Target (NYSE: TGT) made it official on Thursday. The mass-market retailer lived to keep its Dividend King crown another year. Target boosted its quarterly dividend rate, something that the chain operator has now done for 54 consecutive years.

It wasn't much of an increase. The new quarterly distribution rate of $1.14 a share is just a pair of pennies -- or 1.8% -- higher than the old dividend. Target stock has moved exactly 2% higher just through the first four trading days of this week, so its forward yield of 4.6% is just a smidgeon lower than it was when the week started.

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This is still a pretty big move for Target. Let's zoom in on the retailer's storefront logo to see if it hit the bull's-eye this week.

My two cents

The timing of the payout boost isn't a surprise. As I pointed out earlier this week, Target has announced its annual increase between June 9 and June 15 over the last several years. If it was going to go through with another hike it was going to happen this week.

The new rate also isn't a surprise. Target also moved its quarterly dividend two pennies higher last June. Target has the earnings wiggle room to go higher, but it's the wrong message to send when the "cheap chic" chain has some issues to figure out. Thursday's move was about checking a box, keeping income investors satisfied until it drums up a way to win back the growth investors that have meandered elsewhere.

Target's net sales have declined slightly in back-to-back fiscal years, and this year is off to another challenging start. Comps declined 3.8% in the fiscal first quarter that it posted last month, and it's even worse at the physical store level. Digital comps are 4.7%, fueled by the growing success of Drive Up orders and Target's Circle 360 premium loyalty platform. Inside the actual stores, comps are down 5.7%.

Thankfully the chain remains more than profitable to cover the more than $500 million it's shelling out every three months in shareholder distributions. Target's guidance calls for adjusted earnings per share to clock in between $7 and $9 this year. The new dividend will set Target back $4.56 a share, translating into a forward payout ratio of 51% to 65%.

It's a reasonable ratio, sustainable if it can start growing again. Thankfully analysts see a return to growth on both ends of Target's income statement by next year. It's comforting to know, but investors have been burned by other retailers failing to turn things around after suffering popularity hiccups.

Image source: Getty Images.

Shopping for a turnaround

Target's 4.6% yield is notable. The stock shedding almost a third of its value has pushed up the dividend from roughly 3% a year ago. Short-term rates on the money market funds have gone the other way, and now Target is generating more income than many short-term fixed income options. This isn't necessarily a badge worth wearing.

There are only a couple of department store operators currently dedicating a larger cut of their market caps to quarterly disbursements. Macy's is yielding 6.1%. Kohl's is at 5.7%, and that was after slashing its dividend by 75% earlier this year. Dillard's makes the cut on a trailing basis only because of a one-time distribution of $25 a share it made late last year, but the forward rate is microscopic.

This isn't a club that Target may want to be a part of right now. Those shareholders are bracing for sharp declines in profitability this year, along with sliding sales through these next two fiscal years. Cutting fat checks while their boats are taking on water isn't a financially seaworthy approach.

Target isn't in the same boat, at least not yet. It still has time. If it coughs up the Dividend King crown next June because it has a better use for its earnings -- as in making sizable investments to turn shopper perception around -- it wouldn't be a bad thing. The income investors won't be happy, but if it's a bridge to winning back the growth investors, swapping income for capital gains is a smart trade.

Target chose complacency this time. If it can't plug the leak a year from now it could be time to chart a new course.

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Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $655,255!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $888,780!*

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Rick Munarriz has positions in Target. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Target. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

There's still time for a Hollywood ending for AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC). The multiplex operator may be trading more than 99% below the split-adjusted high it reached four summers ago, but momentum is on its side these days. AMC stock has risen 28% since bottoming out two months ago.

The bullish turn might not seem apparent at first. Revenue declined last year, and it has now clocked in negative in four of the last five quarters. Trailing revenue is 17% below its 2019 peak. AMC hasn't delivered an annual profit since 2018. One can argue that AMC is simply rallying alongside the overall market, but there are some potential catalysts fueling the lift. Eyes on the screen. The movie could be just getting started.

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Coming attractions

This year got off to a slow start at the local multiplex, and it translated into a rough first quarter for AMC. Year-over-year revenue declined 9%. Its net loss and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) deficit widened. Thankfully traffic picked up on the heels of some tentpole releases during the current quarter.

Domestic ticket sales are currently 25% higher than they were at this point last year. This year's three highest-grossing theatrical releases -- A Minecraft Movie, Lilo & Stitch, and Sinners -- all came out in the current quarter. Analysts see AMC bouncing back with a 26% jump in revenue for the second quarter, its strongest showing in nearly two years.

Wall Street pros see a return to top-line growth for all of 2025, and the current estimate calling for a 7% increase could prove conservative. As strong as the studio slate has been since April, the rest of the year could be a murderers' row of releases. Avatar: Fire and Ash, Jurassic World: Rebirth, Wicked: For Good, and Zootopia 2 should all pull huge audiences. Fresh installments in in the Superman and Fantastic Four franchises should bring out fans of superhero action movies.

The crowds are coming. Revenue growth will follow. Investors are coming. The upticks should follow if AMC can turn its bottom line around.

Image source: Getty Images.

Sticking to the script

Like any good superhero origin story, AMC has had to claw back from a dark place. The exhibitor has seen its share count explode on this end of the pandemic, well beyond the 1-for-10 reverse stock split two summers ago. The bloated share count is a good reason why AMC has been one of the market's worst performers over the last four years.

It's time to flip the script. This isn't a bad time for all movie theater stocks. Smaller rival Cinemark has been profitable since 2023, and things are going so well that it resumed paying a quarterly dividend this year. There's a shocking contrast, and an even more shocking similarity here.

Cinemark has moved higher in the same four-year stretch that AMC has surrendered 99% of its value. Wow? And there's this: AMC and Cinemark are somehow trading at the same enterprise-value-to-trailing-revenue multiple of 2.1.

AMC should have returned to profitability by now. Long-term debt is actually contracting for the fifth year in a row, and it's rolling out premium in-theater offerings to boost revenue per guest. Per-share profitability will be a problem with the outsize share count, but sentiment will improve once AMC is out of the red and fading to black. Analysts may not see that happening for a couple of years, but movie studios are giving multiplex operators the lifeline they need with the pipeline they feed.

The turnaround has to start somewhere. Thankfully for AMC investors, it's starting to take shape this quarter. It can't fumble the popcorn bucket again.

Should you invest $1,000 in AMC Entertainment right now?

