Buying stocks is the best way for most people to build wealth, and it doesn't take a lot of money to get started. Many brokerages offer the ability to buy fractional shares of stocks. Even if you have less than $100 per month to invest, the most important thing is to consistently buy shares of great companies and not let the occasional episode of market volatility shake you out of your investments.
To give you some ideas, three Motley Fool contributors recently offered up some analysis on Dollar General (DG -0.35%), Revolve Group (RVLV 2.14%), and Dutch Bros (BROS 0.26%). Here's why these might be great stocks to start buying today, even if you have just $100 available to invest.
Dollar General offers unbeatable value
John Ballard (Dollar General): Shares of Dollar General have underperformed the broader market since the company announced fiscal third-quarter earnings results in December. But the company is doing well in an inflationary environment, with same-store sales up 6.8% in the October-ending quarter, and earnings per share up 12% year over year.
Dollar General is about as recession-resistant as they come. The company's high store density and commitment to keeping (roughly 20% of the) items it sells priced at $1 has been a formula for market-beating returns to shareholders. A $1,000 investment in the stock 10 years ago would be worth over $4,500 today.
The stock price fell over the last few months as third-quarter earnings came in softer than Wall Street expected. The company also just announced preliminary fourth-quarter numbers below its previous guidance. While it's not completely immune from the impact of macroeconomic challenges right now, it's a solid business that will continue to grow over the long term, which is all that I'm interested in.
Overall, the company's fourth-quarter same-store sales increase of 5.7% is not bad at all against a challenging economic backdrop. Plus, management believes sales were negatively impacted by the inventory damage caused by a major winter storm during the quarter.
Even customers on the tightest budgets have to buy everyday essentials from somewhere and Dollar General has an enormous advantage with a store located within a few miles of 75% of the U.S. population. Most importantly, this advantage is helping Dollar General gain market share on its competitors.
The stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 19. Given the company's consistent record of growth and above-average returns to shareholders, it deserves to trade at a premium to the S&P 500 average P/E of 21. The stock is admittedly priced above $100 a share (It currently trades around $219), but even a fractional share purchase will still benefit from the inevitable growth.
Revolve Group is an e-commerce disruptor
Jeremy Bowman (Revolve Group): A hundred dollars isn't much, but it's enough to buy you nearly four shares of Revolve Group, the fast-growing online apparel retailer, at the stock's current price.
Revolve has a unique model using influencer-driven social marketing to sell to Gen Z and millennials. It sells upscale merchandise with a focus on occasion-wear -- its biggest category is dresses. It hosts one of the biggest parties at the annual Coachella music festival, the Revolve Festival, and it tapped Kendall Jenner to be the creative director for Forward, its luxury segment.
Revolve's recent results haven't inspired a whole lot of optimism on Wall Street, but that's part of the reason to consider the stock now. It's trading at a discount because of a cyclical downturn. Revolve faces difficult comparisons with results a year ago when sales boomed on the economic reopening, and the company is also struggling with headwinds in the consumer discretionary sector as spending shifted to services like travel and restaurants and away from categories like apparel.
Revolve's revenue grew just 8% in the fourth quarter and was up mid-single digits through the first half of the first quarter. However, Revolve's revenue has historically grown by more than 20% annually. In 2022, it still increased 24% for the year, despite the fourth-quarter challenges, and the company should be able to return to that rate once the economy improves and demand normalizes.
Unlike many of its peers, Revolve also has a profitable business model. The company posted a gross margin of 53.8% in 2023, among the highest you'll find in apparel retail. That gives it more money to spend on marketing and growing its business. For 2022, it finished with $90.2 million in adjusted earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), which was down from the year before, but still represents an 8% margin.
The stock currently trades at 21 times that figure, and the business should get back to rapid growth once the economy is on more solid footing.
Dutch Bros: Buy this growth stock on the dip
Jennifer Saibil (Dutch Bros): Investors were none too pleased with Dutch Bros' performance in the 2022 fourth quarter, and the stock tumbled on the report released two weeks ago. Dutch Bros stock now trades at 2.4 times trailing-12-month sales, about its cheapest ever, at the same time that profitability has been improving, sales growth is strong, and the path ahead is clear.
So what's all the investor pessimism? There are two main parts. One is profitability. Although profitability is improving, the company is still feeling the pressure of rising production costs in its bottom line. As a young company, Dutch Bros is struggling to become profitable. Add in outsized inflation and rising costs is a recipe for squeezed margins. Even though the company posted significant positive income in the 2022 third quarter, it still ended up with a net loss of $2.8 million in the fourth quarter. Still, that was an improvement from an $8.2 million net loss in 2021's Q4. As the economy remains volatile, don't expect Dutch Bros' profitability to skyrocket.
The caution is that a sizable amount of revenue growth is coming strictly from new stores. Same-store sales declined slightly (0.6%) in the 2022 fourth quarter, and even when they've been positive, they've been low. A company looks less attractive if it can't manage to get customers back to buy in its stores. However, there are a few mitigating factors here. One is that Dutch Bros uses a technique called fortressing, which means it opens up several stores in the same area to scale quickly. This way it generates and meets demand, building a strong presence and customer loyalty. That can result in lower same-store sales even as it advances revenue goals. The other noteworthy point is that as the company opens new stores and scales, unit economics are improving.
Management plans to open 150 new stores in 2023 after opening 133 in 2022, reaching its five-year goal of operating 800 stores by the end of 2023. It has a longer-term goal of operating 4,000 stores over the next 10 to 15 years. This gives it a tremendous growth runway. It is guiding for comps to get back in the positive and come in at a low-single-digit increase for 2023.
Dutch Bros is experiencing challenges in the current economic environment, not unlike many restaurant chains. But the long-term opportunity still looks exciting, and at this price, the stock looks like a no-brainer buy.
