Investing isn't just for the wealthy. Sure, it takes money to make money. However, it doesn't take much money to start making money investing in stocks.
Of course, you still must find great companies to buy. That's not a difficult task, though. Here are three stocks under $50 you can buy hand over fist right now.
1. Enterprise Products Partners
How do the fuels that heat your home in the winter and power your vehicles year-round get to where they need to be? Largely through pipelines.
Enterprise Products Partners (EPD 0.13%) ranks as one of the leading pipeline operators in the U.S. You can buy one share for less than $30 (technically, it's one unit since the company is a limited partnership).
Enterprise Products Partners pays a quarterly distribution with a yield of 7.25%. With this juicy yield, the stock won't have to increase much to deliver exceptional total returns. Even better, Enterprise has increased its distribution for 25 consecutive years with a compound annual growth rate of roughly 7%.
I think this midstream energy stock should provide pretty good returns without the distributions, though. The demand for the fossil fuels Enterprise transports -- especially natural gas and natural gas liquids -- is likely to grow despite the increased adoption of renewable energy sources.
It also helps that Enterprise Products Partners' stock is cheap with a forward price-to-earnings ratio of under 10.6. By comparison, the S&P 500 trades at 20.7 times forward earnings, while the S&P 500 energy sector's forward earnings multiple is 13.
2. Intel
Intel (INTC 1.16%) has been a technology giant for decades. The company's chips are used in PCs, data center servers, Internet of Things devices, and more. Its share price currently hovers around $36.
Admittedly, Intel has made some mistakes that hurt its growth. The company didn't effectively capitalize on the mobile-device opportunity. It lost ground to cheaper PC chips. And it basically ceded the market for discrete graphics processing units (GPUs) to Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.
However, artificial intelligence (AI) presents a massive market for Intel. The company recently unveiled its new Gaudi AI chips that it claims are significantly more cost-effective than Nvidia's H100 GPUs. With the tremendous demand for AI chips, the company shouldn't have to take much market share away from Nvidia to be a big winner.
I wouldn't overlook the long-term prospects for its foundry business, either. It's losing money like crazy right now, but management still believes it will be the world's second-biggest foundry and achieve breakeven by 2030. Looking into the future, it's possible that Intel's foundry could become a major profit center.
3. Pfizer
Pfizer (PFE 0.02%) has been a household name for a long time. The company ranks among the biggest drugmakers in the world and markets multiple blockbuster drugs and vaccines. You can buy one share of Pfizer for less than $26.
At first glance, Pfizer might seem to be the last stock you would want to buy. The company's sinking COVID-19 sales are dragging down its overall revenue and profits. It also faces the loss of patent exclusivity for multiple top-selling products over the next few years.
There's more to the story, though. Pfizer expects the launches of new products and new indications for existing products will generate more than enough additional revenue to offset the negative effects of its looming patent cliff. The company's business development deals could add another $25 billion in new annual revenue by 2030.
Like Enterprise Products Partners, Pfizer doesn't have to deliver much share price appreciation to be a winner for investors. The drugmaker's dividend yield tops 6.6%. Chief financial officer David Denton confirmed in the fourth-quarter earnings call in January that growing the dividend remains the company's top capital allocation priority.
