13 Stocks With Big Future Potential

It takes guts to invest in the future.

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(Image credit: Illustration by James Gilleard - Folio Art)

It takes guts to invest in the future. Thirty years ago, an investment in Amazon.com might have been met with derision. That it was not yet profitable was just one knock against it. Would people really prefer to buy a book online and wait for it to be delivered to their door, rather than visit the neighborhood bookstore to buy it? We all know the answer to that now.

Indeed, investing in innovation takes not only courage, but also foresight and even a little faith. But it can pay off big time. The not-so-simple trick, says David Eiswert, who manages the T. Rowe Price Global Stock fund, “is to invest on the right side of change.”

The 13 stocks highlighted here stand to benefit from one of five sweeping trends that will be catalysts for long-term growth: climate change, human longevity, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and 5G technology. Despite their promise, however, most of these stocks aren’t for the faint of heart. Most aren���t bargains, either. Consider them long-term holdings that you might have to turn a blind eye to once in a while before you eventually reap the rewards. Change, after all, takes time. “The world moves in little, incremental steps that lead to giant changes,” says Shelly Palmer, chief executive of the Palmer Group, a tech-focused consulting firm.

Disclaimer

Unless otherwise noted, prices and other data are as of February 15. Earnings growth rate is estimated for the next three-to-five years. P/E ratio is bas earnings for the next four quarters. Sources: Yahoo Finance, Zacks Investment Research.

Nellie S. Huang
Senior Associate Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance

Nellie joined Kiplinger in August 2011 after a seven-year stint in Hong Kong. There, she worked for the Wall Street Journal Asia, where as lifestyle editor, she launched and edited Scene Asia, an online guide to food, wine, entertainment and the arts in Asia. Prior to that, she was an editor at Weekend Journal, the Friday lifestyle section of the Wall Street Journal Asia. Kiplinger isn't Nellie's first foray into personal finance: She has also worked at SmartMoney (rising from fact-checker to senior writer), and she was a senior editor at Money.