While growth and tech stocks remain heavily depressed in a volatile market, quality businesses with strong, long-term growth potential remain. In the near term, investors across all sectors may continue to see the choppiness that the market produced month after month in 2022.
Over the long term, however, the stock market remains a valuable vehicle to build and sustain wealth. If you have $5,000 to invest right now, here are two wonderful stocks you may want to consider for your cash.
1. MercadoLibre
The global e-commerce market is expected to see growth from a valuation hovering around $4 trillion in 2022 to more than $6 trillion by the year 2027. While North America is often a key focus as a catalyst for this global-growth trajectory, the Latin American market is set to comprise a notable portion of this future valuation. In fact, the Latin American e-commerce market reached a valuation just shy of $170 billion in 2022.
As the foremost e-commerce platform in Latin America, as well as a leading provider of online-payment solutions, MercadoLibre (MELI 3.09%) is ideally poised to capitalize on this explosive growth on all fronts. While shares of the company are still trading down by around 25% from one-year ago, the stock has surged more than 30% in the past six months alone.
This growth in an otherwise volatile market can broadly be traced back to the company's continued growth and robust earnings in an industry that's currently fraught with volatility and often features companies where profitability remains elusive.
In the most recent quarter, MercadoLibre's total revenue grew about 61% year over year. Meanwhile, the company generated income from operations that was up 85% from the year-ago period. Broken down by segment, its e-commerce business delivered gross merchandise volume growth of 32% from one-year ago, while its fintech segment saw total payment volume jump by an eye-popping 54% from the year-ago period.
In the trailing five years, MercadoLibre has delivered annual revenue and earnings growth of 481% and 505%, respectively. This drove the stock to deliver a total return of approximately 168% in that same period. The company also has plenty of cash on hand to ride out any near-term headwinds, closing the most recent quarter with cash and cash equivalents to the tune of $1.5 billion.
The tech company has a vast foothold on the Latin American e-commerce market, which is growing quickly but remains vastly underpenetrated. Case in point: Brazil, the region's largest market only had a 3% penetration rate as of 2019.
This creates a robust durable opportunity for MercadoLibre that long-term investors can capitalize on in the years ahead. A $5,000 investment in MercadoLibre now would add approximately six shares to your portfolio.
2. Costco
Costco (COST 1.01%) has remained a resilient investment in a wide variety of markets over the years. This is due to a variety of factors, including its diverse and simple-but-sticky business model, coupled with its broad exposure to both the consumer staple and discretionary sectors.
Over the trailing decade, Costco increased its annual revenue and earnings by respective amounts of approximately 115% and 186%. A faithful dividend payer that currently yields just shy of 1%, Costco's dividend has also risen at a respectable clip approaching 230% over the trailing-10-year period, with the stock generating a total return of about 470% in that period.
Costco currently operates a network of more than 847 warehouses globally and has a membership base of about 121 million individual cardholders around the world. Although consumers can shop online at Costco without a membership, most choose to pay the annual membership fee to access the full breadth of products and discounts available in the company's warehouses. Annual memberships start as low as $60 a year for a household, and Costco makes the vast majority of its revenue from these membership fees.
While some consumers might be apt to scale back on certain subscriptions in the current macro environment, the range of branded and third-party products that Costco sells cover the bases from grocery to healthcare to home goods to apparel for the whole family. The ability to buy quality items, often in bulk, can mean serious savings for consumers and more bang for their bucks than they would enjoy at a regular retailer or grocery store.
In the most recent quarter, Costco reported an 8% increase in sales from the year-ago period to $53 billion, a solid clip for this type of mainstay business. And its net income of $1.4 billion represented a 3% increase on a year-over-year basis. Costco closed the period with cash and investments totaling roughly $12 billion on its balance sheet.
Investors searching for a resilient value-oriented business that has continued to deliver shareholder returns throughout many market cycles may find a safe harbor for their cash in Costco stock. A $5,000 investment in Costco would add approximately 11 shares to your portfolio, based on its recent price.
