Why I’d forget the Deliveroo share price and buy these FTSE 100 shares instead

So the Deliveroo share price continues to fall. Dip-buyers have failed to emerge as concerns over its valuation and its labour policies persist. This is despite many analysts predicting that the online takeaway market will keep growing and the company’s move into the grocery segment might give profits a big lift.

Deliveroo’s share price now sits at a hefty discount to its IPO price of 390p last month. But I think more share price weakness could be around the corner. More strike action from Deliveroo drivers could happen over pay and conditions. Demand for its services could suffer as Covid-19 lockdown rules are eased and people go out to their local restaurants.

Here are two FTSE 100 shares I’d rather buy instead of Deliveroo today.

A tech share I prefer

There’s a forest of evidence out there suggesting that flexible working practices could well become the norm. It’s a scenario that means firms will likely need to invest heavily in their cybersecurity coverage. And this should lead to higher sales at IT shares like Avast (LSE: AVST).

This particular FTSE 100 share saw adjusted organic revenues soar almost 8% in 2020 as the number of customers — along with the amount spent per customer — increased. The growing number of cyberattacks also bolsters my bullish view of tech stocks like this. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell says that cybercrime is now the biggest economic worry for the US central bank.

Before I get too carried away, though, it’s important to remember that the rise of homeworking on its current scale is a new phenomenon. As such there is no guarantee that employers will adopt flexible working practices to the sort of extent that many believe. This means that profits expectations for Avast ultimately disappoint. And this could cause its share price to slump.

A FTSE 100 firm with 5% dividend yields!

That said, I think Avast’s share price looks more attractive than the Deliveroo share price right now. The IT services giant trades on a not-unreasonable forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 20 times. I’d say that the BAE Systems (LSE: BA) share price looks more attractive than the UK food delivery share’s too. Today the FTSE 100 firm trades on a P/E ratio of just 12 times for 2021. And it carries a near-5% dividend yield.

Global politics seem to be becoming more and more unstable. In recent weeks, North Korea has engaged in fresh rocket testing, while Russia’s military has begun massing on Ukraine’s border. These are just a couple of huge security worries on the minds of major Western powers. And so it’s likely that demand for BAE Systems’ products in the UK and US (as well as further afield) will continue to grow.

A word of warning about the BAE Systems share price, though. As the boffins at Exane say, defence companies may fall out of favour with European funds. This is because of environmental, social and governance (or ESG) requirements which could see the arms giants shunned like tobacco stocks.