Growth stocks took a big hit in 2022, and it's anyone's guess where the markets go in 2023. While the blue chip-heavy S&P 500 index fell 19.4% last year, the tech-centric Nasdaq Composite dropped 33%.  

Investors who still have a long way to go until retirement shouldn't let the brutal sell-off keep them from putting money to work in quality stocks at the start of the new year. Lower stock prices mean there are industry-leading companies selling below their worth right now, which sets the stage for outstanding returns over the next decade.

Here are five top stocks you can confidently buy today.

1. Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms (META -4.13%) has faced its share of headwinds in 2022. On top of increased competition and a weak economy pressuring advertising spending on its platforms, the company is facing fines in the European Union for not complying with privacy rules. These problems contributed to a collapse in the stock over the last year, which is down almost 61%. 

Still, Meta is a very valuable business that should see a strong recovery as the outlook for the economy improves. Facebook has the highest number of people ever using the service, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees better days ahead. "We're still behind where I think we should be, but we believe that we will return to healthier revenue growth trends next year," Zuckerberg said during the third-quarter earnings call. 

Another factor that is weighing on the stock's performance is management's investments in growth initiatives that may take years to pay off, which doesn't fit the short-term focus of Wall Street analysts.

For example, Meta reported a $9.4 billion loss in its Reality Labs segment through the first three quarters last year. This segment includes the company's investments in virtual reality hardware, which will be essential in bringing the company's vision for the metaverse to life.

Despite these losses from Reality Labs, Meta is a very profitable business, and those profits are being undervalued by the market. The stock currently trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 16 based on this year's earnings estimates, which is a discount to the S&P 500's valuation of 20 times earnings. 

2. Roku

Another casualty of the bear market that could be a steal is leading TV streaming aggregator Roku (ROKU -3.05%). The company rode the wave of streaming adoption over the last decade and saw revenue growth accelerate to 57% during the stay-at-home environment in 2020. But the primary issue impacting the company's performance lately has been a soft advertising market, which Roku uses along with subscriptions and other revenue-sharing agreements with content providers to monetize users.

Roku's platform revenue posted a sequential decline in the third quarter. While it still grew 15% year over year, slowing growth and a widening loss on the bottom line sent the stock down 80% over the last year.  

The sell-off for Roku seems overdone. Its active accounts are still growing, reaching 70 million in the fourth quarter, up from 60 million at the end of 2021. Roku remains the No. 1 TV streaming operating system in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico based on total hours streamed on the platform. 

Roku is not done growing, as noted by these results. The growth in active accounts will attract more advertisers to invest in the platform when the economy is healthier, and that's a major catalyst for this beaten-down growth stock.

3. Broadcom

Broadcom (AVGO -4.31%) has been a relatively strong performer for investors over the last year, falling just 11%, compared to a decline of 32% for the Nasdaq. Broadcom is a leader in making chips for essential markets that are crucial to the global economy, such as data center networking, home connectivity, factory automation, and other complex devices that require top performance and security.

The company is delivering profitable growth in a challenging economic environment. In Broadcom's fiscal 2022 (which ended in October), it generated $16 billion of free cash flow on $33 billion in revenue. That is an outstanding free cash flow margin of 49%, and management isn't stingy with the cash.

Broadcom is an excellent dividend stock. In fiscal 2023, the company plans to pay an annual stock dividend of $18.40 per share, bringing the streak to 12 consecutive years of dividend increases.  

Broadcom is seeing strong demand in technology infrastructure spending. There are pockets of weakness, such as consumer electronics, but management sees more demand coming from cloud service providers looking to upgrade their routing networks with Broadcom's next-generation Jericho products. 

While growth could slow in 2023 depending on what happens with the economy, Broadcom stock trades at a conservative valuation of 14 times this year's earnings estimate. It also pays a dividend yield of 3.3% based on the targeted dividend payment this year. This is a well-established chip provider in the growing cloud networking market that is trading at a big discount to the average stock. 

4. Netflix

Netflix (NFLX -9.09%) stock was left for dead after it posted two consecutive quarters of subscriber declines in the first and second quarter last year. But a string of successful releases got the company back on track. After reporting better third-quarter results, the stock has nearly doubled off its 52-week low of $162, but it still offers plenty of long-term upside. 

The streaming leader released several hits in the third quarter that led to a return to subscriber growth, although the company is still not posting as many quarterly net subscriber additions as it did in 2021. But it's understandable that the company will see growth gradually slow as it gets larger.

What's most impressive about Netflix is its profitability. The company spent nearly $13 billion making new shows and movies last year, on top of investing in its mobile game initiative, and still reported a stellar operating profit over $5 billion. This is while Walt Disney, Paramount Global, and Warner Bros. Discovery are reporting big losses from their streaming businesses.   

Netflix is settling into a groove, making blockbuster-level content on a regular basis. Its superior profitability and expanding content budget will lead to a growing content library -- the key ingredient of signing up more subscribers.

5. Upstart Holdings

Finding wealth-building investments is not that difficult if you focus on how technology is changing society. For example, Upstart Holdings (UPST -1.97%) is upending the traditional way of credit approval at banks by using sophisticated models powered by artificial intelligence. When a person applies for a loan, Upstart's models factor in over 1,500 variables, whereas a legacy credit application process only considers a limited number of factors.

The proof of Upstart's effectiveness is in the numbers. Over just the last few years, Upstart has grown revenue nearly fivefold to almost $1 billion, which it earns by charging fees to banks to use its technology. Clearly, that leaves room for billions of more growth, and that spells the potential for multibagger returns.

Upstart has already facilitated over $30 billion of loans, but its addressable market opportunity is estimated at over $3 trillion when factoring in the potential to expand into mortgages over the long term. 

Although growth stalled lately due to the economy, Upstart is serving one of the fastest-growing markets in finance, which is personal loans. The company's revenue fell 31% year over year in the third quarter, but the business will see robust growth again when the economy recovers. The recent slump sets up a great buying opportunity, with the stock selling at a massive discount to its previous highs.