A $5,000 investment can grow significantly when you put that money into an unstoppable stock and hang on to it for the long term. It's a strategy that can make a lot of sense for long-term investors, as finding a solid company to invest in and simply remaining patient can result in your money doubling or tripling in value or perhaps even growing to more than that.
An unstoppable stock is one that has a promising trajectory ahead where there's little doubt about its future growth opportunities. This is the type of investment where the company is also equipped with strong resources and fundamentals, allowing it to take advantage of opportunities that may arise in the future.
Three unstoppable stocks that can be safe options for investors to build their portfolios around right now include Walmart (WMT -1.22%), Apple (AAPL -1.32%), and Costco Wholesale (COST -1.72%).
1. Walmart
Big-box retailer Walmart has been a top name in both retail and e-commerce for years. However, the business is still flush with growth opportunities. Although it has generated more than $665 billion in revenue over the trailing 12 months, Walmart has over 10,500 stores and clubs and is in just 19 countries throughout the world -- there's plenty of room for more global expansion in the future.
Another big opportunity for the business is in e-commerce, where Walmart has been taking on Amazon in recent years. With the launch of its Walmart+ subscription in 2020, which offers many benefits and unique savings similar to Amazon's Prime, this is an area that can pave the way for more growth for Walmart in the years to come. As of the end of this year, eMarketer projects that there will be 32 million Walmart+ subscribers, which is still far below the more than 180 million Amazon Prime subscribers in the U.S.
Walmart has a lot of room to grow even though it is already a massive business. At around 40 times earnings, investors are paying a bit of a premium to own the stock, but if you plan to hang on for several years, it can still be an excellent investment to put in your portfolio and forget about.
2. Apple
Another fantastic business to invest in for years and maybe even decades is Apple. The company has built up a vast ecosystem of products and services over the years, which makes a customer acquisition particularly valuable for Apple since not only may they upgrade an iPhone or buy an iPad, but there are also many services such as music, news, games, and others that consumers can subscribe to.
Globally, there are around 1.5 billion active iPhone users. Even if Apple doesn't drastically grow this number in the future, the potential it has to grow its services and upsell its loyal fanbase onto new products and services can unlock some tremendous growth opportunities for the company in the years to come. Apple Intelligence, for example, is still in its early stages, and it can provide consumers with artificial intelligence (AI) features that can help make their lives easier. AI has enabled many businesses to enhance their products and services, and Apple may still get a significant boost from that down the road.
In the past four quarters, Apple has accumulated a free cash flow of just under $109 billion. With so much cash coming into the business, it's in excellent shape to reinvest that into AI and other opportunities. Although the company is the most valuable in the world, with a market cap of more than $3.6 trillion, Apple remains a great stock to buy and hold over the long haul as its business is likely to generate much more growth in the future.
3. Costco Wholesale
Rounding out this list of impressive long-term investments is Costco Wholesale. Like Walmart, Costco has plenty of runway to grow its operations internationally. The company is careful to pick its spots wisely to ensure its warehouses are always busy and generating plenty of revenue for the business.
As of the end of November, the company had 897 warehouses, but 767 of them were in North America. The company has been adding locations in China (it has seven warehouses there), and that's an excellent example of a market that can lead to much more revenue and profit growth in the years ahead.
Plus, e-commerce is an emerging opportunity for Costco. Unlike its warehouses, which are often generating single-digit revenue growth, e-commerce sales have been rising by double digits. In the 12-week period ending Nov. 24, Costco reported comparable e-commerce sales growth of 13%, which was a much faster rate than its overall growth rate of just over 5%.
Costco is one of the most expensive retail stocks you can buy right now, with its price-to-earnings ratio hovering around 60. But if you're looking at holding the stock for at least several years, there could still be plenty of upside left for it to go higher as Costco expands into more markets and continues to grow its online business.