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The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and AMC Entertainment wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $655,255!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $888,780!*

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Rick Munarriz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

It's time to see if Chewy (NYSE: CHWY) shareholders will be given a treat for a job well done. The popular online retailer of pet supplies and other essentials reports its fiscal first-quarter results on Wednesday morning. There are a lot of mixed signals out there in the world of pet stocks.

Brick-and-mortar retailer Petco Health & Wellness saw its stock plummet 23% on Friday after offering up a disappointing financial report. The stock has shed nearly 85% of its value over the past year. Chewy's momentum is marching to a more upbeat drum. The shares may be just shy of where they were five years ago, but the e-tailer's stock has more than doubled over the past year.

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Unlike Petco, expectations are high for Chewy this week. Let's take a closer took at what investors should expect heading into this telltale quarterly update.

Let's take Chewy for a walk

Chewy came through with a blowout fiscal fourth quarter three months ago. Net sales soared 15% for the holiday quarter that ended on Feb. 2, its strongest year-over-year growth in three years. After six periods of single-digit top-line growth, it finally returned to double-digit growth. The strong showing was enough to lift full-year sales growth to 6%.

There's a catch, of course. Given the nuance of Chewy's fiscal year, there was an extra week in the fourth quarter as well as for the entire fiscal year. If you back that out -- the extra 8% more days for the quarter and 2% more for the year -- revenue would've climbed just 4% in fiscal 2024. The 15% quarterly jump would be pared back to the high single digits. It was still a strong beat, particularly on the bottom line where Chewy is earning its upticks.

The year ended on some positive notes. After its active customer count dipped in the two previous years, that audience widened to 20.5 million, tacking on 431,000 in net adds for the year. It's still lower than the 20.7 active accounts it was serving at the end of fiscal 2021, but a welcome reversal after sliding to 20.4 million and then 20.1 million in the two subsequent years.

Customers are also spending more. Net sales per active customer clocked in at $578, a decent step up from $555 in fiscal 2023 and $496 the year before that. Autoship -- the platform that allows customers to receive discounts on advance orders placed for regular intervals -- now accounts for 80.6% of total sales on the platform. Authoship sales rose 10% last year, well ahead of the overall growth rate of just above 6%.

Image source: Getty Images.

It's feeding time

Chewy's own guidance for the quarter in late March calls for $0.30 to $0.35 in earnings per share on $3.06 billion to $3.09 billion in net sales. Ahead of Wednesday's report before the market opens, analysts are perched near the high end of that range. The consensus estimates see Chewy's earnings per share rising 10% to $0.34 with the top line rising 7% to $3.08 billion.

A lot has happened since pet stocks initially soared early in the pandemic. Savvy investors caught on that folks sheltering in place and working from home would lead to a spike in pet and cat adoptions. In theory, the business should be booming as the puppies and kittens that folks took in five years ago are much larger and hungrier furry companions today.

Chewy has been aggressively buying back stock, a smart move in retrospect given the rising shares over the past year. The stock may not seem cheap at 39 times forward earnings -- and a still steep multiple of 32 if we look out to fiscal 2026 -- for a stock growing its business in the single digits. Thankfully it does seem to be turning the corner in terms of growing its active customer base again. It will still have to deliver a blowout performance with the shares soaring over the past year. All treats must be earned, after all.

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The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Chewy wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $669,517!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $868,615!*

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Rick Munarriz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Chewy. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

It was the end of an era at Walt Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Florida resort over the weekend. Muppet*Vision 3D, an attraction that entertained visitors to Disney's Hollywood Studios for more than 34 years, closed after its final guest performance on Saturday night. It's the latest long-running experience to get shuttered at Disney World.

Earlier this year, guests saw its Test Track adrenaline booster ride close down. Animal Kingdom also surrendered some of its capacity in 2025, nixing a few original experiences including the TriceraTop Spin flat ride and the It's Tough To Be a Bug 3D show inside the park's signature Tree of Life focal point.

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The closures will continue, with the Magic Kingdom gated attraction in Florida getting in on the clearance sale. Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty Square Riverboat, along with the Rivers of America that both experiences cross, will run dry after July 6. Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin in Tomorrowland will pause the following month, for less than infinity, to see if it can go beyond with its intergalactic target blasting ride.

The endings don't end there. Two of Disney World's most thrilling rides, Dinosaur and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, will close early next year.

There's never a good time to take down a handful of high-volume attractions, but Disney knows what it's doing. It's shuttering a lot of experiences to use the space as a fresh easel for its next generation of experiences. You probably don't want to bet against the House of Mouse.

Disney's leisure business has some surprising momentum right now. The media stock giant came through with a blowout fiscal second-quarter report last month, and Disney's theme parks business was the biggest reason for the stock's 24% surge in May. Its domestic parks and experiences business delivered a 9% increase in revenue through the first three months of this calendar year. Disney's operating profit came through with a 13% gain. The company's announcement of plans for a new licensed theme park in Abu Dhabi also turned heads.

This is a sharp contrast to how its largest rival Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) fared in the same three months. It experienced a 5% top-line slide for its theme park operations with a sharp 32% drop in the segment's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).

Unlike Disney's high-flying shares, Comcast stock rose a mere 1% in May. That's a stunning contrast, and one to monitor now that Comcast opened its Epic Universe theme park a few miles away from Disney World.

Image source: Disney.

There will be a lot of closures this year through early 2026, but this should be a case of addition through subtraction. Disney knows it will upset some fans with retiring some long-running attractions, but it's betting on making things better. In late 2023, it boosted its goal of investing $30 billion on its theme parks and cruise ships business over the next decade to a cool $60 billion.

Almost everything closing now will be replaced by experiences that should be even more popular. In the case of Test Track and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, the two rides will return with enhancements. Test Track's redo promises nods to the original attraction it took over. Buzz Lightyear's makeover is about looking ahead, updating the moving laser shooting gallery with detachable blasters, targets that are more responsive after being hit, and different-colored lasers so you don't get lost in a sea of red dots as before.

The other attractions will open as new experiences. You won't have to wait long for the updated Test Track and a Zootopia-themed takeover for It's Tough To Be a Bug. They will both make their debut later this year. The refreshed Buzz Lightyear dark ride will reopen next year, while the Muppets will take over for Aerosmith as hosts of the soon-to-be former Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. Tropical Americas will replace DinoLand at Animal Kingdom in 2027 with an Indiana Jones attraction, Disney's first Encanto-themed ride, and a one-of-a-kind carousel.

