Top 3 Favorite Stocks to Buy Right Now in 2024

Many investors have a list of stocks they are keeping their eye on. Some might be stocks already in the portfolio that could be added to, and others could be stocks to keep an eye on as future portfolio additions. Keeping track of potential stock buys can help investors make more informed decisions, and keep an eye on any important news.

Here are three stocks that I think are a buy right now, and that should be on any investor's list of potential investments. Each has strong historical results and a bright future. Let's dig in to see what has these companies at the top of my list.

Top 3 Favorite Stocks to Buy Right Now: Costco

If you've ever had the experience of navigating a crowded Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) parking lot just to get into the store, you've experienced why the company has grown to be the third-largest retailer in the world. Costco's membership fee business model was unique when it began, but it has been a driver of the company's results for decades. In the last 12 months, Costco brought in nearly $5 billion in membership fees.

Costco has also proven to be resilient to slowing economic conditions. While we may not be in a recession, inflation has led to people pulling back on spending, if only a little. To the extent that's the case, Costco has not felt it. In its fiscal second quarter, which ended in February, Costco reported same-store sales growth of 5.6% and an increase of 5.3% in traffic. Costco's value proposition is clear to its members, who renew at a rate of over 90%.

Top 3 Favorite Stocks to Buy Right Now: Amazon

For those not paying attention to Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock over the past few years, it may come as a surprise that in 2022 it traded for its lowest price since early 2019. This was due to substantial operating losses in its e-commerce business because of the spending on its distribution footprint necessary to meet pandemic-fueled demand. Over the past year, the improvement has been impressive.

In fourth-quarter 2022, Amazon reported an operating loss of $240 million in its North America segment (which is essentially the e-commerce business in North America) and an operating loss of $2.2 billion in its International segment (which is essentially the e-commerce business outside of North America). In Q4 2023, these improved to an operating income of $6.6 billion in North America and an operating loss of $419 million in the International segment.

These figures are a result of a concerted effort to rightsize the business coming out of the pandemic's height. This improvement in operating results led to net income improving by more than $10 billion and free cash flow increasing by nearly $50 billion.

Top 3 Favorite Stocks to Buy Right Now: Coupang

If you read about Korean e-commerce giant Coupang (NYSE: CPNG), you'd be forgiven for assuming you were reading about Amazon instead. Taking a play directly out of the Amazon playbook, Coupang has grown to be a formidable player for e-commerce on the Korean peninsula and has recently expanded abroad, most notably into Taiwan.

In Q4 2023, Coupang reported that its active customers grew 16% year over year to 21 million. Much like Amazon's Prime offering, Coupang has a membership program called Rocket WOW that includes free shipping, free returns, and dawn and same-day delivery. Growth in WOW members was 27% in Q4, outpacing overall membership growth and demonstrating the popularity and value proposition of the Rocket WOW program.

Coupang is also starting to see economies of scale as it grows. In Q4 2023, operating income was $473 million, a substantial improvement from the $112 million operating loss posted in Q4 2022. Free cash flow followed a similar trajectory, growing by approximately $2 billion year over year.

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Best Energy Stocks Pick For 2013

