What Is the Best Growth Stock to Buy Now? Our 3 Top Picks

Stocks to buy

By buying these best growth stocks of companies exploiting huge, ongoing trends that will last for many years, investors can make a great deal of money over the long term. It sometimes takes these companies a long time to position themselves to exploit these trends, and their stock prices do not reflect their powerful, positive trends for an extended period. Still, I’ve found that buying equities that are in that situation gives investors the highest chance of beating the market. These three growth stocks to buy are indeed extremely well-positioned to be boosted by two gigantic trends that will last for many years, if not decades.

One of those trends is the transition to cleaner, renewable energy, while the other is the proliferation of semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles.

Ticker Company Price
DAR Darling Industries $63.20
PLUG Plug Power $14.28
MBLY Mobileye $38.54

Best Growth Stocks to Buy: Darling Industries (DAR)

Darling Ingredients (DAR) logo seen displayed on a smartphone

Source: rafapress / Shutterstock.com

Darling Industries (NYSE:DAR) is well-positioned to exploit not one but two trends within the energy transition. As I reported last month, we are in the midst of a “renewable diesel boom,” while the demand for renewable diesel is expected to “soar.”

Diamond Green Diesel, Darling’s joint venture with Valero (NYSE:VLO), recently launched its “third renewable diesel plant, making Diamond Green Diesel North America’s largest renewable diesel producer at 1.2 billion gallons a year,” the company reported.

Another huge, developing trend is the proliferation of sustainable aviation fuel or SAF. As evidence of that assertion, consider that United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL), Air Canada (OTCMKTS:ACDVF), JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), and Boeing (NYSE:BA), along with two other large companies, recently launched a venture that will invest in SAF.

Boeing is one of two major airplane makers in the world. Boeing’s major competitor, Europe’s Airbus (OTCMKTS:EADSY), is partnering with Australia’s Qantas Airways (OTCMKTS:QABSY) to invest $200 million in SAF.

Starting in 2025, Diamond Green Diesel is poised to become a huge producer of SAF. That’s because Darling and Valero disclosed on Jan. 31 that, beginning in 2025, about 50% of Diamond Green’s output, or about 238 million gallons of fuel annually, will be able to be used for SAF.

With Darling poised to become a gigantic producer of renewable diesel and SAF, the stock’s market capitalization of slightly below $10 billion is far below its long-term outlook.

Plug Power (PLUG)

Plug Power logo on computer screen. PLUG stock.

Source: Postmodern Studio / Shutterstock

Like Darling, Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG) is poised to benefit from two major trends within the energy transition.

Also, like Darling, Plug Power has entered the SAF space. Specifically, Plug Power is partnering with United Hydrogen on an upcoming test flight of a “short haul, low altitude airliner” that will be powered by two “electric motors” and a fuel cell made by PLUG, Energy reported. The fuel cell will be powered by green hydrogen.

The co-founder and CEO of United Hydrogen is a former Chief Technical Officer of Airbus. United Hydrogen says that the airplane which will be tested is similar to planes that account for “98% of flights fulfilled by ATR aircraft, one of the more popular regional aircraft manufacturers, are under 650 km.” As a result, this test flight could lead to substantial revenue boosts for PLUG down the road.

Regarding Airbus, PLUG announced in 2021 that it would work with the airplane maker ” to study the feasibility of bringing green hydrogen to future aircraft and airports worldwide.”

With Airbus teaming up with Australia’s Qantas to spend a significant sum of $200 million on developing SAF, the European plane maker is getting serious about SAF. That gives PLUG another avenue that it can use to benefit tremendously from SAF.

Meanwhile, when it comes to green hydrogen, which is also poised to proliferate tremendously, PLUG has made major deals with Walmart (NYSE:WMT), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Nikola (NASDAQ:NKLA), an up-and-coming maker of hydrogen trucks. Additionally, PLUG is starting to sell electrolyzers that are used to make green hydrogen, and it’s partnering with Renault (OTCMKTS:RNLSY), a large European automaker, on hydrogen cars.

Mobileye (MBLY)

Transdev Mobileye (MBLY) autonomous driving shuttle bus showcased at the IAA Mobility 2021 motor show in Munich, Germany

Source: VanderWolf Images / Shutterstock.com

A developer of sensors and alarms for vehicles, Mobileye (NASDAQ:MBLY) is well-positioned to benefit from the trend of vehicles becoming semi-autonomous and autonomous, making it among the best growth stocks to buy now.

Noting that over 25 automakers use Mobileye’s products, enabling vehicles to avoid obstacles on their own, TipRanks reports that the firm’s “autonomous systems are under development for commercial deliveries, public transit, and robotic taxi services.”

Moreover, last quarter, MBLY’s top line jumped 59% versus the same period a year earlier to $565 million, while it generated earnings per share, excluding some items, of 27 cents.

Meanwhile, Barclays calls MBLY the best way to play “the…megatrends of active safety/autonomous vehicles” and predicts that MBLY’s earnings should jump at least through 2029. The firm is also bullish on the company’s medium-term outlook.

As of the end of last year, Mobileye had no debt and $1 billion of cash.

As of the date of publication, Larry Ramer owned shares of DAR and PLUG.  The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Larry Ramer has conducted research and written articles on U.S. stocks for 15 years. He has been employed by The Fly and Israel’s largest business newspaper, Globes. Larry began writing columns for InvestorPlace in 2015. Among his highly successful, contrarian picks have been PLUG, XOM and solar stocks. You can reach him on Stocktwits at @larryramer.

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