Nobody has a crystal ball that can tell you which stocks will be tomorrow's big winners, and I'm certainly not an exception. After all, if we knew what stocks were going to be the next Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) or Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), everyone would put all of their money into them and we'd all get rich. Unfortunately, successful growth investing is not that easy.
What we can do, however, is recognize stocks that have the potential to produce life-changing returns for their investors if they are able to execute on their long-term vision. And with that in mind, here are three examples of stocks that could do just that.
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A time-tested business model
Wouldn't it be great of you could have invested in Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A -0.28%) (BRK.B -0.68%) before Warren Buffett built it into a $500 billion conglomerate and earned his early investors huge returns in the process? That's exactly what Boston Omaha (BOC -0.39%) aims to do.
Boston Omaha is a holding company that currently operates subsidiary businesses in billboard advertising, insurance, and broadband communications, and also owns a portfolio of common stocks and some minority investments. The idea is the same one Berkshire Hathaway uses -- invest in businesses with excellent economics and use the cash generated by them to invest in more businesses. (As a side note, one of Boston Omaha's co-CEOs is Buffett's great-nephew, although the elder Buffett has no involvement with Boston Omaha.)
Boston Omaha may never grow into a half-trillion-dollar behemoth, but it doesn't have to. At less than 0.1% of Berkshire's size, even a moderately successful implementation of this growth strategy could result in big returns for investors.
Lots of opportunity to create value, but lots of risk as well
Seritage Growth Properties (SRG -0.53%) has a huge opportunity to unlock value from a portfolio of outdated real estate. This real estate investment trust, or REIT, was created specifically to buy a portfolio of old Sears properties, and gradually redevelop them into attractive and modern mixed use properties.
In addition to modern retail space, Seritage incorporates things like attractive dining options, entertainment venues, and even multifamily housing into its redevelopment efforts. Just to name one example of a smaller-scale project, Seritage redeveloped a 29,100-square-foot Sears auto center into an Outback Steakhouse, a Yard House, and an Escape Room attraction.
Seritage's stock got absolutely crushed during the pandemic. Not only were most of Seritage's tenants forced to close, but Seritage also relies on the cash generated by its occupied properties to fund its future development. There's still a ton of execution risk remaining, as Seritage has redeveloped fewer than one-third of its portfolio square footage. But if it is successful, the current stock price could be a steal -- after all, Seritage has more than 31 million square feet of real estate and the current market cap values the company at just $17.70 per square foot. Most high-quality U.S. retail spaces bring in more than this much in annual rental income.
The other social media stock
Did you miss out on Facebook's (META -0.52%) incredible 550% gain since going public in 2012? You could potentially set yourself up for a similar ride with Pinterest (PINS -0.52%).
Pinterest has 416 million monthly active users (MAUs), about one-eighth of Facebook's user base, but is growing rapidly, as 39% of these users have joined the platform in the past year. International growth has been an especially strong point and could still have a long way to go.
And when it comes to (hopefully) making investors rich, it's important to emphasize that because of the nature of its platform, Pinterest has some exciting monetization opportunities, particularly in e-commerce. The company recently partnered with Shopify (SHOP -2.37%) to allow merchants to bring its products to Pinterest's platform. And to put it mildly, I feel the market is underestimating the potential for Pinterest's idea-seeking user base to generate e-commerce sales.
These could make you rich
As a final thought, it's important to make one distinction. I'm saying these stocks could make you rich, not that they necessarily will. While I think all of these stocks could become ten-baggers and more for investors who get in now (and I own all three in my portfolio), there's a lot that needs to go right for that to happen. In short, these aren't "sure things" by any definition of the word. Invest with that in mind.
