Provided you have all your financial bases covered, investing can be one of the best ways to generate wealth and put yourself on a path to financial freedom. If you have $50,000 available to invest, that represents a strong starting point, and it has the potential to grow into a much larger amount over time if you back the right companies.
Investors should always keep their personal risk tolerance in mind, but it's possible to find reasonably valued growth stocks in today's market that are backed by strong underlying businesses. With that in mind, here's a look at two growth stocks with attractive risk-reward profiles that could turn $50,000 invested into much more for long-term shareholders.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Airbnb
For long-term investors seeking great growth stocks, I think Airbnb (ABNB 2.77%) offers one of the most attractive risk-reward profiles on the market. The company continues to enjoy a leading position in a service category that it more or less invented, it's posting strong business results, and it still has plenty of untapped expansion potential.
Airbnb managed to grow revenue 40% annually last year, reaching $8.4 billion. With a free cash flow (FCF) margin of 40.5%, the company delivered FCF of $3.4 billion for the year -- representing an annual increase of 49%. The company also posted its first year of profitability on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis, recording net income of $1.9 billion in the period.
Crucially, the rental specialist's stock continues to trade at reasonable levels. With a market capitalization of roughly $76 billion, Airbnb is valued at about 22 times last year's free cash flow.
Even in the face of some macroeconomic headwinds, the business appears to be on track to deliver solid sales and FCF growth this year. Management is guiding for sales to come in between $1.75 billion and $1.82 billion in this year's first quarter, representing growth of 18.5% year over year at the midpoint of the guidance range, and the team will be implementing some new cost-saving measures.
Airbnb's incredible rise has been powered by great leadership, strategic flexibility, and high-level execution. With the founding team of CEO Brian Chesky, chief strategy officer Nathan Blecharczyk, and chairman Joe Gebbia still actively guiding the company, Airbnb remains in great hands.
And investors can rest easy knowing that the company's co-founders have plenty of skin in the game. Through their combined positions, the three co-founders own enough stock to account for more than 75% of the company's total shareholder voting power. Large insider ownership should help ensure that Airbnb management continues to pursue initiatives that benefit shareholders at large.
With its highly flexible business model, great management team, and non-prohibitive valuation, Airbnb stock looks like a smart buy right now.
2. Alphabet
Alphabet (GOOG 1.25%) (GOOGL 1.27%) remains the U.S.'s largest digital advertising company, and its leading positions in search, communications, and video will be very hard for competitors to disrupt.
Between smartphone and tablet platforms, Alphabet's Android operating system also has more than 3.3 billion users worldwide. Not only do these devices generate an incredible amount of data, but the massive installed base allows the company to put homegrown services including Google, Gmail, and Chrome first and foremost in front of users.
Alphabet continues to have one of the strongest overall product ecosystems in the world, and the tech giant is likely in the very early stages of benefiting from the artificial intelligence revolution. While macroeconomic headwinds are tamping down demand in the digital advertising industry, the company is proving quite sturdy and looks attractively valued, trading at roughly 20 times this year's expected earnings.
GOOGL PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts
Even against a challenging backdrop for the advertising industry, Alphabet's revenue rose approximately 3% to hit $69.8 billion in the first quarter. While sales for the Google advertising segment were roughly flat year over year in the period, the overall business was able to grow sales in the quarter thanks to strong performance from other units. Given that the Google advertising segment still contributed $54.5 billion in sales and accounted for 78% of overall sales in the quarter, the legwork being done by other segments to deliver even low-single-digit sales growth is notable.
The company's Google Cloud business was a particularly impressive performer in Q1, growing revenue 28% year over year to reach $7.45 billion. Earnings per share fell roughly 5% compared to the prior-year quarter, but the overall financial picture here continues to look quite strong. Even with rising expenses and sales growth under pressure, Alphabet managed to post a 25% free cash flow margin in Q1 and generate $17.2 billion in FCF in the quarter.
It's not exactly clear when pressures on the digital ad industry will lift, but the company has been making cost-cutting moves and retains an excellent balance sheet. Alphabet ended last quarter with $115 billion in cash and only $13.7 billion in debt, and the business should continue to enjoy strong margins even if the near-term sales growth outlook isn't terribly exciting.
If you're looking for attractively valued big tech stocks, Alphabet is worth buying today.
