Nasdaq Stock Market Correction: 2 Ultra-Cheap Stocks to Buy Right Now

The Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) is now 13% below its recent high, placing the tech-heavy index officially into correction territory. And while there are certainly good reasons why the market has been under pressure recently, such as recession fears and the potential effects of tariffs, situations like this also create buying opportunities for patient long-term investors to buy shares of great businesses.

Two in particular that look attractive in the current Nasdaq correction are chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) and PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL). While there's no guarantee that the market volatility will subside anytime soon, these are two excellent businesses that could be fantastic bargains right now.

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1. AMD: The other AI chipmaker is on sale

Advanced Micro Devices, which is better known by its initials, AMD, operates in the data center GPU space, a business that is dominated by Nvidia. However, it would be a big mistake to overlook this winning business.

For starters, there's a lot more to AMD, including several areas where it doesn't compete with Nvidia. It makes desktop and laptop processors and has been taking market share from leader Intel for years. It makes gaming chips, and also makes chips for embedded applications, including self-driving cars.

AMD's data center business nearly doubled revenue year over year in 2024, and the PC chip business grew rapidly as well. On the bottom line, AMD's adjusted EPS grew by 25% in 2024, and the company expects 30% year-over-year revenue growth in the first quarter of 2025.

Over the past decade or so, AMD has done a fantastic job of building its product portfolio and capitalizing on the AI boom. It still has massive opportunities ahead of it -- the data center industry is expected to grow by 140% by 2030, and the autonomous vehicle industry is forecast to grow even faster, just to name a couple of examples. With rapid growth and the stock trading for about 21 times forward earnings, now could be a great opportunity.

2. PayPal: A cash machine with room to grow

PayPal fell sharply after its latest earnings report disappointed growth-seeking investors, and the stock now trades for a rock-bottom valuation of less than 14 times expected 2025 earnings per share. But the drop appears to be very short-sighted, and the stock looks like an incredible bargain from a long-term perspective.

For one thing, PayPal overhauled its leadership team about a year and a half ago. The initial focus was on efficiency, and PayPal's recent EPS growth shows how successful that was. Then, CEO Alex Chriss and his team made some big moves to reinvigorate growth, but many of these aren't reflected in the numbers just yet. For example, PayPal's much-anticipated advertising platform just launched in mid-October and will take some time to ramp up.

In addition, PayPal's leadership sees some excellent opportunities to return to a sustainable growth business. For example, the company sees an opportunity to add billions of dollars in revenue from better monetization of Venmo. It also sees big opportunities from online payments and to cross-sell products from its ecosystem to its more than 400 million users.

For now, however, this is a company that generates about $6 billion in annual free cash flow, virtually all of which it is using to buy back shares and take advantage of the discounted valuation.

Expect a roller-coaster ride -- at least for now

As a final thought, it's important to point out that I have absolutely no idea when the market turbulence will die down. And if the economy actually falls into a recession or economic conditions continue to deteriorate, it's entirely possible that both of these stocks could fall further in the near term.

The point is that these are two great businesses, trading for attractive valuations right now. I have no idea what they'll do over the next few weeks or months, but investors who buy and hold for several years could be glad they bought while they were beaten down like this.

Don’t miss this second chance at a potentially lucrative opportunity

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• Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you’d have $292,207!*
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Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.

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*Stock Advisor returns as of March 10, 2025

Matt Frankel has positions in PayPal. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, Nvidia, and PayPal. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2027 $42.50 calls on PayPal, short March 2025 $85 calls on PayPal, and short May 2025 $30 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.