While it would be nice if investors had crystal balls that could foretell the best periods to jump into or out of the stock market, no such mechanism exists. No one can predict with accuracy what the market will do next. In fact, one of the few predictable things about the stock market is that it is unpredictable.
Even so, the stock market has proven time and time again the power of this straightforward investing strategy: Buy shares of companies with fantastic underlying businesses, strong growth trajectories, and solid leadership -- and hold onto them for many years. Those who do that will find that stocks can be a remarkable wealth-building vehicle.
If you have $1,000 to put into stocks right now, here are two no-brainer companies to consider pressing the buy button on today.
1. Teladoc Health
Teladoc Health (TDOC -3.06%) has faced a particularly volatile market in the last few years. Following a wave of supercharged results brought about by rapid adoption of telehealth solutions during the pandemic, Teladoc now faces an environment where growth has normalized to a more moderate pace, and where growth-oriented businesses in particular are experiencing a high degree of share-price turbulence. As a result, the stock is down about 65% over the past year.
While it was absolutely understandable that the growth trajectory Teladoc was on during the worst phases of the pandemic would moderate at some point, the company is still going from strength to strength across its core group of businesses. Overall revenue jumped 18% in 2022 to $2.4 billion.
Meanwhile, the membership count for its U.S. integrated care business rose 7% from 2021, while the number of paying users for its teletherapy arm, BetterHelp, surged 37%. Bear in mind, the BetterHelp segment alone brought in revenue of $1 billion last year. As for Teladoc's chronic care business, enrollment jumped 16% in 2022.
Those are hardly the results you'd expect from a business with its best days behind it. Investors shouldn't expect Teladoc to repeat in the next few years the levels of growth that it delivered in the first two years of the pandemic. However, the untapped market opportunity for this business across its core segments -- from primary care to chronic care -- is still enormous. Roughly 1 in every 3 people around the globe suffers from multiple chronic illnesses.
The global telehealth market is on track to reach a valuation of nearly $500 billion by 2030, a compound annual growth rate of about 24% from its current valuation. For investors with the risk tolerance to invest in growth stocks, Teladoc still looks worthy of a long and careful second look.
2. Innovative Industrial Properties
Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR 1.03%) operates in a highly turbulent industry, but a few key factors set it apart from the average marijuana stock. Notably, it neither grows marijuana nor operates retail stores that sell cannabis or its derivatives. In fact, it's something of a unicorn in the world of pot stocks.
Innovative Industrial Properties is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns a portfolio of 110 cannabis industry properties across the U.S., with a presence in key markets such as California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.
Its tenants are some of the most well-known names in the cannabis industry, companies like Trulieve, Cresco Labs, and Curaleaf. Innovative Industrial Properties is quite selective about the businesses it will lease greenhouses and other industrial facilities to, and it only rents to state-licensed growers of medical cannabis. It uses triple net leases, so its tenants cover most property-associated costs, and the average length of these leases is 15 years.
Moreover, Innovative Industrial Properties has done such a good job of distributing its capital across a wide range of medical marijuana markets and tenants that no state accounts for more than 16% of its portfolio, and no tenant accounts for more than 14%.
The company's business model, coupled with its focus solely on the medical-use side of the industry (which is currently legalized much more widely and faces more strict regulations than the adult-use market), has created a profitable business that steadily rewards investors in the form of share price returns and generous dividend increases.
The stock has fallen 63% this past year, partly on investor concerns about defaults by some of its tenants, but this represents a small portion of the overall real estate portfolio. Meanwhile, rent collection was at 92% in the most recent report and has been steadily above 90%.
Innovative Industrial Properties reported revenue of $276 million in 2022, with adjusted funds from operations of $234 million -- up 35% and 34%, respectively, from 2021. It also closed out 2022 with zero secured debt and $87 million in cash on its balance sheet. When you factor in its dividend, which yields nearly 10% at the current share price, for income investors, this rare example of a resilient, profitable business in the marijuana industry is well worth consideration.