stocks

October is more than halfway over, but there’s still time for investors to snap up some world-class stocks. For those wanting to bet on artificial intelligence (AI), Intel (INTC 2.94%) and International Business Machines (IBM 0.83%) fit the bill. For consumer goods stocks that offer long-term potential, Nike (NKE 0.53%) and Walmart (WMT -0.67%) are great choices. And for something different, Reddit (RDDT 4.00%) looks interesting for investors with more appetite for risk. Here’s why these five stocks are the best of the bunch in October.

Image source: Getty Images.

Intel

Intel’s turnaround is still a work in progress, but a series of deals and developments have pushed the stock up about 90% so far this year. CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took over in March, has been slashing costs and refocusing the company on its best opportunities. Regaining leadership in the PC and server CPU markets after years of market share losses is an imperative, as is justifying the massive expense associated with Intel’s manufacturing efforts by winning external foundry customers.

Tan has proven to be quite the dealmaker. The U.S. government took a nearly 10% stake in the company in exchange for grant money that had yet to be delivered, Softbank invested $2 billion, and Nvidia took a $5 billion stake and partnered with Intel on custom PC and server chips. Pairing Intel and Nvidia technology in PCs and servers could help the company win back market share from AMD.

While Intel still needs to deliver results, market sentiment has certainly shifted in a positive direction, and recent news that Microsoft has reportedly chosen Intel to manufacture a custom AI chip has added fuel to the fire. Intel’s turnaround is going to take time, but the pieces are falling into place. For patient investors, now is a great time to buy the stock.

International Business Machines

It’s taken a while, but IBM has settled into a successful AI strategy that’s helping to accelerate its revenue growth. The company’s pairing of consulting services with an enterprise AI software platform, along with a focus on small, specialized, and cheap AI models tuned for specific tasks, has proven to be a winner.

IBM has booked more than $7.5 billion worth of generative AI-related business so far, with much of that total coming from the consulting business. In the second quarter alone, IBM booked more than $1 billion of generative AI-related consulting business. By offering solutions that combine AI implementation and other services with its AI software platform, IBM is winning over enterprises as they race to deploy AI.

IBM expects to increase revenue by at least 5% this year, adjusted for currency. That growth will come despite weakness in discretionary projects tied to the state of the economy. By leaning into AI, IBM is building a powerful growth engine that can offset sluggish spending in other areas. And because IBM’s AI business is focused on delivering results for its clients in the form of reduced costs or greater efficiency, the business can continue to grow even if the AI boom cools off. For investors looking for a low-risk way to bet on AI, IBM stock is the answer.

Nike

Unforced errors have put footwear giant Nike in an uncomfortable position. The company has lost ground in sports to upstarts like On Holding, and its aggressive push toward direct-to-consumer sales has weakened the brand and hurt relationships with retailers. The stock has been a disaster, down more than 60% from its all-time high.

While attempting to stage a comeback against the backdrop of an uncertain macroeconomic environment will only make things more difficult, green shoots are starting to appear. Wholesale revenue rose by 7% in the company’s latest quarter, and the Nike brand managed to grow in North America. Nike is refocusing on key sports as well as the North American market, and rebuilding wholesale relationships, and progress is clearly being made.

At the same time, Nike CEO Elliott Hill was careful to note that Nike’s progress “will not be linear as dimensions of our business recover on different timelines.” Investors shouldn’t expect miracles in the next few quarters, but for those willing to buy and hold for at least a few years, Nike is positioning itself for a return to consistent growth. With the stock carving out new multiyear lows, now is a great time to bet on an eventual comeback.

Walmart

Inflation, tariffs, and souring consumer sentiment have created plenty of uncertainty for the retail industry. For investors looking for a relatively safe bet no matter what happens to the economy, Walmart is a great choice.

Walmart’s massive scale gives it unparalleled leverage with suppliers, allowing it to keep prices as low as possible and win over consumers struggling with strained household budgets. Walmart grew revenue by nearly 5% year over year in its latest quarter while gross margin remained steady and adjusted operating margin rose. The company’s bet on technology is also paying off, with global e-commerce sales rising by 25%.

Walmart is diving headfirst into the future with its partnership with OpenAI that will enable customers to purchase products from Walmart directly within ChatGPT. While the interplay between AI and commerce is still evolving, getting its products in front of hundreds of millions of ChatGPT users could drive meaningful revenue growth. Walmart isn’t immune to economic conditions, but the company is better positioned than most retailers to ride out the storm.

Reddit

Where people on the internet get information, including recommendations that lead to purchases, is changing. Search engines used to be the only game in town. Then came social media sites like Meta Platforms‘ Facebook and Instagram, which are full of lucrative ads. AI chatbots like ChatGPT are pulling more people away from search engines, and even Alphabet has resorted to inserting AI Overviews at the top of Google search results.

What makes Reddit unique is that it benefits almost no matter what. Plenty of people go directly to Reddit for information; those who search on Google often find Reddit threads among the top results. And AI chatbots and Google’s AI overviews often use Reddit threads as key sources. As the old and the new battle each other, Reddit stands above the fray.

Reddit’s ad revenue is soaring as more people turn to the social media site. Ad revenue jumped by 84% year over year in the second quarter, driven by a 21% rise in daily active unique users and improved monetization. Depending on Google and AI chatbots for traffic does pose a risk, and it could create volatility in traffic and revenue. But there’s no real alternative to the rich source of information Reddit provides. For investors who can handle a riskier stock, Reddit is great choice.

A stable income stream is the cornerstone of a worry-free retirement. By receiving reliable payments, retirees can focus on enjoying life rather than stressing over expenses. The right investments are crucial in making this possible.

Investing in high-quality dividend stocks can be a great source of reliable retirement income. Realty Income (O 1.12%) and Oneok (OKE 0.63%) have each demonstrated the durability of their dividend payments over many decades. This proven reliability makes them strong options for those seeking consistent income in retirement.

Image source: Getty Images.

Executing the mission

Realty Income has a clear mission. This real estate investment trust (REIT) aims to provide dependable monthly dividends that grow over time. The company has paid 664 consecutive monthly dividends throughout its history. It has raised its payment 132 times since its public market listing in 1994, including for the past 112 quarters in a row (and for more than 30 consecutive years). It stands out for its consistency among income stocks in the real estate sector.

The REIT offers investors an attractive dividend that currently yields 5.5%. That’s well above average (the S&P 500‘s dividend yield is around 1.2%). As a result, investors can generate more income from every dollar they invest in the company.

Realty Income backs its reliable dividend with very durable cash flows. It owns a diversified real estate portfolio (retail, industrial, gaming, and other properties), net leased to many of the world’s leading companies. Net leases provide it with very predictable cash flow because tenants cover all property operating expenses, including routine maintenance, real estate taxes, and building insurance. Meanwhile, the company owns properties leased to tenants in resilient industries. Over 90% of its rent comes from tenants in sectors resilient to economic downturns and isolated from the pressures of e-commerce, such as grocery stores, distribution facilities, and data centers.

The REIT pays out a conservative percentage of its stable rental income in dividends (about 75% of its adjusted funds from operations). That gives it a comfy cushion while enabling it to retain lots of cash to make additional income-generating real estate investments. Realty Income also has one of the strongest balance sheets in the sector, further enhancing its ability to make new investments. It should have no shortage of investment opportunities in the coming years, given the $14 trillion total estimated market value of real estate suitable for net leases across the U.S. and Europe. The company’s growing portfolio enables it to steadily increase its dividend.

A pillar of stability

Oneok has been one of the most reliable dividend stocks in the pipeline sector. The energy infrastructure company has delivered more than a quarter-century of dividend stability and growth. While Oneok hasn’t increased its payout every single year, it has grown it at a peer-leading rate over the past 10 years by nearly doubling its payment. The company currently offers a 6% dividend yield.

