Even amid today's downturn, the stock market continues to offer a proven path to financial independence. Over the last decade, the S&P 500 has generated a total return of 286%, meaning you could have tripled your money by simply investing in an exchange traded fund that tracks the popular index.
That said, greater rewards await savvy investors who are willing to research and build a diversified portfolio of individual stocks. For those interested in long-term growth, tech standouts HubSpot (HUBS -0.01%) and Okta (OKTA -0.65%) look like smart investments. Both have the potential to quadruple in value over the next 10 years, growing at a pace that would turn an initial investment of $250,000 split evenly between these stocks into a collective $1 million.
What makes these companies ready for such monster growth? Let's take a look.
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HubSpot: Customer relationship management
HubSpot provides customer relationship management (CRM) software, offering tools that drive productivity across marketing, sales, customer service, and operations. The HubSpot app marketplace lists over 1,000 integrations that extend the functionality of its CRM suite, connecting with social media apps like Meta Platforms' Instagram, commerce software like Shopify, and email systems like Microsoft (MSFT 0.37%) Outlook.
Of course, HubSpot faces intense competition from other CRM vendors like Salesforce, which generated 20 times more revenue than HubSpot over the last 12 months. But HubSpot's advantage lies in the quickly growing marketing automation space, where it holds nearly 34% market share. For context, the marketing automation industry was worth $3.6 billion in 2020, and is expected to grow threefold in the next five years. That edge could certainly help HubSpot grow over the next decade. But more immediately, this advantage in marketing automation gives HubSpot a foothold in the broader CRM industry, allowing the company to execute its land-and-expand growth strategy.
As of fourth quarter 2021, 60% of customers use multiple HubSpot products, compared to 34% in 2017. This uptick in adoption has translated into strong financial results. In 2021, revenue rose 47% to $1.3 billion, and the company generated free cash flow of $203.3 million, up from $79.1 million the year prior. Analysts believe there's even more room for HubSpot to grow: Brad Sills of Bank of America Securities (BAC -0.13%) puts HubSpot's addressable market at $87 billion.
To that end, HubSpot continues to innovate and expand its capabilities. Last year, it partnered with Stripe to launch HubSpot Payments, a tool that streamlines sales by enabling digital payments directly through its CRM platform. HubSpot also launched Operations Hub, a software product that helps operations teams sync data between applications and automate various business processes.
Here's the bottom line: HubSpot helps its clients provide a great consumer experience across the entire customer lifecycle. That value proposition resonates with businesses in virtually every industry. More importantly, HubSpot has achieved a strong competitive position, especially in marketing automation software, and that tailwind should be a growth driver in the years ahead. In fact, I think this $23 billion business could grow fourfold to $92 billion over the next decade.
Okta: Cybersecurity
Okta helps organizations protect sensitive applications and data. Its primary offering, Okta Identity Cloud, is a suite of identity and access management (IAM) tools that securely connects users to necessary technologies. Okta uses artificial intelligence to continuously analyze contextual signals (such as user, device, and location) to score the risk associated with each sign-in attempt. Following this formula, the platform only authenticates and authorizes appropriate users. Given the growing need for cybersecurity -- the number of Internet of Things cyberattacks alone is expected to double by 2025 -- this stock looks like a prime candidate for fourfold returns.
Okta's technology is highly versatile and addresses both workforce and customer identity use cases. Okta Identity Cloud integrates with over 7,000 different software products and infrastructure providers. Okta also provides developer tools that allow clients to incorporate Okta technology into other applications. Unlike rivals such as Microsoft, Okta is infrastructure-agnostic; its identity tools aren't associated with a specific cloud vendor and the company has no incentive to push clients toward particular technologies. This neutrality gives Okta a significant edge, spurring Gartner and Forrester Research to recognize the company as a leader in the IAM space.
Those accolades came alongside solid financial performance. In the past year, revenue soared 56% to $1.3 billion, and the company generated positive free cash flow of $87 million. This free cash flow represents a 22% drop compared to the year prior, due in large part to expenses associated with Okta's acquisition of Auth0. However, that acquisition strengthens Okta's position in the customer identity space. While Okta already had an impressive ecosystem of pre-built integrations, Auth0's developer tools make its easy to embed IAM solutions into any application, including consumer-facing ones.
Last year, Okta announced the launch of two new products: Identity Governance, which simplifies reporting and automates workflows, and Privileged Access, which ensures heightened protection of highly valuable accounts. Collectively, these new products will strengthen Okta's position in the workforce identity space, pushing the company's addressable market to $80 billion. Both products are set to launch in first quarter 2022, and management will report on progress later in the year. For now, though, these announcements highlight Okta's ambitious growth strategy and underscore its commitment to industry expansion.
In short, Okta has carved out a leadership position in the IAM industry, and through acquisition and innovation, management is working to strengthen that position. More broadly, cybersecurity will only become more critical as the number of connected devices continues to proliferate. That's why I think this growth stock -- which currently has a market cap of $27 billion -- could grow fourfold to $108 billion over the next decade.
