There’s little doubt that this is a Thanksgiving Day like few others before it. With coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases hitting record highs in the U.S., many of us have forgone our traditional holiday gathering and chosen to fall asleep in a tryptophan-induced turkey coma on our couches while watching football.
But even amid this chaos, we can be thankful that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Recent interim analyses in late-stage studies from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna showed respective vaccine effectiveness of 95% and 94.5%. While COVID-19 isn’t going to disappear overnight, there looks to be a real solution on the horizon.
Even when things are at their grimmest, there’s always something to be thankful for — and that, too, goes for investors.
As we celebrate and honor Thanksgiving Day, I offer up five absolutely perfect stocks that investors can gobble up right now.
Alphabet
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL), the company behind Internet search giant Google and streaming content platform YouTube, did something this year that investors had never before seen — it reported a revenue decline (during the second quarter) from the prior-year period. As an ad-driven operating model, the steepness of the COVID-19 correction stalled out Alphabet’s growth engine.
But the amazing thing about this company is just how quickly it’s righted the ship. Following a single quarter of sluggish sales, Alphabet was right back to 14% year-on-year sales growth during the September-ended quarter. This is a company that, according to data from GlobalStats, consistently owns 92% to 93% of worldwide internet search share. That makes it a logical go-to for advertisers during multiyear bull markets, and it provides Alphabet with exceptional ad-pricing power.
I’d also encourage investors not to overlook its burgeoning ancillary segments beyond Google. YouTube has become one of the top three most-visited social platforms, and cloud infrastructure service Google Cloud has been growing like a weed. With more businesses shifting their data into the cloud, the proverbial building blocks that Google Cloud provides to small and medium-sized businesses are in high demand. Look for Google Cloud to play a big role in Alphabet’s operating cash flow growth moving forward.
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