The energy company operates a balanced portfolio of premier energy infrastructure assets, backed predominantly by long-term, fee-based contracts. Those agreements provide it with very stable cash flow to cover its dividend. Oneok also has a strong investment-grade balance sheet backed by a low leverage ratio. This rock-solid financial position gives the company the flexibility to invest in organic expansion projects and make accretive acquisitions to grow its platform.

Oneok currently has several high-return organic expansion projects in the backlog, which it expects to complete through mid-2028. This gives it lots of visibility into its future growth. The company has also made several acquisitions over the past few years, which will continue to boost its bottom line in the coming years as it captures additional synergies. It has ample financial flexibility to approve new expansion projects and make additional acquisitions. With demand for energy expected to continue growing, especially for natural gas, the company should have no shortage of investment opportunities. This fuels Oneok’s view that it can grow its dividend by a 3% to 4% annual rate.

Reliable income stocks

For retirees seeking dependable, growing income, Realty Income and Oneok stand out as proven dividend payers. Their stable cash flow and prudent financial management provide confidence that these companies can continue delivering reliable income for years. Those features make them ideal dividend stocks for retirement portfolios.

Quantum computing stocks have been on an absolute tear recently as their companies announced major contract wins. But that was all topped off by JPMorgan Chase‘s announcement this week that it’s investing $10 billion into strategic tech companies. That includes quantum computing businesses. But for quantum computing stocks to rise around 20% (some more, some less) following that news is troublesome.

No specific investment was announced in any of these companies, and other massive industries were listed in the release — such as supply chain and advanced manufacturing, defense and aerospace, energy technology, and frontier and strategic technologies (where quantum computing was lumped in). This raises concerns about the short-term nature of the quantum computing market. The combined rise of all quantum computing stocks was more than the overall $10 billion investment announced by JPMorgan Chase, so there’s clearly not enough to go around.

Observers have begun to speculate that there may be a quantum computing bubble forming. So is now the time to sell? I think Warren Buffett has some great advice for investors on what they should do.

Image source: Getty Images.

Warren Buffett has seen a bubble or two in his career

Warren Buffett is the legendary CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, a position he has held since he took control of the company in 1965. Over the years, Buffett has given investors several great pieces of wisdom, and I think one quote is applicable right now. He wrote that his goal was to “attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”

There are clearly many signs of greed in the quantum computing market. As mentioned above, many of the quantum computing stocks rose by a massive amount in response to a nonspecific announcement that JPMorgan Chase would invest in emerging technologies.

Furthermore, we’re still years away from quantum computing viability. Most competitors point toward 2030 as the likely turning point in quantum computing’s commercial relevance, and that’s still five years away. Five years ago, we were in the beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and nobody (outside of a handful of companies) had ever heard the term generative AI. It’s impossible to know what will happen in the field over the next five years, or which companies will be the winners.

Most of the investment dollars flowing into the quantum computing space have centered around the pure plays. Still, there are also legacy tech players, like Alphabet, Microsoft, and IBM, which have nearly unlimited resources compared to pure plays like IonQ (IONQ -3.92%) or Rigetti Computing (RGTI -3.01%). It’s still an uphill battle for IonQ and Rigetti, and just because the big tech players aren’t saying anything doesn’t mean they aren’t experiencing success.

Companies like IonQ and Rigetti Computing are still years away from profits, and have to rely on government contracts and stock issuance to continue to fund their operations. As a result, they must issue a news release on any piece of positive news they can to let investors know about their successes. The big tech companies like Alphabet, IBM, and Microsoft can afford to stay silent about any breakthroughs, as they’re internally funding their research.

The big tech players may be far more advanced than the pure plays, even if nobody outside of those companies knows it yet. I think this could be setting up some of the pure-play stocks for failure, and their shareholders should take action.

Taking some profits in an increasingly frothy industry is a smart move

Another Warren Buffett quote is applicable in this situation, too: “The first rule in investment is ‘Don’t lose.’ And the second rule in investment is ‘Don’t forget the first rule.'” Investors have already made a significant amount of money on the quantum computing trade, and while it’s possible these stocks could continue rising, a crash may be around the corner.

If you’ve invested in these stocks at any time this year, it may be time to at least trim some of them, as it’s unlikely that they’ll continue rising forever. By taking some profits now, you can be well positioned to deploy them back into the industry if it returns to earth.

Nobody ever lost money by selling a stock at a profit, although they have lost out on even larger returns. Still, I think the risk is greater than the reward, and it may be a wise time to take some profits off the table.

The S&P 500 index (^GSPC 0.53%) has a miserly yield of just 1.2% or so today. That’s a number that you can beat pretty easily, but you want to make sure you do it with reliable dividend stocks. There are some companies that have huge yields, but the risk involved isn’t worth it.

That’s why you’ll probably prefer to buy (and likely hold forever) companies like Realty Income (O 1.13%), Prologis (PLD 2.40%), and UDR (UDR 0.50%). Here’s a quick look at each of these high-yield dividend stocks.

1. Realty Income is boring, which is a good thing

Realty Income is the largest net lease real estate investment trust (REIT) you can buy. It owns over 15,600 properties and has a market cap that is more than three times larger than its next-closest peer. Add in a dividend yield of 5.4% and a 30-year streak of annual dividend increases and you can see why dividend investors would like this stock.

The key, however, is how boring a business it is. It starts with the net lease approach. A net lease requires the tenant to pay for most property-level expenses. That saves Realty Income cost and hassle, leaving it to, in a simplification of the situation, sit back and just collect rent. On top of that, the company’s primary focus is retail properties, which are fairly easy to buy, sell, and release if needed. But that isn’t the end of the story, either, since Realty Income is also geographically diversified, with a growing presence in Europe.

Slow and steady is the name of the game for Realty Income, which makes sense given that the REIT has trademarked the nickname “The Monthly Dividend Company.” This high yielder isn’t going to excite you, but that’s basically the point. Investing $1,000 into Realty Income will leave you owning roughly 16 shares.

2. Prologis is building from within

Prologis is another industry giant, this time focused on the industrial asset class. It is one of the largest REITs in the world, with a market cap of more than $100 billion. (It’s about twice the size of Realty Income, which has a roughly $50 billion market cap.) The dividend yield is around 3.5%, which isn’t nearly as nice as what you’d get from Realty Income, but there’s more growth opportunity. To put a number on that, Realty Income’s dividend has grown 45% or so over the past decade while Prologis’ dividend has increased by over 150%.

Like Realty Income, Prologis offers global diversification. It has operations in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, with assets in most prominent global transportation hubs. It has increased its dividend annually for 12 years, with a high likelihood of years of dividend growth ahead. That’s because the REIT has a $41.5 billion opportunity to build new properties on land it already owns. What’s exciting now is that the dividend yield happens to be near the high end of the range over the past decade, suggesting today is a good time to jump aboard. A $1,000 investment will allow you to buy eight shares of the stock.

3. UDR is diversified and provides a basic necessity

UDR is an apartment landlord, offering the basic necessity of shelter. That’s not going to go out of style anytime soon. The company underwent a painful overhaul a few years back when it sold a portfolio of lower quality apartments, leaving it focused on its remaining and better-positioned assets. This was a good move for the REIT, but it led to a dividend reset (the painful part for shareholders). However, the dividend has been growing ever since, with an annual streak that’s now up to 16 years. There’s no reason to believe another cut is in the cards.

What dividend lovers get now, however, is fairly attractive. For starters, the portfolio is well-diversified by geographic region in the United States and by quality (A and B level assets only, the fixer-uppers it once owned are gone). Technology has been an increasingly important aspect of the business, with UDR working to use the internet to lease and serve tenants more nimbly. Essentially, UDR is a great way to get diverse exposure to apartments.

UDR’s dividend yield is 4.7% right now, which is fairly high for the REIT and well above the REIT average of around 3.8%. If you want to own a REIT that provides a basic necessity, UDR is worth looking at today. A $1,000 investment will get you roughly 27 shares.

