There are three broad categories that stocks generally fit into: value, dividend, and growth. While they all stand out in their own right, growth stocks tend to get a lot of attention. It's understandable when you consider the romanticized stories of investors enjoying incredible returns thanks to the "next big thing."
Investors shouldn't buy growth stocks expecting to get rich quickly. Instead, they should invest with a long-term approach, aiming for their stocks to outperform the broad market over time. Here are three growth stocks that fit that criteria.
1. Snowflake
Snowflake (SNOW 0.39%) is a data warehousing company that makes it easy for companies to store, manage, and analyze data across dozens of some of the world's most popular data and cloud platforms. It differs from other data analytics companies because it offers a cloud-first approach that makes scalability and real-time data sharing as simple as one could hope for at this stage in big data's journey.
Since its Sept. 2020 initial public offering, Snowflake's stock price hasn't produced the returns early investors wanted. But some of the company's key metrics are moving in the right direction, especially regarding customer growth.
At the end of its fiscal 2020 third quarter (its first reported quarter as a public company), Snowflake had 1,934 customers. As of July 31, 2023, it had 8,537 -- a 341% increase in roughly three years.
What's even more impressive -- and what can help pad Snowflake's top and bottom lines going forward -- is the growth of its high-value customers (those generating at least $1 million in annual product revenue). During the same three-year period, this cohort jumped from 31 to 402 customers, almost a 1,200% increase. Not too shabby.
As data and the ability to analyze and present it in a user-friendly way becomes more crucial to the business world, Snowflake is primed to capitalize on growing demand. As more companies embrace the platform, others will be incentivized to join in, creating a network effect that should further solidify Snowflake's position.
2. CrowdStrike
The tech world in 2023 can be summed up in two words: artificial intelligence (AI). However, cybersecurity company CrowdStrike (CRWD -1.12%) isn't new to AI. In fact, it helped pioneer full cloud and AI-based solutions to cyberattacks with its first platform released in 2011.
As businesses transition to online operations and digital-first approaches, the need for proper cybersecurity protection is no longer optional. CrowdStrike has greatly benefited from this growing demand. In its fiscal 2023 second quarter (ended July 31), CrowdStrike reported $732 million in revenue, up 37% year over year. Its annual recurring revenue also increased 37% to $2.93 billion.
Data by YCharts.
Competitors are also embracing AI-based solutions for their products and services, but CrowdStrike should have a clear advantage as it's been collecting data for over a decade to train its models. That's a competitive advantage that should be sustained for quite some time.
3. Roku
Roku (ROKU 0.95%) may be the poster child for pandemic sweetheart stocks that saw their value plunge. Since July 2021, Roku's stock price is down over 85%, even with a 54% year-to-date surge as of this writing.
Despite the stock price decline, Roku's business is making positive strides. Broader economic conditions like rising interest rates and inflation have put a damper on digital advertising, but Roku has been pushing through it.
In its latest quarter, revenue and gross profit grew 11% and 7% year over year, respectively, but its user growth could be its catalyst for a financial boost when the advertising market recovers. Roku's active accounts grew 16% year over year to 72.5 million, and total hours streamed grew 21% year over year to 25.1 billion.
A notable evolution of Roku's business has been its reduced reliance on hardware sales to generate revenue. In Roku's Q3 2017 report, its first as a public company, hardware accounted for more than half of its top line. Fast-forward to the latest quarter, and hardware accounted for just 12% of total revenue with the platform segment making up the remainder.
Roku's platform holds the key to its revenue-generating opportunities. There are ads run on the home screen, as part of the free content it offers (like the Roku Channel), and on video-on-demand services. The growth of its audience and the connected-TV advertising market should put Roku in a good position to thrive over the long haul.
