We recently published a list of the 15 Best Growth Stocks to Buy for the Next 3 Years. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Coupang Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) stands against other growth stocks to buy for the next 3 years.
On April 29, Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities joined ‘Power Lunch’ on CNBC to discuss his outlook for the tech sector and expressed that tariffs aren’t stopping the AI revolution. According to Ives, the critical question for the sector was whether spending, particularly CapEx, was being maintained. He expressed confidence that CapEx was holding up and predicted that the forthcoming results from big tech companies would serve more as a confidence booster for the market, rather than fueling the existing fears. As some investors are of the idea that concerns about a potential soft patch in the economy remain, there’s a preference for safer investments in insurance and other stable sectors, rather than big tech. However, Ives acknowledged that while uncertainty had been prevalent in recent weeks, his own survey work and field research indicate that AI-related spending stays strong. He noted that, while there were areas of the cloud sector where spending was accelerating, the overall uncertainty would likely result in broad guidance ranges from companies.
Michael Darda, the Managing Director, Chief Economist, and Macrostrategist at ROTH, also believes that AI would generate solid returns in the future. Ives agreed with Darda’s assessment and stated that enterprises were seeing similar advancements and could not afford to leave their AI projects behind without the risk of consequently falling behind. He also pointed out that for companies like those in the MAG7, the AI revolution is a central theme, which is why challenges brought forward by tariffs would not impact the AI revolution as much. Darda changed his outlook from bearish to bullish on tech and AI recently due to his personal experience with AI tools, which he felt had improved over the past year.
Dan Ives reiterated that, despite the uncertainty created by tariffs, the demand for software remained a safety blanket, and spending by hyperscale companies is expected to continue.
Our Methodology
We sifted through financial media reports to compile a list of the top growth stocks to buy for the next 3 years. We then selected 15 stocks with a 3-year revenue compound annual growth rate of over 20%. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of the number of hedge funds that have stakes in them, as of Q4 2024, which was sourced from Insider Monkey’s database.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Is Coupang Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) the Best Growth Stock to Buy for the Next 3 Years?
A woman holding a laptop, wearing a graphic t-shirt, casually checking her e-commerce order.
Coupang Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) owns and operates retail businesses through its mobile applications and internet websites in South Korea and internationally. It operates through the Product Commerce and Developing Offerings segments. It also performs operations and support services in the US, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Japan, and India.
The company’s Product Commerce segment grew by 9% year-over-year in Q4 2024. The segment also showed gross profit growth of 31% year-over-year to $2.3 billion, with a gross profit margin of 32.7%. This is attributed to the increased efficiencies in operations, which include greater utilization of automation and technology, supply chain optimization, and the scaling of margin-accretive offerings.
The number of active customers in the Product Commerce segment grew by 10% year-over-year, and the average spend per active customer saw a constant currency increase of 6%. For 2025, Coupang Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) anticipates that the Product Commerce gross profit will grow at a faster rate than its constant currency revenue growth, due to the continued expansion of its FLC (Fulfillment & Logistics by Coupang) offering.
Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund stated the following regarding Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Shares of Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG), Korea’s largest e-commerce platform, corrected 10.5% in the fourth quarter (even though they finished 2024 up 33.9%). While the company delivered solid quarterly results with 27% year-on-year revenue growth with Farfetch and other initiative losses narrowing significantly, its product commerce EBITDA margin missed expectations due to a temporarily elevated spending on technology and automation. Sluggish domestic consumption in Korea, with the e-commerce market experiencing flattish to negative growth, and political uncertainty stemming from President Yoon’s declaration of martial law and subsequent impeachment, further weighed on the stock. Despite these short-term challenges, we maintain a positive outlook on Coupang’s long-term market share expansion and margin growth trajectory, and view Coupang as one of the most competitively advantaged e-commerce businesses globally, with significant runway for both revenue and earnings growth.”
Overall, CPNG ranks 6th on our list of the best growth stocks to buy for the next 3 years. While we acknowledge the growth potential of CPNG, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CPNG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
