The stock market is booming, but there are still bargains to be found. Long-term investors who are ready to commit $1,000 to stocks have some good options in front of them. Lululemon (LULU 1.34%), American Tower (AMT +0.21%), and UiPath (PATH 2.10%) all look enticing, and all three stocks have the potential to soar in the coming years.
Image source: Getty Images.
Lululemon
The past few years have been tough for athleisure icon Lululemon. Stagnation in its product lineup, rising competition, and shifting consumer trends have soured the brand in the eyes of consumers. Comparable sales in the Americas dipped by 4% in the second quarter, reflecting ongoing challenges in its core U.S. market, and earnings per share (EPS) declined from the prior-year period.
While the state of the economy is a wildcard, Lululemon has finally unburied its head from the sand. The company attempted to freshen things up last year with some new styles and colors, but that plan didn't go far enough, and the results were disappointing. The new plan is to bet big on innovation and speed, resetting many of the company's product development practices and aiming for new styles to account for 35% of products in the spring.
NASDAQ: LULU
Key Data Points
Shares of Lululemon are down around 65% from their all-time high. With the stock trading for less than 14 times forward earnings, now is a great time to bet on a comeback if you've got $1,000 to spare.
American Tower
Wireless providers depend on a network of telecom towers to deliver 5G service to their customers. Many of those towers are leased through American Tower. The company owns around 150,000 towers around the world, with roughly 42,000 towers in the U.S. and Canada. American Tower also owns hundreds of distributed antenna systems for indoor and outdoor venues, as well as 30 data centers.
American Tower stock has been largely stagnant over the past few years, but the company's results just keep getting better. Revenue jumped by 7.7% year over year in Q3, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose by 7.6%, and adjusted funds from operations (AFFO), a standard metric reported by real estate investment trusts (REITs), surged by 10.4%. Rising global data demand is driving revenue higher in the core business, and demand for hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) workloads is boosting the data center business.
NYSE: AMT
Key Data Points
For long-term investors with $1,000 to invest, American Tower is a great buy, and a healthy dividend sweetens the pot. The current quarterly dividend of $1.70 per share works out to a dividend yield of about 3.7%. That's a historically high yield for American Tower, and it will reward investors as they sit tight and wait for the stock to break out of its funk.
UiPath
Shares of robotic process automation (RPA) software provider UiPath have been battered over the past few years, down more than 80% from their all-time high. While a lofty post-IPO valuation is part of the story, the AI boom has also played a role. With the rise of AI agents, RPA technology has taken a backseat.
UiPath's strategy is to combine its RPA platform with AI, delivering the best of both worlds to its customers. While RPA is rules-based and consistent, it can be brittle when something changes. AI, in contrast, is adaptable and can handle a wide variety of tasks, but it's not deterministic and can make errors. By merging the two technologies, UiPath can deliver a more capable platform.
NYSE: PATH
Key Data Points
UiPath grew revenue by 14% year over year in the latest quarter, and its dollar-based net retention rate was 108%, implying that customers are expanding usage. There's a real opportunity for UiPath to offer enterprise customers something far more useful than AI agents alone. As the stock market wakes up to the company's growth story, long-term investors with $1,000 to invest can benefit from UiPath's resurgence.