The timeline gets fuzzier after that. The closure of Muppet*Vision 3D over the weekend will clear the way for an area themed to Pixar's Monsters franchise, including a suspended roller coaster. The resurfacing of Frontierland's throwback attractions will be replaced by a Cars-themed land, and eventually the long-overdue area dedicated to Disney's signature villains.

In short, Disney has stocked the pond with years of attendance-boosting attractions. When it doubled the segment's budget to $60 billion, the entertainment behemoth mentioned that 70% of that should go to increasing capacity. The balance will go to infrastructure and tech improvements. This is a lot of money, averaging $6 million a year. You have to go back to pre-pandemic times for the last time Disney posted an annual profit larger than $6 million. However, Disney knows you have to keep raising the bar and rejuvenating guest experiences to keep folks coming back.

Should you invest $1,000 in Walt Disney right now?

Before you buy stock in Walt Disney, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Walt Disney wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $669,517!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $868,615!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 792% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 173% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

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*Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025

Rick Munarriz has positions in Comcast and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends Comcast. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The last couple weeks of springtime have seen the market itself spring to life. There are investing opportunities in both stocks that have fallen out of favor and some popular growth stocks.

Some of my favorite stocks right now are Sirius XM Holdings (NASDAQ: SIRI), Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY), and Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU). They are well positioned to keep rising from here, armed with some obvious and some not-so-obvious bullish catalysts. Let's take a look.

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1. Sirius XM Holdings

Don't let the weak stock chart facade dissuade you from taking a closer look at the country's satellite radio monopoly. Sirius XM stock was cut in half last year, and it still hasn't bounced back in 2025. There are some solid reasons for the media stock's meandering ways, but there are also a compelling valuation, chunky yield, and potential tailwinds to consider.

Let's start with the negatives. It's been more than a decade since Sirius XM posted double-digit top-line growth, and revenue is now declining slightly for the third year in a row. Auto sales are the funnel that leads to new subscriptions, and that market has been weak. Young drivers are also turning to streaming smartphone apps for in-car entertainment, bypassing Sirius XM's premium offering. If this looks pretty bleak, turn the corner. Sirius XM may be about to do exactly that a lot sooner than the market thinks.

Image source: Getty Images.

It was easy to see why Sirius XM was struggling coming out of the pandemic. Folks were working from home, so it was easy to justify sidestepping in-car subscriptions for a product that eases daily commutes. This is starting to change, with more and more companies calling employees back to the office. Gas prices are low, down 12% across the country over the past year and 22% lower than they were three years ago. This should be an incentive to get folks driving more, increasing the value proposition of coast-to-coast coverage of Sirius XM's premium content. Meanwhile, if financing rates start to ease up and the economic outlook improves, there's going to be a lot of pent-up demand for new vehicle sales with factory-installed Sirius XM satellite receivers.

The valuation is better than you might think for a company on the cusp of turning things around. You can buy Sirius XM stock for less than 8 times this year's projected earnings. If the recovery takes some time, it literally pays to be patient. The stock's 4.9% yield is a lot better than both the market average and what sideline sitters are generating in money market yields.

Don't take it from me, though. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) has boosted its stake three times since the fall of last year. Warren Buffett's holding company now owns more than a third of Sirius XM. I'm happy to own a much smaller chunk of the company.

2. Nintendo

Let's play a different game with this one. Nintendo isn't out of favor like Sirius XM. Shares of the Japanese video game pioneer hit another all-time high this month. The market is buzzing about next week's rollout of the Switch 2, Nintendo's first new gaming system in more than eight years.

This is a pretty big deal. Revenue and earnings for Nintendo tend to triple if not quadruple in the three to four years after a major new console comes out. The business itself is already well ahead of where Nintendo was when the original Switch hit the market in March of 2017. Nintendo's multigenerational appeal continues to widen. Nintendo has successfully jump-started its presence as a theatrical property, and it now has a presence with a dedicated land in three of the world's largest theme parks. Nintendo is richly priced based on recent financials, but the future is what is fueling renewed interest here. With demand for Switch 2 outstripping supply, the next couple of years should treat investors to stellar growth.

3. Roku

There's no sugarcoating the ugly multiyear stock chart here. Roku shares are trading 85% lower than their peak in the summer of 2021. That doesn't mean that Roku isn't in a much better place now. The company behind North America's leading operating system for TV streaming has never entertained an audience this large with engagement levels perpetually rising.

The 16% revenue growth it posted in its latest results extends its streak of double-digit gains to eight quarters. Losses continue to narrow, and Roku is forecasting a return to profitability in the second half of this year. With time spent on the platform having risen 16% over the past year, it has a firm hold on its viewers, who spend hours a day channeling their TV consumption through Roku's landing page. Its guidance for the second quarter did come in a bit light, but it's still stretched its streak of double-digit revenue growth to nine quarters.

Should you invest $1,000 in Sirius XM right now?

Before you buy stock in Sirius XM, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Sirius XM wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $653,389!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $830,492!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 982% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

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*Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025

Rick Munarriz has positions in Nintendo, Roku, and Sirius XM. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway and Roku. The Motley Fool recommends Nintendo. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

It's been 24 years since a major theme park has opened in the U.S., so Thursday's official grand opening of Comcast's (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Epic Universe is a pretty big deal for the gated attractions industry. After more than a month of highs and lows during paid guest previews, Comcast was ready for its national -- and international -- close-up.

Epic Universe got off to an encouraging start on Thursday morning. All 11 rides were running an hour into the opening, a rarity for anyone who visited during the previous weeks of technical rehearsals. Outside of a five-hour wait for the signature Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry attraction, the remaining experiences had wait times of 30 minutes or less. An hour later, the buggy Battle at the Ministry ride was down, and the queue was not accepting new guests until the delay had passed.

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A lot of time and money has gone into the park that was originally announced to open in 2023, and the theme park enthusiast community and investors have been trying to figure out if this would boost Comcast's prospects or diminish Walt Disney's (NYSE: DIS) dominance in this space.

In short, Thursday's refreshingly successful opening shows that Comcast's Universal Orlando resort is ready to become a larger force in the theme park market. It doesn't mean Disney has to lose in the process.

It's a levitation spell

I was able to kick the tires of Epic Universe across three visits in late April.

