Just one month in, 2025 is already shaping up to be another dynamic year in the stock market.
Whether you're following the DeepSeek saga and its impact on artificial intelligence (AI) stocks like Nvidia, looking for growth stocks with room to run, or simply looking to boost your passive income stream, there's plenty of turbulence to endure.
Long-term investors know that the best way to approach volatility is to filter out the noise by focusing on companies with strong underlying business models that can help you achieve your financial goals while staying true to your risk tolerance.
Here's why growth stock Shopify (SHOP -1.60%), turnaround story Intel (INTC -2.34%), and dividend stocks Enterprise Products Partners (EPD -0.41%), Nucor (NUE -2.11%), and Colgate-Palmolive (CL 1.96%) are worth buying now.
Image source: Getty Images.
Shop for a stellar growth stock
Demitri Kalogeropoulos (Shopify): Growth-focused investors should place Shopify near the top of their watchlists for February. Shares, indeed, outperformed a rallying market in 2024, raising the risk that you'll overpay for this business. But those gains can be traced right back to the e-commerce platform provider's excellent operating and financial results.
The most recent quarter marked Shopify's sixth consecutive one with over 25% year-over-year sales growth. Most Wall Street pros expect that impressive streak to continue when the company announces Q4 results on Feb. 11. According to analysts' projections, revenue should have jumped 27% over the holiday shopping season to $2.7 billion.
That success is thanks to Shopify's ability to maintain leadership in the expanding e-commerce market. Merchants of all sizes are loving the steady stream of product updates aimed at making it easier for them to do business on the platform. You can see evidence of their rising loyalty in metrics like gross merchandise volumes (up 24% in Q3) and subscription revenue (up 26%). "As our merchants do better, Shopify does better," company President Harvey Finkelstein said in a recent conference call with investors.
Shopify has been doing much better on the financial side of the business. Operating profit more than doubled last quarter, and free cash flow jumped to 19% of sales from 16% of sales a year earlier. The bullish thesis depends on continued progress along those lines and for stronger net income growth in 2025 and beyond.
The biggest factor weighing against the stock right now is its high valuation. You'll have to pay 18 times sales for Shopify today, which is near a three-year high. That premium sets a high bar for management in the February earnings announcement. If you're risk-averse, then you could wait until after Shopify releases its Q4 earnings and the 2025 outlook before jumping into the stock. Yet patient investors might be rewarded with better returns by purchasing shares during this period of elevated uncertainty in early February.
Intel is setting up for a durable comeback
Anders Bylund (Intel): I bought a few Intel shares the other week. Now that the semiconductor veteran has reported its fourth-quarter results, I'm only more confident that it's a good investment. In fact, Intel remains one of my best investment ideas in February 2025.
It was a robust report. Intel edged out Wall Street's consensus estimates on both the top and bottom lines. Edge computing sales rose 10% year over year while data center chip sales dropped 3% lower, but Intel's full-year revenues were up in all three processor design segments. Quarterly foundry orders fell 13%, but Intel took several important steps toward completing an American chip manufacturing system to rival the Taiwan Semiconductors (NYSE: TSM) and Samsung Electronics (OTC: SSNL.F) of the world.
"There are no quick fixes," interim co-CEO Michelle Holthaus said on the earnings call. "We cannot be all things to all people, and we are prioritizing areas where we can drive differentiated value."
I think that's a smart approach to the semiconductor market at the start of a long-term AI boom. Intel's domestic manufacturing facilities will come in handy for longtime rivals such as Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD). That idea would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago. Now, it's nearly a certainty.
Intel's foundry should be a world-class organization by 2030, setting the company up for decades of game-changing industry services -- and strong stock returns.
Meanwhile, you can grab the stock for just the modest valuation of 1.6 times trailing sales (P/S). That's a deep discount for a stock that averaged nearly double that P/S ratio over the last 15 years.
An ideal stock in times like these
Keith Speights (Enterprise Products Partners): Uncertainty is in the air. No one knows what tariffs President Trump will impose. The Chinese AI company DeepSeek caused an earthquake in the AI world. I think Enterprise Products Partners is an ideal stock in times like these.
For one thing, tariffs on imports to the U.S. probably won't impact Enterprise Products Partners much, if at all. DeepSeek's drama won't, either. Enterprise is a midstream energy leader that operates over 50,000 miles of pipeline in the U.S.
