Wall Street’s major indices are on track to end 2019 at all-time highs, driven by improving investor sentiment over progress in the U.S.-China trade conflict, three interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve and optimism the economy will avoid slipping into recession.
The benchmark S&P 500 climbed by nearly 28% for the year thus far, which would mark the second-best annual performance for the index since 1997.
As Wall Street gets set to close the curtains on what looks to become a banner year, here are three growth stocks that led the charge and are set up for an explosive 2020:
Roku: +375% In 2019
Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) shares have rallied to astonishing levels, making it the top performer among companies commanding market caps above $10 billion. The stock closed at $145.57 on Tuesday—not far from the all-time high of $176.55 reached on Sept. 9–after starting the year at $29.82. The Los Gatos, California-based company has a market cap of around $17.1 billion.
The streaming media platform pioneer has been advancing thanks to its rapid user growth, which translated into greater advertising revenue. As of the third quarter, Roku's active accounts jumped 36% from the same period a year earlier to 32.3 million. Those accounts spent 10.3 billion hours streaming through Roku's hub, up 68% year-over-year.
Further underpinning optimism, the average revenue per user clocked in with a double-digit percentage boost in Q3, rising 30% Y-o-Y.
Despite robust gains this year, Roku’s stock remains attractive going forward, considering the strong demand for its media platform, which made it one of the big winners in the streaming revolution.
Shopify: +188% In 2019
Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) stock surged to new levels in 2019. Shares of the Canadian e-commerce software specialist, which began the year at $134.00, ended Tuesday’s session at $399.39, within sight of an all-time high of $409.61 touched on Aug. 27. The company, which helps merchants set up online retail shops and manage their brands by providing a digital payments platform and shipping options, has a market cap of about $46 billion.
Benefiting from the rising popularity of e-commerce, Shopify has enjoyed staggering growth at its payments network. More money was spent by U.S. consumers making online purchases this year than ever before, according to Adobe Analytics.
The e-commerce software platform released blockbuster Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales figures, announcing in a press release on Dec. 3 that its merchants sold more than $2.9 billion in goods and services over the four-day holiday shopping weekend, a massive increase of more than 61% from the same period last year.
Another factor exciting investors is that mobile continues to be the dominant sales channel, with 69% of purchases over Black Friday and Cyber Monday made on a phone or tablet, while 31% were transacted on a desktop computer.
We anticipate the positive trend to continue in 2020 thanks to Shopify's status as a leading name in the e-commerce software sector with more than 1 million merchants across 175 countries on the platform.
Advanced Micro Devices: +152% In 2019
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) shares have soared in 2019 and are positioned to ascend further. The semiconductor giant’s stock closed at a 20-year peak of $46.54 on Tuesday, within sight of the all-time high of $48.50 reached during the peak of the dot-com bubble in June 2000. At current levels, the company has a market cap of $51.1 billion.
A key factor driving investor confidence: the chip maker's ability to continue gaining market share in the central processing units (CPUs) space at the expense of its bigger rivals. AMD competes with Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) in making CPUs for personal computers and servers. It also rivals NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) in the market for graphics processing units for PCs, gaming consoles and data centers.
The stock has also received a boost from signs of increased demand for its chips used in gaming consoles. The Santa Clara, California-based company recently won contracts to supply chips to both Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox Series X console and Sony's (NYSE:SNE) PlayStation 5 gaming system, both set to launch in the year ahead.
In a sign of just how robust demand is for its chips, the semiconductor company posted its best quarterly revenue since 2005 when it reported its latest earnings results in October.
Taking all this into consideration, AMD remains one of the most promising names in the semiconductor sector going into 2020, as it continues to rip market share from its competitors.