If the stock market has taught us anything, it's that anyone can be a winner.
According to a report from Crestmont Research, which analyzed the rolling 20-year total returns for the benchmark S&P 500 for every ending year between 1919 and 2020, there hasn't been a negative 20-year total return... ever. Put another way, if you bought into an S&P 500 tracking index at any point between 1900 and 2001 and held for at least 20 years, you'd have made money. The stock market rewards those who buy great companies and allow their investment theses to develop over time.
Best of all, you don't need to have Warren Buffett's pocketbook to build wealth on Wall Street. If you have $10,000, which won't be needed to pay bills or cover emergencies, you have more than enough capital to shopping and buy the following four surefire stocks right now.
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Amazon
At this point, I'm virtually convinced that e-commerce giant Amazon.com (AMZN -1.14%) belongs in every investors' portfolio, as long as they're willing to let it sit for a minimum of three to five years.
As most folks know, Amazon calls the shots in U.S. e-commerce. A March 2020 eMarketer report estimated that its share of U.S. online sales would expand another 100 basis points in 2021 to 39.7%. For some context here, no other company is within roughly 33 percentage points of Amazon's online share in the United States.
Although retail margins aren't all that impressive, Amazon has a trick up its sleeve. It's signed up more than 200 million people worldwide to Prime memberships. Not only do Prime members spend more and stay loyal to the company's product and service ecosystem, but the annual fees collected help Amazon undercut its competition on price.
Were this not enough, Amazon also has its fast-growing cloud infrastructure segment, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Last year, we navigated through the worst economic downturn in decades, but this didn't stop AWS from growing by 30%. With superior margins to retail, AWS has the potential to help the company more than double its cash flow over the next three years.
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Bristol Myers Squibb
Hey, value stock investors, I'm looking at you! A really smart way to put $10,000 to work right now would be to invest in pharmaceutical stock Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY 0.96%).
One of the great things about Big Pharma that often gets overlooked is that pharmaceuticals are a highly defensive industry. No matter how well or poorly the U.S. economy is performing, people always need prescription medicines. After all, we don't get to decide when we get sick or what ailment(s) we develop.
Bristol Myers Squibb brings both an organic and inorganic growth component to the table that investors should love. From an organic perspective, its top-selling blockbusters are leading oral anticoagulant Eliquis, which was co-developed with Pfizer, and cancer immunotherapy Opdivo. Even though Eliquis has been the faster-growing drug, it's Opdivo that has the higher long-term sales potential. Currently being studied in dozens of clinical trials as a monotherapy and combination treatment, Opdivo can easily surpass the $7 billion in sales generated in 2020.
From an inorganic growth standpoint, the purchase of Celgene will be a growth driver through at least mid-decade. This deal, completed in November 2019, brought blockbuster Revlimid into the fold. Revlimid has grown its sales by a double-digit percentage for more than a decade, and brought in $12.1 billion last year.
At a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 8, you'd struggle to find a more attractive value stock.
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Green Thumb Industries
U.S. marijuana stocks have the potential to be a surefire investment opportunity this decade -- perhaps none more so than multistate operator Green Thumb Industries (GTBIF -1.37%).
Green Thumb has 56 operational dispensaries at the moment, but holds enough licenses in its back pocket to open as many as 97 retail locations across a dozen states.
What's noteworthy about Green Thumb's expansion strategy is the state's it's chosen to plant its flag. On one hand, many of the legalized states Green Thumb operates in have $1 billion or more in annual sales potential by 2024. On the other hand, it's often maximized its presence in states where license issuance is limited, such as Illinois. By establishing a presence in states where its competition will be limited, Green Thumb is giving itself the best possible opportunity to build up its brands and gain a loyal following.
Green Thumb also generates a majority of its revenue from selling derivatives. A derivative is an alternative consumption option, such as edibles, vapes, oils, and infused beverages, to name a few. These items have higher price points and much juicier margins than dried flower, and they'll be key to pushing the company into the recurring profit column this year.
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Salesforce
A fourth surefire opportunity for investors with $10,000 is cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) solutions provider salesforce.com (CRM -1.59%).
Although estimates vary, the consensus is that CRM remains a double-digit growth opportunity through at least the mid-decade, if not longer. CRM software is used by consumer-facing businesses to handle the logging of customer information, oversee online marketing campaigns, address service issues, and can even predict which customers might purchase new products and services. CRM is a logical choice for retail and service-based companies, but is finding a home in areas you might not expect, such as healthcare and financial companies.
Salesforce is absolutely dominant when it comes to providing cloud-based CRM solutions. An IDC report showed that it held almost a 20% share of global CRM revenue in the first-half of 2020. Its four closest competitors don't even add up to salesforce's share on a combined basis.
In addition, don't overlook that Salesforce is in the midst of acquiring enterprise communications platform Slack Technologies in a $27.7 billion cash-and-stock deal. Assuming the deal closes, Slack will provide Salesforce with a jumping-off point to cross-sell its CRM solutions to small-and-medium-sized businesses.
According to CEO Marc Benioff, salesforce is on track to grow its full-year sales from $21.25 billion in its latest fiscal year to north of $50 billion in five years. That's growth investors should gladly sign up for.
