The S&P 500 currently trades at 17.7 times forward earnings. That's below the five-year average of 18.7 times forward earnings and roughly in line with the 10-year average. That metric suggests there are reasonably priced equities to be found throughout the market. It also suggests now is a good time for patient investors to buy stocks.
Personally, I'd split $2,000 between Snowflake (SNOW 3.69%) and MercadoLibre (MELI 3.09%) without hesitation. Here's why these two monster growth stocks are worth buying.
1. Snowflake
More and more businesses now depend on dozens (even hundreds) of software products that run across several cloud platforms, scattering data across disparate systems and infrastructures. Snowflake helps its customers organize and make sense of that data, and it does so while consolidating workloads that have traditionally required a patchwork of tools.
The Snowflake platform supports data lakes for storage, data warehousing for analytics, and data sharing for collaboration. But product consolidation is not the only benefit. Snowflake is also cloud-neutral, meaning its platform integrates seamlessly with all three major public (and proprietary) cloud networks so clients can work with vendors of their choosing. Snowflake is the only data management solution on the market that offers that breadth of functionality and flexibility, and businesses have consequently flocked to the platform.
Snowflake reported solid financial results in the second quarter. Its customer count climbed 25% year over year to 8,537 and the average customer spent 42% more -- a monster retention rate compared to most software companies. In turn, revenue increased 37% year over year to $640 million and non-GAAP net income was $0.22 per diluted share, up from $0.01 per diluted share in the prior year. But Snowflake has hardly scratched the surface of what management sees as a $140 billion market, leaving plenty of upside for investors.
Businesses that can unlock value in their data stand to gain a competitive edge. That alone should drive more customers to Snowflake in the coming years, but artificial intelligence (AI) is shaping up to be a particularly potent tailwind. Data is the cornerstone of AI, and CEO Frank Slootman says "data sharing makes Snowflake uniquely positioned to enable AI workloads."
On that note, Morgan Stanley estimates that Snowflake will grow revenue at 31% annually through 2029, which makes its current valuation of 21.7 times sales seem reasonable. That's why this growth stock is worth buying, though it would be prudent for investors to start with a small position -- no more than 1% of their portfolio.
2. MercadoLibre
MercadoLibre is a pillar of the Latin American digital economy. It operates the most visited online marketplace in the region, and its retail e-commerce market share exceeds that of the next five competitors combined. But MercadoLibre is truly formidable for its broad portfolio of adjacent services, which accelerate the network effect inherent to its marketplace.
Specifically, MercadoLibre supports merchants with logistics solutions and ad tech software, and it has achieved considerable scale in both spaces. Its logistics subsidiary offers the fastest delivery times across all key geographies, and its ad tech subsidiary is the domestic leader in retail advertising. The company also supports merchants with financial services, including credit and payment processing.
MercadoLibre reported stellar financial results in the second quarter. Revenue increased 31% year over year to $3.4 billion on strong momentum in the commerce and fintech segments, and GAAP net income jumped 113% year over year to $262 million. But more importantly, the company is well-positioned to continue posting monster financial results for years to come.
Online retail sales and digital payment volume in Latin America are projected to increase by 13% annually and 15% annually, respectively, through 2027. But MercadoLibre runs the largest online commerce and payments ecosystem in the region, and its ad business is expanding quickly. That scale has consistently led to above-average revenue growth in the past, and that trend will likely persist in the future.
Indeed, Morgan Stanley says MercadoLibre could grow revenue at 20% annually (or faster) through 2027, which makes its current valuation of 5.3 times sales look downright cheap. Investors with a time horizon of at least five years should feel comfortable buying a small position in this monster growth stock today.
