The Best Stocks to Invest $3,000 in Right Now

Is your portfolio ready for a reset? Maybe you need to reload after the recent market shakeup shook you out of a few positions? Whatever the reason, there are always at least some stocks worth buying. If you have $3,000 available to invest that isn't needed to pay down short-term debt or pay off monthly bills, and you need help with your search, you might want to consider these three prospects right now.

Alphabet

Yes, Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) share price is down nearly 14% from its early February peak. Falling short of its fourth-quarter revenue estimates didn't help, but the crux of this weakness is rooted in the company's plans to shell out some serious cash on artificial intelligence infrastructure. The company expects capital expenditures to roll in between $175 billion and $185 billion in 2026, essentially doubling last year's capex investments. For perspective, the company reported revenue of just over $400 billion last year, $132 billion of which was turned into net income.

Image source: Getty Images.

What's largely being overlooked here, however, is that Alphabet's artificial intelligence investments are paying off. Not only is Google Cloud's (where its AI results are reported) current growth outpacing that of Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's cloud business, but Google Cloud's revenue improved 48% year over year during Q4, and this arm's operating income grew an incredible 150%. This business is quickly becoming a true powerhouse profit center.

Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) isn't an easy stock to own. It ebbs and flows a lot, usually pushed around by headlines waffling back and forth between thrilling and devastating. For instance, just last month, the inaugural flight of its medium-lift Neutron rocket, which was first supposed to happen late last year, was once again postponed all the way toward the end of this year. Already struggling, shares slumped even further on the news.

Just recognize the market's pattern of bullish and bearish interest in this ticker. The time to step into it has consistently been when the crowd has turned pessimistic due to the company's developmental delays. The bigger-picture underpinnings for owning a stake in this company haven't changed, though. That is, following the proven developmental success with its smaller Electron rocket, Rocket Lab's medium-lift Neutron will be regularly flying soon enough, putting it into the most important sliver of a space-launch market that Global Market Insights expects to grow by an average of nearly 15% per year through 2035.

Netflix

Finally, consider buying streaming giant Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) while you can step into its stock for about 10% less than its price right before December's announcement that it was interested in acquiring most of Warner Bros. Discovery. If that was investors' only problem with Netflix since then, there's still some upside left to reclaim now that the streaming giant has bowed out, yeilding to competing suitor Paramount Skydance.

It's curious. While the majority of investors weren't fans of Netflix's willingness to pay $83 billion for Warner's streaming platform and intellectual property, the crowd is somehow celebrating the fact that Paramount will be paying even more. Maybe they feel like it's a better fit. Or, maybe not.

What is clear is that two of Netflix's rivals are now joining forces, but the buyer is making a massive $111 billion purchase commitment that may never actually be worth anywhere near that price. Not only do some feel like already-dominant Netflix dodged a proverbial bullet, but a pair of its competitors also just tied up a huge amount of liquidity and fiscal flexibility just to do a deal that's likely to create a complicated, unwieldy media giant. That may be Netflix's real win here.

James Brumley has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, Rocket Lab, and Warner Bros. Discovery. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.