The Best Stocks to Invest $500 in Right Now

Canadian investors can own this entire basket of five top stocks for less than $500 today.

Nicholas Dobroruka

Nik has been writing for The Motley Fool Canada since 2020. After studying marketing at University in his hometown of Montréal, Nik decided to pack up and move west to Vancouver. By day, Nik is a digital media ninja, specializing in Programmatic advertising. By night, you can find him either Mountain biking in Vancouver’s famous North Shore trails or writing for TMF Canada. Tech, digital payments, and renewable energy are three areas that Nik enjoys following and writing about.

Published August 23, 2024 9:30 am EDT

After a tough start to the month, the Canadian stock market has come roaring back over the past two weeks. Not even including dividends, the S&P/TSX Composite Index is up just about 10% on the year.

With the market on the rise, now could be an opportunistic time for a long-term investor to be putting money to work in the Canadian stock market.

I’ve put together a well-rounded basket of five Canadian stocks to add to your watch list. At today’s prices, investors can own the entire basket for less than $500.

Pile of Canadian dollar bills in various denominations — Source: Getty Images

Descartes Systems

Descartes Systems (TSX: DSG) has quietly been one of the top-performing stocks on the TSX over the past five years. Shares are up close to 200% in that time span. In comparison, the market as a whole has returned less than 50%, excluding dividends.

It’s been an impressive run for Descartes Systems in recent years, but it hasn’t been without high levels of volatility. Unfortunately, though, volatility is just one price to pay for owning a market-beating growth stock.

Shopify

Speaking of volatile investments, Shopify (TSX: SHOP) is worth serious consideration at these prices. The tech stock is down more than 50% below all-time highs from 2021. Even so, shares have more than doubled the returns of the market over the past five years.

After a whirlwind couple of years following the pandemic-induced market crash in early 2020, Shopify has been gradually rising since late 2022. Shares are up more than 150% over the past two years.

As a major international player in the e-commerce space, Shopify remains loaded with long-term growth potential.

Fortis

If you plan on investing in high-growth, volatile stocks, owning shares of a few dependable companies like Fortis (TSX: FTS) would be a wise idea.

There’s not a whole lot to get excited about with this $30 billion utility company. However, it can help minimize volatility in an investment portfolio and also pay a solid dividend.

At today’s stock price, Fortis’s dividend is yielding just shy of 4%.

Bank of Nova Scotia

Investors in search of passive income should have at least one Canadian back on their watch list.

Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX: BNS) ranks as the highest yielding of the Big Five today, with a dividend yield of 6.5%. The $80 billion bank has also been paying a dividend to its shareholders for close to 200 consecutive years.

If a dependable stream of passive income is what you’re after, you don’t need to look any further than the Canadian banks.

Brookfield Renewable Partners

Who said you need to choose between market-beating growth potential and a dividend? Brookfield Renewable Partners (TSX: BEP.UN) can offer investors the best of both worlds. Not only that, it’s trading at a massive bargain, too.

The renewable energy sector as a whole is going through a down period, which makes today an excellent time for a long-term investor to be loading up on a company like Brookfield Renewable Partners.

Shares may be trailing the market’s return over the past five years, but Brookfield Renewable Partners has a proven track record of outperforming the market.