Alphabet may be lumped in with other high-tech names, but it doesn’t require technological prowess to perform.
MercadoLibre is often compared to Amazon.
GE Vernova has three years’ worth of business growth already lined up, and more is sure to materialize.
Has artificial intelligence (AI) mania motivated you to make your first foray into the stock market? If so, you're not alone. A lot of people seem to be making a lot of money with shares of companies like Nvidia and Broadcom. AI is certainly compelling.
Before diving into the AI names you're hearing so much about, however, you should know that successfully navigating this red-hot industry is easier said than done. Most of the easy gains that AI stocks were ever going to offer are likely in the rearview mirror. You'd be better served by getting started with stocks that are much easier to own, just because they're in more enduring businesses that are easier to understand.
Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »
With that as the backdrop, here's a rundown of three beginner-friendly growth stocks that -- despite their simplicity -- could easily outperform the overall market at least through 2030.
At first blush, Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is just another huge, complicated technology outfit.
Now take a closer look. Alphabet isn't that complicated. It just dominates a lot of simple but important (and gigantic) markets. For instance, numbers from Statcounter indicate that Google still handles a whopping 90% of the world's web searches, while its Android mobile operating system is installed on more than two-thirds of the planet's handheld connected devices.
Alphabet's fast-growing cloud computing arm isn't difficult to understand, either. Companies need digital storage and productivity solutions that can be accessed remotely, and this is what Google Cloud offers. This arm did $20 billion worth of business last quarter, up 63% year over year, turning $6.6 billion of that into operating income. Even YouTube is a surprising powerhouse, outperforming Netflix as the nation's most-watched (measured by total viewing time) streaming platform, according to television-ratings agency Nielsen.
These brands aren't just powerful players in their respective businesses. They're often consumers' and companies' go-to choices for such services. Such habits aren't easily broken.
So don't assume that the growth of this tech giant depends on a novel technology that could be easily topped by a clever rival. Alphabet's 2025 market-beating sales growth of 15% is sustainable because the company is just that dominant -- it's so well entrenched in so many places.
Many investors wish they could go back in time to invest in Amazon in its infancy. While they can't, they can do something pretty similar: taking a stake in up-and-coming e-commerce powerhouse MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI). It's often compared to Amazon -- with a focus on Latin America -- and for good reason.
The parallels are pretty clear. Chief among them is the fact that MercadoLibre facilitates e-commerce. It goes beyond that though. The company makes it easy to use its platform by also offering logistics and payment solutions that can handle the all-important cross-border payments required when serving a market that includes multiple countries.
And it's working. Last quarter's top line was up 49% year over year, extending and accelerating last year's revenue growth of 39%.
Image source: Getty Images.
The crux of the case for investing in MercadoLibre however, is the state of the region's e-commerce market itself. In many ways the countries served by MercadoLibre are where the U.S. and Canada were a couple of decades ago, when broadband was being established as a connectivity choice and mobile phones were becoming mainstream. Latin America is currently the planet's fastest-growing e-commerce market, and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.
MercadoLibre stock has underperformed since the middle of last year, largely because the company has been spending a fortune on free shipping in its effort to turn consumers into regular customers. Investors aren't fans of the string of earnings shortfalls resulting from the expense. Just bear in mind that Amazon took similar measures by expanding and improving Prime's perks back in 2019; the short-term pain ended up driving incredible long-term customer growth.
Finally, add GE Vernova (NYSE: GEV) to your list of beginner-friendly growth stocks that are apt to outperform the overall market for at least the next few years.
Yes, this is an offshoot of the old General Electric, which finally broke itself up into three smaller and more manageable pieces back in 2024. GE Vernova is the power-production business, manufacturing everything from wind turbines to hydroelectric equipment to nuclear-reactor tech.
Its breadwinning business right now, however, is natural gas turbines. Roughly half of last year's revenue of $38 billion came from this arm, while its backlog grew to $94 billion. And that's just in its power division, which is sold out through 2028. GE Vernova's companywide backlog of business now stands at $150 billion, and is still growing as well. The company's chief challenge at the moment is not enough manufacturing capacity.
It's not too difficult to figure out what's driving this growth. Already strained, the nation's utility companies are being forced by the advent of artificial intelligence data centers to quickly ramp up power-production capacity. And in cases where they just can't, institutions are solving the problem by directly purchasing their own electricity-generation equipment. The business is simple enough, and GE Vernova is certainly transparent about what's going on.
Arguably, the large downside to stepping into this stock right now is its 280% run-up since last April's low. Plenty of investors clearly recognize that this company will enjoy incredible demand for a while, as they've pumped up the stock's valuation to 33 times this year's projected per-share earnings of $30.96.
Just don't be too stingy about price, or stubbornly hold out for a sizable pullback. Despite the stock's recent gains, the analyst community still feels GE Vernova is undervalued. The majority currently rates it as a strong buy, with an average price target of $1,248, 20% above its present price per share.
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James Brumley has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Broadcom, GE Vernova, MercadoLibre, Netflix, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.