Despite recent market volatility, the S&P 500 Growth index has been up 265% over the past decade, easily beating the 200% return of the broader S&P 500. In other words, growth stocks have outperformed the market over the long term, and the current pullback creates a buying opportunity for patient investors.
With that in mind, here are two growth stocks that could deliver fivefold returns by the end of the decade, meaning an initial investment of $2,000 (split evenly) would be worth $10,000 by 2030.
1. Roku
Roku (ROKU 1.91%) recently delivered disappointing second-quarter results. High inflation put pressure on consumer spending, suppressing streaming player sales and causing brands to cut advertising budgets. As a result, Roku posted revenue growth of just 18%, a significant deceleration from 81% in the prior year. However, inflation is a temporary headwind, and the long-term growth story is still intact.
Roku is the most popular streaming platform in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, as measured by hours streamed. In fact, the company enjoys such a dominant position in those geographies that it actually powered 31% of global streaming time in the first quarter, which is nearly twice the market share held by the next-closest competitor.
The secret behind that success is threefold. First, Roku OS is the only purpose-built operating system for television, which creates a better user experience compared to the modified mobile operating systems used by rivals like Alphabet and Amazon. In the first quarter, Roku experienced fewer video start failures than any other vendor, and it tied for the lowest buffering rate, according to data from Conviva.
Second, OneView is an ad tech platform that allows marketers to run targeted campaigns across desktop, mobile devices, and connected televisions. That means Roku can participate in ad transactions even when it does not own the inventory and when those ads are not displayed on its platform. OneView also allows the company to exploit its data advantage. As the most popular streaming platform, Roku has a good understanding of its viewers' tastes and preferences, and marketers can use that information to target ads more effectively.
Third, The Roku Channel is an ad-supported streaming service owned by Roku. It features a tremendous amount of free content -- thousands of movies and shows and hundreds of live, linear channels ranging from national news to sports. Last year, Roku began adding original content in an effort to further differentiate the service, and those efforts are paying off. The Roku Channel ranks among the top five channels on the platform in terms of engagement.
Collectively, those proprietary technologies -- Roku OS, OneView, and The Roku Channel -- should bring more viewers, advertisers, and content to Roku in the years ahead, fueling the network effects that power its business.
On that note, Roku sits in front of a massive market opportunity. Television ad spend will reach $344 billion by 2026, according to IMARC Group, and Roku CEO Anthony Wood believes that all television advertising will eventually be streamed. With that in mind, if Roku can produce annualized revenue growth of 25% through 2030, its market cap could easily grow fivefold to $48.5 billion by the end of the decade. That's why investors should consider buying this beaten-down growth stock.
2. Elastic
Elastic (ESTC 0.74%) specializes in data analytics. Its platform allows clients to ingest, store, analyze, and visualize data from across their IT ecosystem. Developers can use those tools to build custom applications, but Elastic also offers three pre-built products: Enterprise Search, Observability, and Security.
Enterprise search is a workplace search engine. It allows employees to locate documents and resources across the corporate network. It also allows developers to embed search functionality in mobile apps and websites. Similarly, Observability helps clients identify and resolve performance issues across applications, networks, and infrastructures. And Security helps clients identify and remediate cyberattacks.
Elastic is the most popular workplace search engine on the market, according to DB-Engines. And while the company faces tough competition in the performance monitoring and cybersecurity verticals, its dominance in workplace search has allowed Elastic to execute successfully on a land-and-expand growth strategy.
In fiscal 2022 (ended April 30, 2022), Elastic grew its customer base by 24% to 18,600, and the company posted a net expansion rate of "just under 130%," meaning the average customer spent nearly 30% more. In turn, revenue jumped 42% to $862 million over the trailing 12 months, and while the company is still losing money on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis, it did generate positive cash from operations of $6 million.
Looking ahead, shareholders have reason to believe Elastic can maintain that momentum. Vendors like CrowdStrike and Microsoft dominate the endpoint detection-and-response market, but Elastic is gaining ground in cybersecurity. It was recognized as a "strong performer" in a recent report from Forrester Research, and the company recently added cloud protection to its security offering.
On that note, management put its addressable market at $78 billion in 2021, leaving plenty of room for growth. And if Elastic can grow sales at an annualized pace of at least 25% over the next eight years, its market cap could reasonably grow fivefold to $38.5 billion during that time period. That's why investors should consider buying this growth stock today.
