5 Buy the Dip Stocks: July's Top Picks With Upside Ahead

Summer is in full swing and Thomas is back with  his monthly buy list and this time they are all   buy the dip opportunities. Joining us today is  market beat analyst Thomas Hughes with his list   of five stocks to buy in July. Thomas, this is  one of our favorite monthly segments. You are   on every month with a list of the five stocks  you are watching most this month. And this time   all of these names are on at least a little bit  of a pullback. Some of them an extreme pullback.   We're going to get into that in a minute. But  I just want you to to start off talking about   what you are expecting in the market this  July. Well, right now July is kind of as a   weird time for the market. Uh not only are we  coming off the the SAS, the SAS apocalypse,   you know, implosion from earlier this year and  stocks have been depressed because of that,   but it's summer trading environment. So, we  just have less volume in general. Lots of   opportunity for for volatility. People kind of  just waiting to see what happens. But as July,   you know, comes up is coming up right now. the  Q2 earnings reporting season is going to uh begin   midmonth and really gain momentum by the end of  the month. And I think that will provide catalyst   for the market. Um if not an actual catalyst for  upside right now, it'll at least provide catalyst   for support. I think that the AI trade is still  going to be very strong. I think that we'll see,   you know, the broadening AI spending, but also  broadening strength in other sectors as well. That   story's still been in play. Uh labor markets are  still pretty strong. You know, plenty of concerns   macroeconomically, but uh labor data is very  strong. spending and income have been very strong.   So I think generally speaking uh the reporting  season will be providing you know catalyst for   the market. Yeah those catalysts could be coming  and that is why now is the time to be looking at   the five names that you have for us this month.  Again a lot of these are on a pullback right now.   And before we get into the first name I want to  talk about why that pullback exists for a lot   of names especially in the tech sector. Many of  these stocks have seen pretty explosive upsides.   So there was opportunity for profit taking. I  think that the profit taking and the intermarket   rotation has just been taking a little bit longer  than than what I expected and what many other   investors have expected. Uh but I think generally  speaking, you know, that AI, that tech trade is   still very much in force. All right. Well, these  are the five names you are looking at in July,   but I know you also have a list of 10 stocks  that you are looking at this summer as all buys   before the fall season hits. If you want to take  a look at Thomas' buy list for the summer of 2026,   make sure to check out this free special report  by scanning the QR code or clicking the link in   the description. Again, it's a list of the 10  stocks Thomas is most excited about for this   summer and entry points that are all important to  look at before some of those catalysts could come   later on in the fall. Thomas, let's get to this  list, your July buy list. What is the first stock   you are looking to buy in July? Well, the first  one is Amprius Technologies. Now, this isn't an   AI trade. It is a tech trade. Uh, but what's  happening right now is that same factors I was   talking about before with the summer trading and  and between earnings reporting seasons and just   having some some market angst and potential for  downside. Uh, but within that uh a short seller   report came out kind of raised some concerns, some  valid concerns certainly, but ones that I think   uh may be overblown uh caused the stock price to  correct pretty significantly. But now we're back   down to what look like pretty attractive levels.  This market is channeling to the upside. We're now   back down to the bottom of the channel, showing  support at these critical levels, and to me,   it looks like a pretty good entry point. The  upcoming catalyst is going to be the fiscal Q2   uh um results. We're expecting to see triple  digit upside, affirming that outlook for ramping   production, ramping sales, ramping revenue, and  the pathway to profitability. If we get that,   this stock price could easily get back into  the low 20s where it was before. You know,   assuming that is another good report, we should  also see the analyst sentiment trends firming   again, potentially lifting that high-end target  and possibly getting this market up to to new   highs. Now, let's talk a little bit about what  has happened in those past couple of quarters   for Emprius. And we all know that phrase, the past  performance is not predictive of what's going to   happen in the future, but I think it's important  for investors to know what the stock price did   after the last quarter earnings report. Well, uh,  this stock price has been volatile over the last,   you know, 18 months, and that's just because  of the swelling outlook for revenue and and   the pathway to profitability. So, this is  an emergent tech company. Uh, they switched   from being research to being commercial. Now,  they're ramping capacity and they're ramping   production. They're ramping sales. That's all  being reflected in the earnings outlook. That's   driving significant upside swings. But in those  swings is also potential for for profit taking.   