The Best Stocks to Buy With $1,000 Right Now

If you have $1,000 available to invest today, you're well on your way to creating an excellent portfolio or adding to an existing one. Although the market is expensive right now, there are many exceptional stocks trading at reasonable prices.

If you're looking to invest, consider Nu Holdings (NYSE: NU), Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM), and Lemonade (NYSE: LMND).

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1. Nu Holdings

Nu is a rapidly rowing digital bank based in Brazil that has huge expansion opportunities. It has reported nearly flawless results for several years and has incredible long-term potential.

While the vast majority of its customers are in its home country of Brazil right now, or 110 million out of 127 million, it's gaining traction in its two newer markets, Mexico and Colombia. These are regions that are still cash-heavy and ripe for digital disruption, and Nu is growing even faster in these markets.

In the 2025 third quarter, it added 4.3 million customers in total, a 16% increase over last year. It's scaling quickly and is quite profitable, giving it the funds it needs to invest in developing new growth markets.

While it's adding all of these customers, it sees even more opportunity long term to monetize existing customers. Average revenue per active user continues to increase at a healthy pace, reaching $13 in the third quarter, up from $11 last year. That figure rises along with the time a customer has been on the platform, reaching $27 for customers who have been with Nu the longest. This is in comparison with $43 for incumbent banks, giving investors a taste of what's to come.

Nu stock trades at a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 33, which looks attractive for a stock growing as quickly and with as much opportunity as Nu.

2. Taiwan Semiconductor

Taiwan Semiconductor fabricates semiconductors for most of the tech companies you know. It has long-standing relationships with leaders like Nvidia and Amazon and works across a range of industries, including smartphones and autonomous vehicles. In other words, while it's enjoying artificial intelligence (AI) tailwinds right now, the company has staying power by driving innovation in almost every tech trend.

It's a stable and well-established leader that's still demonstrating robust growth. In the 2025 fourth quarter, revenue increased 26% year over year to $34 billion. Gross margin increased from 60% to 62%, and operating margin widened from 51% to 54%. High-performance computing, which includes AI, accounted for 55% of total revenue and increased 58%, while smartphones accounted for 33% and increased 11%.

The company recently opened its first U.S. facilities in Arizona, setting the stage for it to move many of its operations for U.S. clients, and recently said it was on track to open 12 new plants at the Arizona site. That diversifies its global footprint and reduces its exposure to U.S. tariffs.

Taiwan Semiconductor stock trades at 31 times trailing-12-month sales, an attractive deal for an industry powerhouse with huge opportunities.

3. Lemonade

Lemonade is a digital disruptor in the insurance industry and growing rapidly as customers discover its user-friendly platform. It was built with AI and machine learning, with interconnected parts that make it more agile and responsive than traditional, older insurance companies.

It onboards new customers and pays claims primarily through chatbots, creating a more streamlined, hassle-free experience for customers, and uses its growing data pool to price policies effectively. That's why its loss ratio, which measures how much it pays out in claims versus premiums collected, continues to decline (lower is better). It went down a full 10 percentage points in the 2025 third quarter from last year on a trailing-12-month basis.

In-force premium, the standard top-line metric for insurance companies, rose 30% in the third quarter from a year earlier, and its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) loss narrowed from $49 million to $26 million. Management expects to reach adjusted EBITDA breakeven this year.

Lemonade stock trades at a price-to-sales ratio (P/S) of almost 11, so it's not incredibly cheap. But if you can hold onto it for many years, I believe it will be a worthwhile investment.

Jennifer Saibil has positions in Lemonade, Nu Holdings, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Lemonade, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends Nu Holdings. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.