One of the biggest things that new investors struggle with is that they don’t need thousands of dollars to start a portfolio. In fact, with just $1,000 to start, investors can grab some of the smartest stocks to buy on the market.
Those stocks aren’t going to be the hyped-up growth stocks or the high-tech tickers everyone hears about. Instead, these are the established businesses that have room to grow and some strong advantages.
Here’s a look at three of those smartest stocks to buy right now given a $1,000 budget.
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Couche-Tard offers a proven growth formula
The first of those smartest stocks to buy now is Alimentation Couche-Tard (TSX: ATD). Couche-Tard is one of the largest convenience-store and gas station operators on the planet.
That massive network includes familiar brands such as Circle K, giving the company exposure to millions of everyday purchases in over a dozen countries on several continents.
Convenience stores don’t exactly sound defensive, but they are. The same applies to gas stations. Gas stations, and by extension, convenience stores offer defensive appeal because they often serve as an interim stop on the way somewhere else.
That includes filling the tank or grabbing some milk or a snack on the way home. Those products represent the higher-margin side of Couche-Tard. And that includes the company’s growing private-label products.
Acquisitions have also helped Couche-Tard grow. The company has taken an aggressive stand on acquisitions, showcasing its ability to acquire businesses, integrate locations and products, and then use cash to seek out further growth.
In recent years, that’s also included branching out into adjacent business pockets that can offer growth. Within that realm is Couche-Tard’s growing EV charging network and car wash business.
For someone putting $1,000 to work, that combination of scale, recurring demand, and a proven growth strategy makes Couche-Tard an intriguing long-term option.
In fact, over the trailing five-year period, Couche-Tard has seen its stock price grow nearly 60%.
CPKC has a network nobody can replicate
The second of three of the smartest stocks to buy right now is Canadian Pacific Kansas City (TSX: CP). This railway offers an enormous physical track network that would be nearly impossible for a competitor to recreate
Following its combination with Kansas City Southern, the combined railway became the first single-line railway that connects Canada, the United States, and Mexico. That gives the company a unique position as trade moves across North America.
The railway transports everything from grain and energy products to automobiles and consumer goods. This makes the railway both defensive and diversified, as it isn’t reliant on one area of the economy, but rather the entire market.
The combined larger network also provides opportunities to win new customers, improve efficiency, and move more freight across longer distances.
Brookfield provides multiple ways to compound
Wrapping up the smartest stocks to buy right now is Brookfield Corporation (TSX: BN). Brookfield is a name that most investors recognize, even if the structure is a little confusing.
Brookfield Corporation is the parent-level holding company within the broader Brookfield ecosystem. It has ownership interests in several other Brookfield-named platforms, such as asset management, infrastructure, renewable power, private equity, real estate, credit, and wealth solutions.
This gives Brookfield Corporation investors multiple paths to long-term growth. That includes benefiting from the performance of those other Brookfield names, along with growth from its interest in the fee-earning asset-management business.
Brookfield’s model is built around acquiring high-quality assets and businesses, improving operations, generating cash flow, and recycling capital into new opportunities.
In other words, the company isn’t a pure-play infrastructure or renewable-energy investment. Instead, it provides exposure to multiple Brookfield businesses through a single stock.
For investors with $1,000 to deploy, Brookfield provides diversified exposure to several different, growing sectors. That includes infrastructure, renewable power, private credit, real estate, and alternative asset management.
Perhaps best of all, investors don’t need to buy all the different mini-Brookfield tickers to reap those benefits.
Finding the smartest stocks to buy
No stock is without risk, which is why diversification is so important.
Fortunately, the stocks mentioned above offer investors different ways to seek long-term growth potential from within a portfolio. Even with just $1,000 to start, the trio of stocks mentioned above offers defensive appeal, competitive advantages, and long-term growth potential.