And so then once those peaks are hit, we see  pretty significant downside. But within that, it   is an uptrend. Uh lows are progressively higher,  highs are progressively higher. So right now,   what I'm seeing is a technical entry point with  an expectation for us to at least be retesting the   recent highs, if not setting new ones. Let's talk  about what the analysts are saying about Emprius   Technologies because it seems that the upside is  very much there for analysts. The most recent one   we're tracking is the beginning of June. We have  a price target of $33 on this stock. Although also   looking there's not a lot of analyst coverage  yet and I think that that shows this is still a   very new stock. Well, right there's not a ton of  analyst coverage but the ones that are covering   it are are bullish. Uh sentiment is firming as the  story progresses. Their coverage, their sentiment   um directly refutes the short sale interest. Uh  so that's part of the volatility that's part of   the upcoming catalyst. So this Q2 report is going  to prove one of them right or wrong. And in that   I think that it will be the analyst proven right  and there will be a catalyst for for higher share   prices. Any concern for you looking at the short  interest on this one. I know you mentioned the   short report when you first started talking about  the stock right now the short interest on this is   uh hovering around 17% of the float. Is that  something that's concerning to you or is that   to be expected in a stock that's volatile like  this one? It is a concern because it can limit   upside and it can actually pressure the stock  lower if they decide to start piling in. But also   it provides opportunity. I'm still bullish on this  story. I still think the story is progressing the   way that I had been expecting. So within that, the  short interest to me is fuel for short covering   rallies will help lift the stock over time as  these shorts decide that uh there's just too   much risk for them. All right. Well, let's move  on to the second stock that you are watching in   July. AMPX. Very familiar story, one that has made  your monthly watch list many times. What is the   second name you're looking at? The second stock  is Oracle. Oracle share price is just getting   punished for its spending plans. And to me, this  is just a real massive market disconnect. The   market's focusing on these near-term increases  in debt and dilution and treating Oracle as if   it's an emergent tech company when it's actually  a blue chip tech company. So yes, it's it's it's   raising debt and it's diluting shares to build out  data centers, but it's not doing this aimlessly.   It has plenty of backlog to drive the need. So  uh this is an execution story. Uh right now the   near-term fears are causing uh the share prices  to be greatly discounted. This is a really an   historic entry opportunity. I think I think over  time as Oracle is able to convert that backlog   into revenue, the share price will reclaim its  recent highs and then move up to set new highs.   Now, this is a name you've also mentioned before  and again like you said, the market has absolutely   been punishing this name. Oracle has been down  so much and it's kind of that key pullback story   uh with the tech pullback that we saw in June  as concerns about overspending of uh all these   bills coming due for some of these companies that  are investing so much in the AI infrastructure   buildout. Do you think that those concerns are  valid? I know you and I did a full video talking   about just this point, but just in this video, I  want to talk a little bit more about the concerns   about how much spend is happening with companies  like Oracle. Yeah, I mean it is a concern because   it is a lot of money. It is impacting their  balance sheet and their cash flow. But again,   this is not an emergent technology. This isn't a  company saying, "Hey man, this thing is cool and   we're going to spend billions on it and hopefully  it'll work and if we're lucky, it's not a Betamax,   you know. Uh this is an actual real thing. there's  demand for these data centers. There's d demand   for highc capacity compute in the realm of Oracle  and the hyperscalers. Oracle is the hyperscaler   serving the other hyperscalers. So its demand  is being underpinned by Google and uh Microsoft   and Amazon AWS and that really has derisked the  outlook. So again there's near-term headwinds but   this is really an execution story that's going  to play out over the next two to three years.   