I saw the park at its best, a day of light crowds and ideal weather, when it closed three hours early for a private event. I also saw it at its worst, dealing with the downtime and ride glitches that will get better over time, but also the lack of shade and plethora of stairs that will only get worse for guests as we dig deeper into summer. I was also there for the first day that experienced a weather delay for paid guests, a problem in Florida, since it shut down all but three rides for more than two hours.

Despite the negatives, I was blown away by the positives. It's not just about the three bar-raising signature ride experiences. The rest of the industry will have to take note of how immersive and detailed and just flat-out gorgeous Epic Universe can be. This summer will be brutal between the heat and perpetual afternoon thunderstorms, but when the weather turns in late autumn, it will be a hard place to resist.

Image source: Getty Images.

I am happy to be both a Comcast and Disney shareholder. Epic Universe will bring no shortage of visitors to the Orlando area, but the capacity constraints of the new park will find guests checking out other area attractions until it builds out more high-capacity attractions. It's a process that will take years to fully flesh out.

Comcast will be the biggest beneficiary, naturally. The older Universal Orlando parks will gladly take Epic Universe visitors on days when a visit to the shiny new park isn't optimal. Disney could also experience an uptick in traffic if the overall tourist counts to the area spike in the next few quarters.

Comcast can use the boost. Its theme parks business reported a 5% dip in revenue and a 32% slide in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) in the first quarter of this year. Disney held up considerably better in the same first three months of this year. Its stateside parks and experiences segment posted a 9% jump in revenue and a 13% increase in operating profit.

As I file this piece -- three hours into the first day of Epic Universe's grand opening -- Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry is still down. Folks who got in bracing for a 300-minute wait will have to tough it out a bit longer, or abandon the queue and take advantage of the still reasonably short wait times of 45 minutes or less for the rest of the rides. It's too beautiful a park to be stuck in one confined space for longer than anyone should have to, but that's just another reason why both Comcast and Disney are winners on this historic day.

Should you invest $1,000 in Comcast right now?

Before you buy stock in Comcast, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Comcast wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $644,254!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $807,814!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 962% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 169% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025

Rick Munarriz has positions in Comcast and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends Comcast. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Sometimes you need to collect passport stamps to find unique investing opportunities. Coupang (NYSE: CPNG) is South Korea's leading e-commerce provider. It has a pretty dominant position with 23.6 million active customers. This may not seem like a lot, but it's about half of the country's adult population.

Despite posting nearly consistent double-digit revenue growth and turning profitable two years ago, Coupang is somehow still a broken IPO. The shares are trading 23% below their debutante price of $35 four years ago, and more than 60% lower than the all-time intraday high it scored the day it hit the market 50 months ago.

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Despite the disappointing overall return, momentum is on its side now. Coupang is beating the market with a 24% year-to-date rise, and there's a clear path for the upticks to keep coming. I predict that Coupang can beat the market in the coming year and potentially longer than that. Let's take a closer look.

Voted moat likely to succeed

The best companies have moats that make it hard to be taken down by rivals and disruptive upstarts. Coupang has a genius moat. It's not just an app and website. It has set up more than 100 fulfillment centers across South Korea's densest areas, placing it within a seven-mile drive of 70% of the country's population. It has a fleet of drivers working overnight, making sure that most orders placed before midnight are either delivered the same day or before the sun rises the next morning. If this sounds a lot like Amazon, you're getting warm but Coupang could be getting even hotter.

Like Amazon, Coupang has a premium Prime-like subscription platform that offers free delivery and access to other digital goodies like streaming content and access to an online grocery store. It goes beyond Amazon in that it also offers home delivery of area restaurant orders. If you want to return something, you can just leave it outside your door and Coupang will swing by to pick it up.

If you're wondering how an online platform can rapidly evolve to the point where it already has half of a tech-savvy country on its side, it's all starting to come together. Coupang has built an e-commerce empire that will be difficult to duplicate at this point.

Image source: Getty Images.

Shopping for growth

Coupang is a better company now than it was when it went public four springtimes ago. Revenue has more than doubled. It's now profitable. It stumbled in its initial expansion into Japan, but it's holding up better in Taiwan as a secondary market. It also scored some global street cred early last year when it acquired European luxury apparel e-tailer Farfetch at a distressed price.

Is Coupang growing at the same pace that it was when it charged out of the IPO gate with back-to-back quarters of better-than-70% top-line growth? No. Growth has normalized at a lower pace now. Outside of one quarter at the end of 2022, revenue gains have been able to stay in the double digits.

Data source: Coupang. YOY = year over year.

Revenue growth accelerated organically through 2023. The theme was a bit different in 2024, with the Farfetch deal that closed in January of that year boosting quarterly sales by as much as 7%. Things should normalize again, but analysts are encouraged. They see Coupang's net revenue climbing 13% this year, accelerating to 15% come 2026. The bottom line is expected to grow substantially faster.

Building out its offerings, expanding into new territories, and rescuing Farfetch from the brink of bankruptcy doesn't come cheap. Profitability is here, but it is modest. Even if you look out to next year, Coupang stock is trading for 40 times projected adjusted earnings. However, everything that is holding Coupang back now on the bottom line are the best reasons to own Coupang. Investing in engagement and stickiness will only strengthen one of the best moats in e-commerce. Entering new territories may heighten the risks, but it also lifts the ceiling. The Farfetch deal wasn't popular at the time, but it's a foot in the door outside of its home turf.

Coupang knows what it's doing. This seems to be the year that investors are coming to the same conclusion.

Don’t miss this second chance at a potentially lucrative opportunity

Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you’ll want to hear this.

On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a “Double Down” stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you’re worried you’ve already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it’s too late. And the numbers speak for themselves:

• Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you’d have $341,791!*
• Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you’d have $38,365!*
• Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you’d have $644,254!*

Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, available when you join Stock Advisor, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.

See the 3 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Rick Munarriz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool recommends Coupang. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

There are a few things that Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), Target (NYSE: TGT), and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), have in common. They are all components of the prestigious S&P 500. The stocks all pay a dividend north of 4%, with two of them yielding a lot better than 5%. Finally, bucking the trend of the rallying market, they are all trading at least 30% below their 52-week highs.

There are worse fates than being a household name, declaring generous quarterly distributions, and being currently out of favor. Let's take a closer look at these three iconic dividend-paying S&P 500 stocks that you can buy at a discount, potentially holding on for the long haul.

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 »

1. Ford

It's been four years since I unloaded my second Ford Flex. The now-discontinued crossover SUV was the first ride I replaced with the same make and model. The shares have fallen out of favor, trading 31% below last summer's high. I guess you can say that investors also miss the Ford flex.

