3 Growth Stocks Worth $3,000 of Your Money -- Even in This Market
Key Points
Amazon's stagnant stock price and strong growth has made it a must buy.
MercadoLibre's stock has gone nowhere despite explosive growth, making it a solid stock to buy right now.
E.l.f. has a huge opportunity using its proven playbook to drive growth with its latest acquisition in Rhode.
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Market volatility is up, and stock prices are down. However, that doesn't mean it's time to panic. Instead, now is the time to scour the market looking for great buys.
While value stocks have been outperforming so far in 2026, that has rarely been the case over the past two decades. As such, investors should be looking for solid growth stocks at attractive prices in the market.
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Let's look at three growth stocks you can put $3,000 into and get started on your way to building a top-notch growth portfolio.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Amazon: The underappreciated e-commerce king
In my view, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is one of the most underappreciated growth stocks in the market today. The stock is up only 30% in the past five years (2020-2025), badly trailing the market's overall gains. However, during this stretch, the company has grown its sales by 86% to $716.9 billion and its operating income by 3.5x to $80 billion.
The combination of growth with a largely stagnant stock price has left Amazon with one of the most attractive valuations in its existence. And at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 27 times this year's analyst estimates, it trades at a big discount to its brick-and-mortar peers Walmart and Costco, which have forward P/Es topping 40.
This is despite the fact that Amazon is growing its retail business more quickly, seeing strong operating leverage in its e-commerce operations due to its investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, and it has a fast-growing cloud computing unit. Amazon is too cheap with too many growth levers, making it a great stock to buy at current levels.
2. MercadoLibre: The Latin American giant with a dual growth engine
MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI) is another stock that has gone nowhere fast. It is up only 14% over the past five years despite growing its revenue by more than seven times to $28.9 billion during this period, and its operating income going from $128 million in 2020 to $3.2 billion in 2025.
The company is not just the premier e-commerce player in Latin America, but it's also become one of the most important financial service platforms in the region. This is giving it a dual growth engine that most companies dream of. In e-commerce, MercadoLibre is investing heavily in its logistics network and offering free shipping to lock in consumers. While this will ultimately help expand its retail business and create a wide moat, the market has been impatient. MercadoLibre is growing its high-margin ad business, as well.
Meanwhile, the company has transformed itself from simply a payment processor into a digital bank for Latin America. This is a huge potential opportunity, and the company has been aggressively increasing assets under management, credit card users, and payment volumes.
While the stock doesn't look dirt cheap based on its 33 times forward earnings, that multiple drops to only 23 times based on 2027 estimates. MercadoLibre is a little more aggressive given its expanding ties to Latin American banking, but this is a solid growth stock to scoop up here.
3. E.l.f Beauty: The Rhode to strong growth
Few companies have been better at taking market share in the consumer space over the past few years than e.l.f Beauty (NYSE: ELF). The combination of solid product offerings at low prices and influencer marketing has helped the company take the mass cosmetics market by storm with its namesake brand. It's been able to gain massive shelf space and has seen its sales soar. Now it is set to use its playbook with its newest acquisition, Rhode.
Rhode, which was founded by celebrity Hailey Bieber, has been one of the fastest-growing cosmetics brands around, reaching more than $200 million in sales in less than three years. Impressively, it did this with little marketing and only a handful of products sold on its website. Under e.l.f.'s umbrella, the brand will see increased distribution, product lines, and marketing, all of which will help drive strong sales growth for years to come.
With the stock trading at a forward P/E of around 16 times, this is a bargain growth stock to pick up.
Don’t miss this second chance at a potentially lucrative opportunity
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Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, available when you join Stock Advisor, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.
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*Stock Advisor returns as of April 7, 2026.
Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Amazon, MercadoLibre, and e.l.f. Beauty. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Costco Wholesale, MercadoLibre, Walmart, and e.l.f. Beauty. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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