Buying a stock after a sharp rise in its price can cause some second-guessing by investors. While there's a drive to get in on the hot stock that only seems to go up, there's also a competing fear that maybe the stock has climbed too far too fast or that its future growth is already priced in.
With broader market valuations floating around all-time highs, more growth stocks look overpriced than not at the moment. But a closer look at some of the biggest winners in the market so far this year shows there are still some excellent opportunities for those looking to ride the biggest trends in growth stocks.
Here are three stocks already up between 46% and 69% so far this year that are not too late to buy.
1. Uber Technologies (up 60%)
Uber (UBER +2.60%) is the largest ride-sharing and food delivery app in the world, and that scale puts it at a significant advantage compared to its competitors.
The company reported 180 million monthly active users in the second quarter, up 15% year over year. By comparison, its next closest competitor, Lyft, saw active users climb just 10% from a much smaller base. That's the network effect in action. Uber's bigger network of drivers and delivery locations attracts more users, which in turn attracts more drivers, restaurants, and stores to its platform.
Many fear that the rise of self-driving cars will displace the need for Uber. But Uber's active user base and years of operating a ride-sharing network are extremely valuable for autonomous vehicle companies. Uber brings the demand to vehicle makers' supply, and it also manages pricing and fleet management. As a result, it's struck multiple partnerships, bringing self-driving cars onto its platform.
NYSE: UBER
Key Data Points
As Uber's flywheel spins, it's seen strong EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) margin improvement. It posted a 4.5% EBITDA margin last quarter, an improvement from 3.9% in the year-ago quarter. Overall, earnings per share grew 34% last quarter.
Despite the 60% increase in share price so far this year, the stock currently trades at a bit more than 26 times earnings expectations. While that's certainly a higher multiple than it received at the start of the year, it's still a low enough valuation to justify buying a stock that could consistently produce earnings growth in the 30% range for the next few years as it continues to expand its margin and grow its revenue base.
2. Zscaler (up 69%)
With more enterprise computing taking place in the cloud, traditional firewall cybersecurity solutions won't do the job anymore. Zscaler (ZS +3.57%) offers a cloud-based zero-trust solution to secure network traffic, ensuring only trusted devices can access key applications. It offers two main solutions: Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) for external applications and Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) for internally developed applications like APIs or databases.
Zscaler is seeing strong growth by selling customers on combined packages of ZIA and ZPA, along with other cloud security services. With more cloud applications and more flexible work-from-home policies, zero trust solutions are proving an effective security measure for many enterprises. The company boasted 350 "Zero Trust Everywhere" enterprise customers as of the end of July, with plans to add at least 40 more over the next year.
It's also seeing strong growth from its AI services. That includes securing AI applications and access to them, as well as its own agentic AI operations. Zscaler's software can help stop prompt injections into LLMs or other malicious behavior. Its ZDX Copilot agent can quickly cut off security threats, investigate them, and solve or contain them with limited human involvement. Management says its agentic AI services could climb to $400 million in annual recurring revenue a year from now, which is a significant share of its expected $3.6 billion in ARR.
NASDAQ: ZS
Key Data Points
Zscaler is posting strong revenue growth, up 21% year over year last quarter. Perhaps more impressive is its growing remaining performance obligations, which climbed 31% last quarter. That suggests it has a long pipeline of demand for its services as it works to onboard more enterprise customers. As a result, it should be able to sustain that high revenue growth rate for years to come.
With the stock trading at an enterprise value to sales multiple of about 13.7-times, the stock may look expensive to some. Indeed, that's well above the 9.9-multiple the stock started the year at before its 69% rise. However, Zscaler's ability to expand the number of modules its customers are using should produce very strong operating income growth, justifying the high multiple for the growth stock.
3. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (up 46%)
When it comes to developing the most advanced chips in the world for applications like artificial intelligence training and inference, every chip designer contracts with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM +0.64%), or TSMC, to actually make them. The semiconductor foundry holds a massive technology lead for advanced chip production, which gives companies like Nvidia or Apple no other choice but to use it for their high-end chip designs. As a result, TSMC has seen its already massive market share of the foundry business expand to more than 70%.
TSMC's advantage benefits from a virtuous cycle. As chipmakers spend more money with TSMC, it has more cash to invest in research and development and capital expenditures. That ensures that it maintains its technology lead and has the capacity to fill the growing demand for its services. Management expects to spend about $40 billion on capital expenditures this year as demand continues to soar.
The growth of artificial intelligence is expected to fuel growth at TSMC for years to come. At the start of the year, management said AI-related chip sales could grow at a 40% compound annual growth rate through 2029, driving 20% overall revenue growth for the business. 2025 is already off to a strong start, with total sales up 37% through August.
AI-driven demand could also benefit TSMC's margin profile as it ramps up its next generation of technology. TSMC has historically faced margin pressure as it works to increase yields of viable chips for new manufacturing processes. Early reports show strong price increases for its N2 process node, which should produce a high gross margin even as it ramps up and improves yields. The same trend could hold true for its A16 process, set to start mass production in late 2026.
After climbing 46% so far this year, TSMC shares trade at more than 28 times analysts' earnings expectations. But the company has consistently blown past those earnings expectations and could offer even better value than the numbers suggest. As an essential partner for AI infrastructure, it's poised to maintain strong revenue growth and profit margins for years to come.
