Albert Einstein is widely credited for calling compound interest the most powerful force in the universe, and it's easy to see why. A few big winners can supercharge your portfolio and set you on a path to financial independence. For instance, $100 invested in a stock that doubles becomes $200; but at that point, the stock price only needs to rise 50% to add another $100 to the total sum. In other words, the baseline changes as the stock price rises, meaning you start earning money on your earnings.
However, the magic of compounding doesn't happen overnight. It requires patience and a long-term mindset. Building on that idea, we asked three Motley Fool contributors to pick tech stocks that could grow threefold over the next five years. Keep reading to see why CarParts.com (PRTS 0.77%), CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD +1.41%), and Teladoc Health (TDOC 0.19%) made the list.
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An underrated e-commerce play
Jeremy Bowman (CarParts.com): E-commerce has been the source of numerous monster stocks. Of the bunch, Amazon is the best known, but companies like MercadoLibre, Shopify, Etsy, and Wayfair have all made investors rich as online retail continues to grab share from tradition channels.
That's one reason why investors should take a closer look at CarParts.com. If you're looking for a stock that could triple in the next five years, the pure-play auto parts e-commerce stock could be it. CarParts.com has a market cap worth less than $1 billion currently, but is chasing an addressable market worth $500 billion. As the larger e-commerce companies did before it, CarParts.com is helping the auto parts market shift from brick-and-mortar sales to e-commerce.
The company is targeting long-term revenue growth of 20% to 25% and an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA, margin of 8% to 10%. Recent growth has been strong but demand has outstripped supply. The company is remedying that by expanding a warehouse in Texas, opening one in Florida, and adding another in the Northeast next year. The company now has more than 1 million square feet of warehouse space and growing, and each new expansion helps shorten delivery times and improve inventory and selection, creating a virtuous cycle that brings more customers into its ecosystem.
While the direct tailwinds from the pandemic may be fading, the average age of a car on the road in the U.S. is now 12 years, meaning demand for replacement parts will be elevated for the foreseeable future. The company is also beta testing a mobile mechanic, sending someone to your house to install the parts you ordered from CarParts.com, another sign of its potential as a disruptor.
The stock also has the potential to be a three-bagger because it's still affordable at a price-to-sales ratio of less than 1.5, giving it plenty of room for multiple expansion. If CarParts.com can deliver on its long-term guidance, its stock should be significantly higher in a few years.
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Strike while the iron's hot
Eric Volkman (CrowdStrike Holdings): CrowdStrike is hardly the cheapest stock, either on a raw share price level or by valuation. But it's an effective and highly admired operator in a hot sector that will scorch for years to come. So I'm confident it can be a three-bagger no matter how high its current numbers go.
CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company whose anchor product, the Falcon security platform, is a cloud-based solution. There are a host of advantages to this. An important one is that it makes for relatively quick and painless adoption by clients, who benefit from not having to install and run traditional on-site security solutions.
Another huge plus is that the Falcon platform is modular. This not only makes it easy for clients to add functionalities as their security needs expand, but also provides low-hanging fruit for the company to increase revenue from those additions.
CrowdStrike also relies on the subscription model. This is appealing for investors, as it provides the company with a steady revenue stream that's also durable -- after all, it's unwise to let the payments to your solutions provider lapse, particularly in the business-critical cybersecurity space.
The company has been attracting droves of clients. During the most recent quarter, CrowdStrike added 1,660 net new subscriptions, bringing the total to 13,080 customers. Meanwhile, that recurring subscription revenue investors love comprised nearly all (93.5%) of the $337.7 million total revenue for the period -- which, by the way, represented a mighty 70% increase on a year-over-year basis.
Looking back on the past few years, CrowdStrike has been a paragon of rapid revenue growth; from just under $53 million in 2017, the company shot to $874 million in fiscal 2021.
That's great, but some investors may be concerned by the company's lack of profitability. Yes, CrowdStrike is still well in the red according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), but losses have been narrowing lately. In 2021, the $93 million loss was a great improvement over the $130 million-plus losses during the three preceding years. That's largely because the company's revenue growth is now outpacing that of selling, general, and administrative expenses, an encouraging sign.
Still, the company continues to shovel capital into research and development, keeping it on the cusp of cutting-edge technology in a rapidly changing field. This strategy seems to be working, as Falcon generally gets very high marks from users and other cybersecurity experts. The good reputation the company has built should keep attracting those subscription-paying and module-adding customers.
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Reimagining healthcare
Trevor Jennewine (Teladoc Health): Teladoc is a tech-powered healthcare company. Its virtual-first platform allows patients to engage in remote visits with clinicians, and its product portfolio ranges from general health and wellness to acute and chronic care.
Last year, the pandemic put this company on the map; the share price skyrocketed 138% in 2020. However, the stock has underperformed the broader market this year, and it currently sits 56% below its all-time high. What changed? Growth has slowed, so many investors have labeled Teladoc as a "pandemic stock," but I think that's a mistake.
Teladoc makes healthcare cheaper and more convenient. During 2020, the median response time between a member's request and a telehealth visit was just 10 minutes, which is less time than you might spend in the waiting room during a traditional office visit (not to mention driving there and back). And for general medical appointments, Teladoc's clients save $472 per visit compared to alternative solutions, according to Veracity Analytics.
Last December, Teladoc acquired Livongo, a company that specializes in chronic illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, and mental health conditions. This move expanded Teladoc's expertise in chronic care and reinforced its position as the most comprehensive telehealth platform, but it also added new patient data to Teladoc's artificial intelligence models. And over time, as it adds more members and collects more data, Teladoc's AI models should continuously drive better outcomes for all patients on the platform, creating a network effect.
During the most recent quarter, membership growth slowed to just 1%, but that's not surprising after the supercharged growth seen during the pandemic. Despite this, Teladoc still posted strong financial results. Total visits climbed 28% to 3.5 million, and the utilization rate reached 21.5%, up from 16% last year. As a result, revenue skyrocketed 109% to $503 million.
Teladoc is well positioned to maintain that momentum. Management puts the company's market opportunity at a $250 billion, leaving Teladoc with plenty of room to grow its business. More importantly, the value proposition is clear -- telehealth is more convenient and less costly. And given its strong competitive position, Teladoc should see strong demand in the years ahead. That's why this tech stock could triple by 2026.
