Some of the best opportunities tend to appear when sentiment turns against genuinely high-quality businesses. Share prices fall hard, confidence wobbles, and suddenly, great S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) shares get talked about as if something is fundamentally broken.
That's how I see WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) and Block Inc (ASX: XYZ) right now. Both are down sharply over the past year, but when I step back and look at what these companies actually do, I think the market is being overly pessimistic.
WiseTech Global shares
WiseTech is a company that sits right in the middle of global trade, providing mission-critical software that freight forwarders, customs brokers, and logistics providers rely on every single day.
Its CargoWise platform is effectively the operating system for global logistics. Once a customer adopts it, switching is painful, expensive, and risky. That creates the kind of stickiness and recurring revenue profile I really like in long-term growth businesses.
What often gets missed is the scale WiseTech has already achieved. It services many of the world's largest freight forwarders, processes millions of shipments, and continues to expand its functionality through acquisitions and internal development. This isn't a speculative product. It's a deeply embedded infrastructure.
The share price fall hasn't come out of nowhere. Slower growth in the core business, management and board upheaval, and highly publicised issues around the founder all damaged confidence. On top of that, the integration of a large acquisition has added complexity at a time when investors were already nervous about tech valuations.
But when I look through the noise, I see a business that is refocusing on execution. Product launches, a new commercial model, and operational integration all point to improving momentum.
For me, this feels less like a broken story and more like a reset phase.
Block shares
Block is often talked about as if it's one product or one trend. In reality, it's an ecosystem business with multiple growth engines.
On one side, there's Square, which provides payments, software, and financial tools to millions of small and medium-sized businesses globally. On the other, there's Cash App, which has evolved into a full-featured consumer finance platform with tens of millions of active users. Then there's Afterpay, which Australian investors already know well, sitting inside the broader Block ecosystem.
What really stands out to me is how these products reinforce each other. Sellers use Square, consumers use Cash App, and Afterpay sits at the point of transaction, increasing engagement and monetisation across the platform.
Block has been caught in a perfect storm. Rising interest rates hit fintech valuations, regulatory scrutiny increased, and concerns around buy now, pay later models weighed heavily on sentiment. Even a strong operating performance hasn't been enough to stop the sell-off.
Yet the underlying numbers tell a very different story. Cash App continues to grow users and monetisation. Square is gaining share in key verticals. The business is generating meaningful operating income and free cash flow, while continuing to invest heavily in product innovation, including AI-driven tools.
To me, this disconnect between business momentum and share price is exactly what creates opportunity.
Why I think both could beat the market
Neither WiseTech nor Block needs bold assumptions to deliver strong returns from here. They simply need to keep executing.
WiseTech benefits from global trade complexity only increasing over time, whereas Block benefits from the ongoing shift toward digital payments, integrated financial services, and platform-based ecosystems.
Both ASX 200 shares have been heavily sold off. Both businesses are still growing. And both, in my view, look far more attractive today than they did when sentiment was euphoric. That's why these two unloved ASX 200 shares are ones I'm quietly backing to surprise investors over the next few years.
