While cryptocurrency may be a fitting investment for some portfolios, you don't need to put your hard-earned cash into speculative investments in order to pursue market-beating returns. If you have money to put into the stock market right now, there are plenty of companies just begging to be bought with tremendous growth potential to tap into in the years ahead.
These are three such stocks to consider adding to your portfolio right now.
1. Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX 1.09%) is coming off of another robust year of growth in 2022. The company delivered approximately $9 billion on the top line in the 12-month period, paired with earnings of $3.3 billion and operating income of $4.3 billion. These three metrics represented increases of 18%, 42%, and 66%, respectively, from the prior year.
Vertex isn't content to rest on the success of its cystic fibrosis treatments. It's aggressively building out a pipeline of products, primarily targeting various segments of the rare disease drug market, each of which could represent multi-billion-dollar revenue opportunities for the company.
Among some of the most promising candidates in Vertex's pipeline are a rare blood disorder treatment that the company developed with CRISPR Therapeutics (which could be approved as soon as this year), an MRNA-based cystic fibrosis therapy it's working on with Moderna, and a non-opioid drug to treat acute pain. The company also acquired ViaCyte last year, a company that's working on developing stem-cell based treatments for type 1 diabetes.
NASDAQ: VRTX
Key Data Points
Vertex's continued footprint in the cystic fibrosis market includes the only medicines currently approved for targeting the root protein malfunction that leads to the genetic illness, and its rapidly evolving pipeline could be set for a wave of several new approvals in the coming years. For these reasons, investors should consider a long-term position in this healthcare stock.
2. Pinterest
Pinterest (PINS +0.66%) hasn't delivered the mouth-watering growth that some investors became accustomed to in the earlier days of the pandemic, but its business is still demonstrating promise that could yet yield strong returns in the years to come. After a few quarters of unfavorable year-over-year comparisons to peak growth during the earlier part of the pandemic, user metrics are on the upswing, and Pinterest is continuing to monetize new and existing users very well.
For all of 2022, Pinterest reported total revenue of $2.8 billion, up 9% from 2021, with average revenue per user coming in 10% higher than the prior year. The company closed out the year with 450 million monthly active users, up 4% compared to 2021. And while Pinterest reported a net loss for the 12-month period, it turned back to profitability in the final quarter of the year, generating GAAP net income to the tune of $17 million for the three-month period.
NYSE: PINS
Key Data Points
Pinterest remains an incredibly attractive platform for companies to advertise on, with the bulk of all its revenue coming from ad dollars spent by both small businesses and large merchants. Companies won't be able to scale back on ad spend indefinitely. As economic conditions improve, Pinterest's continued acquisition of users and the image-centric model of its platform will build upon a foundation that can continue to draw consistent ad spending, flowing back to the tech stock's top and bottom lines, and into favorable shareholder returns.
3. Chewy
Chewy (CHWY +1.44%) is rapidly expanding its potential beyond that of an online pet store, and this has translated to steady growth.
In the third quarter of 2022, the company reported net sales of $2.5 billion, a robust 15% increase from the prior-year period. Meanwhile, its gross margin expanded 200 basis points year over year, while the company pulled in net income of $2.3 million for the three-month period. This followed earnings of $19 million and $22 million in the first and second quarters of 2022, respectively.
Right now, Chewy is investing heavily in building out its business as well as its fulfillment infrastructure, which may weigh on the bottom line now but can reap manifold returns for shareholders in the years ahead. For example, the company is working on building out its network of automated fulfillment centers, which shorten processing times and cut down operating costs overall. It's launched a beta version of a sponsored ads program that would allow pet vendors to market to buyers on the Chewy platform.
NYSE: CHWY
Key Data Points
The company also recently announced the upcoming launch of additional pet health insurance plans, and its first private label pet supplement line. The pet health insurance and non-prescription pet wellness industries alone represent respective addressable markets of $10 billion and $2.4 billion. Given the varied sub-sectors of the broader pet industry, Chewy could still be in the very early stages of its growth story -- a compelling buying proposition for long-term investors.
