5 Top Stocks to Buy in July

The second half of the year is a great time for folks to review what companies they are invested in, why they are invested in them, and to their watch lists with exciting stocks to buy

However, some investors may be hesitant to put new capital to work in the market given the rapid recovery over the last few months

When valuations are high, it's even more important that investors focus on quality companies that have what it takes to der strong returns without everything having to go right

Here's why these Fool

Image source: Getty Images

Spring for this retailer's cheap stock Demitri Kalogeropoulos ( Depot): Depot stock has become cheaper relative to the market over the past year, and that fact should have investors feeling excited adding the retailer to their portfolios

Sure, the imvement giant's hasn't been performing as well as it did through the pandemic and its immediate aftermath

Comparable-store sales (comps) in the most recent quarter were essentially flat due to a sluggish housing market

Consumers are trading down to less ambitious imvement jects, too

Those figures bode well for the chain's crucial spring selling season, when owners tend to spend aggressively on outdoor jects. "We feel great our store readiness and duct asment as spring continues to break across the country," CEO Ted Decker told investors in late May

That decline would still keep Depot ahead of rival Lowe's on fitability

And cash flow remains strong enough for the chain to continue repurchasing s and paying a robust dividend while in the

But patient investors can hold this sturdy stock while waiting for that rebound, collecting those generous dividend checks along the way

A turnaround story in the making

Although I am a long-term investor and do not track price movements in the short term, there's a reason I brought this up here

The thesis that I saw earlier this year is playing out for Nucor, meaning the time is ripe to buy the stock if you still haven't

Nucor CEO Leon Topalian has publicly supported Trump's tariff policies and believes some, steel tariffs, were long overdue

Soon after the tariff announcement, his company raised the prices of hot-rolled steel coils and issued encouraging guidance for its second quarter

After muted first-quarter numbers, the company expects second-quarter earnings to rise considerably across all its segments: steel mills, steel ducts, and raw materials

Steel mills, also Nucor's largest segment, are expected to report the largest growth in earnings, driven by higher average selling prices

With demand and prices both picking up, this could be an inflection point for Nucor stock, making it a solid long-term buy at current prices

A blue chip stock that's a bad-news buy Keith Speights (UnitedHealth Group): Timing the market is next to impossible

But timing can sometimes be important when buying specific stocks

I don't think there has been a better time to invest in UnitedHealth Group in years

To be sure, this healthcare stock faces numerous blems

This issue seems to have played a big role in the unexpected departure of former CEO Andrew Witty

The Wall Street Journal's article a Justice Department (DOJ) investigation into alleged criminal fraud by the company made matters worse

To add to the healthcare giant's misery, President Trump threatened to eliminate pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs)

UnitedHealth's Optum Rx ranks as the nation's third-largest PBM

Why buy UnitedHealth Group stock amid all of this doom and gloom

Its spects are significantly better than its valuation reflects

But most of the headwinds the company faces should eventually wane

For example, management expects to return to growth next year

I think that makes sense

The solution to higher-than-anticipated Medicare Advantage costs is to boost premiums

While the company has to wait to implement its higher premiums, you can bet they're coming

Witty was replaced by former longtime CEO Stephen Hemsley, and the company should again be in good shape under his leadership

I suspect Hemsley will direct the company to issue new full-year guidance as soon as possible, which should bolster investors' confidence

What the DOJ investigation

It hasn't been confirmed yet

And President Trump's threats to cut out the PBM middleman

That's much easier said than done

The bottom line is that I believe UnitedHealth Group stock is way oversold right now

This blue chip is a great bad-news buy in July

A standout in the "Magnificent Seven" Daniel Foelber (Alphabet): Google parent Alphabet rebounded in lockstep with the broader market last week

But it's still a compelling buy in July

As many megacap growth stocks have compounded in value, some investors are questioning whether there's still room for these stocks to run or if valuations could limit returns

Alphabet doesn't have that blem

Whereas the rest of the "Magnificent Seven" are more expensive than the S&P 500 based on this key metric

Meaning that investors don't have the same lofty earnings expectations for Alphabet as they do for companies Nvidia, Microsoft, or even Apple (even though Apple is growing slower than Alphabet)

To be fair, getting too bogged down by valuations has been a historically bad idea for many of today's top companies

Measuring Microsoft for its legacy software suite alone would have drastically undervalued its now huge cloud computing segment

Amazon used to be an online bookstore turned e-commerce giant

Similarly, its cloud computing segment, Amazon Web Services, is arguably more valuable than the rest of the company combined

Nvidia used to make most of its money from selling graphics cessing units (GPUs) and other solutions for gaming and visualization customers

But today, GPU demand for data centers is the company's bread and butter

Since no one has a crystal ball, investors have to make calculated bets based on where they think a company could be headed

Looking at Alphabet, I think the company has fairly low risk for its upside potential

Part of that reasoning is that its existing assets are drastically undervalued, and investors aren't giving the company much credit for the upside potential of self-driving through Waymo, the company's quantum computing investments, or its artificial intelligence tool Gemini

Add it all up, and Alphabet stands out as an effective way to get exposure to many different end at a good value

This ad- expert's stock is way too cheap in July Anders Bylund (Criteo): Sometimes I wonder what it takes to impress Wall Street's market makers

I get where the market skepticism is coming from

Criteo's top-line sales have been rather slow in recent quarters

The macroeconomic backdrop isn't ideal for big-ticket marketing campaigns, since consumers are holding on to their money with an iron grip

But the company has tightened up its operations in this uncertain economy

So Criteo is a cash machine when it counts, and the lessons learned in these hard times should result in solid fit gains when the economy turns sweeter

Meanwhile, the stock is priced for absolute disaster

S are changing hands at 9. 8 times earnings and 5. 7 times free cash flow, as if the company were losing money by the truckload

The stock price is entirely inappriate for a very fitable specialist in a temporarily downtrodden industry

I'm tempted to double down on my Criteo holdings in July, and I highly recommend that you consider this overlooked stock while it's cheap

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors

Anders Bylund has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Criteo, Nvidia, and UnitedHealth Group

Daniel Foelber has positions in Nvidia

Demitri Kalogeropoulos has positions in Amazon, Apple, and Depot

Keith Speights has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Lowe's Companies, and Microsoft

Neha Chamaria has no position in any of the stocks mentioned

The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Depot, Microsoft, and Nvidia

The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.