The ‘Magnificent Seven’ looked unstoppable in 2024, but other, more under-the-radar growth stocks also had a strong year.
Here, we’ve picked five names that might be of interest to investors looking to cast their nets wider than the usual suspects.
ADMA Biologics [ADMA]
Year-to-date: 284.9%; past six months: 63.8% (to the close on December 20)
Strong demand for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) drugs in the post-Covid era has seen ADMA’s share price almost quadruple this year.
The biotech company’s main drug — it has three FDA-approved products in its portfolio — is Asceniv, essentially a cocktail of blood plasma from people who’ve built up an immunity to RSV. Revenue jumped 78.3% year-over-year, primarily down to sales of Asceniv.
Earlier this year, ADMA announced it had integrated artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, nicknamed ADMAlytics, into the production process of Asceniv.
“In the complex landscape of specialty biologics production, maintaining uninterrupted operations is paramount, and we believe that ADMAlytics will further bolster our commitment to ensuring continuity of patient care,” ADMA Founder and CEO Adam Grossman said in a press release in February.
The company seems on track to record its first-ever annual profit in 2025.
Duolingo [DUOL]
Year-to-date: 50.8%; past six months: 71.8%
Shares in the language learning platform set an all-time high of $378.48 during trading in early December, having fallen to a 52-week low of $145.05 on August 5. Fueling the edtech firm’s recent stock rally has been the launch of new features, announced at its Duocon event on September 24.
One feature, Adventures, is a gaming mode where users can practise languages in real-life scenarios. Another, Video Call, enables premium subscribers to engage in conversations with an AI-powered avatar.
Duolingo saw a slew of analyst upgrades last month after beating both top- and bottom-line expectations in its Q3 report.
While earnings have been slowing in recent quarters — the company had said in its FY 2023 report in February that its user base would likely moderate only slightly in 2024 as it can’t be expected to “accelerate forever” — earnings growth is forecast to pick up again in 2025.
Fluence Energy [FLNC]
Year-to-date: -36.2%; past six months: -24.0%
Battery energy storage systems are playing a key role in the US’s energy transition. Fluence is at the forefront of this shift.
Revenue in its fiscal Q4 ended September 30 more than doubled year-over-year to over $1.23bn, although this missed analyst expectations.
“We had our second consecutive quarter of signing more than $1bn of new orders, which brought our backlog to $4.5bn, underscoring the market’s strong confidence in our energy storage solutions,” said Fluence CEO Julian Nebreda in the earnings release.
Despite the Fluence share price being under pressure this year, growth should remain robust in 2025. The company is guiding towards revenue of $3.6bn–$4.4bn, up from $2.7bn in fiscal 2024.
“As we look forward, we see unprecedented demand for battery energy storage solutions across the world, driven principally by the US market,” Nebreda added.
Shift4 Payments [FOUR]
Year-to-date: 39.3%; past six months: 46.6%
Payments company Shift4 has been on an acquisition spree in 2024, including the $250 buyout of cloud-based point-of-sale software Revel Systems in May.
Despite slightly missing earnings estimates for Q3, gross revenue grew 34.6% to $909.2m, the best rate of growth since Q1 2023, while end-to-end payment volume was up 56% from Q3 2023 to a record $43.5bn.
This growth could be a sign that Shift4’s M&A strategy is starting to pay off.
CEO Jared Isaacman explained earlier this year why he thinks Shift4’s M&A is better than that of its competitors: “When we do elect to buy, we are finding overlooked assets with high-conviction revenue synergies.”
In what can be seen as a bullish sign for Shift4, Michael Burry started buying the stock in Q2. As of September 30, FOUR stock is Scion Asset Management’s fourth-biggest holding, accounting for 10% of the portfolio.
Zeta Global [ZETA]
Year-to-date: 119.9%; past six months: 25.6%
With more marketers turning to AI to help attract and retain customers, Zeta Global is seeing a surge in demand for its AI-powered platform.
The martech platform revealed earlier this month that platform usage between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday more than doubled compared to the same period last year.
With consumer confidence at a 16-month high, the company is anticipating strong demand for its tools to continue throughout the rest of the festive season.
However, the Zeta share price has been under pressure since November following a short seller report accusing the company of inflating its results, even though the claims have been refuted: “All I can say is that we’re an ethical company, and we wouldn’t be able to service 40% of the companies in the Fortune 100 if we were playing games.” CEO David Steinberg told AdExchange on December 17.
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