The bull market continued to drive the S&P 500 to new highs this year. It’s still a great time to invest because once a bull market gets going, it tends to go on for several years.
Three Motley Fool contributors believe Dutch Bros (NYSE: BROS), MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI), and Sweetgreen (NYSE: SG) could outperform the S&P 500. The index delivered an average return of 10% over the last several decades, but these companies are growing much faster and could deliver superior returns.
A home-run stock in the making
John Ballard (Dutch Bros): Investing in emerging restaurant brands can be one of the best ways to build wealth in the stock market. Dutch Bros started out as a coffee shop but has expanded its menu to include a range of beverages, including smoothies and energy drinks. It is profitably expanding across the U.S., which could fuel market-thumping returns over the next five years.
Despite a challenging year for consumer spending, Dutch Bros remains on track with its growth strategy. Revenue grew 28% year over year last quarter, with same-shop sales up 2.7%. This is indicative of an offering that is resonating with people and driving repeat purchases similar to other leading beverage chains like Starbucks.
Dutch Bros has consistently posted around 30% or better revenue growth over the last few years. The only reason that explains why the stock is not following that growth is profitability. But here, too, Dutch Bros is performing well for a small restaurant business. Net income jumped 62% year over year to reach $22 million in Q3.
Dutch Bros has tremendous opportunities to keep expanding. It operated just 950 shops in 18 states as of the most recent quarter. The stock bounced sharply following the company’s Q3 earnings results, but it’s not too late to jump on board. The company’s long runway of growth can still support excellent returns over the long term.
The e-commerce powerhouse that’s also a fintech giant
Jennifer Saibil (MercadoLibre): MercadoLibre has outperformed the market by a wide margin over the past five years — 267% to 109%, even after a recent pullback — and it has every chance of doing that again over the next five years.
It’s the dominant e-commerce platform in Latin America, serving an area that has more than 500 million people the way Amazon serves the U.S. People rely on it for many of their purchases in increasing numbers and with increasing engagement. For example, customers who shopped in three or more categories increased 468% between 2019 and 2023, and average quarterly products per buyer increased from 4.4 to 7.1.