Starting next year, they're going to be converting  re the backlog into revenue, revenue into cash   flow and earnings, and that's going to change the  entire outlook. Yeah, this is a name that you've   been bullish on for a while. I want to look at the  chart for a little bit too about the entry point   here and and this continued downtrend that we've  seen. We talked about volatility with AMPX. You   can see that volatility with Oracle as well where  we see the downtrend and then it spikes back up   and then we see the downtrend again. Right now,  this stock is sitting uh down 25% over the last   year. I want to talk about the time horizon of  when that recovery could happen for Oracle. Could   it take a while before Oracle recovers simply  because of that big debt that we've been talking   about? So, it'll probably be about 12 months  or so, maybe 18 months before we start seeing   aggressive revenue or backlog conversion, but over  the subsequent quarters, what I think we're going   to start seeing is one, the backlog will continue  to grow, but two, we'll start getting more clarity   on when the conversion will start happening, and  that will be a bullish catalyst for the market.   So yes, we might see the stock price wallowing  for the next couple of quarters. Uh but I think   by latest mid 2027, this market will be in rebound  and recovery mode. Yeah, I think that's a lot of   investors question is where is the bottom at?  Can this continue to go lower? And it sounded   like you said, yeah, that's potential. There could  still be some volatility in here, but when I look   at what the analysts are saying too, they seem to  be leading this stock quite a bit higher on their   12 to 18month estimates, too. So volatility, yes,  but I don't think there will be much lower stock   prices. If you look at the outlook right now, this  stock is trading at about three times its 10-year   earnings outlook, which is pennies on the dollar.  Based on this outlook, given the expectations for   execution and backlog conversion, this stock price  could rise by four, five, 600% over the next 5 to   10 years. All right, very bullish on Oracle's  future. I'd love to hear from viewers in the   comments. Are you also bullish on Oracle long-term  or are you skeptical about paying off this massive   amount of debt that this company has? Let me hear  from you in the comments. Okay, let's move on to   the third stock on your July buy list, Thomas.  Yeah, that's uh Snowflake. Uh Snowflake has been   kind of this uh slow grind for the last year. They  had a CEO change. He reinvigorated the business,   reinvigorated growth, and uh right now we're  seeing that being reflected in their results.   They're reacelerating. They're improving margins.  They're raising guidance all being driven by AI   demand, demand for for data handling and data  safety and data processing and that's all being   reflected in the stock price. Uh so right now  Snowflake is still within its long-term trading   range. Uh but the most recent price action is  this really nice spike up to the top of the range.   We're consolidating near the top of the range in  a way that we haven't done uh for years. To me,   it just smacks of a continuation signal with the  AI trade, especially for Snowflake and Inference   coming up. Expect it to continue to accelerate.  I think that the subsequent earnings releases   are going to affirm the trend that's in place,  which is just strong results, better than expected   reaceleration, strong robust guidance, and help  keep that stock price moving higher. Yeah. Let's   talk a little bit more about that massive spike  it saw because it's very impressive. What led to   that? What was behind that? Uh, it was the last  earnings release. uh they outperformed solidly   on the top and the bottom line, showed impressive  backlog growth and gave impressive guidance that   just affirms that this the SAS apocalypse fears  of AI disruption are really overblown. You know,   it may still happen in the future, but what's  happening right now is that these established   software companies are implementing AI in a  way that's driving their business. It's driving   utility for their clients. It's improving demand  and their own profitability. Let's talk about   what Snowflake is. and we've done plenty of videos  over the last year and a half or so as you've been   bullish on Snowflake for a while. Let's talk  about what this company actually does. Well,   it's it's data handling. It it provides um data  management, data storage, data data access. Um   it's unified across clouds. Uh so what it really  does is provide just a comprehensive means uh for   enterprises to to handle and store their data in  ways that's easily accessible but also secure.   Now, Snowflake isn't a name that's been lumped  into that uh SAS apocalypse software, you know,   downfall story as much as some of the other  names we're going to talk about soon. Is this   really truly a software story or is this a part of  that AI story, too? Well, it's it's kind of both.   It's AI infrastructure, but this is the software  end of it. So, Snowflake is providing a software   platform that's helping with the data management,  with the data storage, with the data security, and   with helping enterprises operate in a crosscloud  environment. Okay, so let's talk about really   quick the analyst forecast on Snowflake before  we move on. Uh, it had that massive jump that we   talked about and so now it's soaring quite a bit  closer to where the consensus price targets are.   