Three high-yield, buy-and-hold options for your portfolio

If you are focused on yield, Realty Income is likely to be the most appropriate choice for your portfolio. If you like dividend growth, take a look at Prologis. And if you are fond of companies that provide basic services that everyone needs, that would be UDR. All three have lofty yields and are worth buying and holding for the long term.

If you’re looking to put money to work in the market — say $1,000 — investing in some up-and-coming growth stocks could be a good route to take. Let’s look at two artificial intelligence (AI) stocks that could still be in the early days of a big ramp-up in growth.

Broadcom

Broadcom (AVGO -1.86%) has become the key architect for helping companies design custom AI chips, making it one of the most important players in the next phase of the AI infrastructure build-out. As companies look to increasingly loosen Nvidia‘s grip on the AI chip market, they are turning to Broadcom for help.

The company has already proved itself in its relationship with Alphabet, helping the cloud computing leader develop its highly successful tensor processing units (TPUs).

Broadcom expects just three of its established customers, which also include Meta Platforms and ByteDance, to represent a $60 billion to $90 billion opportunity by fiscal 2027. The midpoint of that estimate is more than the size of Broadcom’s entire current annual revenue base, which just shows you how big its custom-chip opportunity is.

The company recently announced a formal partnership with OpenAI to help develop and deploy 10 gigawatts of custom AI accelerators using Broadcom’s networking and Ethernet technology. The implications are enormous. A single gigawatt of data center capacity translates into tens of billions of dollars in hardware spending, meaning this partnership alone could represent a $100 billion annual opportunity in the coming years.

Broadcom has yet another new customer for its custom AI chips that ordered $10 billion worth of the semiconductors for next year. 

Now, with several of the world’s largest hyperscalers (companies that own huge data centers) as custom AI chip clients, Broadcom looks poised to see explosive growth in the coming years. This can be a good time to add shares before the company’s results start to really ramp up.

Image source: Getty Images

UiPath

Another company that has the potential to accelerate its growth in the coming years is UiPath (PATH -3.77%). The company built its name around robotic process automation (RPA), which uses software bots to handle repetitive business tasks, but it’s now moving into what it calls agentic automation.

The company has been busy forming partnerships that strengthen this strategy. It’s now working with Nvidia to integrate its Nemotron models and NIM microservices, which can accelerate AI deployment in industries where data security is paramount. It has also teamed up with Alphabet to use its Gemini models for voice-activated automation. 

However, its most interesting collaboration is with Snowflake, a data warehousing and analytics company that stores customers’ structured data. There has been a belief that AI would disrupt its business, given how well AI works with unstructured data, but companies like Palantir have actually shown that AI models work best when they have clean, organized data.

By connecting with Snowflake’s Cortex AI system, UiPath AI orchestration tools can give customers insights using their own data in real time. That is a powerful resource that could help make AI more actionable in the real world.

UiPath’s growth temporarily slowed as the AI frenzy took off and customers reevaluated their spending priorities, but the underlying business is improving again. Its annual recurring revenue (ARR) climbed 11% to $1.72 billion last quarter, and cloud-based ARR surged 25%, showing that customers are embracing the company’s newer offerings. Net revenue retention stabilized at 108%, and operating margins have expanded significantly after the company implemented cost cuts.

UiPath’s open approach, acting as the “Switzerland” of AI agents, should appeal to enterprises that don’t want to be tied to one AI ecosystem, and it represents a huge growth opportunity.

More than 450 customers are already building AI agents on its platform, and almost all new customers are adopting both its RPA and AI products together. That’s a strong sign the company’s AI expansion isn’t cannibalizing its core business but enhancing it.

Despite this progress, the market hasn’t caught on yet: The stock trades at a price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of only 5 times 2026 analyst estimates. If growth continues to reaccelerate, the stock’s upside could be substantial.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the megatrend of this decade and is fast transforming the enterprise landscape. According to Gartner, global AI spending will be nearly $1.5 trillion in calendar year 2025.

While the AI opportunity is massive, not every AI player can prove to be an exceptional business in the long run. Companies with proven technologies and well-established customer bases stand a better chance of sustaining high top-line and bottom-line growth rates in the coming years.

Here’s why Palantir Technologies (PLTR -0.31%) and Snowflake (SNOW 0.18%) are two companies that could deliver strong returns, turning disciplined investors into millionaires over the long run.

Image source: Getty Images.

Palantir

Palantir has evolved from a pure data analytics company to a full-stack AI enterprise platform. The company’s software solutions are now used in mission-critical operations by both government and commercial clients.

In the second quarter, the company’s revenue soared 48% year over year to over $1 billion. The U.S. continues to be the biggest market, with revenue growing 68% to $733 million. The company also closed a record $2.27 billion in total contract value, up 140% over the year-ago period.

A significant part of this growth is driven by the rapid enterprise adoption of the company’s Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP). AIP combines large language model reasoning with the company’s proprietary ontology framework (used to relate physical assets to digital twins) to solve complex, real-time business challenges.

Palantir is also focused on helping clients scale through automation. The company has added new tools and features to AIP, such as AI Forward Deployed Engineer (software engineer) and AI Workbench, to automate application development tasks and develop, debug, and automate workflows.

The company has also introduced the Ontology-as-a-Code feature to enable clients to leverage ontology in their preferred integrated development environments, tools, and workflows.

Palantir’s shares are currently trading at a very aggressive valuation of over 123 times sales. Although not an ideal scenario, this premium reflects Wall Street’s confidence in the company’s future growth trajectory.

Analysts expect Palantir’s revenue to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 39.9% from $2.86 billion in fiscal 2024 to $11 billion in fiscal 2028. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) are also expected to grow at a CAGR of 40.7% from $0.41 in fiscal 2024 to $1.61 in fiscal 2028. Hence, the valuation can continue to remain elevated for several more years.

Considering these factors, Palantir can prove to be a smart pick in 2025.

Snowflake

Snowflake is transitioning from a cloud data warehouse to an AI data cloud (unified platform comprising AI technologies, data, and applications) for enterprises.

In Q2 of fiscal 2026 (ended July 31, 2025), product revenue grew 32% year over year to $1.09 billion, while non-GAAP operating margin reached 11%. The company had $6.9 billion in remaining performance obligations (RPO) at the end of Q2, up 33% on a year-over-year basis. With a large base of renewing customers, contracted billings, and large deals in the pipeline, the company has strong revenue visibility for the next few years. Snowflake’s healthy net-revenue retention rate of 125% also demonstrates its success in cross-selling and upselling to existing clients.

AI has become the key growth engine, influencing almost half of all new customer wins in Q2. AI is also powering nearly 25% of the deployed use cases. Currently, over 6,100 accounts use Snowflake’s AI capabilities on a weekly basis for various activities such as data migrations, analytics, and workflow transformations.

Snowflake has further strengthened its position in enterprise AI with Snowflake Intelligence, which enables enterprises to interact directly with their data and also build intelligent agents. The company has introduced Cortex AI SQL, which enables users to leverage AI models directly within SQL databases. This removes the need to move data between applications and unifies analytics and AI.

The company is also committed to improving performance and efficiency. The company launched Gen2 data warehouses , which offer double the performance in extracting insights and managing data without increasing costs. The company’s new OpenFlow capability allows enterprises to bring unstructured, structured, batch, or real-time streaming data into the Snowflake platform.

All these AI-powered capabilities have accelerated the company’s customer acquisition pace. Snowflake added 533 new customers in Q2, including 15 Global 2000 companies. The company now is trading at 19.4 times sales, which is not cheap for a loss-making company. However, the premium seems justified when we consider its accelerating AI adoption, expanding customer base, and robust backlog.

Hence, the payoff in investing in Snowflake can be impressive despite its elevated valuation levels.

One of the first investors to buy Nvidia (NVDA 1.04%) for the artificial intelligence (AI) boom was Stanley Druckenmiller at his Duquesne Family Office investment fund. At the end of 2023, it was one of his largest positions, a year where the stock more than tripled for investors, putting it on the path to become the largest company in the world by market capitalization.

