I bought these 4 US growth stocks for a tech recovery

Over the past 35 years and more, investment strategies have evolved a lot. Today, I consider myself a veteran value investor, looking for undervalued stocks and chasing high cash dividends. But this is not the only approach my wife and I take with our family capital. After all, from 2009 to 2021, growth stocks easily beat value stocks by a large margin.

Value stocks and growth stocks

Starting in mid-2022, my wife and I are creating a new family portfolio to generate dividends and gain capital in the future. First, we buy options from undervalued FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 shares for income-producing properties.

But a portfolio based only on value/dividend/income can underperform the market more over the long term. This is particularly the case during periods of high volume, as was the case in 2020-21.

So my wife and I decided to buy some US mega-cap growth stocks to balance our new portfolio. And this led us to invest in four ‘American Goliaths’ – all among the biggest companies on earth.

Four US tech giants

On October 13 last year, the US S&P 500 index and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite both indexes hit the bottom of 2022. And when this index bounced back, my husband bought four US growth stocks for the family portfolio in early November.

These tech titans are the same Alphabet, Amazon.com, Appleand Microsoft Corp. Not coincidentally, these companies are the four largest companies in the US. To me, buying the business is like making a big bet on the return of US companies in 2024.

As America’s current financial worries (high inflation, rising interest rates and sluggish growth) subside, I expect these four companies to lead the charge in the next recovery.

Performance so far

For the record, our gains in these stocks so far have been minimal. Here’s how each has done so far:

Alphabet	+1.7%
Amazon.com	-3.2%
Apple	+0.9%
Microsoft Corp	+9.2%

The stand-out winner so far Microsoftwhose stock is up almost ten in four months, Meanwhile, Apple and Alphabet (parent Google) has made a small profit. And online-retail colossus Amazon have sent a small paper loss for the date.

The overall gain in all four growth stocks was 2.1%. That’s a pretty tame return, given the volatility of US tech stocks. I have targeted stocks in this technology leader for a long time, but avoided buying these overhyped stocks during the ‘all-out bubble’ in 2020-21.

This is a long-term play

All four stocks are down sharply from 2021 highs. Here’s how each has performed over the past 12 months:

Company	12 month change	Market value
Alphabet	-29.0%	$1.2 trillion
Amazon.com	-34.8%	$972 billion
Apple	-7.4%	$2.4 trillion
Microsoft Corp	-11.9%	$1.9 trillion

After these four tech mega-caps fell steeply, it almost felt like we were buying value shares, instead of growth stocks. For me, I bought the company at a discount – even though the price was relatively high and the dividend was minimal or non-existent.

Based on the usual value criteria, this stock still looks a bit expensive. But experience has taught me that US tech stocks have a long history of producing market earnings growth. So my wife and I plan to stick with these four mega-cap innovators for years to come!