Stock market volatility comes and goes, but the decisions you make now for your portfolio could impact your financial health in the long term. No investment is guaranteed, and all investments are accompanied by a certain level of risk.
However, if you put your cash into quality businesses and steadily build your positions in great companies with time -- regardless of what the latest investing fad is and without trying to time the market -- you can compound your returns through the years. If you have a larger amount, like $20,000, that you'd like to put into stocks right now, there is no shortage of companies begging to be bought.
Supposing you'd like to allocate that investment capital across multiple stocks, here are three names to consider for your buy basket if you have $20,000 to add to your portfolio right now.
1. Intuitive Surgical
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG 0.59%) has built a profitable and cash-rich business with its portfolio of surgical robotics systems. As one of the mainstay companies in this space with a market share that hovers around 80%, the company has managed to maintain its foothold in an industry that is rapidly expanding as the adoption of and use cases for these surgical systems grows.
The company has faced fluctuating procedure volumes over the last few years in key markets from COVID-19 resurgences. Yet, it has remained profitable while continuing to expand its installed base of systems and procedures overall.
The company generated a combined revenue of $5.2 billion in the first nine months of 2023, while net income for that period totaled $1.2 billion. These figures represented increases of 14% and 20%, respectively, from the same nine-month window in 2022. Intuitive Surgical ended the third quarter with 8,285 of its da Vinci surgical systems installed globally. That was a growth figure of 13% from one year ago but 41% from three years ago.
The company also has a uniquely compelling business model. Even though it can make millions from a single sale or lease of its surgical systems, it makes even more money from the tools, accessories, and services (i.e., customer support, training, etc.) that it sells to its customers to go with these products.
This isn't a lightning-growth business, but its market leadership and impressive financials can continue to drive gains for long-term shareholders.
2. Costco
Costco Wholesale (COST 1.01%) is one of those mainstay businesses you can buy and add to again and again over the years. Its low-cost, warehouse-centric business model that allows consumers to access a host of items -- from home goods to food to clothing to pharmacy items in bulk quantities -- has remained incredibly attractive to shoppers through the years. In a time where consumer wallets have shrunk in a tough macro environment, this business model tends to be even more compelling to shoppers trying to get the most bang for their buck.
Over the last five years alone, Costco has seen its annual revenue and profits jump by respective amounts of 60% and 72%. Operating cash flow has jumped by about 74% in that same five-year window. Most of the company's income comes from its memberships, which have extremely high renewal rates. At the end of the most recent quarter, global renewal rates totaled 90%, while renewal rates were 93% in North America, where Costco still maintains the largest concentration of warehouse locations.
Even with the current spending environment, Costco closed out the last quarter with 71 million members, an 8% increase from the prior-year period. The icing on the cake for this stock is its dividend, which yields a little under 1% right now, which may sound modest; however, the dividend amount has jumped about 80% over the last five years alone. Plus, the company doles out large, special dividends every several years -- and could be due for another one in the coming months.
Investors looking for income and share price increases may want to consider this tried-and-true stock.
3. Airbnb
Airbnb (ABNB 0.75%) has certainly been the comeback kid of a pandemic-beleaguered travel industry, but the resurgence in people spending money on trips isn't the only reason the company is doing so well. The platform attracts a wide range of accommodation spending from many different types of travelers, and management's commitment to constantly refining its platform to be what hosts and travelers both want is undoubtedly helping fuel its ongoing success.
The company ended the first half of 2023 with a record number of active listings on its platform -- 7 million in total. Airbnb brought in revenue of $4.3 billion in the first half of 2023, with net income reaching $767 million for the six-month period. Those two figures represented increases of 19% and 113% from the same window in 2022. Guests booked 236 million nights and experiences in the first six months of the year, generating just shy of $40 billion in gross booking value. In case you're wondering, those were year-over-year increases of 15% and 16%.
Airbnb recently launched a new category of stays to make accommodation options more affordable for travelers, for which the average cost of a room is $67 a night. It also added new pricing tools to help hosts be more competitive and new ways for U.S.-based guests to pay for long-term stays. Not only were long-term stays roughly one-fifth of all bookings in the second quarter -- a figure that has largely remained consistent in recent quarters -- but stays for three months or more accounted for 25% of monthly stays booked in June alone.
This business has so much room left to run in the travel industry, a space where trillions of dollars are spent by consumers each year. Long-term investors can come along for the ride.
