2 dirt-cheap stocks to consider buying for an ISA portfolio in April
As the market continues tumbling, savvy investors will be hunting for cheap stocks to buy. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of those across the London Stock Exchange right now.
Here are two cheap shares that stand out to me as worth looking at in April.
FTSE 100
After delivering years of market-thrashing returns, 3i Group (LSE:III) stock has suffered two massive drops in six months. The first came in November following the release of 3i’s half-year results, while the second leg down came last week.
Since October, this FTSE 100 stock has crashed 47%, marking one of the worst pullbacks in the private equity firm’s long history.
The reason is slowing growth at Action, the discount retailer that dominates 3i’s portfolio. It expects like-for-like (LFL) sales growth between 4% and 5% this year, which would mirror 2025. Business has been weaker than expected in France, its largest market.
For context, Action’s LFL sales growth was 10.3% the year before. So investors appear worried about this slowdown, as well as the retailer’s intention to invest between â¬350m and â¬400m by 2030 to enter the hyper-competitive US market.
3i has swung from trading at a 50% premium to the value of its portfolio to a 24% discount today. Even if Action’s implied valuation falls slightly to reflect slowing growth and US execution risk, I think there’s now an attractive margin of safety here.
If we strip out France, Action’s LFL sales growth was still a healthy 5.8% in the first 12 weeks of 2026. And management sees scope for 4,650 stores across Europe, up from 3,302 in December.
So this should be a more valuable business a few years from now, especially if it keeps attracting more bargain-seeking shoppers as inflation bites across Europe.
Another attractive thing worth mentioning is the income on offer. 3i Group owns 29.2% of 3i Infrastructure, the progressive dividend-paying investment trust from the FTSE 250. After the crash, the forward yield has crept up to around 4%, adding to the investment case.
In December I wrote that I would buy 3i stock if it sold off during a crash. Well, we haven’t had a complete market meltdown, but the stock has cratered 26% since then.
Putting my money where my mouth is, I’m going to invest in April.
FTSE 250
Down 18% since November, the second stock that looks too cheap to me is Frasers Group (LSE:FRAS). This is the sprawling retail group that owns Sports Direct, upmarket Flannels, and Evans Cycles, the UK’s leading specialist bike shop.
Frasers has also accumulated big stakes in ASOS, Mulberry, Debenhams (formerly Boohoo), Hugo Boss, Puma, and others. The danger, of course, is that consumer spending could be about to take another hit due to the war in Iran.
Despite this risk, the stock looks ridiculously cheap at just six times forward earnings, despite Frasers continuing to grow (particularly overseas).
There’s no dividend on offer here, but this frees up cash for Frasers to keep buying shares of retailers that it thinks are in the bargain basement. This includes its own, with £70m of its shares being repurchased between December and April.
Frasers is well managed, solidly profitable, and increasingly geographically diversified. The stock is 75% below City analysts’ current 12-month price target. Taking a long-term view, I think it looks sorely undervalued.
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More reading
- Waiting for a stock market crash? This FTSE 100 superstar just fell 19% in a day
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Ben McPoland has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.
