2 Dirt Cheap Stocks to Buy With $1,000 Right Now

Broad market sell-offs often create attractive entry opportunities for retail investors. After the technology sector slump of early 2026, several fundamentally strong companies are trading at far more attractive valuation levels than they were just months ago.

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For investors who have $1,000 that they are ready to put to work in the market now, opening small positions in SentinelOne (NYSE: S) and Sirius XM (NASDAQ: SIRI) could be a smart long-term move. Here's why.

SentinelOne

With over $1 billion in annual recurring revenue and a recent shift to positive non-GAAP (adjusted) net income and free-cash-flow margins, SentinelOne looks like a strong business. Yet the stock is down by about 43% over the past year, and trades at only 4.7 times sales. That valuation is significantly lower than those of leading cybersecurity peers such as Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, and Zscaler, which are trading at price-to-sales (P/S) multiples of 12.6, 22.3, and 9.3, respectively.

While SentinelOne is priced as if its growth story is fading, its revenue visibility suggests otherwise. The company exited the third quarter of fiscal 2025 with a remaining performance obligation (a measure of contracted backlog) of around $1.3 billion. It has also meaningfully expanded its offerings beyond endpoint security (solutions protecting individual devices). Nearly half of its third-quarter bookings came from non-endpoint security products such as Singularity AI SIEM, cloud security, and Purple AI.

Moreover, in the quarter, bookings for SentinelOne's data solutions, which include Singularity AI SIEM, Singularity Data Lake, and AI-driven analytics and automation, grew by a triple-digit percentage year over year. Singularity AI SIEM (software that collects and analyzes security data across an organization to detect threats) is helping customers replace older, more expensive monitoring tools. Purple AI, an AI-powered assistant that automates threat investigation and response using natural language queries, is also helping build a sticky client base for SentinelOne. Purple AI reported an over 40% attach rate in the third quarter, implying that 4 in every 10 customers buying the company's core solutions are also buying PurpleAI.

Considering its improving margins, strong backlog, and broadening AI-driven platform, SentinelOne's fundamentals appear stronger than its valuation would suggest.

Sirius XM

The leading subscription-first audio entertainment platform in North America, Sirius XM enjoys a unique distribution advantage. Its satellite radios come preinstalled in the majority of the new vehicles sold in the U.S., offering the company's flagship Sirius XM subscription entertainment service directly at the point of in-car listening. Beyond its core subscription business, Sirius XM also operates Pandora, an ad-supported streaming and podcast network, and is expanding its digital advertising and adtech operations. This multipronged business model supports high recurring revenues and gives it an exceptionally sticky client base. Currently, Sirius XM has about 33 million subscribers, and reaches a total of about 170 million listeners.

Sirius XM is also demonstrating impressive free-cash-flow resilience. In 2025, its free cash flow was $1.26 billion, exceeding its guidance by over $100 million. The company expects free cash flow of $1.35 billion in 2026 and $1.5 billion in 2027. That kind of cash durability helps a company weather volatile market environments.

Yet Sirius XM trades at just 0.8 times sales while also paying a dividend that yields 5.1% at the current share price. Hence, this stock appears too attractive to miss in 2026.

Manali Pradhan, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, and Zscaler. The Motley Fool recommends Palo Alto Networks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.