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The market is approaching new highs again.
However, these promising growth stocks have yet to set new highs.
Although they haven't kept pace with the S&P 500 recently, these stocks offer investors market-beating potential over the long term.
Over the last few months, the S&P 500 has risen 24% from its 2025 low, and has begun setting new all-time highs.
This incredible ascension doesn't mean there are no enticingly priced stocks, though. Despite the market rebounding, many of the best growth stocks remain at least 10% below their highs. Here are 10 of my favorite growth stocks that are worth buying right now. (Numbers as of July 10, 2025.)
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »
Image source: Shopify.
Shares of the United States' leading e-commerce enabler, Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP), are down 33% from their 2021 peak as i write this.
However, in the four years since that high, sales have grown from $4 billion to over $9 billion, giving the company a much more palatable valuation.
Much as Amazon revolutionized e-commerce alongside the internet's boom, Shopify aims to reimagine the industry as artificial intelligence (AI) gains prominence.
In 2023, the company launched Shopify Magic, an AI-powered toolbox that generates product descriptions and marketing campaigns, edits photos, and automates customer support. Then in 2024 it launched Sidekick, which helps merchants gather business insights, optimize inventory, and set pricing strategies, among things.
These AI solutions reinforce Shopify's mission of simplifying entrepreneurship, and should help it stay the top dog in the global e-commerce industry.
Shopify still accounts for only 12% of the U.S. e-commerce industry -- and less than 2% in its core international geographies -- so it should still have decades of growth ahead.
Whereas Shopify streamlines the e-commerce experience for merchants, Global-E Online (NASDAQ: GLBE) does so for crossborder sales. Selling products to someone in a different country is complicated, and Global-E's e-commerce platform alleviates these difficulties for its merchants.
The company enables sales to over 200 countries, offering pricing in 100 currencies along with 150 payment options. It also provides access to 20 shipping carriers, messaging in 30 languages, tariff calculations, and zero-risk payment fraud management.
Its operations are so complex that Shopify chose to partner with Global-E rather than try to help its merchants sell internationally on its own.
FedEx estimates that crossborder sales will grow twice as fast as regular e-commerce purchases through 2030. This fact, paired with Global-E's 30% revenue growth and improving margins, makes it a promising investment.
DLocal (NASDAQ: DLO) also helps merchants sell to customers in foreign countries, processing payments in emerging markets. It helps improve merchants' conversion rates by offering 900 local payment options in 40 countries across Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
However, since the company went public in 2021, its net profit margin has slid from above 30% to 19%, which helps explain its dramatic share price drop.
This margin compression is the result of a short-term trade-off DLocal is making. Rather than demanding lofty "take rates" up front, it's getting its foot in the door with major customers, such as Amazon, Spotify, Uber, Shopify, and Netflix.
Now woven into its megacustomers' ecosystems, DLocal can start to offer higher-margin solutions over time, increasing the portion it takes as it provides value to them. Early results look promising: DLocal's total payment volume (TPV) retention rate hit 144% last quarter.
Trading at 23 times earnings, while growing TPV by 53%, DLocal could be a steal today.
Serving 99 million active customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia -- a figure that grew by 16 million over the last year -- Nu Holdings (NYSE: NU) is becoming one of the largest digital banks in the world.
Aside from its robust 25% net profit margin, Nu's growth in average revenue per active customer (ARPAC) is what makes the bank so intriguing.
ARPAC one year after a customer joins the bank is $4.80. After two years, this rises to $6.80. But after eight years, the figure spikes to $25.90, highlighting how the bank grows alongside its customers.
Furthermore, while Nu already counts 58% of the adult Brazilian population as customers, this percentage is much lower in the company's nascent growth markets: It's only 12% in Mexico, and 8% in Colombia.
The combination of ARPAC growth, geographic expansion potential, solid margins, and acceptable delinquency ratios makes Nu Holdings a stellar growth stock.
Image source: Duolingo.
After quadrupling in value since their 2021 initial public offering (IPO), shares of the world's largest language-learning app, Duolingo (NASDAQ: DUOL), have declined by 30%.
Seeing daily active user (DAU) growth slow from 56% in February to 37% in June, the market reined in Duolingo's lofty valuation. While it's now trading at a more reasonable 61 times forward earnings estimates (down from 90 a few days ago), the company's improving margins and promising growth options could outgrow this valuation.
Whether it adds new courses (such as math or chess), offers more standardized tests, expands its advertising business, or deploys new AI use cases (like video chats with the fan-favorite character Lily), Duolingo has a growth story still in its early chapters.
