The right stocks can turbocharge your stock portfolio and set you up for a comfortable retirement. However, there are nuances to investing in growing companies.
Sure, a home run stock can make you a millionaire on its own. However, if it were easy, there would be many more millionaires. The hit rate is low, so investors are usually better off looking for proven winners that still have plenty of life left in them.
The world's largest technology companies are driving ongoing growth trends, including e-commerce, digital advertising, and cloud computing. These same companies could also benefit from upcoming opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI).
Investing $100,000 into each of these "Magnificent Seven" stocks as part of a diversified portfolio could yield a million dollars a decade from now. Here are their names, and why they could make you serious money well into the future.
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1. Amazon
E-commerce is Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) core business, and the carrot that draws consumers into its Prime membership and ecosystem. However, Amazon is just as much a technology company as any. It operates the world's leading cloud platform, Amazon Web Services, which holds an estimated 30% share of the global cloud infrastructure market. AWS is Amazon's cash cow, contributing over half of the company's total operating income despite representing just a fraction of its total revenue.
That's especially important, given that AI is arguably the most prominent growth trend of the upcoming decade. AI, like most modern software, primarily runs on the cloud. AI applications are already driving significant growth for cloud capacity, prompting Amazon and other cloud companies to invest billions of dollars in building data centers to handle the load.
Amazon's valuation, a PEG ratio of 2, is reasonable for its estimated 17% long-term earnings growth. In other words, the stock's investment returns should reflect that growth over time. If so, cloud tailwinds from AI should boost Amazon's most profitable business and could more than double earnings and the stock over the next decade.
2. Alphabet (Google)
Most investors know Alphabet(NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG) for Google Search, but it's a diversified tech giant. It owns YouTube, Android smartphone software, and Google Chrome, develops AI software and quantum computers, and continues to expand Waymo, a ride-hailing service using self-driving vehicles.
Its massive size and broad reach make it highly likely that Alphabet will compete in AI and the opportunities it creates over the coming decade. Wall Street anticipates Alphabet growing its earnings by an average of 15% annually over the long term, despite some fears that AI chatbots could disrupt Google Search, Alphabet's core business.
Investors shouldn't dismiss this risk, but fear has priced the stock at a compelling PEG ratio of 1.3, assuming the company meets Wall Street's growth estimates. If it does, investors could eventually see returns exceed Alphabet's growth if sentiment rebounds and drives the valuation higher. Alphabet's anticipated double-digit growth and depressed valuation make it a candidate for substantial returns over the next decade.
3. Meta Platforms
Last but not least is Meta Platforms(NASDAQ: META), the parent company of social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads. The company is immensely profitable, generating $50 billion in free cash flow over the past four quarters from ads shown to the 3.43 billion people who use Meta's social apps each day.
Meta Platforms still has firm long-term leadership; CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is still only 41 years old. He has been pushing the company toward AI for several years, using AI technology to optimize its core advertising business, and launching an open-sourced AI model with over a billion downloads, and is working to establish Meta Platforms as a key player in next-generation consumer electronics.
Meta Platforms has rallied and is up significantly over the past few years. Yet the stock's PEG ratio (1.5) remains attractive for prospective investors, and Meta's estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 18% suggests there is enough upside for the stock to double or more over the coming decade. Meta Platforms must still monetize more of its AI projects, but if successful, investors will be glad they have this company in their portfolio over the next decade.
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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Justin Pope has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
