Are you just as afraid of a market pullback right now as you are of missing out on upside? If so, you’re not alone. This is a confusing environment for investors. Major names like Nvidia and Home Depot are sending mixed messages, while the market itself seems to be waiting for more clarity about tariffs and the Trump administration’s trade war.
There are some tickers with bullish backstories, though, that are bigger than any environmental or economic backdrop. You just have to look a bit off the beaten path to find them.
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If you’ve got $1,000 — or any other amount of money — lying around available to invest, here are three solid prospects to consider.
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CRISPR Therapeutics
Biotech stocks can be tricky investments to handle. Oftentimes, you’re betting on a potentially game-changing premise well before it’s profitable, or even before there’s a marketable product. That’s obviously risky. But the potential upside can be tremendous.
CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP) is not yet profitable, but the underlying science that makes the drugs it’s currently developing possible holds enough promise to eventually get the company out of the red and into the black.
CRISPR Therapeutics specializes in gene editing. Company co-founder Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier developed a way to cut a strand of damaged DNA and then force the genetic code’s own built-in repair process to fix what’s broken. While CRISPR’s Casgevy (for the treatment of sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia) is its only approved drug based on this science, this biotechnology has a range of potential applications. Treating cancer and autoimmune diseases is arguably the biggest.
That any drugs based on this science have been approved bodes well for the concept, and CRISPR’s got a total of five different clinical trials underway right now. Those are what most interested investors are eyeing. Ditto analysts, who collectively sport a consensus price target of $77.38, more than twice the stock’s present price.
So why are CRISPR Therapeutics shares still drifting lower from their 2021 peak, knocking on the door of new 52-week lows? That’s just part of the challenge of buying, holding, and even selling biotech stocks. Sometimes they reflect potential revenue and earnings too soon. Other times, investors lose interest when they’ve waited a little too long for results.
Don’t overthink it, though. Just take a step back and recognize that analysts expect revenue to jump from $50 million this year to nearly $200 million next year and then to more than double again the year after that. This explosive growth should come on the heels of at least one more drug approval, although more than one approval is just as possible.
This growth will presumably stir up a bullish tailwind for the stock.
Palo Alto Networks
There’s no sensational singular bullish argument for owning a stake in Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW). There are dozens of solid reasons, though.
On the unlikely chance you’ve never heard of it, Palo Alto is a cybersecurity company. Firewalls, VPNs, threat detection, and breach response are all in its wheelhouse. There’s nothing unique about its offerings, even if the company is the biggest and best-known name in the cybersecurity industry, that’s more than reached full maturity.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however, given the nature of this business.
Think about it. As the world uses computers more and more, it’s going to need more and more cybersecurity solutions. That’s why Precedence Research believes the global cybersecurity market is set to grow at an annualized pace of 12.6% through 2034. Palo Alto’s top line is expected to slightly outpace this industry growth based on the consensus analyst forecast, but only slightly. There’s little doubt that it will be able to leverage its size to achieve at least its fair share of this growth, though. Again, cybersecurity is a business that’s unlikely to go away.
Don’t tarry if you’re interested. While this stock looks a bit frothy following its big rebound from its March low, it’s still only priced around its early-2024 peak. The lack of net forward progress since then is sure to be catching the eye of many would-be buyers.
NextEra Energy
Finally, add utility name NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE) to your list of stocks to buy with an idle $1,000.
Utility stocks are usually anything but exciting. That’s because the highly regulated industry is anything but a high-growth one, and the business itself hasn’t changed much since its inception. Ditto its individual companies. In many cases, these outfits are not only working with the same infrastructure they were working with decades ago, but they’re also grappling with legacy capital structures and mindsets.
Not NextEra Energy, though. Although its roots are traditional, over the course of the past several years, this organization has made a deliberate effort not just to embrace cleaner, renewable energy sources, but also to evolve its utility business in a way that makes sense in the modern era. As of the end of last year, more than half of its power production comes from renewables like wind and solar, while roughly one-third comes from natural gas. Another 8% is nuclear, which President Donald Trump just gave a boost to last month with four executive orders aimed at revitalizing the U.S. nuclear energy sector.
Notice fossil fuels aren’t part of the mix.
And yet, even though the company is spending more on energy infrastructure than any other utility outfit, it’s still profitable.
This utility outfit is largely future-proof. That is to say, even though how utilities will be regulated and restricted by future emissions mandates isn’t completely clear right now, all of NextEra Energy’s future power production will likely satisfy whatever requirements await.
There won’t be any explosive growth from NextEra, in the near or distant future. There should be plenty of reliable growth here, however, regardless of the economic environment.
There’s also a respectable amount of reliable recurring income. Newcomers will be stepping into this stock while its forward-looking dividend yield stands at just under 3.4%. Not bad.
That’s based on a dividend, by the way, that’s more than doubled over the past 10 years and been raised every year for well over two decades. Even if dividend income isn’t your big goal right now, this is reliable cash flow that you can use to buy stocks as other opportunities arise.
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James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends CRISPR Therapeutics, Home Depot, NextEra Energy, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Palo Alto Networks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.