Then, in 2024, Druckenmiller began to sell down his stake in Nvidia. By the end of last year, he had completely exited his position. What has he been buying instead? Last quarter, Duquesne bought two other trillion-dollar AI stocks: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM -1.68%) and Microsoft (MSFT -0.43%).

Let’s see whether you should follow Druckenmiller and buy these two stocks for your portfolio today.

Image source: Nvidia.

Nvidia’s semiconductor supplier

Some readers may already know this, but Nvidia does not manufacture its advanced computer chips itself. It only designs them. The key manufacturing supplier of Nvidia chips is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, or TSMC for short. TSMC only makes computer chips for third parties and is known as a semiconductor foundry. These include Nvidia, but also the likes of Apple, Broadcom, and other technology giants.

With the insatiable demand for computer chips from the growing AI market, TSMC has been doing quite well in recent quarters. Last quarter, revenue grew 44.4% year over year to $30 billion. Not only is TSMC one of the largest businesses in the world, but one of the fastest growing.

As one of the only companies that can manufacture advanced semiconductors at scale, TSMC has been able to sell its computer chips to customers like Nvidia with fat profit margins. Last quarter, operating margin was close to 50%, which is unheard of for a manufacturing business.

At today’s stock price, TSMC trades at a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 34. While this is slightly expensive, it is much better than Nvidia’s P/E ratio of 51. When you consider that both stocks will benefit from the growing demand for AI computer chips, it is no surprise that Duquesne sold its stake in Nvidia and owns TSMC today instead.

Microsoft’s opportunity in AI

Microsoft is a large customer of Nvidia as the company accelerates its buildout of cloud computing data center infrastructure to power the AI revolution. It has a relationship with OpenAI, the leading private AI company that is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure. In 2025 alone, Microsoft is planning to spend $80 billion on capital expenditures to help catch up with AI demand.

Its cloud revenue is benefiting massively from the growth in AI. Its Azure cloud computing division grew revenue 34% year over year last quarter to $75 billion, making it the second-largest cloud business in the world apart from Amazon Web Services (AWS). Overall revenue is growing well due to Microsoft’s diversified assets in personal computing, Office 365 subscriptions, and other services such as LinkedIn. Revenue was up 17% year over year last quarter, with operating income up 22% (both in constant currency). Expanding operating margins to 45% makes Microsoft one of the most profitable businesses in the world.

Like TSMC, Microsoft trades at a much cheaper P/E ratio than Nvidia, at 37.5 as of this writing. With steady growth, margin expansion, and a clear line of new demand for Azure for AI solutions, Microsoft looks like a solid buy-and-hold stock for investors over the next decade and beyond.

At the end of the second quarter, TSMC was 4.3% of the Duquesne stock portfolio, according to its 13F filing, increasing its position by 27% more shares in the period. Microsoft was a completely new buy for the fund, but it is already a 2.5% position. Both stocks have done well throughout the second and third quarters, but can still be good long-term buys for investors looking for inspiration from super investors like Druckenmiller.

I love to collect dividend income. It provides me with more cash to invest each month and a growing level of financial freedom. My goal is to eventually generate enough passive income from dividends and other sources to cover my basic living expenses.

To support my income strategy, I focus on buying high-yielding dividend stocks. Two companies in particular, Brookfield Infrastructure (BIPC -2.38%) (BIP -1.62%) and W.P. Carey (WPC), have consistently stood out. Here’s why I can’t stop buying these income stocks.

Image source: Getty Images.

A high-octane dividend growth stock

Brookfield Infrastructure currently yields nearly 4%, more than triple the S&P 500’s dividend yield (1.2%). The global infrastructure operator supports its high-yielding payout with very stable cash flows. Long-term contracts and government-regulated rate structures account for around 85% of its annual funds from operations (FFO). Most of those frameworks have no volume or price exposure (75%), while another large portion of its cash flow (20%) comes from rate-regulated structures that only have volume exposure tied to changes in the global economy. The bulk of these arrangements also either index its FFO to inflation (70%) or protect it from the impact of inflation (15%).

The company pays out 60% to 70% of its very resilient cash flow in dividends. That gives it a comfortable cushion while allowing it to retain a meaningful amount of cash to invest in expansion projects. Brookfield also has a strong investment-grade balance sheet. Additionally, the company routinely recycles capital by selling mature assets to invest in higher-returning opportunities.

Brookfield has grown its FFO per share at a 14% annual rate since its inception in 2008, supporting a 9% compound annual dividend growth rate. While its growth has slowed in recent years due to headwinds from interest rates and foreign exchange fluctuations, a reacceleration appears to be ahead. The company believes that a combination of organic growth driven by inflationary rate increases, volume growth as the economy expands, and expansion projects will drive robust FFO per share growth in the coming years. Additionally, it expects to get a boost from its value-enhancing capital recycling strategy. These catalysts should combine to drive more than 10% annual FFO per share growth.

The company’s strong financial profile and robust growth prospects easily support its plan to increase its high-yielding payout at a 5% to 9% annual rate. Brookfield has increased its payout in all 16 years since it went public.

Rebuilt on an even stronger foundation

W.P. Carey has a 5.4% dividend yield. The real estate investment trust (REIT) owns a well-diversified portfolio of operationally critical real estate across North America and Europe. It focuses on investing in single-tenant industrial, warehouse, retail, and other properties secured by long-term net leases featuring built-in rental escalation clauses. Those leases provide it with very stable and steadily rising rental income.

The REIT has spent the past few years reshaping its portfolio. It accelerated its exit from the office sector in late 2023 by spinning off and selling its remaining properties. W.P. Carey has also been selling off some of its self-storage properties, particularly those not secured by net leases. It has been recycling that capital into properties with better long-term demand drivers, such as industrial real estate.

W.P. Carey’s strategy should enable it to grow its adjusted FFO at a higher rate in the future. Its portfolio is delivering healthy same-store rent growth (2.3% year-over-year in the second quarter). Meanwhile, its investments to expand its portfolio are driving incremental FFO per share growth. W.P. Carey is on track to grow its adjusted FFO per share by 4.5% at the mid-point of its guidance range this year.

That growing income is allowing the REIT to increase its dividend. It has raised its payment every quarter since resetting the payout level in late 2023 when it exited the office sector, including a 4% increase over the past 12 months. With a strong portfolio and balance sheet, W.P. Carey has the financial flexibility to continue growing its portfolio, FFO, and dividend in the coming years.

High-quality, high-yielding dividend stocks

Brookfield Infrastructure and W.P. Carey stand out for their stable and growing cash flows, as well as high-yield dividends. Brookfield offers inflation-protected cash flows that minimize risk, while W.P. Carey generates reliable rental income from long-term leases. With lots of income and growth ahead, I just can’t stop buying these high-quality, high-yielding dividend stocks.

Quantum computing investing is not an easy field to pick stocks in. There’s a lot of complex knowledge needed to understand the technology, making it hard for investors to discern which company is currently leading the way. Furthermore, the space is rapidly shifting, with new announcements occurring every week that change the landscape.

This makes it difficult to be a quantum computing investor, but I think there is a way to spread out the risk a bit and still have exposure to this important and emerging space. By taking a basket approach and picking a few stocks, investors can increase their odds of success by sacrificing maximum return for a better chance of success. I think this is the best way to approach quantum computing, and I’ve got five picks that help make up a quantum computing basket.

Image source: Getty Images.

Quantum computing pure plays

First, let’s look at some pure plays in this space. These companies are the most exciting, as they’re relatively small but have the chance to turn into giant tech companies if their technology is successful.

First is IonQ (IONQ -5.85%). It was the first quantum computing pure play company to go public, and has seen tremendous success over the past year. It’s taking a unique approach to the quantum computing realm, utilizing a trapped-ion technology versus the more popular superconducting option.

A trapped-ion quantum computer is inherently more accurate, but trades off processing speed. Still, with quantum computing accuracy being the biggest problem surrounding widespread commercial adoption, investing in a company whose technology is a leader in solving this problem is a wise idea.

