Although Wall Street offers no guarantees, patience has consistently paid off for long-term investors. Buying stakes in great companies and allowing your investing thesis to play out over many years is a pathway that's allowed many investors to build significant wealth.
Patience has been especially fruitful for the technology-focused Nasdaq 100, which is comprised of 100 of the largest nonfinancial companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange. Over the trailing 10-year period, as of Oct. 7, the Nasdaq 100's 573% return more than doubled up the 280% return of the benchmark S&P 500 over the same period.
Despite this outperformance, bargains still abound in the Nasdaq 100 for investors with a long-term mindset. The following trio of Nasdaq 100 stocks can be confidently piled into by investors for the fourth quarter, and more importantly can be held for years to come.
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Amazon
While I'll win no points for originality, maybe the most surefire opportunity within the Nasdaq 100 at the moment is e-commerce kingpin Amazon (AMZN -1.35%). Shares of the company have fallen by a double-digit percentage since hitting an all-time high in July.
As many of you are probably aware, Amazon's online marketplace is what drives a lot of its revenue and customer engagement. In a report released earlier this year, eMarketer estimated Amazon would account for a hair over 40% of all online spending in the U.S. this year. That's more than five times the share of the next-closest competitor, Walmart.
However, Amazon's management team is keenly aware that online retail margins aren't anything to write home about, which is why it's been actively enticing people to sign up for Prime memberships. Globally, the company has 200 million Prime subscribers. While these Prime members enjoy a number of perks (access to streaming content and faster delivery options), the important thing for Amazon is that Prime is generating tens of billions of dollars in higher-margin fee revenue. The fees being collected from Prime members help Amazon undercut brick-and-mortar retailers on price and buoy its razor-thin retail margins.
But what's overlooked far too often is the company's leading role in cloud infrastructure. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the unquestioned leader in cloud infrastructure market share, with AWS pacing more than $59 billion in annual run rate revenue, as of the end of June. With cloud infrastructure still in the early innings of its growth potential, AWS is set up to be Amazon's key generator of operating cash flow.
Speaking of cash flow, Amazon has spent more than a decade valued at a multiple of 23 to 37 times its operating cash flow. If the company were to maintain the median cash flow multiple (30) supported by Wall Street and investors, it could hit $10,000 a share by mid-decade.
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Fiserv
Another Nasdaq 100 stock investors can pile into for the fourth quarter and beyond that offers a perfect blend of growth and value is payment processing and fintech solutions provider Fiserv (FI -1.99%).
The beauty of the Fiserv operating model is that it takes advantage of all things cyclical. For example, the company's Payments and Fintech segments are responsible for helping financial institutions process digital payments and manage their loan and deposit accounts. When the U.S. and global economy are firing on all cylinders, it's not uncommon for outstanding bank loans and deposits to tick higher, or for there to be an uptick in digital payments processed. Fiserv has clients in more than 100 countries.
This cyclical bias also holds true for Fiserv's third operating segment, known as Merchant Acceptance. This division is what provides an assortment of payment processing solutions to retailers. With periods of economic expansion lasting years, the revenue collected by Acceptance tends to rise far more often than not.
Fiserv's track record speaks for itself, too. As of the end of 2020, it was riding a streak of 34 consecutive years with double-digit adjusted earnings growth. This profit growth has been powered by aggressive cost-savings, such as debt repayment and lower interest expenses, and sustained sales increases ranging from the mid-to-high single-digits across all of its segments. With a target of $4.4 billion in annual free cash flow in 2022, the company has more than enough capital to utilize for payments innovation.
Taking into account its sustained double-digit earnings-per-share growth rate, Fiserv's forward earnings multiple of 16 doesn't do justice to this surefire company.
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Broadcom
A final Nasdaq 100 stock that can be piled into with confidence for the fourth quarter and beyond is semiconductor solutions provider Broadcom (AVGO -2.48%), which finds itself in the growth sweet spot for virtually all of the sectors and industries it services.
First and foremost, it's set to benefit from the 5G revolution. It took wireless infrastructure providers about 10 years to demonstrably upgrade download speeds. Consumers and businesses are liable to jump at the opportunity to upgrade their wireless devices over the coming years. That's great news for Broadcom, which generates the bulk of its sales from providing wireless chips and other accessories used in next-generation smartphones.
However, Broadcom's opportunity might be even more robust in the industries that make up a smaller percentage of current sales. For instance, the pandemic has accelerated the shift of enterprise and consumer data into the cloud. Data center demand should remain robust for the foreseeable future, which bodes well for the access and connectivity chips Broadcom provides to data center operators.
Broadcom is also projected to be one of a handful of key players in next-generation automobiles. The solutions the company provides are used in infotainment systems, driver assist technology, and in the general electronics used by a vehicle, such as in LED lights. As new vehicles become more reliant on technology for safety and convenience, Broadcom's sales to the auto industry should rise.
What's more, the company announced in March that approximately 90% of its chip supply for the current year was already spoken for. With orders booked so far in advance, there's a good likelihood we'll see this demand carry through 2022, as well.
Investors can currently scoop up shares of Broadcom for less than 16 times Wall Street's forward-year earnings forecast, and they'll net a nearly 3% annual yield for their patience.
