There are a lot of ways for folks to grow their wealth. For instance, they could squirrel their money away under the mattress or buy real estate. But when compared to other investment vehicles, the stock market is the king of the mountain. Since 1980, the benchmark S&P 500 has delivered an average annual return, including dividends, of better than 11%.
However, investors don't have to settle for market-matching returns. Buyers of the following five innovative growth stocks have the opportunity to potentially quadruple their initial investment by the end of the decade. That means if you put $250,000 to work in these growth stocks right now, you could be sitting on $1 million or more by 2030.
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Salesforce
Some of you might be confused as to why a megacap stock has made a list of companies that could quadruple by 2030. Make no mistake about it, cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software provider salesforce.com (CRM -1.10%) is a sustainably high-growth company that could see its sales multiple expand as CRM becomes a global tool used to strengthen businesses.
In simple terms, CRM is software businesses use to handle service issues, marketing campaigns, and customer/client analytics on a real-time basis. It's a no-brainer solution for consumer-facing retail operations, but is becoming more widely used by the financial, healthcare, and industrial sectors.
CRM is expected to be a double-digit percentage growth opportunity through at least mid-decade, if not well beyond. As for salesforce, its CEO Marc Benioff is touting at least $50 billion in annual sales by fiscal 2026. The company generated $21.3 billion in full-year sales in fiscal 2021, for context.
Salesforce is expected to achieve this jaw-dropping growth on the heels of numerous earning-accretive acquisitions, as well as its world-leading CRM share of 19.8%, according to market intelligence firm IDC in the first half of 2020. The company's four closest competitors don't even add up to salesforce's current market share. In other words, salesforce has a virtually insurmountable competitive edge that could make shareholders rich.
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Cresco Labs
If you're after some serious green, investing in cannabis could be a smart move. Even though we've watched U.S. marijuana stocks ebb and flow before, the industry is finally maturing, and winners like U.S. multistate operator (MSO) Cresco Labs (CRLBF -5.34%) are standing out from the crowd.
Cresco, like other MSOs, has a rapidly growing retail presence in a number of existing or potential billion-dollar markets (such as Illinois, Ohio, and Florida). What's noteworthy about Cresco's expansion approach is that it's chosen a number of markets that dole out retail licenses on a limited basis. In short, the company has ensured that it'll be able to secure a healthy chunk of market share in the states it's operating in.
However, the real lure for Cresco is the company's industry-leading wholesale operations. Acquiring Origin House in early 2020 gave Cresco access to a highly lucrative cannabis distribution license in California. This is allowing the company to place third-party and proprietary pot products into more than 575 dispensaries throughout the Golden State (the largest pot market in the world). Wholesale should make Cresco one of the fastest-growing pot stocks of the 2020s.
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PubMatic
Don't forget about small-cap stocks when investing for the future. They may not offer the same level of safety as large-cap or megacap stocks, but their growth potential is often unrivaled, leading to the opportunity for big gains. This is why ad-tech up-and-comer PubMatic (PUBM -2.27%) can make investors millionaires.
PubMatic is what's known as a sell-side platform programmatic ad company. This simply means it helps publishers sell their display space to advertisers. The company's cloud-based platform puts publishers in charge of factors like setting a minimum price floor for displaying an ad, and it relies on machine learning to optimize ads for the user, so publishers and advertisers (hopefully) get the best bang for their buck.
Clearly, programmatic advertising is working. Publishers that have been with PubMatic at least a year spent 30% more during the first quarter than they did in 2020. The company is especially excited about its prospects in mobile, digital video, and connected TV/over-the-top ad spend, with double-digit annual growth forecast through 2024. We're still in the early innings for ad-tech, and there's a good chance PubMatic will become a long-term winner.
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The Original BARK Company
Another growth story that never ceases to amaze is the amount of money spent on companion animals. This year alone, the American Pet Products Association expects Americans to shell out almost $110 billion on their furry family members. That's a massive opportunity for the likes of The Original BARK Company (BARK -2.73%), which you might know better as BarkBox.
Last year, during the worst economic downturn in decades, BARK's subscriber count jumped 91% to 1.2 million. Although you can find its products in more than 23,000 retail stores, BARK's online subscription model helps to lower overhead costs, which has in turn pushed its gross margin to around 60% on a consistent basis. Assuming BARK can triple its sales by mid-decade, this juicy margin should result in a lot of operating cash flow.
Furthermore, BarkBox is using innovation and its tech-driven operating model to its advantage. In addition to its core offering, which sends toys and treats to dog owners each month, the company introduced Bark Eats and Bark Home last year. The latter retails everyday items, such as collars and beds, while the former works with dog owners to develop a unique dry food diet that's delivered. The potential for add-on sales as BARK innovates gives this company a really good chance to outperform.
Image source: Amazon.
Amazon
Have I mentioned that megacap stocks can still make investors a fortune? Amazon (AMZN -1.65%) might be one of the largest publicly traded companies by market cap on the planet, but its insanely high cash flow growth potential and historic premium relative to cash flow might allow its valuation to quadruple by 2030.
One piece of the puzzle is the company's ongoing dominance of the online retail space. This year, eMarketer expects Amazon will see $0.40 of every $1 spent online in the U.S. route through its seller marketplace. That more than quintuples the share of the next-closest competitor, and it's helped Amazon sign up more than 200 million people to a Prime membership. These memberships pad Amazon's pockets and give its razor-thin retail margins some wiggle room.
Even more important is the growth we're witnessing from cloud infrastructure segment Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS is the world's leading cloud infrastructure provider, with sales growth registering 30% last year. Despite accounting for about an eighth of total sales, AWS regularly generates a majority of Amazon's operating income.
For the past 11 years, Amazon has been valued at between 23 and 37 times its operating cash flow. It if it were to maintain this range, it should have no trouble turning a $250,000 investment into $1 million by 2030.