The legendary automaker is doing better than its stock chart, with Ford shedding more than a quarter of its value over the past three years. Revenue growth has been positive in the first four years coming out of the pandemic. The top line did go the other way in this week's quarterly update, but even then investors found blue skies in Blue Oval's fresh financials.

Image source: Getty Images.

Revenue declined 5% to $40.7 billion for the first three months of this year, but analysts were holding out for a 16% drop. Wall Street pros were modeling a profit of $0.02 a share, but Ford drove through that barrier wall to earn $0.14 a share for the first quarter. The bottom-line beats are accelerating, with Ford clocking in 3%, 20%, and now 557% ahead of market expectations in the last three quarters, respectively.

Ford did suspend its forward guidance given the trade war uncertainties, warning that it expects a full-year hit on its adjusted earnings before interest and taxes from tariffs to be around $2.5 billion. It's hoping to realize $1 billion in cost savings to partly offset that hit. Two days later it announced that it would be raising prices on three vehicles it makes in Mexico by as much as $2,000. However, there was some upbeat news later in the week when U.S. automakers became part of the framework of a potential trade deal with the United Kingdom.

The headlights are still bright for Ford and other automotive stocks despite the foggy windshield. The average age of passenger cars on the road is a record 14 years. The demand is there for a surge in auto sales. Consumers just need economic confidence and a climate of low financing rates to make the plunge. The stock's nearly 6% yield comes dangerously close to its projected free-cash-flow average in the next couple of years. If the economy softens or tariffs intensify the distributions won't be sustainable at the current level. However, don't underestimate the power of pent-up demand and the ability of the economy to course correct before hitting more potholes.

2. Target

The cheap chic discount retailer feels more cheap than chic these days. It's not resonating as the cool place for value-conscious shoppers, with sales declining in four of the past seven quarters. The top line has dipped slightly in back-to-back fiscal years. The stock also isn't resonating with investors, off a blistering 42% from its August peak.

The bullish news for investors is that the stock is well positioned for a possible economic brake tap. It offers non-discretionary grocery items, and has strong private-label sales elsewhere. Folks who shop at mainstream department stores may trade down to Target when money is tight. The 4.6% dividend -- near a historical high -- appears safe in the near term. The chain is trading for less than 11 times trailing and forward earnings, dropping to just 10 times next year's projected profit.

3. Pfizer

When a major pharmaceuticals company is packing a 7.6% yield it should be more of a red flag than an income party. It often means that many of its key products are coming off patent, rivals have better alternatives, or the pipeline is barely trickling for potential new treatments. There's a lot of that here. Analysts see revenue gradually sliding through at least the next five years with net income to follow suit after next year.

It doesn't have to go that way. Pfizer can strike gold with a new treatment, even though it did throw in the towel last month on a once promising oral weight loss drug candidate. Pfizer can also use its clout and leverage to acquire a smaller player with a brighter growth trajectory. Its streak of 16 consecutive years of hikes can be in jeopardy if its profits don't bounce back, but it's just the "P" in Pfizer that's silent. The drug giant itself still has a lot to say.

Should you invest $1,000 in Ford Motor Company right now?

Before you buy stock in Ford Motor Company, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Ford Motor Company wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $617,181!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $719,371!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 909% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 163% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of May 5, 2025

Rick Munarriz has positions in Pfizer and Target. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Pfizer and Target. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Growth stocks have been rallying in recent weeks, and that's usually great news for Cathie Wood. The founder, CEO, and stock-picking ace of the Ark Invest family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has momentum on her side. Her largest fund has soared nearly 30% since bottoming out last month, but starting lines matter. That same fund would have to more than triple to get back to its all-time highs set four years ago.

Wood did a fair amount of buying as the market moved higher on Wednesday. She added to existing stakes in Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD), and CRISPR Therapuetics (NASDAQ: CRSP). Let's take a closer look at Wood's latest purchases.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

1. Nvidia

The country's third most valuable company by market cap is a study in contrasts. It's a wealth-altering 13-bagger over the past five years, but it has also surrendered 13% of its value in 2025. The developer of graphics processing units and artificial intelligence (AI) chips has fallen 24% since hitting all-time highs earlier this year.

Wood seems to sense that there's an opportunity here to pick up more shares for almost a quarter less than what they were fetching at their peak four months ago. She added to her Nvidia stake in more than half of Ark's growth funds on Wednesday. It doesn't mean that she's right.

Image source: Getty Images.

Despite the company commanding the pole position in the surging demand for AI chips to propel language learning models to new heights, headwinds have emerged in recent months. The first hit came earlier this year when China's DeepSeek announced that it could crank out decent generative AI results without springing for the latest Nvidia hardware. The bigger hit these days comes from the global tariffs rollout by the U.S., particularly the standoff with China that has resulted in chipmakers warning of big one-time hits. Nvidia revealed last month that it would have to take a charge for as much as $5.5 billion related to items that are now restricted from sale in China.

Nvidia doesn't report its quarterly results for another three weeks. Investors are still holding out for strong growth. Analysts see Nvidia topping $43 billion in revenue, a healthy 65% jump. Earnings should rise 46% to hit $0.81 a share. Despite all of the noise, Wall Street pros have only made marginal downward revisions to their growth forecasts from now through the end of fiscal 2027.

Nvidia's recent pullback against its backdrop of growth makes the shares a potential bargain here. Investors can buy the stock for a little more than 20 times next year's projected earnings. It's obviously still growing a lot faster than that. There is a cyclical nature to semiconductor stocks, but the AI revolution is still in the early stages. Wood is a buyer here for Ark. It doesn't mean that she's wrong.

2. Advanced Micro Devices

3. CRISPR Therapeutics

Nvidia and AMD notwithstanding, most of the purchases that Wood made on Wednesday came from her passion for medical tech and gene editing. CRISPR has become one of the 10 largest holdings across all of Ark's ETFs.

CRISPR is a leader in gene editing, tackling oncology, autoimmune, diabetes, and cardiovascular solutions. Revenue is currently meager, and analysts don't see a profit here for several years. There is upside if Wood is right. The stock is trading nearly 85% below the all-time high it hit back in early 2021.

Don’t miss this second chance at a potentially lucrative opportunity

Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you’ll want to hear this.

On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a “Double Down” stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you’re worried you’ve already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it’s too late. And the numbers speak for themselves:

• Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you’d have $303,566!*
• Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you’d have $37,207!*
• Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you’d have $623,103!*

Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, available when you join Stock Advisor, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.