Even if Enterprise Products Partners was somehow affected by all the turmoil, history shows that the company's business is quite resilient. The limited partnership (LP) has delivered double-digit returns on invested capital for two decades -- a period that included the financial crisis of 2007 through 2009, the oil price collapse that began in 2015, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
I predict President Trump's policies will favor Enterprise Products Partners. Its stock performance indicates that many investors think that will be the case, too. Enterprise has delivered a gain roughly 3x higher than the S&P 500's return since the November election.
What if Enterprise Products Partners' momentum stalls? I don't think that will happen, but investors should be sitting pretty even if it does. The company's forward distribution yield is 6.35%. This juicy yield gives Enterprise a nice jump on delivering respectable total returns.
There's one more thing: Enterprise Products Partners has increased its distribution for 27 consecutive years. Chances are that the income this stock generates will be higher in the future.
A top Dividend King to buy now
Neha Chamaria (Nucor): Illegal dumping, or cheaper imports, has been one of the biggest hurdles for steel companies in the U.S. in recent years. Nucor's latest numbers are proof. Despite being the largest and most diversified steel company in the U.S., Nucor's sales dropped 11% while its net income more than halved in 2024. Although Nucor's sales volumes were down only about 2% from 2023, its average sales price per ton fell nearly 10%.
Things, however, may change under the Trump administration, with the president already threatening to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico. The two countries are also among the largest exporters of steel to the U.S., so a tariff should create a more level playing field for domestic steelmakers and boost steel prices.
Betting on a stock assuming what the president may or may not do, however, is still speculation, and there are better reasons to invest in Nucor stock, especially now when it's still down about 20% in six months, as of this writing.
Nucor has invested heavily into its business in recent years and should start unlocking value from those investments in the medium term. For example, its sheet mill in West Virginia -- also Nucor's largest single investment ever -- is expected to be complete by late 2026. The mill will target some of Nucor's most important end markets, such as automotive, construction, and industrials. The company also expects to complete the construction of two bar mills this year, among other projects. Above all, Nucor is also looking for inorganic growth opportunities. According to a CNBC report, Nucor could even buy some assets from Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE: CLF) if the latter acquires United States Steel (NYSE: X).
Nucor has a strong balance sheet and can, therefore, invest in growth despite a challenging business environment. It has also grown its dividend every year for 52 consecutive years now, and that's just one of the many reasons why I believe this Dividend King is a solid buy.
An ultra-safe dividend stock to buy now
Daniel Foelber (Colgate-Palmolive): In addition to the flagship Colgate and Palmolive labels, the consumer goods conglomerate owns a variety of other brands across the personal care, home care, pet care, and oral care categories -- from specialty pet nutrition brand Hill's to Softsoap, Speed Stick, Tom's of Maine, Ajax, Irish Spring, and more. The strength and diversification of the brand portfolio sets the stage for stable and growing dividends. In fact, the company has paid and raised its dividend for 61 consecutive years. Like my colleague Neha's Nucor pick for February, Colgate-Palmolive is a member of the elite category of Dividend Kings.
As a consumer staples company, Colgate-Palmolive's results tend to be fairly recession-resistant. Consumers are less likely to pull back on dish soap or deodorant than on discretionary purchases. However, industry challenges have led to lower volumes for many household goods companies -- but not Colgate-Palmolive.
The company reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 results on Jan. 31, notching over $20 billion in sales for the first time in its history, including non-generally accepted accounting principles organic sales growth of 7.4% and base business earnings per share (EPS) growth of 11%.
For 2025, Colgate-Palmolive is guiding for organic sales growth to remain in its long-term targeted range of 3% to 5% and mid-single-digit EPS growth. The cautious outlook reflects ongoing demand challenges, strained consumer spending, and foreign exchange impacts due to a strong U.S. dollar. Colgate-Palmolive converts sales made in other currencies back into dollars, which is unfavorable when the dollar is strong. Excluding Hill's -- which the company reports as an individual line item and made up 23.1% of fourth-quarter sales -- North America made up just 21% of sales, a smaller percentage than Latin America, which saw a whopping 16.4% foreign exchange hit. All told, the business is performing incredibly well given these challenges.
Colgate-Palmolive may not be the flashiest company, but it is a reliable dividend stock and a top performer in its industry. With a yield of 2.2%, risk-averse investors should consider scooping up shares of Colgate-Palmolive in February.
