It's been a rough year for the human race, and the near-term outlook isn't pretty. Many investors are also licking their wounds with the recent market volatility, but some fortunate souls are having a great year with their stock picks.
Etsy (ETSY +1.18%), Camping World (CWH +1.70%), and Livongo Health (LVGO +0.00%) are some of the bear-busting stocks that have more than doubled in 2020. The good news is that it's still not too late to buy into these growth stories. Let's go over why these three investments would be strong candidates for your next $1,500 investment.
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Etsy
The stay-at-home phase of this pandemic awakened the artist and eventually the entrepreneur in a lot of us, and Etsy is cashing in on the process. Etsy operates an online marketplace where folks can purchase handmade and in some cases personalized arts and crafts.
Etsy has been among the handful of companies to kick growth up a few notches since the COVID-19 crisis became a reality. It was also doing fine before the pandemic. Revenue rose 36% last year, climbing 35% through the first three months of this year. Then the world slowed to a crawl, and Etsy's artsy merchants got cracking on making masks. Fabric face coverings through Etsy are giving buyers a way to exert some fashion sense when they're out and about, and Etsy's cashing in. Etsy recently said it expects gross merchandise sales to top $2 billion for the quarter that ended in June. This would be an 80% to 100% year-over-year increase.
Growth will decelerate from that pace in the second half of this year, but many are still going to want stylish face coverings. Etsy is also growing its customer base in the process, and that will continue to pay off in a post-pandemic world.
Camping World
The leading retailer of new and used recreational vehicles has been one of this year's wildest rides. The stock was trading 76% lower in 2020, when the shares bottomed out in the low-single digits during the early days of the COVID-19 correction in March. The stock has become a 10-bagger from that all-time low, and the shares are now up 158% in 2020 as of Tuesday's close.
The secret to Camping World's success is that RVs are booming in popularity these days. The RV Industry Association reported in late May that RV sales were up by as much as 170% in some markets ahead of the Memorial Day holiday. With folks hesitant to fly anywhere or stay at a hotel, getting around in an RV has become a popular big-ticket purchase for consumers with the means to spend on their getaways.
Camping World won't report quarterly results for another couple of weeks, but a smaller rival just announced that RV sales soared 81% in June. Things are going go so well at Camping World that it boosted its quarterly dividend last week. The stock should keep rolling like its vehicles along the blue highways of the country.
Livongo Health
Diabetes is a pretty big deal, and Livongo Health has a new way to produce better outcomes. It pioneered what it calls advanced health signals, a platform that leans on machine learning and artificial intelligence to get folks with diabetes back on track when their blood sugar levels start to climb.
A growing number of insurance companies and self-insured corporations are offering Livongo to their insured base, and it's easy to see why. Folks using glucose meters have their readings sent directly to Livongo, and it comes back with exercise and diet coaching when it sees negative trends arising. It works. Livongo claims that it's saving insurers an average of $1,909 in annual medical costs per member. With the membership base doubling to 328,000 over the past year -- and Livongo expanding applied health signals to tackle other chronic conditions -- it's not just the members that are getting healthier right now.
Etsy, Camping World, and Livongo Health are among the market's best growth stocks. They're also among the most likely stocks to keep climbing if the COVID-19 news gets worse this year.
