Whether you're a brand-new investor or have been at it for many years, keeping cool and continuing to steadily invest your capital in rocky market periods can be a test in fortitude. Even if you're investing consistently in the current market, you should still be setting money aside for your savings and rainy-day nest egg.
Assuming your bills and savings are adequately shored up, if you're on the hunt for superior stocks to add cash to this month, you don't have to look far. If you want to add great stocks to your portfolio that have what it takes to succeed in the next bull market and beyond, here are two names to consider right now.
1. Pinterest
Pinterest (PINS 21.02%) has had a tough series of quarters, facing unfavorable year-over-year metrics to heightened periods of growth and a difficult ad spending environment. However, user growth seems to be getting back on track and is still notably elevated from pre-pandemic levels. Pinterest is also monetizing its user base well.
The platform benefits from its business model that compels users to convey their preferences by searching for inspiration on the image-centric site, all while connecting those users to relevant ads paid for by the small and large brands buying up Pinterest's ad space. As CEO Bill Ready noted in the first-quarter earnings call:
Users provide strong first-party signals to their actions on Pinterest, such as searching and browsing-related items, as well as by saving pins on the curated boards that create product associations unique to our platform. This signal, combined with our increasingly sophisticated AI models, is driving improved relevancy and personalization for users.
The number of Pinterest monthly active users (MAUs) rose 7% year over year in the first quarter to 463 million. However, mobile app users jumped 16% in the three-month period. Bear in mind that mobile app users comprise 80% of the company's revenue and impressions.
Management also emphasized that engagement is accelerating faster than users. In short, users keep coming back to the platform for inspiration, expanding the window of opportunity for Pinterest to improve user recommendations and monetization.
Overall revenue jumped 5% year over year in the first quarter, while shopping ads revenue soared 40%. More and more people are logging onto Pinterest not just to find inspiration, but to purchase products and services. Over 50% of users say they view it as a place to shop.
These dynamics not only boost the company's financial growth prospects, but incentivize brands to keep paying for ad real estate on the platform. For investors, this could be an ideal time to consider scooping up shares in anticipation of a more free-flowing ad spend environment.
2. Airbnb
Airbnb (ABNB -1.52%) continues to disrupt the way people approach travel accommodation, with a global network of stays designed for all types of travel needs, from vacations to business travel to everything in between. More people are hosting on Airbnb than ever, and users are booking stays for a wide variety of purposes.
As of the first quarter of this year, total active listings were up 18% from the corresponding period in 2022. That followed the prior quarter, in which active listings grew 16% year over year. Guests booked 121 million nights and experiences in the first quarter of this year, driving more than $20 billion in gross booking value. Those two metrics were up 49% and 105% from four years ago, before the pandemic.
Airbnb continues to refine its offerings to draw both hosts and guests to its platform. The company just launched more than 50 new platform upgrades, including features that reduce the cost of long-term stays after three months and comprehensive pricing tools for hosts.
Looking back 12 months from the end of the first quarter of 2023, Airbnb generated free cash flow to the tune of nearly $4 billion. Its profits during that same period totaled over $2 billion.
Airbnb's ability to evolve its platform to target what consumers want against the changing landscape of the travel industry has enabled it to build upon a solid foundation of growth in a relatively short period of time. Even if a recession does come, there's no reason to think the platform can't persist well beyond such a period while benefiting from both the supply and demand driving the travel accommodation industry forward.
