The ongoing Covid-19 crisis and rising global inflation pose significant threats to the economic recovery. But I’d still buy this UK share and this US tech stock in my Stocks and Shares ISA. I believe they could create big shareholder returns over the next 10 years.
Electric avenue
The drive towards electric-powered vehicles is going from strength. Just this week, Volvo announced that none of its cars will carry combustion engine technology from 2030. It’s the latest in a string of major carmakers to announce a doubling-down in the electric vehicle (EV) field in recent months. And it provides a brilliant opportunity for UK and US share investors to make money, in my opinion.
I particularly like the look of Workhorse Group (NASDAQ: WKHS). This company manufactures electric delivery vehicles and this puts it in great shape to ride two hot growth trends — the rising popularity of greener vehicles and the explosion of e-commerce. The company has an order backlog of 8,000 vehicles. And it plans to ramp up production to 1,800 vans this year to meet ballooning demand.
A bump in the road
Workhorse’s share price collapsed last week. Investors sprinted for the exits after the EV maker unexpectedly lost out on a huge contract with the US Postal Service. The deal could have seen the US share build up to 165,000 trucks over a 10-year period for the courier.
The news was, of course, a massive blow to the fledgling vehicle maker. The EV sector is hugely competitive and it’s possible that more contract disappointments could come down the line too. But as I type today, I still think Workhorse could become one of the top players in the niche EV arena. And this could deliver big shareholder returns.
City analysts expect sales at the firm to explode over the medium term. But they still expect Workhorse to remain loss-making over the next couple of years at least. Losses of 0.38 and 0.04 US cents per share are forecast for 2021 and 2022 respectively.
A top UK share from the FTSE 100
Let’s step away from EVs now and look at Avast (LSE: AVST) of the FTSE 100. I think cybersecurity is another fast-growing tech sector that could make UK and US share investors lots of money during the 2020s.
I see Avast as a strong UK cybersecurity share to buy today. The £4.8bn market cap has the scale to make the most of its rapidly-expanding market. And a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 21 times makes it cheaper than many other London-listed IT services shares, even though it’s not ‘cheap’.
Research from Atlas VPN illustrates how rapidly the problem of cyber threats is growing. It looked at data from intelligence firm Risk Based Security and estimated that 37bn data records were leaked in 2020. That’s up a staggering 140% from the previous year. This further explains why companies all over the globe are increasing investment to protect their IT systems and that favours Avast.
A word of warning, though — its toppy multiple could cause its share price to sink if trading softens for whatever reason.