It has pulled back a little bit. So, it does look  like based on the consensus, there is still some   upside here, but what are those trends? Uh are we  seeing any revisions uh to the upside for this one   and thoughts about getting in on the stock when  it's at this level? This is the smallest buy   the dip opportunity on your July buy list. Uh the  trends are very bullish. The analysts are lifting   their sentiment ratings and their price targets.  They're leading to the high end of the range.   Right now the consensus is a is a fresh high a  fresh long-term high and the high end of the range   adds like 30% to it. So right now what I see is  this market is strengthening and getting ready for   another surge. I think that will be triggered by  the next earnings report. All right, let's move on   to your fourth stock that you were looking at as  a buy in July. And I kind of previewed this. We're   getting into that software space quite a bit now.  All right, that's Salesforce. Uh Salesforce again   is just getting hammered, I think, for no reason.  It's not the fastest growing software company,   but it's the biggest. So, we can't expect it  to grow at a 30% pace. It's accelerating at at   double digits right now. It's being underpinned  by Agentic AI. It's improving its cash flow. It's   improving its margins. that's being reflected in  its buyback program. It's increasing its buyback.   It's aggressively buying back shares. I think all  of these things are going to happen long into the   future. Uh so right now, this stock price selloff  is just it's it's irrationality to me. It's the   market uh focusing on on fears versus reality.  I think that once the summer comes to an end   and the summer trading season turns back into the  fall trading season, we'll see uh the market get   more interested in this stock again. um underpin  support and then get it back into rebound mode.   All right, I'm going to do some devil's advocates  on this one because it's a name that analysts are   really pulling back on. The most recent uh analyst  uh price target right now is a major downgrade   down to from 253 to 166 and that's pricing it  pretty much where it is right now and this is   really on that very low end of where the stock  has been. What do you think about those analyst   trends and why there are some members of that  analyst tech community who aren't betting on the   future success of this company? I think it's just  near-term caution. Uh they're just wanting to see   a really hot AI explosive growth story and we're  not getting it right now in this company. But if   we look at the long-term estimates for growth, uh  we're looking at sustained doubledigit earnings   growth over the next 5 years. Still high level  singledigit growth for five years after that.   Again, the Ford P&E puts this stock at pennies on  the dollar versus the long-term outlook. If you   assume that this year's price to earnings multiple  is right, which I think is pretty low for this   company, we're trading at about 11 times earnings.  That's about a 60% discount from where it used   to be. Um, even assuming that that's correct, the  long-term forecast suggests 100% upside from five   from a 5x PE to 11 XP. Assuming the company uh  rearns its premium, the upside will go into two,   300, 400%. That would be a big turnaround story  for this stock for sure. I do want to uh mention   those earnings are there. I think that's one  point that is on the positive side for Salesforce   is that their last earnings report was actually  fairly strong. It was good there. I mean, showing   improvements, accelerating growth, double digit  growth. The guidance was a little soft. I think   that was part of why the market didn't really get  into it as well as it did. But again, I think that   that soft guidance provides um potential for  catalyst down the road. The company has been   showing momentum, gaining traction with Agentic  AI. So I see a high probability for outperformance   in the future quarters. Is there a possibility  Thomas that there is still just a trying to figure   out in the market of the impact AI is truly going  to have on companies like Salesforce, on companies   that have these strong software models. Are we  still in that we're just figuring out exactly   what this market impact is? And many people are  kind of guessing on what that impact will be. Um,   I think that's a a good assessment. It's hard  to know what's going to happen, but the way   that I'm seeing it is uh these software companies  have established networks. They have established   businesses. It's far more likely for them to  implement AI than it is for an AI company to come   in and all of a sudden take over their business.  I also going to point out here that Salesforce is   a name you've recommended on your buy list a few  times. I added it to my Bridget Spies watch list   back in February. on February 13th and the stock  is down more than 9% since then. And so this has   been a buy the dip recommendation for almost  half a year now and it continues to dip even   further. Any other comments on that? The the kind  of performance this stock has had throughout the   year. It is surprising. I thought we hit bottom  earlier this year, but this is an example of a   stock that's setting up as a buy, but um it's hard  to to really pinpoint when the exact turnaround   will be. So, in this scenario, um, you buy low. If  it moves lower, you can buy a little bit more. Uh,   you're going to want to set yourself a limit. If  it moves too far, too low, you're going to want to   stop yourself at and then just wait for a better  time. Uh, but right now with the stock, you know,   it is at a fresh low, but still kind of moving  sideways near this bottom, indicating a lot of   potential for rebounding. I think it is still a  pretty good time to get into this one. All right.   