Many people may not be aware that investing can help you to build long-lasting riches. If you invest in the right growth stocks that have the potential to grow their earnings and cash flows over years or even decades, then you should see your investment portfolio grow in tandem. It would help if you had the patience and fortitude to hold these winners over the long term and not falter even when there is market volatility. Most importantly, you need to identify the right types of stocks to buy in the first place.
A simple rule of thumb is to look for businesses with dominant market positions, a robust business model, and which are enjoying steady increases in revenue, profits and/or free cash flow. The improving financials are evidence that the business is growing steadily, and investors also need to look for sustainable tailwinds that will continue to boost the business's prospects. Tailwinds and catalysts are important as they play a crucial role in enabling the company to continue growing, thus making the stock a compelling buy not just for this year but also for many years down the road.
Here are three solid growth stocks that you can consider including in your growth stocks portfolio.
Image source: Getty images.
1. MercadoLibre
MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI) is a major e-commerce and financial technology player in Latin America. Its platform offers e-commerce, payment services, loans, investments, logistics fulfilment, advertisements, and streaming of third-party content.
MercadoLibre has posted solid growth in both its top and bottom lines over the years. Revenue more than doubled from $7.1 billion in 2021 to $14.5 billion in 2023 while operating income more than quadrupled over the same period to $1.8 billion. Net income climbed more than tenfold, from just $83 million in 2021 to $987 million in 2023. The e-commerce player also saw its free cash flow leap thirteenfold from $356 million to $4.6 billion over the same period.
The company's momentum has continued strongly in the first half of 2024, as revenue leapt 38.9% year over year to $9.4 billion. Mercadolibre's platform is seeing more active users and buyers that are pushing up gross merchandise value (GMV) and total payment volumes (TPV). The number of unique active buyers jumped from 62 million to 73 million in a year while GMV rose 20.4% year over year to $24 billion. TPV on MercadoLibre's platform climbed 35.1% year over year to $87.1 billion as the number of payment transactions leapt from 3.3 billion a year ago to 5.1 billion.
These numbers are impressive and a testament to the e-commerce player's strong market position. Net income for the first half of 2024 soared 89% year over year to $875 million, almost coming close to last year's full-year net income, while free cash flow jumped 48.1% year over year to $3.1 billion.
MercadoLibre continues to grow its presence with the opening of a fulfillment center in Texas to offer inventory from U.S. sellers to buyers in Mexico. The company has expanded its apparel and beauty assortment and launched premium brands such as Hugo Boss and Kerastase to cater to a wider customer base. Early July saw its advertising arm partner with Disney+ to serve up programmatic video ads in its first such external partnership.
On the fintech side, MercadoLibre intends to apply for a digital bank license in Mexico to scale its business. The future looks bright for the business in 2024 and the years ahead and investors should feel optimistic about the e-commerce outfit's prospects.
2. Atlassian
Atlassian (NASDAQ: TEAM) is a software-as-a-service company with a platform offering its customers service and work management tools that help their teams to get organized and improve work efficiency. The company has displayed impressive top-line growth from fiscal 2021 (ended June 30) to fiscal 2023 with revenue climbing from $2.1 billion to $3.5 billion.
Gross profit improved from $1.8 billion to $2.9 billion over the same period with gross margin staying above 82% throughout the three fiscal years. The business generated consistent positive free cash flow from fiscal 2021 through 2023 with an average free cash flow margin of close to 29%.
Fiscal 2024 saw a continuation of this growth with the business posting a year-over-year revenue increase of 23.3% to reach $4.4 billion. Gross margin stayed high at 81.6% with gross profit jumping 22.6% year over year to $3.6 billion. Free cash flow did even better, surging by 68% year over year to $1.4 billion.
Atlassian also reported a higher number of customers contributing more than $1 million in revenue, up 48% year over year from 353 to 524 for fiscal 2024. This number is up more than fivefold from the 104 customers back in fiscal 2020 and shows the company's effectiveness in getting customers to pay more for its services. And as Atlassian ramps up its cloud roadmap, the number of customers with more than $10,000 in cloud annual recurring revenue (ARR) has gone from 38,726 in fiscal 2023 to 45,842 in fiscal 2024.
While these metrics are encouraging signs for the company, they may just be the tip of the iceberg in terms of future potential. Management has identified a total addressable market of $67 billion comprising the three areas of software development, service management, and work management. To drive its next leg of growth, management revealed during its recent Investor Day that it will focus on enterprise (i.e., data center to cloud migrations), service management, and artificial intelligence.
With a solid strategy and compelling value proposition for its customers, Atlassian looks set to continue its blistering growth streak.
3. Okta
Okta (NASDAQ: OKTA) is an identity management specialist that helps organizations control and manage employee access and ensure security and efficiency. Its platform helps to authenticate users and protects organizations from harmful threats and unauthorized digital access.
Okta has demonstrated impressive growth over the years, with revenue leaping from $1.3 billion in fiscal 2022 (ended Jan. 31) to $2.3 billion in fiscal 2024. Gross margin steadily improved from 69.5% to 74.3%, with gross profit climbing from $904 million to $1.7 billion over the same period. Free cash flow also improved tremendously, going from just $87 million in fiscal 2022 to $488 million in fiscal 2024.
Okta continued to show improvements to its revenue and gross margin for the first half of fiscal 2025. Revenue rose 17.6% year over year to $1.3 billion, with gross profit climbing 22.6% year over year to $960 million. Gross margin continued its ascent, going from 72.9% a year ago to 76%. Free cash flow climbed 68% year over year to $292 million.
Okta's customer count continued to grow, going from 18,950 at the end of fiscal 2024 to 19,300 at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2025. Customers with more than $100,000 of annual contract value increased from 4,485 to 4,620 over the same period. Remaining performance obligations, a key metric that is highly correlated to future subscription revenue, rose 13% year over year to $3.5 billion at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2025.
Management believes that Okta has a long growth runway, with the company occupying just a small slice of an $80 billion total addressable market. With more organizations digitalizing and embracing cloud computing, Okta's suite of services should see sustained and growing demand in the years to come, positioning the company for many more years of growth.
Where to invest $1,000 right now
When our analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor’s total average return is 702% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 157% for the S&P 500.*
They just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and MercadoLibre made the list -- but there are 9 other stocks you may be overlooking.
See the 10 stocks »
*Stock Advisor returns as of September 9, 2024
Royston Yang has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Atlassian, MercadoLibre, and Okta. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
Local News
Comments / 0