The best opportunities are often early opportunities. Think about how much your investment would be worth today if you’d invested in Amazon or Nvidia in 1999. If you’d invested $1,000 in each of those stocks 25 years ago, you’d have $52,000 from your Amazon investment, and — drumroll please — more than $1 million from the Nvidia investment.
Those may still be great investments today, but they represent the next wave of young stocks that could present even more potential. If you have $1,000 available to invest after paying off debt and saving for an emergency fund, consider Toast (TOST 1.89%) and On Holding (ONON 1.46%) stock.
1. Toast: No-brainer technology for restaurants
Like every other industry on the planet, restaurants are undergoing an incredible change with new technology. What used to involve pencil-and-paper ordering and printed menus has become a digital operation, with customers able to click on a tablet and have their orders proceed straight to the kitchen.
It doesn’t stop there. Toast offers a large suite of services that combine all of a restaurant’s management, including menus, accounting, and payments. It’s all on one platform, turning everything manual into a seamless, automatic system. Toast offers various tiers for different-sized restaurants and chains, as well as many targeted systems for different types of restaurants, like cafes or bakeries.
It’s easy to see why these kinds of services are taking the restaurant industry by storm, increasing efficiency and saving companies time and money. As you might imagine, Toast is reporting robust growth. Revenue increased 42% year over year in 2023, and it added 27,000 locations for the full year for a total of 106,000.
It’s still not profitable on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis, but profitability metrics are improving. Gross profit increased 63% year over year in 2023, outpacing revenue. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) was $61 million in 2023, reversing an adjusted EBITDA loss of $115 million in 2022.
Net loss was still high at $246 million, but better than $275 million last year. Free cash flow was $93 million for the full year after negative free cash flow of $189 million in 2022.
Investors have been impressed with Toast’s results and opportunity, and Toast stock is up about 29% this year. You can still catch it as it keeps climbing.
2. On: The newest name in premium athletic wear
On is similarly taking the athleisure world by storm. Athletes and amateurs alike have become obsessed with the company’s comfortable and practical sneakers powered by its CloudTec running technology. These are high-priced shoes geared toward an affluent and resilient clientele, and On has been demonstrating tremendous growth.
Sales increased 47% year over year in 2023, or 55% currency neutral. On has developed a strong name and brand among existing customers, who are willing to shell out top dollar for its products. It’s building loyalty among this crowd, and direct-to-consumer growth outpaced overall growth in 2023 with a 51% increase. On uses a wholesale strategy as well to get its products to market.
However, On is not well known yet. That’s why the opportunity looks massive. Even in its home country of Switzerland, On only has a 47% “brand penetration” — yes, less than half the population knows about it. That becomes a tiny percentage in other markets, including affluent markets like New York at 7% and Miami at 15%.
The company reported a full-year profit of $89 million, but a fourth-quarter loss of $30 million. The currency exchange is negatively impacting On’s profitability, but that’s a short-term factor. The underlying operations are healthy, and On is efficiently turning revenue into cash and profits. In fact, it sports an industry-leading gross margin of 60.4%, which was an increase from 2022.
When currency headwinds die down, On is going to be in a better financial position, and the company is on its way to becoming a powerhouse athletic wear company competing with the top global names.
On stock is up about 29% this year, and investors should seriously consider investing in this incredible, growing shoe company.
John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Jennifer Saibil has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Nvidia, and Toast. The Motley Fool recommends On Holding. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
