Are you struggling to find a good growth company whose shares aren't trading at a sky-high price? You're not imagining the challenge. Many growth stocks are priced at several hundred dollars apiece; some are even trading in excess of $1,000. It can be tough for a new, small-time investor to get going, but it's not impossible.
Here's a look a three great growth stock ideas that anyone with $100 should consider buying today.
Expedia
Current price: $93
There's no denying the COVID-19 pandemic took a massive toll on the travel industry. Then, last year's worldwide economic headwind did the same. Despite the huge rally between those two stumbling blocks, shares of online travel agent Expedia (EXPE -0.40%) are priced below where they were trading as of 2019 (and are knocking on the door of new 52-week lows).
This weakness, however, ignores the travel industry's current reality. That is, not only is it on the mend, but it's also within sight of new records.
Case in point: According to travel industry research outfit OAG, this year's total international air travel demand is the strongest since 2020, tracking just 4% below 2019's levels. And that data jibes with numbers from the Airports Council International and the International Air Transport Association, the latter believing air travel will reach and then exceed pre-pandemic levels next year. And research house Bain & Company agrees with that outlook as well.
And that's just air travel. Hotels are finding themselves particularly busy these days as well. The American Hotel & Lodging Association predicts this year's demand for hotel stays will swell to 1.3 million occupied room nights, eclipsing 2019's figure of 1.29 million. But that outlook may still be too pessimistic.
Data from CoStar indicates the country saw full-year demand for hotel stays reach 1.3 million during the 12-month stretch ending in February. If the rebound maintains its current trajectory, it could move above the projected recovery before the end of 2023.
The point is that people are traveling again, and that's good for Expedia. Although there's always a risk that a recession could crimp this growing demand, notice that months' worth of chatter about a looming recession has yet to prove correct. It's increasingly looking like consumers will simply barrel through whatever economic headwinds take shape.
Copart
Current price: $78
If you've gone shopping for a new car lately, you've likely suffered a bit of sticker shock. Kelley Blue Book reports that the average price paid for a new car purchased in the United States in March of this year was a whopping $48,008. And that's down slightly from February's figure.
In fact, new car prices have been sliding since December and should continue to sink now that materials costs are coming down. Still, a car priced anywhere near that amount remains unaffordable for most U.S. consumers. Instead, many car owners will keep their current vehicles running for as long as they can or purchase used ones.
Enter Copart (CPRT 0.92%). It's not a household name, but if you or someone in your household has ever paid for a major automobile repair, there's a good chance you or they have benefited from its service. Copart not only is an auto auctioneer but also sells automobiles to buyers looking for parts, like body shops, salvagers, dealers, and dismantlers that "part out" vehicles. These parted-out components are refurbished and then sold to repair garages for a fraction of the costs of new original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts.
The proof of the growing demand for used cars and car parts is in the numbers. The only time since 2016 that Copart's seen revenue sink was during the first couple of quarters of 2020 when the pandemic shut down, well, everything. Since then, year-over-year sales growth has been reliable. Operating income and per-share profits have made similarly impressive forward progress.
CPRT Revenue (Quarterly) data by YCharts. EPS = earnings per share.
Analysts don't think this growth will be interrupted anytime soon, either. They're collectively calling for top-line growth of more than 9% this year, while next year's call for 7% sales growth seems unnecessarily tepid. Meanwhile, these same analysts expect last year's per-share profits of $2.23 to reach $2.39 this year en route to next year's projected per-share earnings of $2.63.
Charles Schwab
Current price: $54
Last but certainly not least, add Charles Schwab (SCHW 0.13%) to your list of growth stocks you can buy for less than $100 per share.
Regular followers of the market will know shares of this brokerage outfit were up-ended by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in early March. The bank was sitting on a portfolio of bonds with huge unrealized losses that had to be liquidated, locking in those losses. The market feared Charles Schwab was in a similar situation.
And to be fair, the company could have been facing a little more than its fair share of liquidity trouble. That's why Schwab stock took a big 35% tumble in less than a month.
With its first-quarter report now in hand, though, we can see the company's in nowhere near the jeopardy Silicon Valley Bank was. The type of securities Silicon Valley Bank was forced to sell at steep losses to fully fund its customers' withdrawals? Schwab's still got plenty of them, and they're still holding the bulk of their value. Specifically, Charles Schwab is still sitting on $155.8 billion worth of these available-for-sale securities, and that's in addition to $37 billion worth of cash and $40 billion worth of cash-like holdings.
And with the risk of future so-called "bank runs" (where a bank's customers all collectively withdraw more cash than the bank has readily available to provide them) now abating, the brokerage house can begin reoptimizing these assets that back up customer deposits.
However, that's not the only reason you'll want to jump into a new position in Schwab while the stock's still down 37% from its January high. The same increase in interest rates that hurt the value of banks' asset bases is also now leading to big, sustainable increases in net interest income. Charles Schwab collected nearly $2.8 billion worth of net interest income last quarter, up 27% from the year-ago comparison.
With rates not likely to move meaningfully lower anytime soon, the broker should be able to maintain this interest earnings boon for the foreseeable future.
