Growth-oriented investors should always be on the lookout for potential multibagger stocks that can turn modest investments into small fortunes. It can be tough to spot those future winners, but investors can look back at some previous multibaggers to identify the qualities that could point toward millionaire-making returns.
Today, we'll take a closer look at three stocks that turned $1,000 into more than $30,000 -- Lululemon (LULU 1.50%), Shopify (SHOP -1.28%), and Baidu (BIDU -2.12%) -- and see where they could be headed next.
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1. Lululemon
Lululemon, which carved out a high-growth niche in premium yoga apparel and activewear, went public at $18 per share in 2007. You could have bought 55 shares for $1,000, which would have been split into 110 shares in 2011. That position would be worth nearly $40,000 today.
Lululemon's annual sales rose from $269.9 million in fiscal 2007 to $4.0 billion in fiscal 2019. Analysts expect its revenue to rise 9% to $4.3 billion this year, even though the pandemic throttled its growth in the first two quarters, and climb another 24% to $5.4 billion in fiscal 2021.
Lululemon's rapid growth was driven by three catalysts: its first-mover's advantage in the premium yoga and athleisure market, community-building events like free yoga classes, and the expansion of its direct-to-consumer channel, which locked in shoppers and reduced its dependence on third-party retailers.
Those core strengths helped Lululemon weather several scandals, including its accidental production of see-through yoga pants, controversial comments from its founder Chip Wilson, and a sexual misconduct scandal involving its former CEO.
Looking ahead, Lululemon expects its "Power of Three" strategy -- which aims to generate double-digit annual revenue growth through the end of 2023 by doubling its men's revenue, doubling its digital revenue, and quadrupling its international revenue -- to drive its future growth. Therefore, this "best in breed" apparel stock could still have plenty of room to run.
2. Shopify
Shopify, the Canadian e-commerce company that helps businesses establish their own online presences, went public at $17 per share in 2015. The 58 shares you could have bought for $1,000 would be worth more than $63,000 today.
Image source: Getty Images.
Shopify's annual sales soared from $205.2 million in fiscal 2015 to $1.58 billion in fiscal 2019. Analysts expect its revenue to rise 81% to $2.85 billion this year thanks to an acceleration in e-commerce sales throughout the pandemic, and grow another 33% to $3.78 billion next year.
Shopify's growth is supported by small to medium-sized businesses that want to sell products online but don't want to be tethered to a a big online marketplace like Amazon. Shopify's services -- which let those businesses set up online stores, process payments, fulfill orders, launch marketing campaigns, and more -- fulfill that need.
Shopify is constantly expanding its ecosystem with new services, including its new Shopify Fulfillment Network and Shop, a mobile app that lets shoppers find local and independent businesses. Its payment processing platform, Shop Pay, also gives it a foothold in the booming fintech market.
Shopify's early mover's advantage in the self-service e-commerce space, its growing customer base of over a million businesses worldwide, and the growth of the broader e-commerce and fintech markets could all propel its stock even higher over the next few years.
3. Baidu
Baidu, which owns China's largest search engine, went public at $27 per share in 2005. You could have bought 37 shares for $1,000, which would have been split into 370 shares in 2010. That stake would be worth nearly $79,000 today.
Baidu's annual revenue rose from just $39.6 million in fiscal 2005 to $15.4 billion in fiscal 2019. It currently controls over two-thirds of China's online search market, according to StatCounter, and owns iQiyi (IQ -5.84%), one of the country's largest streaming video platforms.
But today Baidu faces stiff competition from Tencent's WeChat, China's top messaging platform, which locks in users with millions of Mini Programs and native search features, as well as Gen Z-oriented platforms like ByteDance's Douyin (known as TikTok overseas) and Bilibili. iQiyi's growth has also stalled out, and its losses are cutting into Baidu's margins.
However, analysts still expect Baidu's revenue to rise 8% this year and another 15% to $19.1 billion next year as its core advertising business recovers. Over the long term, Baidu's other investments in driverless cars, virtual assistants, and AI technologies could gradually diversify its core business away from ads. Therefore, Baidu might not be growing as rapidly as Lululemon or Shopify, but it's still a decent long-term play on China's growing tech sector.
