4 Stocks to Buy on a Pullback

Key Points

• These stocks are some of the best operators in their respective niches.

• However, the market has taken note of this and now requires a lofty premium for each stock.

• If the market pulled back at some point, these would be the four stocks I would look at first.

• 10 stocks we like better than Shopify ›

First things first: This isn't a recommendation to forgo buying these stocks until they pull back.

Instead, I'm suggesting that if the market were to drop 10% -- as it typically does every one or two years -- these would be four of my favorite stocks to add to.

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 »

My daughter and I currently have positions in them, and have added to each one in 2025. However, we have slowed our additions to them recently, as they've been on incredible runs and now trade at premium valuations.

These four winning investments look poised to keep doing so for decades to come. They're at the top of my shortlist for stocks to buy on the dip.

1. Shopify

A 2016 Bain and Company report showed that founder-led stocks in the Fortune 500 generated returns three times higher than their peers over the previous 15 years. E-commerce juggernaut Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP) is a perfect example of this phenomenon.

Image source: Shopify.

Co-founder Tobias Lütke remains CEO at Shopify and helped the company become a 57-bagger since its initial public offering (IPO) in 2015.

The main reason that founder-led stocks are appealing to me is that they tend to prioritize long-term decision-making, which pairs beautifully with The Motley Fool's investing philosophy.

This long-term focus has been paying dividends for Shopify. It now owns a 12% market share of the U.S. e-commerce industry, with over 875 million unique shoppers purchasing from millions of Shopify merchants in more than 175 countries.

However, after Shopify's stock quadrupled over the last three years, its stock now trades at 106 times free cash flow (FCF) and 19 times sales -- both hefty premiums.

Though I still believe Shopify is the best e-commerce stock on the market -- and the leading one-stop shop for entrepreneurs looking to go from product idea to business -- I'd prefer to add to the stock on a pullback.

As Shopify further integrates artificial intelligence (AI) into its solutions for merchants, the company could grow into its lofty valuation, just as it already has for over a decade.

2. Wingstop

Whereas Shopify continues to trade near all-time highs, buffalo-wing franchisor Wingstop (NASDAQ: WING) has dropped 31% from its peak in the last three months.

This drop was spurred by a same-store sales (SSS) decline of 2% -- the company's first negative result in over three years. Ultimately, this recent pullback probably had more to do with Wingstop's shares nearly doubling between April and June of this year, rather than anything actually being wrong with its long-term outlook.

Despite this decline, Wingstop still trades at 66 times forward earnings, so it is still far from traditionally "cheap." However, the company remains an elite operator in the fast casual food niche, as evidenced by Wingstop's 12-fold increase in total returns since its 2015 IPO.

The company grew its store count by 20% in its latest quarter and is on a mission to roughly quadruple its store count to 10,000 locations over the long haul. With about 2,000 stores already approved in its development agreement pipeline, Wingstop's expansion plans have ample room to unfold.

Best yet for investors, Wingstop has grown its SSS for 21 consecutive years, so it isn't solely reliant upon store count expansion to grow.

3. Coupang

For our second founder-led company of the day, we have CEO Bom Kim and South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang (NYSE: CPNG).

After going public near the peak of growth stock hype in 2021, Coupang saw its stock plummet from nearly $50 per share to below $10 by 2022, as the IPO market's excitement waned.

However, in the time since, Coupang's shares have quadrupled from their lows, and the company now counts 24 million of South Korea's 52-million-person population as active customers.

Despite this high adoption rate among the South Korean populace, Coupang's growth story is far from over. It's home to fledgling growth areas such as expanding into Taiwan, advertising, Farfetch (luxury goods), and the company's Coupang Intelligence Cloud (aspirationally similar to Amazon Web Services). So Coupang's growth optionality remains robust.

However, with shares at their highest level in about four years -- and valued at 33 times cash from operations -- investors might not want to go "all-in" right now.

Adding to my shares over time and perhaps getting lucky with a pullback is the route I'll take with Coupang.

4. Casey's General Stores

Still largely landlocked within the Midwestern and Southern states in the U.S., Casey's General Stores (NASDAQ: CASY) has quietly become the country's fifth-largest pizza chain by kitchen count.

Based out of Iowa, the convenience store chain grew for decades by focusing on underserved towns where its pizza-making operations often made it the de facto cornerstone eatery for many small communities.

Nowadays, Casey's is shifting into a new growth gear as it expands further south and east, and, most importantly, into higher population centers. While this is a bit of a departure from its older strategy, it continues to (literally) pay dividends, as its long-term total returns chart shows.

CASY Total Return Level data by YCharts.

While this success has been awesome for my daughter's portfolio in recent years, Casey's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has gone from 17 in 2023 to 36 today, leaving it a bit stretched valuation-wise.

However, it's now home to 2,900 stores and 9 million rewards members. Management's plans to open 500 stores in 2026 alone have the market optimistic that Casey's will live up to this valuation.

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Josh Kohn-Lindquist has positions in Casey's General Stores, Coupang, Shopify, and Wingstop. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Shopify. The Motley Fool recommends Casey's General Stores, Coupang, and Wingstop. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.