Next is Rigetti Computing (RGTI 0.39%). Rigetti is deploying the superconducting quantum computing approach and has seen some recent successes with it. On Sept. 30, Rigetti announced the sale of two quantum computing systems that totaled $5.7 million.

While that’s not the billion-dollar enterprise many investors picture this technology having, it’s a start. Furthermore, because these customers likely explored other quantum computing options available, it’s a big deal that they decided to pick Rigetti over some others.

Last on the pure play list is D-Wave Quantum (QBTS 4.13%). D-Wave Quantum is taking a completely different approach to quantum computing than IonQ or Rigetti. It’s developing a quantum annealing computer, which can’t be used for general-purpose computing like the other two options. Instead, quantum annealing focuses on solving optimization problems, which is incredibly useful for weather patterns, logistics networks, and artificial intelligence (AI) training.

If D-Wave can develop a winning option with this approach, it could dominate the fields that are recognized as having the most value for quantum computing.

Legacy tech players

Next are some legacy tech players competing in the quantum computing space. While these options don’t have nearly the upside of the pure plays, they’re also less risky. If IonQ, D-Wave, or Rigetti fail to produce a commercially viable product, it’s likely that their stock will go to zero. For Alphabet (GOOG 2.17%) (GOOGL 2.23%) and Nvidia (NVDA -0.17%), they have other primary businesses that will ensure their viability for years to come.

Alphabet is seen as a leader in quantum computing from the big tech standpoint. It’s developing quantum computing for internal use, but also to be rented out via its cloud computing service, Google Cloud. If Alphabet can develop its own quantum computer in-house, it can increase its margins in this area, as it won’t have to pay for other companies’ profits, as it does when it buys Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) now. Alphabet has resources that the pure play companies can only dream about, and in a trend that needs heavy capital influx to develop the product, Alphabet could be a huge winner.

Last is Nvidia. Nvidia currently produces the most powerful classical computing units available, and has no plans to develop a quantum computing option. However, Nvidia sees that the real value in quantum computing will be a hybrid approach that uses its GPUs alongside a quantum computing unit. To ensure its hardware is used in this hybrid approach, Nvidia is evolving its leading software, CUDA, for quantum computing, renaming it CUDA-Q.

CUDA software is a primary reason why Nvidia has been so successful in the AI arms race so far, and by offering a quantum computing alternative, it will ensure that its computing products will be used for years to come, even if quantum computing takes the world by storm.

Don’t just look at share price appreciation. Why? It doesn’t tell the whole story. Thousands of stocks pay dividends. And those dividends often significantly boost the stocks’ total returns.

You can especially make a lot of money when you invest in stocks with juicy dividend yields in addition to tremendous share price growth potential. Here are two ultra-high-yield dividend stocks with a total return potential of up to 41% over the next 12 months, according to select Wall Street analysts.

Kenvue

Kenvue (KVUE 1.98%) ranks as the largest pure-play consumer health company in the world. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 0.31%) spun off Kenvue as a separate entity in 2023. The new business inherited an impressive lineup of products, including Band-Aid bandages, Listerine mouthwash, Neutrogena skin care products, and over-the-counter pain relievers Motrin and Tylenol .

In addition, Kenvue inherited J&J’s status as a Dividend King. The consumer health company has continued to increase its dividend since the spin-off two years ago. It now boasts an impressive streak of 63 consecutive annual dividend hikes. Kenvue’s forward dividend yield also tops 5.1%.

However, one reason why Kenvue’s yield is so high is that its stock has performed dismally. Revenue growth has been weak. Profits have declined sharply since the company became a stand-alone entity.

More recently, Kenvue announced a shake-up at the top in July with Kirk Perry stepping in as interim CEO while Thibaut Mongon was shown the door. The company also underwent a public relations crisis after President Donald Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed that the use of Tylenol during pregnancy could be linked with autism in children.

Kenvue responded quickly to refute those claims adamantly. So did several healthcare organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Autism Science Foundation, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Several Wall Street analysts think that the worst could be over for Kenvue. For example, Bank of America (BAC 5.11%) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM 2.80%) have price targets for the stock that reflect an upside potential of roughly 29%. If they’re right and Kenvue continues to pay dividends at least at the current level, investors could enjoy a total return of more than 34% over the next 12 months.

United Parcel Service

United Parcel Service (UPS 0.10%) is the world’s largest package delivery company. It operates in more than 200 countries and territories. UPS delivers roughly 22.4 million packages every business day.

Image source: United Parcel Service.

Although UPS isn’t a Dividend King like Kenvue, it has a pretty good dividend pedigree. The company has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years. It has never cut the dividend since going public in 1999. UPS’ forward dividend yield is a mouthwatering 7.9%.

The bad news is that UPS’ tremendous yield is due largely to its atrocious stock performance over the last few years. Plenty of factors contributed to this decline, including higher costs resulting from a contract with the Teamsters union and lower shipment volumes following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Management’s decision to significantly reduce the shipments handled for Amazon (AMZN 0.05%) is causing revenue to decline. The Trump administration’s tariffs are especially hurting UPS’ business in its most profitable lane between China and the U.S.

However, some analysts on Wall Street are nonetheless upbeat about UPS’ prospects. As a case in point, Citigroup‘s (C 0.66%) latest 12-month price target is around 35% higher than UPS’ current share price. With such an ambitious target and the package delivery giant’s hefty dividend yield, UPS stock could deliver a total return in the ballpark of 42%.

Are these analysts right about Kenvue and UPS?

I’m iffy about whether or not Kenvue and UPS can deliver the lofty total returns over the next 12 months that some analysts predict. However, I think both stocks could be winners for investors over the long run. Kenvue and UPS could also be solid picks for investors seeking income.

Technology stocks continue to help lead the market higher and remain a great space to find investment ideas. Let’s look at three top tech stocks to buy right now.

1. Nvidia

There has been a lot of news recently around new artificial intelligence (AI) chip challengers, but Nvidia (NVDA -4.33%) remains the company at the forefront of AI infrastructure. The company’s graphic processing units (GPUs) are powering most of the world’s AI workloads today, and that dominance doesn’t look to be slipping anytime soon.

Image source: Getty Images.

Nvidia is much more than a chipmaker. Its edge comes from its CUDA software platform, which it smartly provided for free to universities and research labs that were doing the early work on AI. That led to early AI foundational code being written for its chips and locked in a generation of developers into its ecosystem. Today, the company’s chips, networking, and software work together as one integrated tech stack, giving customers performance advantages.

The company’s huge commitment to partner with OpenAI is another sign that it’s not content to sit back. While other chipmakers have struck deals with OpenAi, Nvidia is the only company getting a significant equity stake in the AI model leader. Together, the two companies will work together to help shape where AI is going.

With demand for AI infrastructure still far outpacing supply, Nvidia’s growth story is nowhere near finished. Nvidia is arguably the most important stock in the market today, and one to own.

2. Alphabet

If there is one company that will challenge Nvidia as an AI leader, it’s Alphabet (GOOGL 0.62%) (GOOG 0.75%). The company has its fingers in multiple aspects of AI, with a unique positioned.

Arguably, no company has as complete of an AI tech stack as Alphabet. Its strength starts with its Gemini large language models (LLMs), which rival those of OpenAI. Meanwhile, the company has developed its own custom AI chips, called tensor processing units (TPUs), that were designed to optimally run its cloud computing infrastructure. The chips are in their 7th generation, and far ahead of most other custom AI chips.

Its software stack, which includes Vertex AI, meanwhile, is top-notch. Alphabet even owns the largest private fiber network in the world, which ensures low latency. Its pending acquisition of cloud cybersecurity company Wiz also adds to its vertical offering.

Right now, this vertical AI integration is helping power revenue growth and operating leverage at Google Cloud. Last quarter, Google Cloud revenue climbed 32% to $13.6 billion, while its operating income more than doubled to $2.8 billion. Meanwhile, it’s using its Gemini model to help power its search and AI chatbot offerings, as well.

