3 Stocks Under $50 We Steer Clear Of

Stocks in the $10-50 range offer a sweet spot between affordability and stability as they’re typically more established than penny stocks. But their headline prices don’t guarantee quality, and investors should exercise caution as some have shaky business models.

These dynamics can cause headaches for even the most seasoned professionals, which is why we started StockStory - to help you separate the good companies from the bad. That said, here are three stocks under $50 to swipe left on and some alternatives you should look into instead.

PagerDuty (PD)

Share Price: $15.88

Born from the frustration of developers being woken up by unprioritized alerts, PagerDuty (NYSE:PD) is a digital operations management platform that helps organizations detect and respond to IT incidents, outages, and other critical issues in real-time.

Why Are We Wary of PD?

1. Offerings struggled to generate meaningful interest as its average billings growth of 5.9% over the last year did not impress
2. Estimated sales growth of 5.8% for the next 12 months implies demand will slow from its two-year trend
3. Historical operating margin losses point to an inefficient cost structure

PagerDuty is trading at $15.88 per share, or 3x forward price-to-sales. Check out our free in-depth research report to learn more about why PD doesn’t pass our bar.

United Community Banks (UCB)

Share Price: $29.20

Starting as a small community bank in 1950 and expanding through strategic acquisitions across the Southeast, United Community Banks (NYSE:UCB) is a regional bank holding company that provides financial services including loans, deposits, wealth management, and merchant services across the southeastern United States.

Why Does UCB Give Us Pause?

1. Annual revenue growth of 4.1% over the last two years was below our standards for the banking sector
2. Net interest margin of 3.4% is well below other banks, signaling its loans aren’t very profitable
3. Capital trends were unexciting over the last five years as its 4.7% annual tangible book value per share growth was below the typical banking firm

At $29.20 per share, United Community Banks trades at 1x forward P/B. If you’re considering UCB for your portfolio, see our FREE research report to learn more.

First Horizon (FHN)

Share Price: $21.36

Tracing its roots back to 1864 during the Civil War era, First Horizon (NYSE:FHN) is a Tennessee-based bank holding company that provides commercial and consumer banking, wealth management, and specialty financial services across multiple states.

Why Is FHN Not Exciting?

1. Customers postponed purchases of its products and services this cycle as its revenue declined by 4.2% annually over the last two years
2. Estimated net interest income growth of 1.8% for the next 12 months implies demand will slow from its five-year trend
3. Day-to-day expenses have swelled relative to revenue over the last five years as its efficiency ratio increased by 3.6 percentage points

First Horizon’s stock price of $21.36 implies a valuation ratio of 1.2x forward P/B. Dive into our free research report to see why there are better opportunities than FHN.

Stocks We Like More

Fresh US-China trade tensions just tanked stocks—but strong bank earnings are fueling a sharp rebound. Don’t miss the bounce.

Don’t let fear keep you from great opportunities and take a look at Top 5 Strong Momentum Stocks for this week. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 183% over the last five years (as of March 31st 2025).

Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,545% between March 2020 and March 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Tecnoglass (+1,754% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today for free. Find your next big winner with StockStory today. Find your next big winner with StockStory today

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