on-year fall at $28.8 billion.
More concerning was the company’s falling profit, with net income for Q2 2022 falling 36% year-on-year to $6.7 billion. Meta also revealed a 14% year-on-year fall in average advertising fees on its platform, which could be considered an indicator of the weakened economic conditions. Active users on the Facebook platform were also down from the previous quarter, from 2.936 billion to 2.934 billion.
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Alphabet
In the year to date, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (the parent company of Google), has seen its share price fall from $144.99 to lows of $105.02 in late July 2022. The last couple of months have been particularly volatile for Google investors, with the share price bouncing from a support level of $106 and a resistance level of around $117.
Alphabet revenues for the last quarter totaled $69.7 billion. Although its operating margin flatlined compared with the previous year, this has been viewed as a victory for Google, given that operating expenses soared by 24% year on year.
At the time of its latest earnings update, Alphabet has accessible cash flow totaling $12.6 billion. Meanwhile, its search figures suggested continued growth, even if ad spend was flat at the $40 billion mark.
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