President Obama made a speech where he announced a goal of cutting oil imports by a third over the next decade. He included a pledge to have federal agencies buy only alt-fuel vehicles by 2015 and a promise to expand U.S. oil exploration and production.
Transitioning half the cars and trucks in the U.S. to natural gas transportation over the next 5 to 10 years could reduce foreign oil imports by 5 million barrels every day.
So natural gas is an obvious play. Renewable/alternative fuels are other good choices.
Here are my four best picks that could make investors a bundle from  the President’s new policy:
Best Energy Stocks Pick For 2013#1—
Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE)
The company owns and/or supplies more than 200 natural gas fueling stations across the U.S. and Canada. It serves over 320 fleet customers operating over 20,000 natural gas vehicles. The customers can use Clean Energy’s fuel stations to tank up their vehicles with compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Clean Energy Fuels also provides natural gas vehicle systems and conversions for taxis, limousines, vans, pick-up trucks, and shuttle buses through its BAF subsidiary in Texas. Clean Energy helps customers buy and finance natural gas vehicles and obtain government incentives.
The company buys CNG from local utilities and produces LNG at its two plants (in California and Texas) with a combined capacity of 260,000 gallons per day.
Clean Energy owns and operates an LNG liquefaction plant near Houston, Texas, which it calls the Pickens Plant, capable of producing up to 35 million gallons of LNG per year.
And investors who buy CLNE won’t be alone …
Founder and billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens owns a sizeable chunk of Clean Energy.
Best Energy Stocks Pick For 2013 #2—
Westport Innovations (WPRT)
This company makes natural gas engines for forklifts, oilfield services engines, trucks and buses and automobiles. Its 50-50 joint venture Cummins Westport project builds natural gas vehicle engines for trucks and buses that could refill at the clean energy stations built by Clean Energy.
It made revenues of $154 million in the last year and isn’t close to profitability yet. But a concerted push toward natural-gas powered vehicles could change that.
WPRT is at the top of its 52-week range. So I’d wait for a pullback.
Best Energy Stocks Pick For 2013 #3—
Talisman Energy (TLM)
Talisman had 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent in reserves last year. It has material positions in three world-class, liquids-heavy shale plays in North America: The Marcellus shale (Pennsylvania), Montney shale (British Columbia) and Utica shale (Quebec). It is also expanding its Eagle Ford shale properties, in a 50-50 joint venture with Statoil.
The company also signed two $1.05 billion deals with Sasol of South Africa. This partnership is sketching out plans for a new multibillion-dollar facility near Edmonton that could process as much as a billion cubic feet of natural gas a day into 96,000 barrels of refined products through the Fischer-Tropsch process.
Fischer-Tropsch works by using heat and chemical catalysts to break down a substance like natural gas into its molecular basics and then rebuild those molecules into something else — such as diesel.
Why do that?
A barrel of oil contains roughly six times the energy content of a thousand cubic feet of gas. Since 6 thousand cubic feet of gas is worth about $24 (U.S.), and one barrel of oil is worth about $100, there is a tremendous profit margin if you can convert one to the other cost-effectively.
Best Energy Stocks Pick For 2013 #4—
PowerShares Wilderhill
Clean Energy Fund (PBW)
This is one of the largest alternative energy ETFs with over $500 million in assets. Large holdings include GT Solar, Yingli Green Energy, SunPower Corp., Trina Solar and more.

Top 10 High Dividend Growth Stocks for Long-Term Returns

Dividend growth stocks are one of the best-kept secrets in the investing world. After all, these are high-quality companies with strong competitive advantages that allow them to generate rising earnings over time. As a result, most of these companies generate so much in excess cash flow that they are able to pay a higher dividend over time without sacrificing long-term growth.
Companies that raise dividends at a high rate could easily generate double-digit yields on cost for investors who bought early and at the right time.
The following dividend champions have the highest consistent dividend growth rates:
Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW), together with its subsidiaries, operates as a home improvement retailer in the United States and Canada. The company has boosted distributions for 49 years in a row. Ten-year annual dividend growth rate: 27.6%. Yield: 2.8%. (analysis)
McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD), together with its subsidiaries, operates as a worldwide foodservice retailer. The company has increased distributions for 35 consecutive years. Ten-year annual dividend growth rate: 26.5% Yield: 2.8%. (analysis)
Raven Industries (NASDAQ:RAVN) manufactures various products for industrial, agricultural, construction and military/aerospace markets in the United States and internationally. The company has boosted distributions for 25 years in a row. Ten-year annual dividend growth rate: 18.2%. Yield: 1.5%.
Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) operates retail stores in various formats worldwide. The company has increased distributions for 37 consecutive years. Ten-year annual dividend growth rate: 17.8% Yield: 2.8%. (analysis)

Stocks to invest in 2012 - Fulsome Volume Stock at NASDAQ ¨C JVA

Stocks to invest in 2012 - Coffee Holding Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:JVA) witnessed volume of 5.02 million shares during last trade however it holds an average trading capacity of 366,858.00 shares. JVA last trade opened at $11.42 reached intraday low of $11.23 and went +9.23% up to close at $13.26.
JVA has a market capitalization $72.80 million and an enterprise value at $65.61 million. Trailing twelve months price to sales ratio of the stock was 0.76 while price to book ratio in most recent quarter was 4.64. In profitability ratios, net profit margin in past twelve months appeared at 3.27% whereas operating profit margin for the same period at 4.97%.
The company made a return on asset of 12.31% in past twelve months and return on equity of 22.10% for similar period. In the period of trailing 12 months it generated revenue amounted to $87.77 million gaining $16.03 revenue per share. Its year over year, quarterly growth of revenue was 20.00% holding 86.60% quarterly earnings growth.
According to preceding quarter balance sheet results, the company had $2.87 million cash in hand making cash per share at 0.52. The total of $1.82 million debt was there putting a total debt to equity ratio 12.60. Moreover its current ratio according to same quarter results was 2.29 and book value per share was 2.62.
Looking at the trading information, the stock price history displayed that its S&P500 52 Week Change illustrated 16.43% where the stock price exhibited up beat from its 50 day moving average with $6.99 and remained above from its 200 Day Moving Average with $5.06.
Stocks to invest in 2012 - JVA holds 5.49 million outstanding shares with 2.15 million floating shares where insider possessed 49.37% and institutions kept 3.90%.