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

Is your portfolio in need of a reload, if not an outright reset? If so, you're not alone. A volatile start to 2026 has pushed some investors into positions they might not actually want, while other investors are still on the sidelines waiting for a pullback that may never happen. Both are mistakes. The smartest investing move is still just buying and sticking with quality stocks for the long haul.

With that as the backdrop, if you have $3,000 otherwise-idle bucks you're ready to put to work in the market, here's a closer look at three of your best bets right now.

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Roku

Ironically, the very same streaming industry that Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU) helped bring the cable television industry to its knees now faces the same problem as its predecessor: There's too much cost for too much bundled content. Growth in customer headcount for the streaming business has stalled as a result, seemingly presenting a problem for Roku.

Roku's role within the streaming industry, however, leaves it far less subject to this slowdown than it might seem. The company is primarily an intermediary, providing technology to help users consume video content. It earns money just by making this programming available on its platform, regardless of how much or how little consumers actually watch, or what they pay to watch.

And it's the top-viewed choice in a couple of key markets, including Latin America and North America. In fact, industry research outfit Pixalate reports Roku's already-leading share of North America's connected-television market grew to 36% during the first quarter of this year, nearly double next-nearest Amazon's 19%.

This growing reach is translating into a positive fiscal impact as well. Even if the streaming business itself is stagnating, Roku is finding a way to capture the growing amount of money being spent to sell this digital entertainment. Last quarter's platform revenue grew 28% year over year, with an equal mix of advertising and subscription revenue contributing to this progress. The company also continues to widen its profit margins, turning $85.7 million of Q1's total top line of $1.25 billion into net income, versus the year-earlier loss of $27.4 million -- a pace of progress analysts expect to persist at least through next year, as the streaming business matures around this company's tech.

ServiceNow

It makes superficial sense that ServiceNow's (NYSE: NOW) shares have halved since the middle of last year. That's when investors began second-guessing the steep valuations of some artificial intelligence stocks. At that time, its shares were still well up from their sizable gains logged in 2023 and 2024, leaving them more than a little vulnerable to this headwind.

Sellers, however, have arguably overshot their target, creating an opportunity for investors who can take a step back and see the bigger picture.

ServiceNow is a workflow solutions provider, meaning anyone can use its AI-powered software to automate redundant, taxing, or time-consuming tasks so employees can focus on more important, higher-level work. It's not the only name in the business. UiPath and Workday are competitors, along with a few other lesser-known players.

ServiceNow enjoys a competitive advantage, however. That's its age. Launched in 2003, it was one of the very first names in the workflow automation business -- long before artificial intelligence dramatically improved such tech. Indeed, the company has not only had time to carve out more than its fair share of this market (before and after it incorporated AI into its apps), but it's also been able to help shape the industry it now leads. Other outfits are in the mix, but none have been able to dethrone the original powerhouse in the workflow business.

The thing is, there's still much more upside to realize. A long-term outlook from Morningstar suggests the company's revenue will grow from 2025's $13.3 billion to $29.5 billion in 2030, driving per-share profits up from $1.67 to $5.01 during this same stretch. That's annualized bottom-line growth of nearly 25%, more than justifying the valuation that seemed to worry so many investors in the latter half of last year.

CRISPR Therapeutics

Finally, like many other young biotech companies' stocks, shares of CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP) have fallen in and out of favor since its developmental hopes began turning into reality a few years ago. After a fantastic run-up from 2018 through 2020, this ticker tumbled in 2021 and has since moved sideways.

There's something that just might light a fire under this stock in the very near future, though.

Approved in late 2023, CRISPR Therapeutics' Casgevy, a treatment for sickle cell disease and another blood disorder, was the first-ever gene therapy approved by the Food and Drug Administration for any purpose. And with the help of commercialization partner Vertex Pharmaceuticals, it was ready to hit the ground running shortly thereafter.

The only catch? Casgevy is costly and somewhat complicated to administer. While most insurers will eventually cover the treatment's $2.2 million price tag, preapproval verification is obviously required. Each patient's treatment is also custom-created for them starting with a sample of their own blood, a process that can take months to complete, start-to-finish.

The business is starting to build since revenue started flowing in earnest in the latter half of last year, however. After last year's total top line of $3.5 million, analysts expect CRISPR Therapeutics' sales to reach on the order of $40 million this year. That's en route to at least twice that amount next year, now that more and more Casgevy patients are in the pipeline and will eventually lead to reportable revenue.

Then there's the fact that CRISPR Therapeutics' gene-editing know-how isn't limited to treating sickle cell disease. The biotech has five other promising clinical trials underway, in addition to several more preclinical studies. Those include tests of this science as a treatment for diabetes, as well as for certain kinds of cancer.

There's still much work to be done before CRISPR Therapeutics will even be in a position to be profitable, arguably making this company the riskiest of the three in question. However, the potential reward is worth the risk. An outlook from Precedence Research suggests the global CRISPR-based gene-editing therapy market is set to grow from less than $5 billion this year to nearly $15 billion by 2035. That's an annualized growth rate of almost 13%.

James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, CRISPR Therapeutics, Roku, ServiceNow, UiPath, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and Workday. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.