Disastrous results from Amazon (AMZN -1.64%) and Meta (META -0.52%) have many fearing another "tech wreck" is upon us. But even the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index, which is down 30% this year, is still nowhere near the dramatic decline it suffered in 2000 when it lost 56% of its value, or the massive 78% plunge it took in 2008.
And both of those collapses ultimately resulted in multi-year bull market runs. That's the thing about downturns: While they're never fun, they mark excellent opportunities to buy great growth stocks at values not seen in some time.
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If you have money you've kept on the sidelines and don't need it to pay bills or for emergencies, then now is one of those rare chances to buy stocks you previously missed out on. The following two growth stocks are great companies you can buy right now without hesitation that will make your portfolio thank you in the years to come.
Apple
It seems every run up to Apple's (AAPL 1.27%) earnings is filled with Wall Street's cries of "this is the end" for the tech giant. While the consumer electronics company's results were far from perfect, it quickly became clear Apple was the bulwark propping up the entire market from a meltdown.
iPhone revenue of $14.63 billion was 10% higher than last year (though it just missed analyst expectations) and has become the biggest mobile device after surpassing Android smartphones back in June with an active installed base greater than 50%. iPad sales were also weaker than anticipated, with revenue down 13%, but the rest of its business was fairly solid. Mac revenue was up 25% to $11.5 billion, and wearables jumped 10% from last year.
Although products will always be important for Apple, everyone realizes services are the tech stock's future, and despite significant currency headwinds due to the very strong dollar overseas, revenue rose 5% to $19.2 billion (again, slightly below expectations). Yet Apple said paid subscriptions across all of its platforms soared by 155 million in the quarter to 900 million, or double what it was just three years ago.
Warren Buffett has been a big buyer of Apple stock, and it accounts for around 41% of Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A -0.28%) (BRK.B -0.68%) portfolio. Yet with Apple trading at around $156 per share, you would be buying the stock now at prices similar to or better than the Oracle of Omaha, making it a good long-term growth stock to own.
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Shopify
E-commerce platform provider Shopify (SHOP -2.37%) has gone from pandemic hero to post-pandemic has-been. Its stock has lost three quarters of its value this year, and is down 80% from its all-time high.
But that's a case of the market throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Shopify certainly got a spike in new business during the COVID outbreak as people locked down in their homes launched new websites and businesses at a torrid pace and turned to the e-commerce platform provider for assistance.
There was naturally going to be a return to the mean after the economy reopened, but the response has been as if Shopify were going out of business. Although it's been reporting losses of late, President Harley Finkelstein says Shopify is on the path back to profitability.
"If you look over the 7 years since IPO, 5 of those years, we've been profitable. We plan on becoming profitable again."
In the second quarter it reported a $1.2 billion net loss, but Shopify had that shrink to a minuscule $125 million in the third as revenue rose 22% from last year. It continues to show strong growth in gross merchandise volume and gross payment volume, even if at a slower pace than before the pandemic -- but no company can continue to expand at such high percentages in perpetuity.
Shopify, however, is rolling out new products for its users, such as a new sales tax product and mobile point-of-sale hardware, while also adding greater functionality to existing features like its fulfillment network. In the process the company is becoming more vertically integrated, which allows it to establish itself as a critical component of a businesses' operations.
Shopify has $4.9 billion in cash, equivalents, and short-term investments available to it to weather any storm, and as its business grows again at a more normal pace, the market will recognize the opportunity it presents. Buying now affords an investor the chance to get in before that inflection point arrives.
