Investing in the stock market isn't always easy. It takes time, patience, and riding out the inevitable ups and downs of the market while adhering to a consistent pattern of investing to build and sustain returns with time.
If you're looking to add more fantastic companies to your portfolio and have the appetite to invest in the current market, here are two unstoppable stocks that look ripe for the picking.
1. Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX 0.74%) may not be a household name like some healthcare companies, but this is a business that investors may be hard-pressed to overlook, bull or bear market. Vertex has a long history of profitability and revenue growth, and amassed earnings of $3.3 billion in 2022 alone.
That's largely due to its long-held position of being the only company with drugs (CFTR modulators) on the market that treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis. This genetic disease affects more than 162,000 people globally, more than one-third of whom are estimated to have the illness but have not yet been officially diagnosed with it. The life expectancy for cystic fibrosis patients has improved dramatically over the past few decades.
One of the factors driving this change has been the success of CFTR modulators. The fact that patients are living longer, as well as the reality that large swaths of the prospective patient population are still untapped, portend a durable and growing market opportunity for the healthcare giant.
At the same time, Vertex is actively working to build out its competitive advantage in other segments of the rare disease drug market.Its current pipeline includes a CRISPR therapy for two rare blood disorders that could be approved later this year, a non-opioid drug candidate for acute pain, stem cell therapies for type 1 diabetes, and a candidate targeting the rare chronic kidney ailment APOL1-mediated kidney disease.
Regarding that last candidate, Inaxaplin, Vertex recently announced that the drug met its primary endpoint in a phase 2 study by demonstrating "a statistically significant and clinically meaningful mean reduction in proteinuria." Proteinuria indicates an unusually high quantity of protein in the urine, a key indicator of this particular type of kidney disease.
Currently, there is no drug on the market that treats the underlying cause of APOL-1 mediated kidney disease, and Vertex's would be the first of its kind of to do so if approved. This is just one example of the multitude of underpenetrated multi-billion-dollar markets that Vertex's burgeoning pipeline seeks to address.
Healthcare investors looking to invest in a diversified and profitable business with a solid track record of growth and penchant for market disruption should take a second look at this stock.
2. Pinterest
Pinterest (PINS -1.75%) is known for its image-search-and-share design. Its unique layout -- which lends itself to a seamless customer journey from searching for an idea or inspiration to purchasing a product that meets that end -- has made the platform an ideal vehicle for advertising spending.
In the current environment, ad spending remains down as merchants and companies across all sectors are looking to scale back operating costs. A company like Pinterest that makes essentially all its money from advertising is going to feel the brunt of that change.
However, these aren't long-term headwinds tied to Pinterest's core business, and ad spending will eventually recover. Pinterest is growing where it matters right now, and its most recent earnings report indicates a steady recovery from the growth deceleration of recent quarters.
It's also important to note that even as quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year comparisons haven't been ideal for Pinterest recently, the company is still growing at a solid clip from pre-pandemic levels. It also recently returned to profitability.
In the period starting in the fourth quarter of 2019 and ending in the final quarter of 2022, Pinterest saw its revenue and monthly active users grow at annualized rates of 30% and 10%, respectively. Pinterest raked in $17 million in net income in the final quarter of 2022 and closed out the year with 450 million globally monthly active users, up 4% from 2021.
While monthly active users matter, this isn't the only cohort that investors should be watching to track Pinterest's growth trajectory. In the 2022 earnings call, Pinterest's management noted that the ratio of weekly active users to monthly active users reached a record 61% -- indicating a high level of user activity.
While ad spending is in flux right now, Pinterest is taking active steps to make its interface more attractive, both to companies buying ad space and the people surfing its platform. One area in which Pinterest continues to innovate is in its quantity of video content, which was up 30% in Q4 2022 on a sequential basis. In fact, 10% of Pinterest's user engagement is now derived from video content, and short-form video is accounting for 30% of its total revenue.
Pinterest's improved bottom line, and steady revenue and user growth from pre-pandemic levels bode well for its continued recovery in a landscape where more dollars are flowing to ad spending. For forward-thinking investors, now could be an opportune time to invest in this top growth stock.
Rachel Warren has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Pinterest and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
