The S&P 500 has reached record levels in recent times and is heading for its third consecutive annual gain -- in this sort of environment, you may be thinking a lot about growth stocks. These are players that have the potential to supercharge your portfolio thanks to their strong revenue gains and dynamic businesses. You'll find many of them in the technology space, but they're also present across industries.
One in particular that stands out is considered a consumer goods player and a tech giant. In both areas, this company has consistently delivered revenue growth over time and is well positioned to continue that momentum in the years to come. In fact, it may be the ultimate growth stock to buy with $1,000 (or even less) right now. Let's check out this stock that has what it takes to supercharge your portfolio over the long run.
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A company you may know well
This growth player is one you may know very well -- you might even use its services on a weekly basis. I'm talking about Amazon (AMZN -4.97%), one of the world's top e-commerce companies. This market giant has built an e-commerce empire over the past several years, offering everything from groceries and mass merchandise to entertainment such as books and movies.
What's particularly key is that Amazon has constructed a solid moat, or competitive advantage, making it difficult for another to replicate its business and unseat this leader. This is thanks to Amazon's massive fulfillment network, which it has optimized in recent years, as well as the company's Prime subscription program.
All of this has driven strong revenue gains year after year, as well as profitability over most of the recent past. One exception was in 2022, when Amazon struggled with rising inflation, which led to an annual loss. But Amazon's move to revamp its cost structure brought the company back to profitability a year later and set it up for success down the road, as a better cost structure supports earnings growth.
Amazon keeps its customers coming back through its focus on low prices and offering a vast variety of items. And Prime members are likely to do as much of their shopping as possible on Amazon to get the most out of their subscriptions. The company also keeps Prime members loyal by ensuring them fast and free delivery, and Amazon continues to work on shortening delivery times.
Growth in online shopping
It's important to remember that online shopping is still growing, representing more and more opportunities for Amazon. Worldwide retail e-commerce sales of $4.4 trillion in 2023 may reach $6.8 trillion by 2028, according to Forrester. Amazon is well positioned to benefit from this.
All this is great, but it's only part of the Amazon story. This player is also the world's No. 1 cloud services provider, thanks to its Amazon Web Services (AWS) business. In fact, AWS is actually Amazon's main profit driver, and this is good news because a significant amount of growth lies ahead for AWS.
This cloud provider has seen revenue climb in the double digits quarter after quarter. It actually reached a $123 billion annual revenue run rate in the latest period, thanks to demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and services.
AWS offers a broad variety of options for customers, including Nvidia's top-performing chips, AWS-designed chips for cost-conscious customers, and even a fully managed AI service called Amazon Bedrock. Today's billion-dollar AI market is expected to reach into the trillions by early next decade, and this could translate into many years of revenue growth for AWS.
Of course, AWS faces competition from other cloud providers, from market giants like Microsoft Azure to smaller AI-specific players like CoreWeave. But the strength of AI demand and Amazon Web Services' leadership position should keep revenue climbing -- there's room in this market for more than one cloud winner.
These points support the idea of owning Amazon stock, and the valuation may encourage you to get in on the stock now. Amazon today trades for 34 times forward earnings estimates, down from more than 42 times last year. This is a great price, considering the company's leadership in the high-growth areas of e-commerce and AI. All of this makes it the ultimate growth stock to buy today.
