There are perhaps too many times you've heard "think long term". However, doing is sometimes tougher than listening. Floundering stocks might distract investors. You might lose sight of the larger picture when a stock is doing well. Some stocks last decades, but not all. These three growth stocks might be huge long-term winners.
1. Alphabet Investors fretted over Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) early last year. It seemed the tech giant overlooked generative AI. They imagined OpenAI devouring Alphabet's lunch. Today, Alphabet stock has risen over 60% in a year. Alphabet didn't miss the boat on generative AI, in retrospect. The business hopes to deploy Gemini Ultra, an AI model that surpasses the greatest AI systems on 30 of 32 frequently used benchmarks.
AI should boost Alphabet's Google Cloud business long-term. If the firm leads AI tool development, it will be especially true. With Alphabet's $40 billion R&D budget and Google Deepmind's skills, that shouldn't be too far-fetched.
Alphabet's Waymo self-driving vehicle technology offers another AI possibility. It leads quantum computing development. Even life extension research is being done by the firm. The stock may not be a huge winner in 20 years, but I wouldn't bet against it.
2.LibreMarket Remember mid-2022 when the stock market plummeted. Growth stocks were impacted worst. One was MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI), whose shares fell over 70% from its early 2021 peak.But those headwinds were transitory. Over the past year, MercadoLibre stock has risen around 80%. MercadoLibre is popular in Latin America but not in the U.S. It has over 50 million unique buyers on the region's largest e-commerce platform.
Latin American e-commerce has space to develop. Brazil and Mexico, MercadoLibre's top two e-commerce markets, are expected to rise 17% and 33% annually until 2026. Other Latin American countries should provide substantial potential for the corporation.
MercadoLibre has a substantial logistics operation and has expanded into adjacent areas using its e-commerce platform. With MercadoPago's digital payments services, fintech is another development driver.
3. Vertex Pharma Recently, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX) has been one of the few companies that works well regardless of the market. Its shares rose over 31% in 2022 when major market indices fell. The biotech stock continued its 2024 success from last year. I think Vertex will succeed even more. My optimism stems from the company's expansion into attractive sectors beyond cystic fibrosis.
Recently, Vertex received U.S. clearance for Casgevy to treat sickle cell disease. The gene-editing treatment for transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia awaits a second approval. The large biotech expected to announce late-stage VX-548 findings, a non-opioid acute pain medication.
Further in the road, Vertex may develop the first APOL1-mediated kidney disease treatment. The illness affects more people than CF. Cell treatments that might cure type 1 diabetes are being tested by the business in early clinical trials.