Fears that chatbots would eat into Google’s search business have faded as the company blended its Gemini models directly into its core products. Features such as AI Overviews, Circle to Search, and Lens have made search more dynamic, leading to more queries, while its new AI mode lets users easily shift from AI-powered search to a traditional AI chatbot. Alphabet is no longer just playing defense when it comes to search and AI; it’s clearly playing offense, and it is well-positioned to win given its distribution and data advantages.

Alphabet is also making early progress in new areas such as robotaxis through Waymo and in quantum computing, which could eventually open new growth streams. Between search, cloud, and its AI push, Alphabet is a growth stock to buy right now.

3. GitLab

Compared to the two stocks above, GitLab (GTLB 1.11%) is certainly flying under the radar. However, this is a company that has been seeing strong growth. It’s grown its revenue by between 25% to 35% for eight consecutive quarters, including 29% last quarter, and more strong growth could be in store as the company continues to evolve.

GitLab started as a platform for developers to securely write and store code, but has evolved into a full software development lifecycle solution. Its Duo AI agent has the potential to be a big growth driver, as it helps automate repetitive work that eats up most of a developer’s day. Freeing up time to actually write code means more software projects, which drives more demand for GitLab’s tools.

Meanwhile, the company is starting to shift to a hybrid seat-plus-usage pricing model. This could be a huge growth driver for Gitlab, as it lets the company capture more revenue from usage and the increased value its offering is now bringing to its customers. A usage model also counteracts the biggest bear argument against the stock, which is that AI will reduce the number of coders.

That bearish argument has driven the stock to an attractive valuation, with it trading at a forward price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of 6.5 times 2026 analyst estimates. For a company with approximately 90% gross margins growing revenue near 30%, that’s a huge bargain.

Eli Lilly (LLY -0.82%) has been one of the best-performing healthcare giants over the past decade. It now stands as the largest in the sector by market cap.

Even with headwinds it has encountered this year, the drugmaker is arguably one of the top stocks in its industry to buy right now. Here’s why.

Image source: Getty Images.

Innovation pays off

It’s hard to find a drugmaker that has proven more innovative than Eli Lilly in recent years. Within its core areas of diabetes and weight management, Lilly launched tirzepatide, marketed as Mounjaro for diabetes and Zepbound for obesity. Tirzepatide was a significant breakthrough, as the first dual GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) and GIP (gastric inhibitory polypeptide) agonist, a medicine that mimics the action of these two gut hormones.

That’s one of the reasons tirzepatide has proved more effective than traditional GLP-1 drugs, and is racking up sales the likes of which have almost never been seen in the history of the industry. That’s not hyperbole. Most compounds never reach $1 billion in annual sales. Most of those that do, never get to $5 billion, and those that do, typically take years on the market to get there. In its third full year on the market, tirzepatide will generate well over $20 billion this year.

The next chapter

Last year, Eli Lilly earned approval for Kisunla, a medicine indicated to treat Alzheimer’s disease, an area that had long been considered the graveyard of investigational medications. So Lilly’s innovative prowess extends beyond its core markets. And the company is leveraging its success in weight management and obesity to establish a strong foundation for the future.

Thanks to acquisitions and licensing deals, it has significantly expanded its pipeline, which should power clinical and regulatory success over the next few years and strong financial results well into the next decade. That’s why Eli Lilly is one of the top healthcare stocks to buy right now.

Identifying companies that are well positioned to serve a massive growth opportunity can help you land those elusive multibaggers. All you need is one growth stock to work out better than you could have imagined to change your life. Focusing on the companies that are helping build the future, and showing strong growth because of it, can steer you toward the right stocks.

To help you in your search, here are two growing companies playing important roles in the global adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).

Image source: Getty Images.

1. SoundHound AI

SoundHound AI (SOUN 10.20%) has seen its stock skyrocket 455% over the last three years (at the time of this writing). Businesses are turning to it for AI-powered voice assistants, a technology SoundHound has been investing in for 20 years. It has gained a strong foothold in the restaurant industry, with Red Lobster recently partnering with SoundHound on AI-powered phone ordering. But the company has set its sights on serving all enterprises, which could spell monster returns for investors.

SoundHound AI was recently named a leader in the IDC MarketScape for Worldwide General-Purpose Conversational AI Platforms 2025 Vendor Assessment. Its growing revenue indicates a business with huge momentum. Revenue more than tripled in Q2 to nearly $43 million. That brings its trailing-12-month revenue to $131 million, up 137% year over year.

While acquisitions have partly boosted its growth, SoundHound AI has a fundamentally profitable business model. Over the long term, it can monetize its technology through royalties, subscriptions, and advertising. Management expects to be profitable on an adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) basis at the end of 2025.

SoundHound is making great progress expanding beyond the restaurant market. In the second quarter, it made deals with companies across healthcare, retail, and financial services.

As it grows, SoundHound AI is building a strong competitive advantage built on data. It recently exceeded 1 billion queries per month on its platform. This data can help improve its AI capabilities and reflects its growing presence across multiple industries.

SoundHound’s stock has a relatively low market cap of nearly $8 billion at the time of writing. The addressable market it is tapping into is estimated well above $100 billion, so this is a stock that could be worth significantly more in 20 years than it is today.

Image source: Getty Images.

2. Cloudflare

More than 20% of all websites use Cloudflare (NET 4.01%). It acts as a security check between a visitor and a company’s website. The stock has soared 292% over the last three years, but as the company pivots to meeting demand for AI-driven web traffic, investors could see a lot more gains over the long term.

Cloudflare’s main competitive advantage is an extensive global network that covers over 335 cities. This allows it to deliver efficient and scalable service to internet service providers. As it adds more servers to the network, the company’s competitive moat widens from greater efficiency.

Cloudflare has consistently delivered year-over-year growth of about 25%. In Q2, its revenue grew 28% over the year-ago quarter, and this momentum should continue as AI begins to introduce a whole new avenue of growth for the company.

It just signed a $15 million deal with a rapidly growing AI company for its Workers AI product. This service allows companies to run AI models on edge computing devices on the company’s network. Cloudflare has relationships with several leading AI companies, which positions it well for growth as AI agents and models begin to generate an increasing amount of web traffic. Management is enthusiastic to leverage this competitive position to serve new opportunities, such as autonomous transactions completed online between AI agents.

Analysts expect the company’s earnings to grow at an annualized rate of 24%. With AI enhancing its growth prospects, Cloudflare should be a solid growth stock to hold for many years.

Earnings season is right around the corner, and several of tech’s biggest names look to keep their momentum going. Each of these companies posted strong results last quarter, and there are good reasons to believe that strength can continue into the final stretch of the year. These stocks look attractive, not just heading into earnings, but for the long haul as well.

1. Nvidia

Nvidia (NVDA 2.87%) has been at the center of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, and last quarter’s results showed just how strong demand for its chips has been. Its data center revenue surged 56% year over year, despite the company lacking access to the Chinese market, as companies and governments around the world continue to rapidly build out their AI infrastructure.

That trend does not look like it’s slowing, with cloud computing companies continuing to spend big on data center infrastructure and Oracle announcing massive AI data center spending plans. Nvidia, meanwhile, continues to dominate the AI infrastructure market, where its graphics processing units (GPUs) are used to power AI workloads and have an over 90% market share. Its CUDA software platform continues to give it a wide moat in the space, as most early AI code was written on it, and developers favor it.

With data center spending remaining strong and AI demand still outpacing supply, Nvidia’s growth trajectory looks intact. The company has already proven that it can deliver consistent upside surprises, and it’s positioned better than any of its peers to capture profits from the next leg of the AI infrastructure buildout.

2. Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms (META 1.25%) has transformed itself into one of the biggest AI beneficiaries in tech, and that evolution showed up clearly in its last earnings report. The company posted 22% revenue growth in the second quarter, driven by an increase in ad impressions and higher prices. The number of daily active users across its family of apps also climbed by 6% year over year to 3.48 billion, proving that it can still draw in new users despite the maturity of its platforms.

