It may not seem that $3,000 is much money to invest, but it's more than you think. The magic of compounding interest could easily turn that small sum into tens of thousands over the next few decades, enough to pay for college tuition or make a down payment on a new house.
The best path forward is to stick with companies you might know by name and that have already proven they can grow in a competitive marketplace. If you've got $3,000 that you don't need to pay off bills or populate your emergency fund and you have a long-term investment plan in place, here are three growth stocks I'd be willing to buy today and you might want to consider yourself.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Wayfair: Gaining share in a massive market
Wayfair (W -2.91%) is emerging as the leading brand in the online home goods market, which the company estimates has an addressable market worth more than $800 billion a year. The stock price has more than tripled in value over the last three years, but investors might still be undervaluing its long-term growth potential.
The company's recent financial performance has been stellar. Revenue accelerated in 2020 and continued that impressive streak, increasing 49% year over year in the first quarter of 2021.
In 2020, most of the orders on Wayfair.com were made by customers with at least three lifetime purchases -- a good indicator of increasing brand strength and customer satisfaction. The percentage of customers with at least three purchases has nearly doubled over the last five years to 58% in 2020.
Growth will likely slow as the economy reopens, but Wayfair only has 2% market share of its addressable market, so it will almost certainly grow into a much larger business over the next decade.
Moreover, the acceleration in order volume last year significantly improved Wayfair's profitability, and management expects further improvement beyond 2021.
With the shares trading at a fair price-to-free cash flow ratio of 22, investors are potentially underestimating Wayfair's future.
Image source: Roblox.
2. Roblox: The gaming platform kids love
Roblox (RBLX -1.29%) is a popular video game platform that just went public in March, and its recent growth streak has been impressive. From 2018 through 2020, revenue nearly tripled to $923 million, and management sees tremendous potential for more growth over the long term.
"[W]e still see incredible opportunity in the core growth drivers, which is to continue to expand the business geographically and to grow the user base in terms of the age demographic," CFO Michael Guthrie said during the first-quarter earnings call.
Roblox finished the recent quarter with 42.1 million monthly active users, an increase of 79% year over year. Growth should slow in the near term as Roblox laps the high growth rates reported during the pandemic when kids had more time at home. But as Guthrie indicated, Roblox has the opportunity to scale into a large interactive entertainment platform that appeals to a broader audience.
Roblox has a growing community of 8 million content creators on the platform. That's a massive amount of creative bandwidth that the big game producers, such as Activision Blizzard, could only dream of. Last year, Activision employed 9,500 people, with less than two-thirds focused on game development. For perspective, Activision's market cap is $75 billion, compared to Roblox's current market value of $47 billion.
Investors should note that shares of Roblox currently trade at a very high price-to-sales ratio of 35, but the business can grow into that valuation over time. Still, investors need to be prepared to withstand potential volatility in the near term. I believe if you're willing to hold shares of this IPO stock for many years, it should deliver a better-than-average return on your investment.
Image source: Getty Images.
3. Logitech: A leading brand in remote work essentials
Logitech International (LOGI -1.05%) is another company that has delivered big returns for investors in recent years. Its leadership in the increasingly important market of selling computer peripherals and video conferencing gear positioned the business for explosive growth during the pandemic. Sales growth accelerated to 76% last year, driven by strong sales of PC webcams, tablet accessories, and gaming peripherals, but it's important to know that Logitech was already in growth mode long before 2020.
CEO Bracken Darrell came in eight years ago and focused on better product design and improving the company's profitability. The improvements Darrell made ultimately led to a staggering 1,600% increase in the stock price, but Logitech's growth is far from over.
Management sees several trends continuing beyond the pandemic, including people splitting time between the office and working remotely, as well as growing content creation on streaming platforms. All of this creates the potential not only for more sales of webcams and green screens but also ongoing product upgrades.
Of course, Logitech is not going to continue posting 76% growth every quarter, but it also doesn't expect to lose the sales volume it gained last year, which is important. Management is guiding for sales to be flat, plus or minus 5%, in fiscal 2022. This positions the company to grow off a larger base of sales, gain market share, and deliver further market-beating returns to investors.
Investors are getting a potential bargain here, with the stock trading at a very modest price-to-free cash flow ratio of 14. Logitech is a great growth stock to consider buying right now.
