Investors Should Look at This Number Before Buying Any Tech Stock

It can be difficult to gauge the value of technology stocks. Their multiples are sometimes completely out of the norm, and nowhere near what investors pay for stocks in other industries. The high growth rates that many tech stocks achieve allow them to be treated differently than other, more conventional, stocks. However, finding a tech stock that may be able to achieve considerable growth and prove to be a good long-term buy requires investors to look a little deeper on a company's income statement.

One metric, arguably the most important one when it comes to the tech sector, is a company's research and development (R&D) expenditure. If there's one thing that tech companies spend a lot on, it's R&D: