Are you looking for raw growth that can push through any economic headwind? Such stocks are out there. You generally have to digest above-average volatility to own them, but for some investors, the bumpy ride is worth it.
If you're one of these investors, here's a rundown of three of the top-growing stocks on the planet.
1. Chewy
Let's face it -- people living in the United States have gone pet crazy. A recent poll performed by Ally Consumer Research suggests 46% of pet owners living in the U.S. spend as much on their pets as they do on their own children. A separate survey taken by OnePoll indicates more consumers would rather spend money on their furry friends than put that money toward a vacation. On average, monthly pet-related outlays can easily reach $300, if not more.
Enter Chewy (CHWY 2.99%).
If you're a pet owner, then you likely already know Chewy is an online pet store offering everything from food to toys to prescription medicine. It caters to cat and dog parents but also serves more exotic animal lovers as well. It did $10.1 billion worth of business last year, up 13.6% from 2021.
That wasn't a pandemic-prompted fluke either. Chewy's been driving comparable growth since before COVID-19 reshaped how consumers shopped. The analyst community is calling for similar sales growth this year and next.
CHWY Revenue (TTM) data by YCharts.
You can find companies with faster revenue growth rates, to be clear. You just won't find many as capable as Chewy is of reliably sustaining these growth rates for the long haul. It's clearly plugged into the pet market's annualized growth pace of 8% that Morgan Stanley foresees through 2030. Chewy's edge is that it's not bogged down by the brick-and-mortar stores most of its competitors must also maintain. It can fully devote its resources to building its online presence.
The kicker: While it's been mostly unprofitable since its launch in 2011, that's likely about to change. The pandemic pushed it briefly into the black back in 2021, and it's continued to produce organic growth in the meantime. Next fiscal year, however, analysts believe it will produce a profit in every single quarter to earn a record-breaking total of $0.16 per share. That's a huge milestone.
2. General Electric
That's not a typo -- after years of fiscal challenges that ultimately led to a sweeping breakup, General Electric Company (GE 0.68%) is one of the planet's top-growing stocks. Last quarter's adjusted organic revenue of $15.9 billion was up 19% year over year. Adjusted earnings per share jumped from $0.36 to $0.68 with free cash flow more than doubling. Total orders of $22.0 billion received during the quarter in question were up 59% versus the second quarter of 2022. And those numbers accelerated from the first quarter's growth rates, which were also better than the fourth quarter's results.
What's going on with this company that many investors essentially left for dead? Simply put, the breakup worked. The new-and-improved GE, which is focused strictly on aerospace, renewable energy, and conventional power production, is a smaller but better company.
This pace of growth can't be maintained, mind you. In fact, overall sales are still expected to fall from 2022's tally this fiscal year before rekindling modest growth of 9% next year.
Nevertheless, there's still a great deal of cost-efficiency left to extract. While inflation and economic turbulence will drag last year's earnings of $2.62 to something in the ballpark of $2.20 per share this year, analysts are looking for an incredible bottom line of $4.33 per share in 2024.
GE stock is admittedly a tough name to be excited about stepping into here in the wake of its 86% rally off of December's lows.
Take a step back and look at the bigger picture, though. Even with that big advance, the stock's still priced well below its 2016 peak, prompted by a combination of accounting problems and a major power turbine design flaw revealed shortly thereafter. The shakeup and breakup in the meantime, however, helped put those challenges on the table and ultimately in the rearview mirror. There's more upside left to price in.
3. CrowdStrike
Last but not least, add CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD 2.03%) to your list of the planet's top-growing companies. Its first-quarter revenue of $693 million was up 42% year over year, extending last year's incredible full-year growth pace of 54%. The vast majority of its business is not only recurring revenue but revenue driven by required corporate spending.
See, CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company that helps enterprise-level customers protect their digital networks from data breaches and other forms of computer hacking. Firewalls, remote login security, and threat detection are all part of its repertoire, and more. Its AI-powered, cloud-based software is one of the market's very best, in fact, being rated a leader within the endpoint-protection market, according to technology market research outfit Gartner. Indeed, it's ranked second only to Microsoft in this particular category of software.
On a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis, it's still unprofitable, but it's making progress. And on a non-GAAP basis, it is turning a profit -- a tidy one. This year's expected per-share profit of $2.39 is markedly bigger than last year's $1.54 per share. Analysts are calling for an average bottom line of $3.08 per share next year, driven by nearly a 30% improvement in sales.
There's little reason to doubt such growth is in the cards, either. Data breaches are still happening as much as they ever were. This year's high-profile hacking victims include metaverse platform Roblox, American Airlines, Reddit, Discord, and T-Mobile, just to name a few.
With no end in sight, Polaris Market Research believes the cybersecurity market itself will grow at an average pace of nearly 10% per year through 2030; Emergen Research puts the projected market growth rate figure closer to 12%.
Whatever the number ends up being, CrowdStrike Holdings is well positioned to claim a fair share of that growth.