And if you want to check out that Bridget Spies  watch list to see how some of the stocks we talk   about on this channel move over time, scan the QR  code or click the link in the description. Again,   there's a lot of really good performance stories  on here. There's some not so good performance   stories on this watch list. So, take a look at  at all of the stocks on there. I usually pick   one stock per video that we talk about to add  to that watch list again just to kind of track   and follow how these stocks move over time. All  right, Thomas, let's get to the last name on your   list and we are sticking with software. Yeah,  I think Zcaler might be among the best plays on   this list. As a cyber security company, it's very  well positioned uh for growth in the AI age. Its   results affirm this this position. Meanwhile,  you know, its competitors share prices have   all skyrocketed by triple digits since April.  This one's wallowing because it has a company   specific issue and that was uh it lost some of  its uh key sales executives that led management   to issue some cautious guidance that caused the  stock price to drop where it's now wallowing at   long-term support levels. What I see happening now  is the company outperforming guidance even without   hiring new sales executives. I think the company  can still outperform guidance. I think when it   hires its new sales team, that will be a catalyst  to reinvigorate market confidence. also help   reinvigorate the sales growth outlook and help  get the the rebound really to gain traction. Yeah,   I think the story here is a really interesting  one uh because mainly what you said that the   other cyber security stocks have rebounded.  They've kind of separated themselves from the   software story that we've seen with companies like  Salesforce or even Microsoft but many of the cyber   security stocks have rebounded except this one.  So clearly there is demand for the product that   Zcaler provides. the sales team is an interesting  part of the story of of why the stock price is   down right now. It could also be why analysts are  still very bullish on this one. I I can't help but   see how many analysts are saying this is a strong  buy right now. Well, right. The analyst response   to the guidance was kind of to pan it. They think,  you know, the sales the sales team is key news,   but it didn't really alter the long-term outlook  for them. Mostly what we've seen is reaffirmed   ratings, reaffirmed targets that are forecasting  a pretty robust upside. Now, compared to these   other cyber security stocks, most of them have  rocketed to fresh all-time highs. If Zscaler   were to follow them, we're looking at a more than  100% upside just to get to the recent highs and   then potentially another triple digit gain after  that once we break to fresh highs. All right,   a smaller detail, a smaller figure to look at  for Zcaler is looking at that institutional   ownership. That's pretty low for a company of  this size to see less than 50% of this company   is owned by the institutions. Well, institutional  ownership is is lowish, but it's offset by a high   inside ownership. So, altogether, institutions  and insiders are owning about 60% of the stock.   I think ultimately though, the institutions are  are pretty supportive of this market down at   these levels. Uh the more recent data shows them  accumulating uh underpinning the uh the recent   lows underpinning support. With this in play and  the analyst bullish, I see uh the market set up   for a pretty hot rebound. Yeah, I want to talk  about what catalyst this company needs to turn   the stock price around. What do you see happening  in the near term that could change the stock story   for Zcaler? The two catalysts are going to be  either one, hiring new sales executives or two,   issuing the subsequent earnings release. Either  one of those are going to reaffirm the company's   ability to grow and sell it products and help uh  reinvigorate market confidence and that'll get   institutions, analysts, and retail trailers back  into the fray. All right. Well, clearly uh Thomas,   you are still bullish on many of the software  names out there that are on some deep discounts   right now. Again, I want to hear from viewers uh  in the comments here. Are you still a believer in   a turnaround for software? Are you skeptical that  these companies are going to see a big recovery?   I want to hear that in the comments. And if  you want to hear some other thoughts on the   software story and the potential recovery, make  sure to watch this video. It was a really great   conversation on where some of these software names  could be headed. You can find that full interview