The Top 3 Stocks to Buy in September

Although the stock market has been seemingly unstoppable in 2021 and continues to hit new all-time highs on a consistent basis, it’s worth noting that September is a seasonally weak month. There’s even a term known as “The September Effect”, which refers to this market anomaly of historically weak performance during the first month of fall. While the statistics don’t always hold true every year, investors should still keep an eye on their risk levels should we see a market pullback this month.

With that said, there are still going to be plenty of great buying opportunities in September regardless of the weak seasonality. So many stocks are trading at or around their highs and we’ve seen some truly impressive earnings reports from last quarter, which means there are several standout companies to consider adding shares of in the coming weeks. We’ve put together a brief overview the top 3 stocks to buy in September to help you get a head start on your shopping list. Let’s take a deeper look below.

Bill.com Holdings (NYSE: BILL)

Software growth stocks are certainly having a moment, and Bill.com Holdings looks ready to continue the trend of strength in September. The company provides cloud-based software for back-office financial operations for small and midsize businesses. If you aren’t familiar with the term “back-office operations”, it refers to functions like settlements, clearances, record maintenance, compliance, accounting, and IT services that tend to take a lot of time for companies to handle. That means an artificial intelligence-based solution like Bill.com can transform how smaller companies are able to take care of these tedious tasks and dramatically improve the way they work.

It’s always a good sign when a company misses on EPS estimates and yet still gaps up to new all-time highs following the earnings release, which is exactly the case with this stock. Although Bill.com did miss on EPS, the company’s impressive top-line growth could be what sent shares soaring. Q4 total revenue was up by 86% year-over-year at $78.3 million and the company ended its fiscal year with record growth, which is certainly a great sign for long-term investors. We’ve seen a lot of software stocks deliver impressive performance in August after reporting strong earnings numbers, and it’s probably a safe bet to think that Bill.com will do the same thing in September.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)

Apple is a strong pick for September for two main reasons – the stock is breaking out of a few weeks of consolidation to reach all-time highs as of this writing and the company is expected to announce the eagerly-anticipated iPhone 13 this month, although there has been no official company announcement. Apple stock tends to rally up into these types of news-driven events and there's always the potential of additional new product announcements like a new Apple Watch or AirPods that might be additional positive catalysts for the stock price.

This is the type of mega-cap tech stock that you can build your entire portfolio around, and the company’s rapidly expanding services business should continue to drive earnings growth in the long term. There’s also a lot to love about Apple’s potential in emerging markets and its intriguing pipeline of new products such as augmented reality glasses. Although the company could be impacted by the chip shortage in the near term, the fact that Apple’s iPhone revenue grew by 50% year-over-year to $39.6 billion last quarter shows that there is still plenty of demand for the company’s iconic smartphone.

Moody’s Corp (NYSE: MCO)

The financials sector is another great place to look for opportunities in September, and Moody’s Corp is a stock that deserves your attention. It’s a leading provider of global credit ratings, financial data, analytics, and research and could be heading to new highs next month. This market-leading financial services company is also a great pick for income investors, as Moody’s has increased its dividend payment for 12 consecutive years. This type of consistency is a testament to Moody’s stable revenue and efficient business model, and with all of the big changes that are occurring in financial markets and the economy Moody’s research, credit ratings, analytics, and financial risk management services are more important than ever.

The company recently delivered strong Q2 results that saw Moody’s revenue increase by 8% year-over-year to reach $1.6 billion. Management increased its guidance for 2021 and the company also announced that it is acquiring RMS, which is a leader in climate & natural disaster risk. The acquisition should be touted as a strong strategic move and will expand the company’s insurance data and analytics business to nearly $500 million in revenue.