© Provided by The Motley Fool 3 Supercharged Stocks With More Potential Than Any Cryptocurrency The volatility of the cryptocurrency market over the past year has largely disproved that it's a hedge against inflation, and many have headed for the hills. I'm not saying that investors should avoid cryptocurrency altogether. As with any investment, it's important to understand what you're buying, and ensure it's the proper fit for your basket of holdings.
CONSTELLATION BRANDS, INC.That said, you don't have to invest in digital currency to build a portfolio primed for great returns over the long term. Let's look at three unstoppable growth stocks you might want to hit the buy button on before the month is out.
1. AirbnbAirbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) continues to benefit from the travel recovery, but its recent financial reports indicate a growth story that is broadly eclipsing that of the typical travel stock.
Even as consumer spending is down on certain discretionary items, people are still spending on travel. With a platform that caters to vacationers, business travelers, and those blending both in the digital age, Airbnb can benefit from the post-pandemic travel recovery as well as long-term trends.
On the flip side, with a difficult economy causing worries about income security, more and more people are looking at Airbnb as a way to earn extra money as hosts. The company ended 2022 with 6.6 million active listings on its platform, a record high and an increase of 16% from a year ago.
Customers booked 394 million nights and experiences and generated $63 billion in gross booking value on Airbnb's platform in 2022, up 31% and 35%, respectively, from 2021. Compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, bookings rose 20% and gross booking value was up 67%.
While a full-blown recession could slow demand for Airbnb in the short term, the foundation it's laying now -- along with the profits it's raking in -- can help it weather an economic storm.
Airbnb benefits from both long-term and short-term travelers (21% of all bookings were stays of 28 days or more as of the end of 2022), so even if spending slows in one area, the variety of catalysts driving the company's growth can offset it.
Over the long term, Airbnb is primed to continue revolutionizing the travel industry, and that's a growth story that's hard to ignore, bear market or not.
2. ShopifyShopify (NYSE: SHOP) is building out its platform as a one-stop shop for merchants to start and scale up a brand. Right now, that means the company is investing heavily in its supply chain infrastructure, products, and services for merchants. Overall revenue is growing steadily, as are subscription and merchant solutions revenue.
Subscription revenue is derived from the fees merchants pay to use Shopify's platform, while merchants solutions revenue comes from digital and physical products and services, like transaction fees and its hardware for its point-of-sale systems.
In 2022, total revenue jumped 21% year over year to $5.6 billion. Merchant solutions revenue grew 26% from one year ago to $4.1 billion; subscription revenue rose 11% from 2021 to $1.5 billion. The integration of Deliverr to Shopify's order-fulfillment network is still in its early stages, but it's already paying off, with management saying that the final quarter of 2022 saw a 40% year-over-year jump in orders per merchant.
Shopify also recently raised the price of subscriptions for merchants to use its platform, the first meaningful price hike in over a decade. This could grow revenue and profits over the long term.
More importantly, Shopify is investing in tools -- including its fulfillment network and better cross-border sales management -- to help attract and retain merchants, which can translate to more sales and earnings.
The company is focusing on growth over profits right now. It's a risky strategy, but to remain competitive, Shopify has to continue upgrading its services to merchants. The more merchants on its platform, and the better the tools at their disposal, the more likely they are to launch and scale up successful businesses that draw more and more customers. And that will have them sticking with Shopify through that journey.
For investors with the risk tolerance to capitalize on this growth story, the stock's currently discounted price might be too good to pass up.
3. Vertex PharmaceuticalsVertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX) is a leader in a lucrative niche of the fast-growing healthcare industry. The company's current portfolio of drugs all target the rare genetic disease cystic fibrosis and are the only approved medications on the market that treat its underlying cause.
On top of this first-mover advantage, Vertex thinks there are upward of 20,000 people who could still benefit from its existing portfolio of drugs but aren't taking them yet.
There are also roughly 5,000 cystic fibrosis patients who can't take the company's current drugs due to the nature of their underlying mutation, but Vertex is working on a potential therapy for them, along with other promising treatments in its pipeline.
That pipeline includes what could soon be another blockbuster drug. Exa-cel, its candidate for rare blood disorders, is being developed as part of a long-standing collaboration with CRISPR Therapeutics. Vertex is paying 60% of the development costs in return for 60% of the profits.
The company is undergoing regulatory submissions for exa-cel in the U.S., and has already completed them in the U.K. and Europe. If approved, exa-cel would be the first CRISPR therapy approved for a genetic ailment, as well as the first potential one-time functional cure for both sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia.
Vertex is also working on therapies for other under-targeted diseases, such as Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (a genetic disease that can cause lung and liver ailments) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. And it has candidates for acute pain and Type 1 diabetes in the works.
This business has built high revenue and earnings from its portfolio of cystic fibrosis drugs (profits topped $3 billion in 2022), but it's not anywhere close to slowing down. For investors seeking a high-growth healthcare stock with an enviable financial track record and plenty of long-term opportunities to supercharge its business, Vertex Pharmaceuticals looks like a more than worthy contender.
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Rachel Warren has positions in Shopify. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Airbnb, CRISPR Therapeutics, Shopify, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.