Hold off on party favors when the market rises this year. You may be amazed by how many stocks are flying. Only 23 $2 billion-market cap companies are up 50% in 2024. Can they maintain the fun? Celsius Holdings (NASDAQ: CELH), Sweetgreen (NYSE: SG), and Instacart (NASDAQ: CART) are among 35 $2 billion-plus companies up at least 50% this year. Their chances of doubling this year are good. Discuss why they'd get there.
1. Celsius: 64% higher Celsius is a fast-growing sparkling functional beverage company, thus its shares are sparkling this year. This year's first jump wasn't a fluke. Since last year, the stock has tripled. Celsius is a five-bagger over three years and a staggering 63-bagger over five.
Slow growth is inevitable for its fat-burning juice-flavored beverages. Celsius defies gravity for now. Bears predicted last year's boom would halt. They erred. The year before, they thought so. They were wrong. This month, short interest reached a record high.
The past three years have seen revenue treble. With double-digit percentage beats in every quarter of 2023, the corporation is profitable. International growth will take over as domestic growth slows. Celsius announced three new international expansion areas earlier this year, worth tracking considering overseas sales make up only 4% of its top-line.
Final data point may surprise you. Set aside the energy drink maker's habit of exceeding profit targets: This beverage stock is a 62-bagger over the previous five years and trades at 57 times next year's earnings. Celsius might have been bought five years ago for less than it should earn next year.
2. Sweetgreen: 95% higher Premium salad spinner Sweetgreen debuted at $28 in late 2021 and was a smash. IPO opened at $52. The stock hit $6 in March last year. Although Sweetgreen was growing quickly, its lack of profitability kept it off the radar of growth investors.
Sweetgreen sells expensive salads. It thrives on big lunch crowds of affluent office workers placing combination orders. Sweetgreen Outpost, a batch delivery service that lets businesses apply for in-office delivery stations, generates income. Morning orders are pooled and delivered before midday. Since employers are back to in-office work and human ties, the program is thriving after the pandemic.
In its previous quarter, revenue climbed 29% more than predicted. New restaurant openings and 6% same-store sales growth are fueling top-line growth. Sweetgreen still loses money, but its restaurant profit margin is rising. Investors responded, tripling shares over the past year. The stock has nearly doubled this year by mid-March
3. Instacart: 59% higher I wasn't the only one skeptical when Instacart launched last fall. Should another publicly traded business enter the competitive third-party delivery app market? Initial market reaction: yawn. Instacart went public at $30 and closed at $30 in its first week.
Since its trading floor debut, business hasn't improved. The same firm whose prospectus predicted 80% compound annual growth between 2018 and 2022 has halted. Revenue climbed 19% in 2023, half of 2022's rise. In its first quarter as a public firm, sales grew 6%, and it laid off workers in February.
Instacart knows its way around the grocery store, and its business strategy is profitable. It also rules its niche. Analysts expect revenue to expand 8% this year and 9% in 2025, but profitability will rise rapidly. Don't overthink ingredients
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