See the 3 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of May 5, 2025

Rick Munarriz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, CRISPR Therapeutics, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Last week was pretty jarring for investors figuring that cruise line stocks were essentially all in the same boat. Market cap leader Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL) put out an encouraging quarterly report on Tuesday. Smaller rival Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE: NCLH) went the other way when it served up its latest financial results a day later.

Royal Caribbean posted better-than-expected growth through the first three months of this year, particularly on the bottom line. NCL saw year-over-year declines, particularly on the bottom line. There's a lot to unpack here, but the joy of a cruise getaway is that you only have to unpack once when you start a exploring the various ports of call. Bring a sense of adventure -- and perhaps some Dramamine -- as we head into the high and low seas.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

Some waters are choppier than others

Royal Caribbean saw its revenue rise 7% during the seasonally sleepy first quarter for the industry. This is its weakest top-line growth since resuming operations in late 2021 after the COVID-19-mandated shutdown, but the showing was in line with expectations. It was on the bottom line that Royal Caribbean really got going. Adjusted earnings soared 57% to $2.71 a share, well ahead of the $2.53 a share that Wall Street pros were modeling.

It was a different story for Norwegian Cruise Line. Revenue declined 3% at NCL, partly as a result of some maintenance work being done on some of its larger ships that put them briefly out of commission. Adjusted earnings plummeted 56%. Foreign exchange losses ate into profitability, but even without that hit, it would've still been a decline from a year earlier.

The comparisons don't end there. Royal Caribbean's net yield -- a popular industry metric that calculates adjusted gross margin per available passenger cruise day -- was 4.7% during the quarter. This is almost quadruple NCL's net yield of 1.2% for the period. Load factor or occupancy rate also favors the market cap leader, 109% vs. 101.5%.

The end result is that Royal Caribbean continues to be leader in terms of performance. Its net margin over the past four quarters stands at a robust 19.4%, more than double NCL at 9.1%.

Image source: Getty Images.

Earning its market premium and upticks

You would expect the market to pay a premium for Royal Caribbean's perpetually superior fundamentals. The market doesn't disappoint on that front. NCL definitely trades at much lower multiples on a trailing basis as well as a forward-looking basis.

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Royal Caribbean is trading at nearly double the earnings multiple of NCL in all three timelines. Even if you circle back to the top line, Royal Caribbean trades at an enterprise value that is 4.9 times its trailing revenue. This is more than double NCL with a 2.4 multiple. Given the former's historically superior growth rates and margins, it's a premium that is more than warranted. If history is any indicator, Royal Caribbean will actually continue to grow faster than NCL -- and that also goes for its stock chart gains.

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

The disparity is dramatic, and it becomes more wealth-altering the further out you sail. It's hard to believe that Royal Caribbean has nearly tripled over the past three years while rival NCL is actually trading 13% lower. Go out to five years and Royal Caribbean is a five-bagger. NCL has generated an annualized return of 5%.

If there's a takeaway for investors here, it's that paying a premium is worth it for a superior operator in the same industry. There is a sound argument to be made that Norwegian Cruise Line represents a compelling value here, and I don't agree. I own a stake in NCL, but I have a larger position in Royal Caribbean. The gap should widen if history is any kind of teacher. The long-term prospects for the cruising industry are promising once you look past the current waves of tariffs and economic concerns. Just don't assume that every cruise line stock has the same seaworthiness before boarding the ship.

Should you invest $1,000 in Royal Caribbean Cruises right now?

Before you buy stock in Royal Caribbean Cruises, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Royal Caribbean Cruises wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $623,685!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $701,781!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 906% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 164% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of May 5, 2025

Rick Munarriz has positions in Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean Cruises. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Stocks are starting to bounce back, and it's probably a good time to take a look at growth stocks that can make the most of the market's recent bullish turn. You probably have a few growth stocks in mind, and I want to share some of mine.

I think Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU), and Celsius Holdings (NASDAQ: CELH) are three growth stocks ready to roll in the final seven months of 2025 and beyond. Let's take a closer look at these three potential market beaters.

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 »

1. Amazon

The leading online retailer has been a generational growth stock. Amazon has posted top-line growth of at least 9% in each of its first 28 years of trading. It's also almost a 2,000-bagger since going public in May of 1997.

Growth has slowed. Net sales rose 9% to $155.7 billion in the latest quarter it reported last week, but that's above the 5% to 8% it was targeting three months earlier.

The bottom line is the bigger story here. Net income shot 64% higher to $17.1 billion. Sales growth has meandered lately, but Amazon broke through with its first quarter of double-digit net margin in the holiday quarter of 2024. That margin has only widened in the subsequent quarter.

Amazon has posted double-digit percentage earnings beats in each of its last four quarterly updates, and its guidance is also encouraging. It sees net sales climbing 7% to 11% in the current quarter, a larger jump than it was modeling in the first quarter.

Image source: Getty Images.

There are tariff concerns, but it may be more of an opportunity than a challenge. The surge in prices on imported goods is leaving a bigger dent on deep discounters Shein, Temu, and other Chinese e-tailers trying to sell to American consumers. These companies were previously gaining market share at Amazon's expense with their low prices.

Amazon also has its AWS cloud computing infrastructure platform, which is gaining market share to the point where it now accounts for nearly a third of the global market. It's just 15% of the revenue mix here but is growing faster than its flagship e-commerce business.

The stock may not seem cheap, but here's the thing: Amazon may be a card-carrying member of the ballyhooed "Magnificent Seven," but it's trading essentially where it was at this time last year. Buying Amazon for 31 times this year's projected earnings and 26 times next year's target may seem rich, but the profit multiple is near its historic low.

2. Roku

3. Celsius Holdings

One can argue that Celsius is not worthy of being considered a growth stock at this point. After three consecutive years of revenue more than doubling, last year treated investors to a mere 3% advance.

The top line actually declined in the second half of 2024. Even the stock has lost more than half of its value over the past year, even though it's bouncing back in a major way in 2025.

Its namesake beverages continue to be a functional energy-drink staple. It also garnered bullish attention earlier this year by announcing plans to acquire the company behind Alani Nu, opening fresh opportunities with a lifestyle brand catering to a different target audience at an accretive price. With the company's return to growth expected in the second quarter -- and its stock trading for less than 30 times next year's earnings estimates -- it could wind up being one of this year's best-performing stocks.

