Every investor is a growth investor, in my opinion. No one wants to see the value of their portfolio dwindle. Even if you’re primarily focused on income, you’d still love to see your investments appreciate.
Not every growth stock is ideal for every growth investor, though. Some are too speculative for risk-averse investors. However, a select few could be appealing to most investors. Here’s my pick for the ultimate growth stock to buy with $1,000 right now.
Image source: Getty Images.
I didn’t have to search for an obscure stock that few investors have on their radar screens. Pretty much everyone has heard of Amazon(NASDAQ: AMZN). Millions of people regularly use the company’s products and services.
Amazon has unquestionably been an impressive growth story so far. It started in 1994 as an online bookstore. Over time, the company expanded into selling many more products on its e-commerce platform. Amazon leveraged the massive scale of its data centers to offer cloud services to customers with the launch of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2006. And it moved into the physical world in 2017 with the acquisition of brick-and-mortar grocer Whole Foods.
A $10,000 investment in Amazon at its initial public offering (IPO) in 1995 would be worth close to $22.8 million today. The stock has delivered a jaw-dropping return of roughly 2,276x since its IPO, making Amazon one of the greatest growth stocks in stock market history.
That growth isn’t limited to Amazon’s early years, though. Over the past decade, the stock has soared almost ninefold. Amazon’s market cap of nearly $2.4 trillion ranks it among the world’s five largest companies. Its phenomenal growth also earned Amazon a spot in the so-called “Magnificent Seven” stocks.
I didn’t pick Amazon as the ultimate growth stock to buy solely because of its past track record, though. I think the company is well-positioned to deliver strong growth in the future, too.
Although Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla of e-commerce, it still has significant growth opportunities in this arena. Importantly, the company only claims around 1% of the global retail market. Most shopping is still done in physical stores. As e-commerce gains ground (which I expect will happen), Amazon should benefit.
Earnings growth is arguably the best predictor of share price growth. Amazon’s e-commerce earnings continue to soar, thanks in large part to operational efficiency improvements resulting from artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics initiatives.
Speaking of AI, it’s probably the single biggest growth driver for Amazon over the next decade. AWS is poised for strong growth as organizations build and deploy AI systems in the cloud. The company’s cloud services unit has launched multiple AI products that make creating AI models easier, notably including Amazon Bedrock. CEO Andy Jassy predicts that global IT spending in the cloud will more than quintuple over the next 10 to 15 years, with AWS set to be one of the biggest winners.
Amazon continually looked for new markets to conquer during its early years. That hasn’t changed. The company plans to roll out a satellite internet service this year to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink. Amazon’s Zoox unit is a contender along with Alphabet‘s (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) Waymo and Tesla(NASDAQ: TSLA) in what’s expected to be a fast-growing robotaxi market.
Other stocks also have great growth prospects. I especially like Amazon, though, because — to use a football analogy — it plays offense and defense very well.
By offense, I’m referring to Amazon’s growth strategy. As we’ve already seen, the company has multiple ways to grow. If Amazon were a football team, it would have a great defense, too. The company’s “defense” consists of its competitive moats. As the largest player in e-commerce and cloud services, Amazon has plenty of moats.
There’s no guarantee that any stock will deliver solid gains over the long run. However, I think the odds are better with Amazon than they are with other stocks.
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Keith Speights has positions in Alphabet and Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
