15 No-Brainer Stocks to Add to Your Portfolio

When you have openings to fill in your portfolio, take a close look at dominant and fast-growing companies, as they often have terrific long-term growth potential. Here's a warning, though: Don't buy them at any price. You do want to focus on the best companies around, but if you overpay for them, you can either end up with a loss when their stocks drop closer to their intrinsic value, or you may have to wait a long time for them to double or triple in value.

Here are 15 solid companies for your consideration. If you're really interested in any, aim to buy them when they're undervalued -- and if you can't or won't wait, you might just build a position by buying gradually over time. It's also effective to add stocks of interest to a watch list that you can monitor over time, waiting for good entry points.

5 Winning Stocks Under $49
We hear it over and over from investors, “I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by the Motley Fool. I’d be sitting on a gold mine!” And it’s true. And while Amazon and Netflix have had a good run, we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Simply click here to learn how to get your copy of “5 Growth Stocks Under $49” for FREE for a limited time only.

Let's start with Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX), which needs little introduction. From a single store in 1971, it has grown into a coffee juggernaut with more than 33,000 locations worldwide. Its market value may be around $137 billion, but that's not keeping it from growing, as U.S. revenue grew by 10% between 2019 and 2021. (Many analysts are skipping 2020 when assessing growth rates, as lots of companies' numbers were so abnormal due to the pandemic.) One reason investors are optimistic about Starbucks is because it's growing fairly rapidly in China, a superpopulous nation capable of consuming lots of coffee -- but Chinese stores are performing less well than U.S. ones.

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Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) is another very familiar name, and there are few bigger companies around. Its market value recently stood near $1.7 trillion, and it's still growing briskly. In its second quarter, net sales surged 27% year over year, while operating cash flow increased 16%. The company is the biggest consumer-serving e-commerce business around, but there's much more to it, such as its dominant and fast-growing cloud-computing division, Amazon Web Services. Don't balk at the stock's price tag recently near $3,292 per share -- that just reflects a company that hasn't split its stock in a long while (not since 1999, in fact). You can always buy just one share, or buy a fraction of a share, as some brokerages let you do.

Visa (NYSE: V), recently with a market capitalization topping $500 billion, is probably a bigger business than you think it is. It notes, "Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second." Its third quarter featured net revenue jumping 27% year over year, while adjusted net income popped 39%.

Online marketplaces such as eBay are Etsy are familiar to many, if not most, Americans, but you may not realize that there are similar counterparts elsewhere in the world. MercadoLibre (Nasdaq: MELI), for example, is a massive online marketplace serving Latin America (most notably Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico), and it has a fintech platform as well. Its stock has surged more than 400% over the past three years, but many investors see plenty of further growth ahead. E-commerce is growing in the area, and MercadoLibre is making purchasing online easier for the millions of customers without bank accounts by offering prepaid accounts that can be filled at convenience stores. In its second quarter, net revenue more than doubled year over year (on a currency-neutral basis), while 37% more items were sold in its market.

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While Visa is clearly one of the biggest players in fintech, PayPal Holdings (Nasdaq: PYPL) also sports a fairly hefty valuation, with a recent market capitalization of $325 billion. If you're thinking to yourself, "I don't know how many people use PayPal these days -- most of the young people I see seem to be using Venmo" -- know that PayPal actually owns Venmo. PayPal has been around for more than 20 years, and is serving more than 400 million active accounts and businesses in more than 200 markets. Its second quarter featured total payment volume rising 40% year over year to $331 billion, while net revenue jumped 17%. Clearly, PayPal isn't done growing.

5 Winning Stocks Under $49
We hear it over and over from investors, “I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by the Motley Fool. I’d be sitting on a gold mine!” And it’s true. And while Amazon and Netflix have had a good run, we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Simply click here to learn how to get your copy of “5 Growth Stocks Under $49” for FREE for a limited time only.

Like PayPal, Square (NYSE: SQ) is another major player in the fintech arena, known for the white devices that let small businesses process credit cards via their smartphones or on countertop tablets. It's more than that, though. It's also home to the popular Cash App tool, which helps people "spend, send, store, and invest" money. A few months ago, it bought a majority stake in Jay-Z's music streaming business, Tidal, and the company recently announced it was buying the Australian buy-now-pay-later specialist Afterpay for about $29 billion. In Square's second quarter, gross profits rose 91% year over year, while Cash App's gross profits surged 94%.

Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), recently sporting a market value near $1 trillion, is another tech titan, focused on social media. More than 100 billion messages are shared on Facebook every day, and the platform boasts nearly 2 billion daily active users and close to 3 billion monthly active users. Facebook is more than just Facebook, too, as you'll also find Instagram and WhatsApp under its roof, along with many investments in virtual reality. In Facebook's second quarter, total revenue popped by 56%, while net income doubled.

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Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG) (Nasdaq: GOOGL) may not be a household brand at the moment, but its top property, Google, certainly is. The company recently sported a market value topping $1.8 trillion, and like Facebook and other tech giants, there's much more to it than just the dominant search engine. (Indeed, that's why it changed its company name to Alphabet, suggesting that its scope ranges from A to Z.) For starters, Alphabet owns the dominant Android mobile operating system, along with YouTube and a growing cloud computing service. (The bulk of its profits come from search, though.)

Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG) isn't a household name, and it isn't likely to become one -- as its offerings are sold to hospitals and healthcare concerns, not consumers. Still, it has grown into a giant, with a market value near $120 billion at the time of this writing, and its stock soaring about 80% over the past year. The company specializes in robotic surgical equipment -- million-dollar-plus machines that allow surgeons to guide tools into the human body, performing minimally invasive surgeries. As more kinds of surgeries are cleared for its da Vinci robotic equipment to perform, its fortunes will improve even further. Better still, it doesn't generate revenue only from sales of the da Vincis (and thousands have already been sold) -- it also collects plenty from service contracts and supplies and accessories for the machines.

If you like to shop online, chances are you've taken a peek at Etsy (Nasdaq: ETSY) -- or you're already a customer. The company made a name for itself as a marketplace specializing in handmade and vintage items, but it's been broadening its scope. For example, it bought Reverb, a marketplace for reselling musical instruments, in 2019, and more recently it bought Depop, a clothing reselling site. Etsy recently sported a market capitalization of $24 billion, and in its second quarter, gross merchandise sales increased by 13% year over year and revenue jumped 23%.

5 Winning Stocks Under $49
We hear it over and over from investors, “I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by the Motley Fool. I’d be sitting on a gold mine!” And it’s true. And while Amazon and Netflix have had a good run, we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Simply click here to learn how to get your copy of “5 Growth Stocks Under $49” for FREE for a limited time only.

Some companies are in businesses that might shrink or disappear -- think of the fate of Blockbuster, for example, or Eastman Kodak. One business that seems very unlikely to shrink or disappear is that of garbage collection and recycling. And the top player in that arena in the U.S. is Waste Management (NYSE: WM). With a current market value near $63 billion and a dividend that recently yielded 1.5%, the company not only collects, transfers, disposes, recycles, and recovers waste throughout North America, but it's also a top owner and operator of landfill gas-to-energy facilities. In its second quarter, revenue increased by 25.7% year over year, while adjusted net income rose 44.6%.

ALSO READ: 2 Stocks Worth Owning Through a Stock Market Crash

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), with a recent market value near $2.2 trillion, needs little introduction, except to point out that it, too, is likely more than you imagined it was. Its universe includes not only the Windows operating system for PCs but also the Office productivity suite of software, the Azure cloud computing service, and the Xbox gaming platform, among other things (such as Skype and LinkedIn). The company employs more than 180,000 people worldwide, more than 100,000 of whom are in the U.S. In its second quarter, Microsoft's revenue grew 21% year over year, while net income surged 47%, proving that it's still quite capable of growing briskly.

Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) was already a huge and growing pharmaceutical company a few years ago, and then came… the pandemic. Now its future looks even more promising as it has become a major player in vaccines, through its partnership with BioNTech. While much of the U.S. is vaccinated against COVID-19 now, billions of people elsewhere are still waiting for their chance, and it's looking likely that ongoing booster shots will be recommended, too, at least for a while. Pfizer's market value was recently $271 billion, and its second-quarter revenue surged 92% year over year, while net income popped 75%. Even excluding the vaccine, operating revenue grew by 10% year over year in the quarter.

Coincidentally, athletic powerhouse Nike (NYSE: NKE) recently sported the same market value as Pfizer -- $271 billion. In its own words, it's "the world's leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities." The company also owns the notable Converse brand. Nike's last quarter was its fourth, and it reported revenue up 96% over the previous (pandemic-affected) year and up 19% over 2019 results. On top of that, profit margins are growing, as is the company's cash -- which now totals more than $13 billion. With that kind of money, Nike can boost its dividend, buy back lots of shares, and/or buy other businesses.

ALSO READ: 3 Inflation-Proof Dividend Stocks to Buy Today

Finally, there's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B), helmed for more than 50 years by superinvestor Warren Buffett. If you can't invest like Buffett (few of us can), you can let him and his lieutenants invest your money for you, via shares of Berkshire. The company is a wide-ranging conglomerate, with focuses on insurance (think GEICO and more), energy, and transportation (the BNSF railroad), along with businesses such as See's Candies, Fruit of the Loom, International Dairy Queen, and Benjamin Moore. Berkshire also buys portions of companies, via their stock, and is a major holder of stock in Apple, American Express, Bank of America, and Coca-Cola, among many others. Those worried about Buffett's age (he turns 91 on Aug. 30) can take comfort in the knowledge that his succession plan is in place.

5 Winning Stocks Under $49
We hear it over and over from investors, “I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by the Motley Fool. I’d be sitting on a gold mine!” And it’s true. And while Amazon and Netflix have had a good run, we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Simply click here to learn how to get your copy of “5 Growth Stocks Under $49” for FREE for a limited time only.

These companies are all big and getting bigger -- even the ones that are already huge. Not all of them will be right for you and your portfolio, so dig into any ones that interest you to learn more. And aim to buy any you want when they're attractively priced.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. American Express is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Bank of America is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Selena Maranjian owns shares of Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon, American Express, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), Facebook, Intuitive Surgical, MercadoLibre, Microsoft, PayPal Holdings, Square, and Starbucks. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), Etsy, Facebook, Intuitive Surgical, MercadoLibre, Microsoft, Nike, PayPal Holdings, Square, Starbucks, and Visa. The Motley Fool recommends Waste Management and eBay and recommends the following options: long January 2022 $1,920 calls on Amazon, long March 2023 $120 calls on Apple, long January 2022 $580 calls on Intuitive Surgical, long January 2022 $75 calls on PayPal Holdings, long January 2023 $200 calls on Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), short January 2022 $1,940 calls on Amazon, short March 2023 $130 calls on Apple, short January 2022 $600 calls on Intuitive Surgical, short January 2023 $200 puts on Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), short January 2023 $265 calls on Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), short July 2021 $120 calls on Starbucks, and short October 2021 $70 calls on eBay. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.