The market sell-off has been painful, and there's no certainty about what will happen in the new year. But if you stick with strong companies that still have lots of opportunity to keep growing over the long term, the stock will take care of itself.

Even if you have just enough money to buy a single share of a stock, that's all you need. The right stock can multiply a $100 investment with enough business growth and time. That's the power of compounding.

Let's look at two top stocks trading at less than $100 per share that are solid long-term investments.

1. Airbnb

Shares of Airbnb (ABNB -0.90%) have fallen 49% over the last year, but the company continued to post impressive double-digit growth in the most recent quarter. The company's momentum shows not only the potential for a near-term rebound in the share price but also why Airbnb is a growth stock you want to hold for the long term.

While 2023 still has unknowns for the economy and consumer, there are not many consumer-oriented businesses posting robust growth like Airbnb. Gross booking value, which is the total value of host earnings and fees, soared 31% year over year last quarter. Airbnb's revenue, which include service fees charged to customers, grew 29%. Growth was even higher when excluding the negative impact of foreign currency changes.

These results highlight strengths of Airbnb's business. First, demand for travel, especially long-term stays, are still on a strong upward trajectory coming out of the pandemic.

Growing demand is also encouraging more hosts to list their properties on Airbnb, which keeps a lucrative flywheel going, as more listings naturally leads to more demand from guests.

Airbnb's capital-light business model is also leading the way to a very profitable runway of growth. The company generated $3.2 billion of free cash flow on $8 billion of revenue over the last year. Companies that generate lots of cash from operations and reinvest those resources in more growth tend to create market-beating returns for investors.

Best of all, the stock appears cheap at these levels, trading at a modest 18 times trailing free cash flow. While investors should be prepared for some bumps in the road if the economy worsens in 2023, I believe patience will be amply rewarded by holding this top travel stock for the long term.

2. Etsy

Etsy (ETSY -0.54%) stock fell hard last year as the reopening of the economy sent a wave of pandemic-era online shoppers back to in-store shopping. After posting a 31% increase in gross merchandise sales in 2021, the company reported a decline of 3% in the third quarter of 2022. 

However, Etsy is very capable of returning to double-digit growth over the next few years and sending the stock higher. Etsy's advantage is that it has more than 7 million sellers providing one-of-a-kind items you can't find at larger retail stores. But there's more to the company's success than that.

Etsy's sellers are offering items in almost every major retail category besides electronics. In aggregate, these categories, including apparel, beauty, and home goods, represent a long-term addressable market opportunity in the trillions of dollars. 

This makes Etsy's growth in recent years even more impressive. Gross merchandise sales have more than doubled over the last three years, although some of that increase was due to the acquisitions of Depop and Brazil-based El07.

But gross merchandise sales per active buyer are also up 33% since 2019, indicating that buyers are responding to the improvements to the shopping experience, including more personalized search results and free shipping offers.

The stock is up about 47% since hitting a low point earlier last year, but the stock still offers enough value at 28 times this year's earnings estimates to warrant further gains once the macroeconomic headwinds dissipate and growth accelerates.