Stocks Value vs Growth: Which Ones Should You Buy Today?

Is It Time to Consider Value Stocks?

With the rise in global stock market indices and the boom of artificial intelligence (AI), the growth stock sector has outperformed the value stock sector in recent years.
In the midst of this exuberant context, does it make sense to shift some of your profits towards value stocks? It depends.
Here are some considerations.

Is it Better to Accumulate Growth or Value Stocks?

Answering this question is becoming increasingly complex every year.
For less experienced traders and investors who have entered the markets in the last decade, the answer often seems obvious: it’s better to lean towards growth stocks.
The latter have significantly outperformed the value sector in the past decade.
By comparing the ETF iShares Russell 1000 Value (IWD) with the ETF iShares Russell 1000 Growth (IWF) and plotting a performance chart, it’s easy to see how the growth sector has beaten the value sector, even though both funds have increased in value.

However, the same cannot be said for the period between the bursting of the dot-com bubble and the 2008 financial crisis, during which value company stocks significantly outperformed growth stocks.
In summary, before 2000, the boom of digital companies had triggered a significant appreciation of growth stocks.
Then, with the bursting of the dot-com bubble, value stocks became a convenient choice in terms of asset allocation.

Now, the performance chart of the IWD/IWF ratio has returned to pre-dot-com tech crash and Covid-19 crisis levels.
Therefore, many may consider it prudent to allocate some of their profits to value company stocks, even though growth stocks offer historically high returns and dividends.

Which Stocks to Monitor and Why?

This doesn’t mean that, during the growth companies boom, value companies didn’t perform well.
Similarly, the decline of growth companies doesn’t necessarily mean that value companies didn’t incur capital losses.

In fact, looking at some of the most sought-after value companies in the market, such as Berkshire Hathaway, Procter & Gamble, and Walmart, it can be seen that these companies maintain a more linear growth trend compared to other big market cap growth companies.
Over the past 10 years, Berkshire Hathaway’s stock value has increased by about 214%.

On the other hand, big names in the growth sector, like Apple, have seen an increase of about 710% since 2014.

The main difference lies in the linearity of stock price growth: value companies have a much less volatile and therefore less fluctuating trend.
In times of sharp stock market contraction, these companies tend to retain their value better than growth companies.