5 Stocks to Buy With Your $1,200 Stimulus Check

The Senate unanimously passed the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill earlier this week, and a big component of the deal is to give most taxpayers $1,200 in the form of one lump-sum payment to help stimulate the economy. It will take time for the checks to go out, but you might have the funds in as little as three weeks if everything goes as planned. 

These are stimulus checks, so naturally, most recipients will use the funds to tackle bills and other essentials. Ideally, some of that money will also be spent locally, living up to the "stimulus" part of the moniker. Undeniably, however, we'll see folks who feel comfortable with their current financial state saving or investing the stimulus check.

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Five for the road 

I decided to assemble a portfolio of five stocks, a hypothetical collection of investments in which a single share of each would get you close to the $1,200 stimulus check based on Thursday's closing prices. With a growing number of brokers offering commission-free trading, there's no shame in grabbing a single share of a quality growth stock. Let's see how this plays out. 

Shopify is a fast-growing platform with more than a million merchants on board. It's not just for small-fry entrepreneurs, either. A whopping $61 billion in merchandise was sold through Shopify last year with revenue soaring 47% in its latest quarter.

Domino's Pizza may seem like an odd name to make the second-largest weighting -- something that one has to consider in divvying up $1,200 into five single-share slices -- but it's been one of the market's best performers over the past decade. It's also one of the few companies hiring right now as the coronavirus containment efforts find folks ordering pizzas in lieu of going out to restaurants. 

RingCentral is the most obscure name on this list but also one of this year's bigger gainers. The stock has risen by better than 30% in an otherwise down 2020. It provides a cloud-based platform that automatically routes inbound calls to whatever device a recipient happens to be using. With so many people working from home, RingCentral is a logical choice for companies that want to give the appearance that everything is business as usual.

Disney is a name you obviously know. It's the media juggernaut behind the world's biggest theatrical releases, most-visited theme parks, and now, the hottest new streaming service in Disney+. The stock buckled below $100 earlier this month, hitting a five-year low when it bottomed out last week.

Unlike the other names on this list, Disney is in the crosshairs of the coronavirus outbreak. All of its theme parks are currently closed worldwide and nobody's going out to the movies anytime soon. However, Disney's dominance in entertainment makes it too tempting not to snap it up here while it's trading for a little more than a third of its November all-time highs.

Finally, we have Roku, a stock that more than quadrupled last year after being toasted as the streaming video play that will win no matter what service comes out on top. There are nearly 37 million active accounts on Roku's platform, and they're viewing roughly 4 billion hours a month. It's a volatile name, but with the lowest stock price of the five names, it also has the lowest weighting. 

I'll check back on this list in a year to see if these were good places for a stimulus check. Obviously, the best use for that check is to keep yourself going through these very difficult times, but you're here for stock ideas and investing tips. I hope this collection of risky yet promising growth stocks scratches that itch.