AI has been the key driver behind Meta’s resurgence. It has been using AI to improve how its algorithms recommend content, which is keeping users more engaged. That, in turn, increases the amount of ad inventory it can sell. At the same time, its AI tools for advertisers are helping companies create and target their marketing campaigns more effectively, which boosts Meta’s ad pricing power.

Meanwhile, it is just starting to introduce ads to its biggest untapped assets, WhatsApp and Threads, both of which have huge growth potential. All these things should help keep the company’s earnings momentum going.

Meta also isn’t sitting still when it comes to innovation. It recently debuted its new Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, sales of which could give its Q4 revenue a boost. These augmented reality glasses could also be a precursor to its eventual vision for things like “superpersonal intelligence” and the metaverse, which are longer-term bets.

Image source: Getty Images.

3. Microsoft

Microsoft (MSFT 0.77%) capped off its fiscal 2025 with one of its best quarters in years, showing just how well it’s executing across both cloud computing and AI. In its fiscal Q4, which ended June 30, revenue from its Azure cloud platform jumped by 39%, marking its eighth straight quarter of growth above 30%. Meanwhile, its Intelligent Cloud division as a whole grew by 26% to nearly $30 billion. That strength is being driven by companies accelerating their AI spending, with Azure being one of the biggest beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s early investments in OpenAI continue to give it an edge. Its Copilot AI tools, now integrated across Office products, are increasingly being adopted by enterprises to increase worker productivity. These products are still in their early innings, which means there’s plenty of runway for growth left. Revenues from Microsoft 365 rose more than 20% last quarter, and even the company’s personal computing segment saw renewed growth, led by Xbox and search advertising.

Microsoft is spending aggressively to expand its data center capacity to meet the flood of AI demand, which should keep growth strong in the quarters ahead. With Azure continuing to increase its sales in a rapidly growing cloud market, and with Copilot adding a valuable new layer of recurring revenue, Microsoft looks like one of the most reliable performers heading into this earnings season and a top long-term holding for investors.

Everyone wants to own quantum computing stocks. Companies like IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) are up hundreds of percent in the last year, with the aforementioned stock now at a market cap of $25 billion while generating less than $100 million in revenue. Quantum computing could drive huge gains in productivity if the technology is ever commercialized, but today, IonQ is a highly speculative company with little to no business model. This makes it an incredibly risky stock to own.

Here are two stocks not betting on a speculative science fiction future, but creating value in the present. Both Remitly Global (RELY -3.13%) and Portillo’s (PTLO -2.76%) will be larger than IonQ in five years’ time. Here’s why you should add them to your portfolio over any quantum computing stock.

Remitly’s disruptive opportunity

Remitly Global has moved in the opposite direction from IonQ in 2025. Shares of the remittance provider are off 42% from highs set earlier in 2025, while IonQ is up 78% year to date (YTD) and just reached a new all-time high.

Investors are nervous about Remitly because of the immigration crackdown in the United States, which may reduce cross-border payments from the United States to Mexico and other Latin American countries. This is Remitly’s core business as a mobile disruptor to the legacy players, such as Western Union. Fears are also rising due to a new tax on remittance payments, although it is just a 1% tax and likely not to greatly impact payment flows.

Despite these worries, Remitly has posted strong growth throughout 2025. Revenue was up 34% year over year last quarter, with 40% growth in send volume. Not only is Remitly completely disregarding immigration fears for remittance demand, but it is also taking a ton of market share from legacy players due to its low fees and easy-to-use mobile application.

What’s more, Remitly is starting to get profitable. On $1.46 billion in trailing revenue, the business generated an earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $27 million, with plenty of room to increase its operating leverage over time. Compare that to IonQ with minimal revenue and huge operating losses, and Remitly looks like a company that should have a larger market cap than any quantum computing stock.

Image source: Getty Images.

Portillo’s expansion plans

Portillo’s is a restaurant chain that sells Chicago-style street food, such as hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches. It has begun to expand to other markets such as Texas and Florida with average success, as some of its restaurant volumes have been hit by a broad slowdown in consumer spending at restaurants in 2024 and 2025.

Despite this, Portillo’s is poised to grow substantially in the years ahead. It is planning to slowly grow its presence in new states around the country, bringing this beloved Chicago brand to a national stage. Last quarter, Portillo’s posted just 3.6% annual revenue growth, but that is due to the fact that its new store openings are going to be weighted to the back half of 2025. With the company planning to have just around 100 restaurant locations at the end of this year, there is still a huge runway for the concept to expand to new metropolitan areas in the United States.

Portillo’s has a market cap of just $464 million today. Investors may look at this market capitalization compared to IonQ and think it is impossible for the restaurant operator to surpass the $25 billion stock within five years. But let’s truly compare the underlying financials to show why IonQ is grossly overvalued at its current price.

Over the last 12 months, Portillo’s generated $65 million in EBIT on $728 million in revenue. IonQ generated just $53 million in revenue and lost $351 million (it has never been profitable). Portillo’s may not surpass a $25 billion market cap in five years, but it will be larger than IonQ because IonQ does not deserve anything close to a $25 billion valuation.

Buy Remitly and Portillo’s. Avoid IonQ and other quantum computing stocks. Your portfolio will thank you five years from now.

The Magnificent Seven is more than just a Western from the 1960s. Today, the term refers to the group of innovative companies that have driven stock market gains in recent years. They are technology names you probably know well, from Nvidia to Meta Platforms, and they’re all involved in the high-growth area of artificial intelligence (AI). These players have helped the S&P 500 climb in the double-digits this year, too, and even reach record levels.

But the Magnificent Seven aren’t the only game in town, and two other stocks in particular may give them a run for their money over the next five years, as AI infrastructure spending soars and customers seek capacity for their AI workloads. Right now, these two AI stocks are charging forward and already have outperformed the Magnificent Seven so far this year — but this movement may not be over. Let’s check out the two players that may crush the Magnificent Seven in the years to come.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. CoreWeave

CoreWeave (CRWV -3.32%) has climbed more than 250% since its market launch earlier this year, but that doesn’t mean it’s used up all of its fuel. The company may just be getting started, and that’s because it offers up a service in high demand today — and into the future. I’m talking about AI infrastructure capacity.

CoreWeave, thanks to its 250,000 graphics processing units (GPUs), has a lot of computing power to offer — and customers can easily rent it as needed, even on an hourly basis. This means they don’t have to invest in purchasing costly GPUs but still can access the power they need for the training and inferencing of their models, for example.

To make the picture even sweeter, Nvidia plays a key role in the CoreWeave story. The chip giant holds a 7% stake in the company and recently pledged to buy any unused capacity through 2032 — this removes a great deal of risk from CoreWeave stock.

Finally, CoreWeave’s revenue has been exploding higher, growing more than 400% in the first quarter from the year-earlier period — and more than tripling in the latest quarter year over year. Considering the great need for AI capacity to power the training of AI and its application in the real world, the company should continue to see strong demand — and this may send the stock to greater gains than those of the Magnificent Seven.

2. Broadcom

Broadcom (AVGO -5.90%) stock has advanced nearly 50% so far this year, but this company, too, could keep marching higher in the coming years as cloud service providers focus on scaling up AI infrastructure. The company is a networking giant, known for thousands of products found in a variety of places — from smartphones to data centers.

But this data center business has driven growth as the AI boom picked up momentum. Customers are turning to Broadcom for networking solutions, needed to connect the many compute nodes that power AI workloads across data centers. Broadcom is an expert here and has seen its Tomahawk switches and Jericho routers fly off the shelves.

The company also represents a future winner in the area of computing power as it designs AI accelerators, known as XPUs — but doesn’t necessarily compete with chip giant Nvidia. The XPU is a custom accelerator, made for specific purposes while Nvidia’s chips are high-powered for general use. This makes it easier for Broadcom to carve out market share, serving a customer’s specific needs and offering a product that may be complementary to Nvidia’s. In the recent quarter, Broadcom announced a $10 billion order for XPUs — and analysts say the customer is top AI lab OpenAI.

