3 Monster Stocks to Buy Without Any Hesitation

Many investors are nervous right now. You can't blame them. The bad news about several banks has rattled the stock market. The chances of a recession in the U.S. appear to have risen. It's understandable for an investor to be reluctant about scooping up shares of any stock with all of this uncertainty.

If you have a long-term mindset, though, there's no reason to be nervous at all. Adding the right stocks to your portfolio should make you money over the next decade and beyond. But which stocks are the right ones? Here are three monster stocks to buy without any hesitation, in my view.

1. Alphabet

Google Search, Google Cloud, YouTube, YouTube TV, Android, Chromebook, Pixel, Nest. Those are some of the top reasons to buy Alphabet (GOOG 0.56%) (GOOGL 0.69%) that immediately come to mind. These and other products and services generated a whopping $282.8 billion in sales and nearly $60 billion in profits last year.

Keep in mind that those results came during a period when the advertising market was weak because of worries about the economy. Once the outlook improves (which it will, sooner or later), Alphabet will almost certainly deliver even more impressive numbers. And there are three key growth drivers to especially watch.

Google Cloud already brings in a nice chunk of revenue for Alphabet -- more than $7.3 billion in 2022. However, it's not profitable yet. As more companies move their apps and data to the cloud, I expect Google Cloud will become an even bigger winner. When (not if, in my opinion) it achieves profitability, Alphabet's bottom line will shift into a higher gear.

Artificial intelligence (AI) should also provide a massive tailwind for Alphabet in the coming years. Sure, OpenAI's ChatGPT and GPT-4 have been impressive. But Alphabet has its own AI products on the way. More importantly, the company has the expertise, financial resources, and access to data for training AI systems that few can match.

Finally, there's Alphabet's leadership in quantum computing. This is an area that I consider the most overlooked reason to buy Alphabet stock. Global consulting firm McKinsey & Company predicts that quantum computing could be a $700 billion market in the future. I fully expect Alphabet to be one of the top players.

2. Amazon

There's nothing surprising about how Amazon (AMZN -1.11%) makes money. Two-thirds of its total revenue comes from e-commerce, including the company's online stores and third-party seller services. This business definitely has room to grow: Last year, e-commerce represented only 14.6% of retail sales in the U.S.

But the company's Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud hosting unit is how it makes big profits. AWS generated nearly 75% of Amazon's total operating income in 2022. And it was responsible for all of the company's operating income in the fourth quarter. 

Now for the really good news. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy estimates that as much as 95% of global IT spending remains on-premise rather than in the cloud. He's not alone in thinking that those numbers could flip over the next 10 to 15 years. It's quite possible that AWS will be bigger in the not-too-distant future than Amazon's entire operations are now.

I fully expect that Amazon will grow on other fronts, too. Healthcare especially stands out. Amazon has the fastest-growing digital ad business. It's also, like Alphabet, a leader in AI. My prediction is that this big company will be a lot bigger by 2030.

3. Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Ordinarily, it makes sense for investors to be at least a little hesitant about buying biotech stocks. Their risks include clinical setbacks and patent cliffs. However, I believe that Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX -0.27%) is so attractive that it's an exception to the rule.

For one thing, Vertex commands a monopoly in treating the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis (CF). No patent cliff is on the horizon, either: The patents for the company's newest and most powerful CF drug yet don't expire until 2037. Also, the leading potential rivals haven't advanced beyond phase 2 testing, which means they're still years away from even having a chance to compete against Vertex's therapies.

Vertex has experienced some pipeline failures in the past. But there's reason to be optimistic about the future. The company awaits regulatory approvals for exa-cel, which effectively cures sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia. It also has three programs in late-stage testing. Two of them -- non-opioid pain drug VX-548 and the vanzacaftor triple-combo CF therapy -- could reach the market in the near term.

If that's not enough, Vertex's other late-stage candidate, inaxaplin, targets an indication (APOL1-mediated kidney disease) that affects a bigger patient population than CF does. And as icing on the cake, the company believes it's in a good position to develop a cure for type 1 diabetes (T1D). Vertex is already evaluating the first T1D cell therapies in early stage testing.