The stock market has been highly volatile in 2025, and it's impossible to predict what twists and turns will shape the market in the near term. On the other hand, taking a buy-and-hold approach to top companies remains one of the best ways for investors to generate wealth over the long haul.
A well-timed investment of $1,000 in category-leading companies today has the potential to reward patient investors with fantastic returns. If you're on the hunt for stocks that look primed to deliver market-crushing performance over the long term, two Motley Fool contributors think MercadoLibre (MELI -0.19%) and Take-Two Interactive (TTWO 0.62%) stand out as great plays right now.
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Opportunity abounds for this digital disrupter
Jennifer Saibil (MercadoLibre): Certain kinds of stocks are beating the U.S. market this year as investors worry about the impacts of President Donald Trump's tariffs. One of those categories is foreign stocks, which, broadly speaking, look more compelling because they operate in markets where they won't be impacted by those higher import taxes. MercadoLibre stock would be a solid buy, tariffs or not, but now it looks even more attractive.
The company runs an e-commerce platform similar to Amazon that serves 18 Latin American countries. It delivered another round of powerful results in the 2025 first quarter, including a 64% year-over-year increase in revenue (on a currency-neutral basis). Gross merchandise volume was up by 40%, and items sold increased by 28%. That growth was driven in part by another strong increase in the number of unique buyers on the site, which rose 25% in the quarter.
MercadoLibre has massive opportunities in e-commerce since 85% of retail sales in Latin America still happen in brick-and-mortar stores. Each time it makes enhancements to its platform, it attracts a fresh wave of new customers who are willing to try shopping online.
It's focused right now on the grocery category, where it released new features to improve the user experience. Grocery sales increased by 65% year over year, outpacing other categories. That also leads to rising purchases throughout the platform, and due to the nature of the category, promotes higher purchasing frequency.
But MercadoLibre has become a lot more than an e-commerce site. It's a digital disruptor that's getting into all kinds of businesses, starting with fintech. It has a full financial services platform -- Mercado Pago -- that offers digital payment systems, credit cards, investing services, and more. The number of monthly active users for Mercado Pago increased by 31% year over year in the first quarter, total payment volume was up 72%, and the total credit portfolio increased by 75%.
Management feels that there's a flywheel effect -- increased use of the Mercado Pago digital wallet is driving increased engagement with the e-commerce platform, leading to higher growth across the company.
Another newer opportunity it's pursuing is ad sales. Like Amazon, MercadoLibre has a robust advertising business, offering space on its platform to companies that want to reach its millions of users. Ad revenue increased 50% year over year, and it's still a small player in Latin America's digital marketing industry. It recently launched the Mercado Play App, available to download on smart TVs, with 15,000 hours of free content and powered by MercadoLibre's ads.
There's plenty of additional opportunity for the company in all of these areas, as it operates in markets where digital penetration is still relatively low. MercadoLibre has years of high growth ahead, and long-term investors should benefit.
This entertainment leader has huge long-term potential
Keith Noonan (Take-Two Interactive): Take-Two Interactive is one of the world's leading video game publishers, and it's on the verge of a huge new growth phase. The business is best known for its Grand Theft Auto franchise, and it's poised to release the next installment in the series next year.
Grand Theft Auto VI had originally been set for a 2025 release, but Take-Two recently pushed that release date out to May 2026. While the delay will cut into its near-term sales and earnings significantly, the company still still looks like a great long-term investment.
Management said that it postponed the Grand Theft Auto VI launch in order to ensure that the game, when it finally arrives, is as close to perfection as possible. That seems like the right move. According to some reports, Take-Two could move to take advantage of the huge hype surrounding the upcoming title and flex its pricing power with GTA VI -- setting the cost for the game significantly above the $70 range that is currently the norm for big-budget video games.
Indeed, it wouldn't be surprising to see Grand Theft Auto VI priced at, or above, the $100 mark. Given the relative dearth of exclusive blockbuster titles for the current generation of video game platforms, it's likely that many players will still be eager to buy the game, even at an elevated price point. And in addition to generating revenue from unit sales, Take-Two will likely also generate tons of revenue from the in-game purchases that players make in the game's online multiplayer mode.
From a short-term perspective, there's no doubt that the GTA VI's delay is disappointing. On the other hand, the game will still almost certainly become a massive hit. Pushing the hugely anticipated title's debut further out will also help give Take-Two's 2025 releases better opportunities to thrive. For long-term investors, the stock looks like a great buy right now.