The AI business has resulted in significant revenue gains in recent quarters — for example, in the latest one, Broadcom reported AI revenue growth of 63% to $5.2 billion. And this trend could continue if Nvidia chief Jensen Huang is right: He expects AI infrastructure spending to climb to $3 trillion or $4 trillion by the end of the decade, and Broadcom clearly could benefit from this stage of the AI boom. And that suggests this stock may crush the Magnificent Seven players as this AI infrastructure story unfolds.

After languishing in a deep freeze over the past few years, the market for initial public offerings (IPOs) is finally gaining steam. In recent months, several companies have gone public, seizing the opportunity to meet the growing investor demand for newly listed shares.

I’ve closely watched the pre-IPO market, waiting for the opportunity to buy shares of some compelling companies. I recently invested in two standout companies: ServiceTitan (TTAN -2.87%) and Klarna Group (KLAR -5.71%). Here’s why I bought these hot IPO stocks.

Image source: Getty Images.

A huge market opportunity

ServiceTitan completed its IPO late last year. The company provides cloud-based software to contractors working in the trades industry, including heating and air-conditioning, plumbing, and electrical service providers.

One of the things that drew me to ServiceTitan is the huge opportunity for its software. The trades industry is enormous, with businesses in the U.S. generate an estimated $1.5 trillion in annual revenue. ServiceTitan currently offers software that could serve companies generating about $650 billion in annual revenue.

However, its current collection of customers only produces about $75 billion in revenue. This means the company currently addresses just a small slice of the market, providing ample room for expansion as it brings more businesses onto its platform and extends its services into added trades.

The company currently generates less than $900 million in annual revenue. With a fully deployed platform, it estimates that revenue from existing customers could hit $1.5 billion. Looking ahead, it sees a $13 billion opportunity with its current platform, and more than $30 billion in annual revenue potential as it expands into new trades and markets.

The company is actively capitalizing on this opportunity. Revenue grew 25% in its fiscal second quarter of 2026 to $242 million. Retaining existing customers and expanding those relationships helped drive growth, as evidenced by its net dollar revenue retention of over 110%. It hasn’t yet achieved profitability under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), but its free cash flow rose over 83% in the period to $34.3 million.

I believe ServiceTitan can continue to grow rapidly for years to come, given its substantial untapped market and expanding customer base. This significant opportunity presents a long path to increasing revenue, which is why I believe it could deliver robust returns in the coming years.

An AI-powered fintech leader

Klarna Group just completed its long-awaited IPO last month. The Swedish financial technology company enables consumers to make buy now, pay later (BNPL) purchases. It also actively leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to boost productivity and enhance its services.

The company is capitalizing on several trends to build a unique commerce network. Consumers are increasingly using digital payments to process transactions.

At the same time, they’re shifting away from credit cards and have low trust in banks. That’s enabling Klarna to bridge the gap between consumers and merchants with a digital solution for payments and banking built on its proprietary AI-powered technology.

Klarna makes money from payments and advertising, which are huge and growing market opportunities. The current addressable market for its payments offering is $520 billion. It has a tiny sliver of that market (0.6%).

Management estimates that there’s over $100 billion of growth ahead in its existing markets and a more than $400 billion expansion opportunity in potential new markets. Meanwhile, the digital advertising market is $570 billion. The company has an even smaller slice of this (0.03%), which it sees growing to $735 billion in the coming years.

The business is growing rapidly and now serves 790,000 merchants (a 34% year-over-year increase in the second quarter) and supports 111 million active customers (a 31% increase). This expanding user base helped drive a 20% boost in revenue to $823 million.

With two huge addressable markets, Klarna appears to have significant long-term potential. The small share of both the payment and digital advertising markets that it currently holds suggests there’s plenty of room to deliver rapid revenue growth as it continues to expand into new sectors. This growth potential could enable the company to generate strong returns in the coming years.

Two potential game changers

I believe ServiceTitan and Klarna have tremendous opportunities, and both companies are using their proprietary technology to capitalize on it. I expect that they could deliver game-changing returns, which makes me excited to finally add these recent IPOs to my portfolio.

If you’re looking for some monster returns, the stocks that can provide them come in many shapes and sizes. For this exercise, we’re going to identify three stocks that show significant revenue growth as well as improving free cash flow and gross margins.

These indicators emphasize better financial health, flexibility for growth, or returning extra value to shareholders. Here’s a look at three companies with rising top lines, while simultaneously bringing more dollars to their bottom lines.

One seller’s trash, another buyer’s treasure

First up is a company called Copart (CPRT -0.33%), which operates an online salvage-vehicle auctions that 11 countries across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Copart makes over 3.5 million transactions annually through its virtual bidding platform that connects vehicle sellers with over 750,000 registered buyers.

CPRT data by YCharts; TTM = trailing 12 months.

Copart has quickly grown into the largest online salvage-vehicle auction operator in the U.S. market and has grown its top line nearly fivefold since 2009 thanks to a strategy of land expansion and higher salvage volume. The company has contracts with large auto insurers, which have a plethora of vehicles deemed a total loss and sell them on consignment for high margins to dismantlers.

Image source: Getty Images.

Copart has been expanding. It’s crucial for the company to have ample land capacity to handle an influx of salvage vehicles on short notice and has nearly tripled its acreage since 2015, with an emphasis on areas at high risk of natural disasters. It’s also expanding into the salvage-vehicle resale process with offerings such as vehicle title transfer and salvage estimation services.

The company is expanding its business and its top line and has durable competitive advantages with the land it owns, creating a high-liquidity marketplace for buyers and sellers that isn’t easily replicable.

A recurring revenue dream

Autodesk (ADSK -2.19%) is an application software company servicing industries that span architecture, engineering, construction, product design and manufacturing, media, and entertainment. The company essentially enables the design, rendering, and modeling needs of those industries and has over 4 million paid subscribers across 180 countries.

ADSK data by YCharts.

Autodesk, while providing leading industry computer-aided design software, drives its success and durable competitive advantages through switching costs and network effects, which actually tend to reinforce each other. Widespread training on its software, often early in careers, not only gives people familiarity with the software, it also makes the cost of learning a competing software undesirable, unproductive, and time-consuming.

Furthermore, according to Morningstar, over 95% of its revenue is now recurring after the company transitioned away from licenses to a subscription model over the better part of the last decade. The change should enable the company to drive its top line even higher as it extracts more revenue per user with upsells and a more mature and loyal user base.

Autodesk even has upside if it can capture a chunk of the estimated 12 million to 15 million people using pirated versions of its software.

A hotel for every need

As of the end of 2024, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG -1.01%) operated nearly 990,000 rooms across 19 brands that span from midscale through luxury segments. Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express are its largest and most recognizable brands, but it also has an assortment of lesser-known lifestyle brands that are recording strong demand.

IHG data by YCharts.

While there’s a bit of U.S. economic uncertainty in the near term, InterContinental should be able to leverage its strong brand of assets to drive room share (i.e., market share) over the next decade. It has renovated and newer brands focusing on attractive midscale and extended-stay segments, as well as a loyalty program with roughly 145 million members to help drive growth.

The company also holds significant assets in international markets with those outside of the Americas generating 47% of total rooms for 2024, and it’s well positioned for the more than 1 billion middle-income consumers expected to be joining the global population over the next 10 years.

The company has over 99% of rooms managed or franchised, which provides an attractive recurring-fee business model highlighted by high return on invested capital (ROIC) as well as high switching costs for property owners.

Contracts often last from 20 to 30 years, also providing noteworthy cancellation costs for owners — all helping drive durable competitive advantages for IHG.

Are they buys?

For long-term investors, these three potentially monster stocks have proved they can rapidly grow their top line while also improving gross margins and pushing more dollars into free cash flow.

The kicker is that all three possess some form of competitive advantage that should sustain and enable growth over the next decade. If you’re looking for market beating returns, these three stocks are a great place to start your research — and perhaps a small position.