Behind any powerful economic trend is generally a handful of stocks positioning to capture their share of the market. While finding the leaders in these trends may seem too simple of an investment idea, it has proven successful historically.
Thus, finding industry leaders that deliver outsized revenue growth to go along with this niche dominance often provides investors with truly generational investing opportunities. Although no investment is a sure thing, the three companies below all offer this generational upside potential. Led by blistering sales growth rates and leadership positions in their customer-empowering solutions, these stocks should be held for as long as possible.
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1. Shopify
Empowering entrepreneurs of all kinds, Shopify (SHOP -2.37%) aims to simplify the process of starting a business virtually, by any means possible. Whether it's for a product idea in need of a webpage or a full-fledged corporation with international operations, Shopify's suite of business solutions can benefit companies of all sizes.
As it holds approximately 9% market share of the U.S. e-commerce industry, the company trails only Amazon and its massive 39% share in terms of market size. Even though Shopify may not be the market leader in terms of online sales, it is the unmatched leader in streamlining new business creation.
With its merchants posting over $40 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) in the third quarter of 2021 alone, an increase of 35% year over year, this leadership is clear to see. In addition to this GMV, it has also grown Shopify Capital by 56% year over year to just under $400 million, highlighting its ongoing efforts to spur new business growth.
Despite its market capitalization, or company price tag, of $190 billion, Shopify is still an outstanding foundational stock for growth-focused investors. Since its vast ecosystem is steadily leading to increased margins, the company's gross profit of $2.3 billion over the trailing 12 months should just be getting started.
2. Teladoc Health
Offering personalized virtual healthcare visits, Teladoc Health (TDOC -2.91%) aims to empower people by giving them the ability to take better care of themselves through its whole-person health solutions. By focusing on whole-person health, meaning mental, physical, acute, and chronic needs combined, the company intends to transform the seemingly reactionary healthcare industry.
Leading Tealadoc's personalized healthcare charge is its Primary360 offering, which it has continued rolling out through partnerships with Aetna and Centene. The company allows customers to choose their own virtual primary care provider and intends to focus on the preventative side of healthcare, creating the perfect blend of digital and in-person care. Through a virtual appointment, a patient can be prescribed medicine or given instructions for a plan of care without leaving their home. However, if the doctor notices that the ailments require further examination in person, that can be set up with the primary care provider. This offers a seamless hybrid care approach.
The stickiness of this whole-person focus is taking hold as 70% of Teladoc's bookings in 2021 came from multi-product sales, compared to 50% from the prior year. Furthermore, 24% of its members in chronic care programs were enrolled in multiple programs, a figure that grew from just 8% in the third quarter of 2021.
With a market cap of $24 billion, Teladoc only trades at 19 times gross profit despite growing revenue by 81% year over year during the third quarter. Even after removing the sales received from the Livongo acquisition, organic sales still grew 32% year over year. For comparison, previously mentioned Shopify trades at 83 times gross profit, highlighting that the market may be underestimating Teladoc's future growth.
3. Twilio
Through its cloud-based communications platform, Twilio (TWLO -1.59%) enables its customers to take charge of their customer relationships. Aiming to offer complete end-to-end customer engagement, the company has beautifully positioned itself in a niche that will only become more important in an increasingly technological world.
As customer experiences quickly become more digital and less hands-on, Twilio's communication and engagement solutions for successful, adaptive companies have come to the forefront. Reflecting this importance, the company has seen its dollar-based net expansion remain above 130% for eight of the last nine quarters. This net expansion rate is a simple way to show that active customers continue to expand their usage of the company's products, with a figure above 120% generally considered exceptional.
A great example of Twilio's importance in the new-world economy comes from Nike and its quick pivot during COVID-19's rise. After closing all of its physical retail stores, Nike turned to Twilio Flex to connect its sales team to its customers, both on the Nike website and its apps. Fueled by Twilio's services, Nike not only remained profitable through the pandemic but developed strong digital sales that have grown to become 21% of total sales as of its most recent quarter.
As this case study shows, Twilio has the potential to become one of the most critical customer relations companies of its era. Having a market cap of $55 billion, the company trades at 43 times gross profit, making it seem pretty expensive, much like Shopify. However, with revenue growing by 65% year over year for its third quarter and consistently strong dollar-based net expansion rates above 130%, Twilio has earned this premium valuation as its products have shown to be incredibly sticky and should only become more important in time.