You won't have to wait long for a fresh take on Celsius. The rebounding sparkling-beverage company reports first-quarter results on Tuesday morning.

Don’t miss this second chance at a potentially lucrative opportunity

Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you’ll want to hear this.

On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a “Double Down” stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you’re worried you’ve already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it’s too late. And the numbers speak for themselves:

• Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you’d have $296,928!*
• Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you’d have $38,933!*
• Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you’d have $623,685!*

Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, available when you join Stock Advisor, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.

See the 3 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of May 5, 2025

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Rick Munarriz has positions in Celsius and Roku. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Celsius, and Roku. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Special things can happen when sleepy stocks start to wake up. Looking back the past few years, there may not seem to be a lot that's interesting when it comes to Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), Disney (NYSE: DIS), and Verizon (NYSE: VZ). They're all names that most investors and consumers know, but they have a long history of slow growth.

The three stocks make up 10% of the names in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI). The iconic market gauge isn't typically a hotbed of big gainers, but I think Coca-Cola, Disney, and Verizon can beat the market for the balance of this year and beyond. Let's take a closer look.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

1. Coca-Cola

The story for the pop star isn't as sparkling as its namesake offering at first glance. Consumers have been cutting back on sugary beverages. Revenue has declined in more than half of the past dozen years. With the shares trading for 24 times forward earnings, it might not seem cheap given its sluggish fiscal performance.

Thankfully, there's a lot of fizz in the flatness. Coca-Cola is resonating with investors in the current climate. It's the biggest gainer among all 30 of the Dow stocks this year, the only one posting a double-digit rise in a challenging 2025 backdrop for investors. Despite being a global juggernaut, it's not as tariff-susceptible as most consumer-facing businesses. Most Coca-Cola beverages are bottled and distributed locally. It's also relatively recession-proof given the low price for refreshing escapism.

The story gets better if you zoom in a bit, a tall order for a company that's been around for 135 years. I pointed out that revenue has declined in seven of the past 12 years, but it has actually risen in the past four years. Two of those four years treated investors to rare double-digit top-line jumps.

The beverage stock reports its first-quarter results on Tuesday morning. The bulls have momentum. Coca-Cola has a knack for exceeding expectations. It has posted modest single-digit percentage beats through 2024. Can it keep the positive surprises going into 2025 and beyond?

Data source: Yahoo! Finance. EPS = earnings per share (adjusted).

Now let's zoom out again. Despite the U.S. trend away from colas and even diet sodas, Coca-Cola has built up a portfolio of about 200 brands covering carbonated sodas, hydration, coffee, tea, juice, dairy, and, more recently, alcoholic offerings through low-risk partnerships. It boosted its dividend two months ago, something it has now done for a confidence-inspiring 63 consecutive years. Despite more than six decades of annual increases, its payout ratio remains under 70%. In short, the quarterly distributions should continue to move higher.

The business works. Its flagship soft drink business remains a lucrative money machine, selling its syrupy concentrate to a global network of largely independent distributors. Net margin has been 22% or better for six straight years. You may want to wait until its quarterly update this week to make sure that its outlook remains effervescent, but Coca-Cola is winning this year because it's positioned well for whatever is coming around the corner.

Image source: Getty Images.

2. Disney

At the other end of the consumer spectrum, Disney isn't faring as well as the king of pop. The House of Mouse is among the 60% of Dow 30 stocks trading lower in 2025. Its realm of global premium-priced theme parks are naturally not sheltered from the current trade war or recessionary whispers.

However, there's still a lot to like when it comes to Disney. Content still matters, and Disney's studio remains the ultimate tastemaker. It had all three of the world's highest-grossing theatrical releases this year, and it has a strong slate of films coming out in the final eight months of 2025. With its popular Disney+ streaming platform turning profitable, the media giant is likely to see strong earnings growth that will outpace its modest revenue moves.

Analysts see revenue inching just 3% higher in the fiscal year that ends in five months, accelerating to a 5% increase in fiscal 2026. Those same pros see earnings per share rising 10% and 11%, respectively, in those fiscal periods. Disney stock is lagging the market for the fourth time in the past five years, but that makes the valuation even more compelling. The shares are trading for less than 15 times next year's earnings estimates, a historical bargain for a company that has earned its right to a market premium given decades of industry-leading content creation.

3. Verizon

Let's bring this home with Verizon. The wireless carrier is the highest yielding Dow stock with its juicy 6.5% yield. Growth for the telcos has been uninspiring. Verizon hasn't been able to top 6% growth in each of the past 15 years, and that includes slight dips in back-to-back years. Wall Street pros see revenue growth clocking in just shy of 2% in each of the next two years.

Reality hasn't lived up to the hype for Verizon and its peers. Major investments in 5G technology and other infrastructure updates haven't resulted in next-level growth. The upside is that folks aren't going to get rid of their wireless service anytime soon. Tariffs may make new smartphones more expensive, but providing connectivity is the moneymaker here. Despite the admittedly substantial debt, Verizon is still trading for less than nine times forward earnings. In other words, its streak of 18 years of dividend increases is likely to continue. It's a smart call.

Should you invest $1,000 in Coca-Cola right now?

Before you buy stock in Coca-Cola, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Coca-Cola wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $594,046!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $680,390!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 872% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 160% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of April 21, 2025

Rick Munarriz has positions in Verizon Communications and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Growth investors feast on volatility, but the turbulence has proved challenging for Cathie Wood. The founder and CEO of Ark Invest has taken a hit in the current climate. Her largest exchange-traded fund has plummeted nearly 20% in 2025, but it's still trading higher over the past year.

Wood publishes her firm's daily transactions. She was particularly busy with the market moving higher yesterday. Ark added to its existing positions in Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD), and Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) on Monday. Let's take a closer look at the Wood's three fresh purchases.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

1. Nvidia

Shares of Nvidia have fallen 26% this year, and that's after a bounce in Tuesday's trading. It's a laggard in the near term for Ark's performance. Zoom out, though, and the artificial intelligence (AI) chip leader starts looking a lot better. It's up 24% over the past year, a dazzling 14-bagger over the past five years.

Nvidia has come a long way since its early days, when the top dog in graphics processing units was appreciated largely by fans of PC gaming. Nvidia now finds itself at the intersection of buzzy trends, but the strongest is clearly the AI revolution. Developers need a lot of computing power to train and run their AI models, and Nvidia is the leading provider in the chips that make these language learning models fly.

Image source: Getty Images.

