Buying and holding solid companies benefiting from secular trends is a tried and true strategy in the stock market.
For instance, an investment of $1,000 made a decade ago in an index fund tracking the Nasdaq 100 index is now worth more than $4,800. For comparison, a similar investment in an S&P 500 index is worth $2,800. Technology stocks have grown faster than the overall market because of their ability to capitalize on disruptive trends.
That's why investors with $1,000 would do well to put their money into tech stocks such as The Trade Desk (TTD -2.22%) and Arm Holdings (ARM -3.32%).
Both are sitting on major growth opportunities in their respective industries and can outperform the broad market long term.
1. The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk went public nearly eight years ago. Investors who put $1,000 into shares of this programmatic advertising company on its first day of trading are now sitting on tremendous gains: That investment would now be worth more than $33,000.
Data by YCharts; TTM = trailing 12 months.
The Trade Desk has managed such terrific gains because of the outstanding growth it has delivered over the years. The company is a leader in the growing programmatic advertising market, which could be worth $779 billion by 2028, according to Statista.
So The Trade Desk's trailing-12-month revenue of $2.1 billion means it is only scratching the surface of a huge opportunity. More importantly, the company is growing at a faster pace than the industry overall, indicating that it is picking up market share over time.
For instance, revenue in the first quarter increased 28% year over year to $491 million, an acceleration from the 23% jump it reported at the end of 2023. Analysts are expecting full-year revenue growth of 24%.
However, there is a good chance The Trade Desk can top that estimate as it attracts more customers by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into its data-driven, real-time ad-buying platform. AI adoption in the digital ad market is forecast to increase at an annual pace of almost 27% over the next decade, generating $214 billion in annual revenue at the end of the forecast period.
The company's customers have already started deploying its AI tools, and management pointed out during the May earnings call that it is witnessing a significant improvement in ad conversion rates and reach. What's more, The Trade Desk has been outperforming more established names in the digital ad market with its platform.
All this indicates that The Trade Desk's healthy growth is likely here to stay. Investors who haven't bought this growth stock yet might want to do so before it adds to its 30% gain year to date.
2. Arm Holdings
Arm Holdings went public almost a year ago, and investors who put $1,000 into this stock are now sitting on impressive gains as well with that investment now worth more than $2,500. Arm has room to deliver robust long-term gains as it plays a central role in a semiconductor market that is receiving a big boost on multiple fronts from the proliferation of AI.
Investment bank Morgan Stanley recently lifted its price target on Arm from $107 to $190 and upgraded the stock to overweight (buy), citing the massive opportunity available in the edge AI market.
Edge AI refers to the processing of AI on local devices such as smartphones and computers. Fortune Business Insights estimates this market could see over 27% annual growth through 2032 and generate $186 billion in annual revenue at the end of the forecast period.
Arm is a key player here because it licenses its chip architecture to major names such as Apple, Samsung, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, and Taiwan Semiconductor, among others.
These companies use Arm's intellectual property (IP) to design their chips, and they pay a royalty to the British company for each chip they deliver. In its fiscal 2024 fourth quarter (ended Mar. 31), overall revenue increased 47% year over year to a record $928 million.
Management attributed this impressive growth to multiple new chip-design agreements stemming from increased demand in applications like AI, data centers, and edge computing.
The company finished fiscal 2024 with 21% top-line growth to $3.2 billion, and the forecast for the next three fiscal years is healthy as you can see below.
Data by YCharts.
More importantly, Arm has the potential to outperform analysts' expectations because of its strong revenue pipeline. Its remaining performance obligations (RPO) increased 45% year over year last quarter to $2.5 billion with multiple high-value, long-term agreements signed during the quarter.
RPO refers to the value of a company's contracts that will be fulfilled in the future, and it is evident that AI is giving the company a nice boost on this front. That's why investors looking to add a semiconductor stock to their portfolios should consider Arm Holdings.