In January and February, I wrote about Wingstop (NASDAQ: WING) being one of my favorite growth stocks. The Buffalo wing franchiser's shares have since rallied from a bit over $200 per share to over $300. Yet the best may still be ahead.
Wingstop currently has 2,563 locations, but management believes it can raise this number to 10,000 globally. If that sounds far-fetched, consider that the company already has 1,955 stores in its development pipeline.
And Wingstop isn't a one-trick pony relying upon store-count expansion to grow. It has 21 consecutive years of same-store sales growth, including a 20% increase in 2024.
Yes, the stock looks expensive at 69 times cash flow from operations (CFO). However, it had a similar valuation at its IPO in 2015, and has since become a 15-bagger, so I'm optimistic about the future.
Dutch Bros (NYSE: BROS) is a burgeoning handcrafted-beverage chain with a cult-like following among its customers. Much as with Wingstop, a lot of the interest in the company's stock stems from its potential for store-count growth.
Although it's already 1,000 shops strong, over 50% of the company's locations are in just three states: Oregon, California, and Texas. As Dutch Bros expands further into the Midwest and Southeast, management believes it could reach 7,000 locations.
Now that the company has reached breakeven on what it generates in cash flow from operations versus what it spends building new stores each year, it could become a compounding machine.
Already lauded for customer service and value for customers, Dutch Bros should continue to appeal as it expands to new states.
UFP Technologies (NASDAQ: UFPT) is a contract development and manufacturing organization for 26 of the 30 largest medical device manufacturers.
With the design capabilities and materials expertise necessary to manufacture new polymer-based medical devices, UFP collaborates with medical device makers to create new products. UFP's shining example of this process was designing drapes for Intuitive Surgical's robots to "wear" during surgeries.
Targeting niche use cases like this, the company relies on its strategy as a serial acquirer to grow, scooping up new complementary technologies as it goes.
Since UFP gets to handpick which devices it collaborates on with its customers -- typically high-margin, single-use products -- I expect its multibagging ways to continue far into the future.
The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) is the largest ad-buying platform for the open internet. As a demand-side platform focused on transparency, The Trade Desk stands in stark contrast to the closed systems of Meta Platforms, Amazon, and Alphabet's Google.
But, after the company reported earnings earlier this year that missed expectations for the first time in 33 quarters, its share price got crushed.
While a 60% drop in share price is alarming, the dramatic sell-off likely had more to do with the company trading at over 100 times its free cash flow (FCF) than with any fundamental issues with the business.
For instance, GroupM expects the advertising industry to grow by 7% in 2025. Given The Trade Desk's 25% Q1 sales growth, it's evident that the company is continuing to expand its market share.
As The Trade Desk continues to target three high-growth areas -- connected TV, premium audio, and international markets -- it's likely to outgrow its current price-to-FCF ratio of 55.
One of the simplest ways to invest in the ongoing AI boom may be to buy lithography juggernaut ASML (NASDAQ: ASML).
Lithography is the near-magic process of using ultraviolet light to etch nanoscopic patterns onto silicon wafers, which are used in the world's most powerful semiconductor chips. What makes ASML so interesting is that it's far and away the leader in this process. It holds a market share of over 50% in more mature deep ultraviolet lithography, and a monopoly in extreme ultraviolet lithography -- the most advanced process.
Although ASML will always remain exposed to geopolitical risks and cyclicality throughout the semiconductor supply chain, its importance to its customers (and thus, its sales) should grow over the long term.
McKinsey & Company expects the $600 billion semiconductor industry to grow to $1 trillion by 2030 and surpass $2 trillion by 2040, so ASML's lithography machines should remain essential for years to come.
With shares trading below their 10-year average price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 37, now looks like a great time to consider buying the company responsible for powering the semiconductor industry.
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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors.
Josh Kohn-Lindquist has positions in ASML, Alphabet, DLocal, Duolingo, Dutch Bros, Global-E Online, Netflix, Nu Holdings, Shopify, The Trade Desk, Uber Technologies, UFP Technologies, and Wingstop. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends ASML, Alphabet, Amazon, FedEx, Global-E Online, Intuitive Surgical, Meta Platforms, Netflix, Shopify, Spotify Technology, The Trade Desk, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends DLocal, Duolingo, Dutch Bros, Nu Holdings, Ufp Technologies, and Wingstop and recommends the following options: long January 2027 $7 calls on DLocal and short January 2027 $10 calls on DLocal. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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