There have been some headwinds lately. In January came the announcement from China's DeepSeek that it could deliver respectable AI results with older Nvidia chips. Lately, the trade war has been leaving its mark. Between the effective shipment ban to China and fears of an economic slowdown, investors have soured on Nvidia's near-term prospects.

Two different analysts slashed their profit targets ahead of Tuesday's open. Vivek Arya of Bank of America lowered his price goal from $160 to $150. Tom O'Malley at Barclays took his target down $20 to $155. Estimates remain roughly where they were three months ago, when the shares trading much higher. Wall Street pros seem to think valuation multiples should contract to account for consumer risk and one-time hits on China. The silver lining is that both analysts are still bullish on the shares, and even the new price points offer more than 50% of upside from today's levels.

2. Advanced Micro Devices

3. Baidu

Let's end with a stock that's actually trading higher in 2025. China's leading search engine is barely positive this year, but it is trading lower over the past year. Chinese stocks have been surprisingly resilient in 2025, despite the trade tiff with the U.S. government. It probably helps that Baidu generates most of its revenue on its home turf.

Baidu isn't perfect, though. Growth has been stagnant. Unlike the double-digit percentage increased for Nvidia and AMD, Baidu has pieced together three straight quarters of small year-over-year declines. It should return to top-line gains starting in the current quarter, but there are clearly some growing pains. Despite its search dominance, and even though it's dipping its toes into everything from autonomous driving to computer vision and and AI, Baidu's revenue is lower than it was three years ago.

The good news for Baidu is that's it the relative bargain in this shopping list. The stock is trading for just eight times this year's net income target. Sometimes Wood can be a value investor, too.

Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now?

Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

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Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Rick Munarriz has positions in Baidu. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Baidu, Bank of America, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Barclays Plc. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

After back-to-back years of strong returns for cruise line stocks, this year has been enough to make investors seasick. The three largest cruise line operators are trading 29%, 17%, and 35% lower in 2025. You don't have to go all the way up to the pool deck to see the light about what's going on here.

The trade war rhetoric has rocked the market, and the cruise industry finds itself in choppy waters. It's hard to fathom -- see what I did there? -- the industry not impacted by a wave of protectionism and fiscal isolationism. Will cruising enthusiasts pull back on ocean voyages, fearing a potential uptick in xenophobia? Will the inflationary pressure of tariffs gnaw away at the economic means to afford these sea escapes?

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I remain bullish on the industry, seeing the recent pullback as a buying opportunity. I believe that Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL), Viking Holdings (NYSE: VIK), and OneSpa World (NASDAQ: OSW) are three no-brainer stocks to buy right now.

1. Carnival

The last of the three cruise line operators to post financial results is also the largest player by revenue and passenger volume. Carnival put out its fiscal first-quarter report three weeks ago, and it's a lot better than you would expect from a stock that has shed nearly a third of its value.

Revenue rose 8% to $5.81 billion for quarter ending in February. This is Carnival's weakest year-over-year growth since resuming operations after the pandemic closures, but it was actually ahead of the $5.74 billion that analysts were modeling. It also came through with with a monster beat on the bottom line, reversing a year-ago deficit. Carnival has now posted seven consecutive quarters of at least double-digit percentage beats over Wall Street pro profit targets. Lately it hasn't even been close.

Data source: Yahoo! Finance. EPS = earnings per share (adjusted).

It wasn't a perfect report. Carnival did raise its guidance, but that consisted largely of the beat for its fiscal first quarter. Carnival still offered encouraging booking trends during the quarter. It currently has $7.3 billion in customer deposits for future sailings, higher than it's ever been for the cruise line at this point of the year.

Carnival was trading at an attractive valuation before. It's looking a lot better now as the stock keeps heading south while estimates steer north. Carnival is going for more than 11 times trailing earnings, but that multiple drops to 9.4 if you look out to this year and 8.3 for fiscal 2026. An important caveat here is that Carnival is packing more than $25 billion in debt. This isn't just a concern as we head into a rocky environment where borrowing costs could move higher if inflation gets out of control. The leverage also roughly doubles the earnings multiples if we go by enterprise value instead of the more traditional market cap measuring stick. It's still a good price for the top dog in cruising.

Image source: Getty Images.

2. Viking Holdings

If you thought this list would be just me settling for the three largest cruise lines, you are incorrect. Instead of succumbing to peer pressure -- or pier pressure -- my next pick is smaller than the three major operators. It just happens to be a niche leader in river cruises. Viking's fleet operates a lot more ships than Carnival, but these are smaller boats specializing in luxury sailings across narrow waterways that the big boys can't navigate.

Viking has historically grown faster than the traditional cruise lines. It's also holding up better than the big three with a modest 11% pullback in price year to date. Catering to an older and more affluent target audience than Carnival, Viking relies largely on repeat customers and direct marketing to fill its fleet of ships that typically take on less than 200 passengers.

The near-term outlook is encouraging. Viking mentioned in February that it already has 88% of its 2025 capacity booked. It does trade at a premium to the industry. Investors are paying 17 times this year's projected earnings and 13 times next year's target for Viking. It does have the best debt situation with less than $5 billion in long-term obligations on its books.

3. OneSpaWorld

True to the middle word in its compound moniker, OneSpaWorld operates spas and wellness centers. It pampers guests at 50 different resorts, but its bread-and-butter business is sea salt. OneSpaWorld operates the floating spas on 199 different cruise ships across the major cruise lines. You may think that the leading cruise lines would want to run their own onboard spas, but many of them have tried and fallen short.

OneSpaWorld is a global recruiter of certified treatment providers. It only helps that it has a network of training centers. It takes a certain kind of mettle to embrace providing spa treatments at sea, and this is as close to an unofficial monopoly as it gets.

Growth is encouraging. Revenue rose 11% in its latest quarter, boosted on the way down the income statement by a 37% surge in operating profit. The stock is trading for 17 times this year's earnings and 15 times next year's bottom-line estimate, but it also has less than $100 million in long-term debt on its balance sheet. The asset-light model makes it easier to navigate the ups and downs, and unlike Carnival and Viking it doesn't have to worry the high costs of building and maintaining a fleet of ships.

Should you invest $1,000 in Carnival Corp. right now?

Before you buy stock in Carnival Corp., consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Carnival Corp. wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $496,779!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $659,306!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 787% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 152% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of April 10, 2025

Rick Munarriz has positions in Carnival Corp. and Viking. The Motley Fool recommends Carnival Corp. and Viking. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.