Is your stock-picking regimen more about plugging into raw firepower and less about finesse? That's OK. While this approach typically involves above average volatility, the market rewards the right growth stories.
With that as the backdrop, here's a rundown of five of the global market's fastest-growing stocks, excluding names that are largely showing great growth, because they're still small, and then further pruning the companies that have little chance of ever achieving sustained viability. In other words, these are some of the fast growers that aren't outright shots in the dark for their shareholders.
Image source: Getty Images.
In no particular order, they are:
Shopify
Shopify (SHOP 1.26%) helps businesses of all sorts and sizes build their own e-commerce platform. The company's founders recognized that major online marketplaces like Amazon were difficult to use as a sales venue, so Shopify was built from the ground up with empowerment in mind. As of the latest count, more than 1.7 million businesses are using this company's services, and that number continues to grow.
The evidence of this growth is in the numbers. Through the first nine months of the year, net revenue of more than $3.2 billion was up 66% year over year. Better still, this huge growth has carried Shopify decisively out of the red and into the black. That makes funding future growth considerably easier.
Fiverr International
Fiverr International (FVRR -1.17%) connects freelance workers with organizations that need short-term work done. Website work is its focus, although it's not limited to that.
It's not exactly a new idea. Upwork, Guru, Amazon's Mechanical Turk, and the website Freelancer.com are all in the same business. Fiverr is clearly doing something special, though, on pace to report revenue growth of nearly 55% this year. Next year's projected per-share profit of $0.48 will also set a new record for the company, supported by projected record revenue as well.
MercadoLibre
Amazon might be the dominant e-commerce outfit in your neck of the woods, but your neck of the woods is only one part of the world. Elsewhere, Amazon can be something of an afterthought.
Take South America as an example. While Amazon operates there, the king of e-commerce for most of the developed Latin American marketplace is MercadoLibre (MELI 0.87%), often referred to as the Amazon of Latin America, although that's not a perfect description. MercadoLibre also operates a payment platform that looks a lot like PayPal and an online auction service akin to eBay. The wide business mix is working in a big way. Revenue through the first three reported quarters of the year is up almost 90%, while operating income has more than doubled.
And that's just the beginning. Lazard Asset Management estimates Latin America's online retail market will more than triple between 2020 and 2026 with projected sales of $217 billion.
Crocs
Crocs (CROX 4.01%), which made its first funky foam clogs two decades ago, saw the popularity of its footwear rise and fall as yet another fad in the fashion industry, but it's back in the spotlight! Only this time, current CEO Andrew Rees understands that for the brand to have staying power, it needs to move like a more conventional company. That includes (among other things) variations on its core theme of comfortable foam shoes, a social-media presence supported by celebrities and influencers, and customization of its product.
The company also brilliantly reframed the idea that its shoes were ugly into the idea that their unique look is a feature linked to function. It's all part of the reason this firmly profitable company's sales are up 77% through the first nine months of the year despite global supply chain headaches, en route to what analysts expect to be a full-year top line of $2.3 billion.
That's still nothing, though. Rees wants to deliver $5 billion in annual sales by 2026, more than doubling management's revenue outlook for about $2.3 billion this year.
Pinduoduo
Finally, add Pinduoduo (PDD 9.38%) to your list of fast-growing stocks to take a closer look at.
It's a Chinese company and considered part of the country's technology sector. But that categorization is a bit misleading. Pinduoduo operates an e-commerce platform that offers a wide variety of goods to China's shoppers, including appliances, auto parts, and apparel, even though its roots are in food.
It was started to allow farmers to sell their fruits and vegetables, but its ongoing evolution has translated into 141% revenue growth in the first half of 2021. Analysts expect sales growth to cool to just a little more than 40% next year. But with some fiscal momentum working in its favor, per-share earnings are expected to swell from $0.10 this year to $0.78 in 2022.
Investors keeping tabs on Chinese stocks as a whole will know the country's regulators have been cracking down on most of its major technology companies, posing a risk to the bullish outlook. But if China's government was going to specifically target Pinduoduo any more than it already has indirectly, it arguably would have done so by now.
