One of the best ways to build lasting wealth in the stock market is to buy shares of strong companies with exceptional growth prospects. To help you position yourself for a lucrative 2024, here are two superior companies generating handsome returns for their investors.
1. Alphabet
According to Statista, the digital advertising market will reach over $870 billion by 2027, up from approximately $600 billion in 2023. Google's dominance in the Internet search industry is gone Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) in a strong position to benefit as more ad spend shifts online in the coming years.
YouTube offers Alphabet shareholders another great way to benefit from the growth of digital advertising. With a whopping 2.7 billion users collectively consuming 1 billion hours of content on the platform every day, the hugely popular video sharing platform is an indispensable platform for digital marketers, according to DemandSage.
Moreover, YouTube is a powerful growth engine. Revenue rose more than 20% year over year to $8 billion in the first quarter. Investors can expect this figure to rise steadily in the coming years. Demand Sage predicts that YouTube's user base will grow to 2.85 billion by 2025. Additionally, YouTube's ad sales could get a boost as its competitor TikTok is banned of operating in the US
Alphabet shareholders can also benefit from the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). Rising demand for AI model training services and other machine learning workloads is fueling the growth of Google Cloud, the company's computing infrastructure division. Google Cloud revenue rose 28% year over year to $9.6 billion in the first quarter. Corporate profits, in turn, rose nearly fivefold to $900 million.
Here too, Alphabet has enormous long-term expansion opportunity. According to Acumen Research and Consulting, the global cloud computing market will grow to a whopping $2.5 trillion by 2032, up from $495 billion in 2022.
With so much room for profitable growth, Alphabet stock is a solid buy today. Management seems to agree. On April 25, the company increased its stock buyback program by as much as $70 billion. Alphabet also said it would start paying a dividend, which should put its stock on the radar of more income-oriented investors.
2. Eli Lilly
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that obesity can lead to dangerous diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) aims to combat these worrying health trends by helping people lose excess body fat. In turn, the breakthrough weight-loss treatment, Zepbound, could become the best-selling drug of all time.
Zepbound is an incretin-based therapy that works by stimulating hormones that can reduce a person's appetite and, by extension, the amount of food he or she eats. A 72-week clinical trial found that people who received the highest dose of the weekly injection lost an average of 48 pounds.
In fact, subjects who were administered Zepbound and implemented a diet and exercise plan improved their cholesterol and blood pressure profiles. Other clinical studies have shown that the active ingredient in Zepbound, tirzepatide, can improve blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes.
Because of these promising results, Eli Lilly is expected to have a huge demand for its new drugs. The healthcare titan's revenue and profit rose 26% and 67%, respectively, to $8.8 billion and $2.2 billion in the first quarter.
Looking ahead, Eli Lilly's earnings per share are expected to grow more than 50% annually over the next five years. Peer even further into the future, investment bank Goldman Sachs states that sales of anti-obesity drugs could grow to as much as $100 billion by 2030. Buy shares today and you can profit alongside Eli Lilly as it works to meet the scorching demand for its new weight-loss treatments.
Should You Invest $1,000 in Eli Lilly Right Now?
Consider the following before purchasing shares in Eli Lilly:
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Suzanne Frey, a director at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool holds positions in and recommends Alphabet and Goldman Sachs Group. The Motley Fool has one disclosure policy.
2 top stocks that could make you richer in 2024 was originally published by The Motley Fool
