These two supercharged growth stocks can do the job if you've got $3,000 and are looking to triple your money in a decade. Netflix (NFLX +0.50%) and Amazon (AMZN +1.12%) have delivered over 1,000% returns for shareholders in the last decade. Of course, past performance does not predict the future, but it does highlight a company's potential.
To triple your money over a decade, an investment would need to return a compound annual rate of just 12% per year. So if these two excellent businesses can deliver even only a tiny fraction of the returns from the previous decade over the next decade, investors will reach the goal of tripling their money.
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Netflix, the streaming content pioneer
Fueling Netflix's growth is the change in consumer tastes that it helped put in motion. More than ever, folks prefer to stream their content instead of watching traditional cable or satellite TV. That's not surprising. A streaming subscription goes everywhere you can take your phone. By its very essence, cable TV can only be watched where you are connected through a cable wire.
The overwhelming advantage streaming has over legacy providers led Netflix to attract an industry-leading 214 million subscribers at the end of its fiscal third quarter, up from 195 million at the same time last year. The coronavirus pandemic put fuel on the fire of Netflix's growth as millions of people avoiding public places went looking for in-home entertainment.
Impressively, Netflix is keeping, even growing, customer totals from the boosted levels at the pandemic's onset. People who joined the service are sticking around.
Netflix is also providing the services that customers love more and more efficiently. Its operating profit margin expanded from 4.3% in 2016 to 18.3% in 2020. Delivering an excellent product at a healthy and growing profit margin is a recipe for good shareholder returns.
Amazon, the e-commerce giant
Amazon too is propelling itself forward on the back of a massive change in consumer behavior. People are finding it more convenient to buy products online instead of going to stores in person, which makes a lot of sense. Buying online offers several conveniences, including 24/7 shopping, delivery to your home (often free), ease of price comparisons, and more.
That could be why from 2013 to 2019, U.S. e-commerce sales as a percentage of overall sales increased from 5.8% to 11%, according to Statista. Further, the trend will not reverse, and e-commerce sales are estimated to reach 19.2% of overall sales by 2024.
Amazon's sales have already increased from $74 billion to $386 billion from 2013 to 2020. If shopping continues moving online, there is no telling how far Amazon's sales will go.
Amazon's operating profit margin is smaller than Netflix's but is similarly moving in the right direction. From 2013 to 2020, it grew from 1% to 5.9%.
Data by YCharts.
Overall, Netflix and Amazon are great businesses that have proven they can deliver excellent returns to shareholders. To make a case for buying them still more convincing, they can both be had at nearly their lowest price-to-earnings ratio in the past five years (see chart). Investors looking to triple their money in the next decade could increase their chances substantially by buying Netflix and Amazon stock.
