Investing in 2020 has been a rollercoaster of uncertainty and bullish sentiment, with the quickest bear market in history followed by an equally quick return to record highs. Smart investors are taking advantage of the recent dip and buying up stocks that have proven to be solid investments during this turbulent year.
Here are three stock picks where you could invest $1,000 right now and reap significant benefits over the long term.
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1. Pinterest: Plenty of growth potential despite tripling in value
Pinterest (PINS -1.55%) has been trending ever higher since its $11 a share low in March 2020, nearly tripling in value over the following months. That makes sense. As a fully online hobby- and interest-sharing social platform, Pinterest has not only benefited from the general public's increased time online and at home over the past six months, it has positively exploded with increased usage.
In fact, what makes this company so exciting is how much growth potential it still has. Pinterest announced earlier this year that it intended to further monetize through an expansion into social commerce, leveraging a partnership with Shopify to let users easily purchase items pinned to their boards.
Why is this important? Previously, ads served as Pinterest's primary revenue source, and the company seemed to struggle with finding new growth opportunities. But with solid market research indicating the growing importance of social recommendations in driving purchase decisions, the company now has a great opportunity to improve its average revenue per user. In the first half of 2020 alone, nearly 50% of users came to Pinterest with some sort of purchasing intent. Over time, this strategic pivot could boost the company right into profitable territory.
2. PayPal: Adding new products to keep growth going
While traditional banks have weathered some rocky financial moments this year, digital payment provider PayPal (PYPL 0.34%) has thrived. Social distancing has contributed to a strong tailwind in digital companies and accelerated a trend toward e-commerce.
The company was already posting strong numbers over the past five years, with net income nearly doubling by 2019. But combined with a major move to digital commerce and payment, PayPal raked in net profits of $1.5 billion in the second quarter of 2020 alone -- equal to its entire net income in 2015!
Even more promising, the company boasts an enormous total addressable market. Mobile commerce, peer-to-peer transfers, and other digital services stack up to nearly $110 trillion in total market value, and PayPal intends to roll out another suite of products later this year to further capitalize on the pandemic tailwinds. All of this means PayPal's current earning potential may still be only in its infancy.
3. DocuSign: Benefitting from the remote work trend
Electronic signature services provider DocuSign (DOCU -2.35%) is yet another company that has benefited from the pandemic tailwind. While companies were already adopting the paperless approach in agreement management, the sudden need for digital cooperation proved how DocuSign's earlybird approach would play out in the future.
The company saw a 55% year-over-year increase in enterprise and commercial clients in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, and its improved margins helped to further shrink its net losses by seven percentage points. In fact, DocuSign management has guided to a 43% increase in total revenue for this year, thanks in part to increased rates of digital agreement adoption.
DocuSign is currently trading below its 52-week high, but it still has very high market potential. More and more companies are seeing significant cost reductions in moving toward a paperless future, and there is little reason to think the steam behind this trend will taper off anytime soon.
