If you've got $3,000 that you're trying to double to $6,000, you've clicked on the right article. The feat will likely require a couple years or more, but it is certainly achievable in the stock market. To help you attain this goal, I have selected three growth stocks that could increase enough in value over the next five years to double your initial investment.
Chegg (CHGG -0.29%) is an education technology business that serves college students worldwide. Airbnb (ABNB 1.17%) is an international travel facilitator. And DraftKings (DKNG -0.87%) offers mobile gambling services. Let's look at why each could make a lucrative investment.
Chegg
Chegg is a popular service among college students. It operates a subscription business through which students pay $15 to $20 per month to access its 84 million pieces of proprietary content, primarily step-by-step solutions to concepts students must learn throughout their college curricula. If Chegg does not have information on whichever concept its members are studying, those members can ask Chegg's subject-matter experts up to 20 questions per month to get the answers they need.
CHGG Operating Income (Annual) data by YCharts.
Chegg grew revenue from $255 million in 2017 to $776 million in 2021. What's more, the business model scales efficiently, and its operating income climbed from a loss of $23 million to a profit of $78 million in that same time. Stock prices typically react to profits. If profits triple again over the next five years, Chegg's stock price could respond similarly.
Airbnb
Airbnb's business was devastated by the pandemic; revenue fell by 30% in 2020 to $3.4 billion. Since then, revenue has been booming as consumers take vacations they delayed during the earlier stages of the outbreak. In 2021, Airbnb's sales rose by 77% to $6 billion.
Moreover, Airbnb's unique business model is proving effective in customers' view. The company does not own the properties on the platform. Instead, it encourages hosts to list extra rooms, garages, vacation homes, and even tree houses for rent on Airbnb.com. That gives consumers a more comprehensive selection when they are ready to book a trip. Compare that to traditional hotels and resorts, which offer rooms with few differences. Airbnb's unique selections could propel its growth far beyond when consumers unleash all their pent-up travel demand following the pandemic.
Worldwide hotel and travel spending are forecast to reach $1.1 trillion in 2022. Beyond that, the industry would still be $400 billion below levels from before the outbreak. Meanwhile, Airbnb's $6 billion in revenue in 2021 was already ahead of the $4.8 billion it earned in 2019. Airbnb's growth ahead of the industry suggests it is gaining market share. That means that as travel spending continues to rebound, Airbnb could bounce higher still.
DraftKings
DraftKings is riding the tailwind of increasing legalization of online gambling across the U.S. The company is now live with mobile sports betting in 17 states and mobile casino-style games in 5 states. For consumers, that adds convenience, since most folks live hours away from the nearest brick-and-mortar casino. DraftKings allows people to go from an impulse to a wager in seconds.
Expanding access and customer demand have increased DraftKings' revenue from $192 million in 2017 to $1.3 billion in 2021. With many more states left to go, DraftKings could keep up this robust growth for several years. The company has made excellent progress expanding so far, with plans for new markets in the near term. The California Secretary of State confirmed that the sports betting initiative supported by DraftKings has reached the threshold to qualify for the November 2022 ballot and its management noted optimism for the outcome.
Discounted valuations
DKNG PS Ratio data by YCharts.
Fortunately for investors looking to double their money, all three of these excellent stocks mentioned above are selling at discounted valuations, offering promising deals to potential investors. Looking at a company's price-to-sales ratio is one way to determine a company's valuation, and is calculated by dividing the company's market capitalization by its trailing 12-month revenue. Simply put, a smaller P/S ratio typically indicates a discounted valuation and, therefore, a good deal. As indicated in the chart above, Chegg, Airbnb, and DraftKings are all trading at historically low P/S ratios.
But all these stocks have improving prospects that are likely to help increase their revenue. So, investors who put $3,000 across these three stocks today could have forces working in their favor to double their wealth over the next five years.
