The best growth stocks to invest in right now are ones with high chances of becoming huge winners in the next decade and beyond, driven by their competitive advantages in large industries and growth moves targeted to ride powerful megatrends. If things continue to work in their favor as they have so far, such stocks could hugely outperform the markets and magnify your returns in the coming years. Having studied several growth stocks, I believe the following three right now are true winners in the making.
Riding the digital shift
Visa (V -0.23%) is the kind of growth stock that has it all to win: a solid business model, clout, big margins, and massive growth opportunities in an evolving market.
As one of the world's largest payments processing companies, Visa simply facilitates transactions between third parties and earns fees on them. Those transactions run into billions of dollars and its payments volume into trillions of dollars each year, and Visa is making a lot of money on them, year after year. This chart is proof.
V Revenue (TTM) data by YCharts
Despite concerns of an economic slowdown and currency headwinds, Visa expects low-double-digit net revenue growth and mid-teens earnings-per-share growth in its fiscal 2023, which ends Sept. 30.
Visa is exploring more growth avenues now that extend beyond its traditional consumer payments services revolving around its co-branded credit, debit, and prepaid cards. For example, Visa is aggressively launching products and services to capture the flow of money among various parties, including businesses and governments. Visa is also expanding its value-added services, which include consulting, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven data solutions.
It's easy to see where Visa's growth will come from in the coming years. E-commerce is booming, and more and more economies are trying to bring their unbanked population into the fintech space through digital products and payments. As this transition to a cashless society gains momentum, Visa stock could soar in the coming years.
Exceptional growth in a red-hot industry
Electric cars are in huge demand globally, with the industry selling nearly 2.3 million cars in the first quarter of this year alone. That's up 25% year over year, according to the International Energy Agency, which also expects a 35% growth in sales for the full year. China leads the pack, accounting for a whopping 60% of global electric-car sales in 2022. Betting on a Chinese electric-vehicle (EV) growth stock now, therefore, is a good idea.
Although BYD (BYDDY 4.08%) is still behind Tesla (TSLA -1.11%) in sales of battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), it became the world's largest EV maker in the first quarter of 2023 by selling more BEVs and plug-ins combined than Tesla.
Between January and July this year, BYD was the top-selling brand in China's new energy vehicle (NEV) market, with its retail sales surging nearly 75% year over year. BYD's China NEV market share of 37% was way ahead of Tesla's market share of 8.7%, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. BYD recently rolled out its 5 millionth NEV, becoming the world's first automaker to hit the milestone.
That's not all. BYD is also the world's second largest manufacturer of the most critical component of EVs -- batteries -- just behind CATL. BYD's power battery installations between January and June 2023 jumped 102%, according to NEV-focused website CnEvPost.
These numbers not only reveal BYD's clout in the booming EV industry but also reflect its growth potential. BYD, in fact, is hungry for growth. After securing a leadership position in China's affordable NEV market, BYD is now foraying into the premium segment with SUVs, offroad EVs, and sports cars under several sub-brands, including Denza, Fang Cheng Bao, and Yangwang.
BYD is an ambitious company that's already taking the EV world by storm, and at this pace, it could be one of the biggest-winning growth stocks in the coming decade.
This high-flying growth stock could run much higher
Salesforce (CRM 0.42%) is another growth stock that could score big in the next decade and beyond, thanks to its leadership position in the steadily growing global customer relationship management (CRM) market. Through CRM, Salesforce helps companies build relationships with customers and prospects, and it stores data of all interactions on a cloud that can be accessed from anywhere for tracking and analysis to boost sales and service.
2022 was a forgettable year for Salesforce, as growth declined in the wake of rising interest rates, foreign currency headwinds, and decelerating demand on macroeconomic fears. The stock is back in the game, though, as investors expect growth to stabilize.
In May, Salesforce projected a 10% growth in revenue and an operating margin of 11.4% for fiscal 2024 (its fiscal year ends Jan. 31), driven partly by its ongoing restructuring efforts. Salesforce also expects 16% to 17% growth in free cash flow this fiscal despite the headwinds.
Another important number is its remaining performance obligation (RPO), or contracts that haven't converted into revenues yet. In other words, RPO reflects Salesforce's future potential revenue, and it grew 11% year over year in Q1 to $46.7 billion.
Salesforce is now exploring deeper uses of AI to stay in the game, and it recently launched the AI Cloud and expanded its partnership with Alphabet's Google on that front. Its AI moves, in particular, could only help Salesforce stay ahead of the competition but also hugely work in the stock's favor over the next decade or so.
