Most growth stocks delivered sizzling performances in 2023 and 2024. However, the uncertainty created by the threats of steep tariffs caused the sizzle to fizzle for many in the first half of this year.
There are some exceptions, though, that have continued to soar despite the overall market volatility. Several of them remain great picks for long-term investors. Here are three red-hot growth stocks to buy in 2025.
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1. MercadoLibre
MercadoLibre (MELI 0.94%) is often called the "Amazon of Latin America." That's a pretty good description. Like Amazon, MercadoLibre operates a huge e-commerce platform, an advertising platform, and logistics services. The company is also a leading fintech services provider in Latin America.
The stock has skyrocketed more than 50% year to date. This impressive performance comes on the heels of a doubling of MercadoLibre's share price between the beginning of 2023 and the end of 2024.
MercadoLibre's booming business is driving those gains. In the first quarter of 2025, revenue increased 37% year over year. Advertising revenue soared 50% on a constant-currency basis. The company's fintech credit portfolio grew a whopping 75% to $7.8 billion.
I think MercadoLibre is only scratching the surface of its potential, though. Despite its stellar growth, the company still has less than 5% of the total retail market in Latin America. Its fintech business has a tremendous opportunity to disrupt the region's banking industry.
2. Alibaba Group
Another company is sometimes referred to as the "Amazon of China" -- Alibaba Group (BABA -1.36%). Alibaba operates a huge e-commerce platform. It's a leading cloud services provider in Asia. The company has a large digital media and entertainment business.
Unlike many growth stocks, Alibaba didn't take off in spectacular fashion in 2023 and 2024. However, it's been a different story this year. The Chinese tech stock is up close to 35% so far in 2025. Before President Trump announced steep tariffs in early April, Alibaba's share price had skyrocketed as much as 69% year to date.
Strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) has been the key to Alibaba's recent success. The company's cloud unit revenue jumped 18% year over year in Q1. AI-related product revenue for the business grew by triple digits for the seventh consecutive quarter.
I predict that AI will continue to serve as a major tailwind for Alibaba, especially with the rise of Chinese AI models such as DeepSeek's R1. I also view the stock's valuation as a big plus. Alibaba's shares trade at only 11.7 times forward earnings. Its price-to-earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio, which is based on the five-year earnings growth projections of analysts surveyed by LSEG, is 0.91. Any PEG ratio below 1.0 is considered to be an attractive valuation.
3. Intuit
Intuit (INTU 0.98%) is probably a more familiar name to many U.S. investors than MercadoLibre or Alibaba. Around 100 million customers use its TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp software applications.
2025 didn't start so great for Intuit. Its share price fell by a double-digit percentage during the first few months of the year. However, the stock has been on a tear since early April and is now up close to 25% year to date.
That kind of rebound isn't surprising, considering how well Intuit's business is doing across the board. Total revenue jumped 15% year over year in the company's fiscal third quarter, which ended April 30. Diluted earnings per share soared 19%. Intuit's consumer group revenue rose 11%. Its global business solutions group revenue vaulted 19% higher. Credit Karma was the brightest star of all, with revenue up 31% year over year.
I think Intuit's platforms are ideally suited for integrating AI. That's exactly what the company is doing, including developing AI agents to automate more tasks. I expect Intuit's profitability will continue to impre significantly over the next decade and beyond, thanks to AI.
