If you want to enjoy a comfortable retirement, the best way to do this is to grow your money through investing. If you have spare cash, you can invest some of it in promising growth stocks that can generate attractive capital gains over time. As these businesses report higher earnings and free cash flow, they will become more valuable, thus garnering a higher share price. As their share prices rise, you can then double your money and see it multiply further as time goes by.
Here are three attractive growth stocks that you can consider adding to your growth stock portfolio.
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MarketAxess
MarketAxess(NASDAQ: MKTX) offers an electronic trading platform catering to fixed-income investors. Its platform provides a diversified pool of securities and better trading efficiency, which results in cost savings for both institutional investors and broker-dealers. The company has done well over the years in growing its revenue, net income, and free cash flow (FCF), as shown below.
Metric
2022
2023
2024
Revenue (in millions)
$718.3
$752.6
$817.1
Operating income (in millions)
$326.9
$315.0
$340.9
Net income (in millions)
$250.2
$258.1
$274.2
Free cash flow (in millions)
$237.5
$281.3
$338.7
Data source: MarketAxess. Fiscal years end Dec. 31.
This consistently increasing FCF generation enabled the business to pay out increasing dividends over the years, which serves as a passive income bonus for growth investors. MarketAxess' latest quarterly dividend stood at $0.76 and has been increasing without fail since 2009.
MarketAxess enables its clients to access a wide range of fixed income instruments ranging from municipal bonds to emerging market and Eurobonds, thus making its platform an attractive one that creates "stickiness."
Last year not only resulted in the strongest annual revenue growth since 2020, but also saw the company register record total average daily volume (ADV), along with record commission and services revenue. The number of total active clients has also risen from 1,877 at the end of 2021 to 2,115 by 2024, and the number of international active client firms has jumped from 956 to 1,095 over this period.
Management provided healthy guidance for mid-single-digit year-over-year (YOY) percentage growth in services revenue for 2025. This growth will be driven by plans to expand block trading solutions to include U.S. credit while enhancing bilateral trading services. MarketAxess will also work with dealers to increase volumes across its platform while rolling out enhancements for better pricing.
The recent tariff announcements by President Donald Trump resulted in a sharp dislocation in the bond market, which benefited the company. MarketAxess reported a record trading week in U.S. government bonds traded through its platform, and management is confident that more clients will adopt its algorithms during periods of sharp volatility.
Management identified a very large addressable market ADV across a suite of fixed income products in 2022. This market represents a solid opportunity for the company to continue growing its ADV, revenue, and profits over time.
Amplitude
Amplitude(NASDAQ: AMPL) operates a digital analytics platform that helps its clients gather customer insights that can enable them to better understand customer behaviors and take appropriate action. The company has seen its revenue and gross profit increase steadily, as shown in the table below. Gross margin has also improved from 70.4% to 74.3% over the same period.
Metric
2022
2023
2024
Revenue (in millions)
$238.7
$276.3
$299.3
Gross profit (in millions)
$167.6
$204.4
$222.3
Gross margin
70.4%
74%
74.3%
Free cash flow (in millions)
($11.2)
$22.5
$11.7
Data source: Amplitude. Fiscal years end Dec. 31.
The good news is that Amplitude became FCF positive in 2023 and has continued to generate free cash flow in 2024, too. The total number of paying customers for the final quarter of 2024 surged by 42% YOY to 3,875. Customers are also paying more, with the number of customers with annual recurring revenue of more than $100,000 increasing by 16% YOY to 591. Remaining performance obligations shot up 29% YOY to $308.6 million, representing healthy future revenue growth.
Amplitude is looking at revenue of between $324.8 million to $330.8 million for 2025, which translates to a YOY growth of 9.5% at the midpoint of this guidance. Amplitude's recent Investor Day in March highlights the large total addressable market of more than $50 billion. Digital applications are growing exponentially worldwide, with close to 9 million apps circulating and more than 1.1 billion websites as of this writing.
This burgeoning growth throws up enticing opportunities for Amplitude to increase customers' usage. Demand for its services looks set to grow in tandem with this digitalization trend. Artificial intelligence will also be harnessed to enable predictive analysis, where the platform can deliver personalized recommendations and make behavioral predictions.
The company has identified multiple drivers to spur further growth. These include increased use cases, expanding multi-product adoption, and going international and expanding its partner ecosystem. This land-and-expand strategy, coupled with the explosion in digital applications, should bode well for Amplitude's future and enable it to continue growing its revenue and FCF.
Cintas
Cintas(NASDAQ: CTAS) provides a wide range of products and services to businesses, including restroom supplies, uniforms, safety products, and safety courses. The company has 12 distribution centers and boasts more than 1 million customers in the U.S. and Canada. Cintas has managed to grow not just its revenue and net income, but also its FCF, as shown in the table below.
Metric
2022
2023
2024
Revenue (in billions)
$7.854
$8.816
$9.597
Operating income (in billions)
$1.587
$1.803
$2.069
Net income (in billions)
$1.235
$1.348
$1.572
Free cash flow (in billions)
$1.297
$1.267
$1.670
Data source: Cintas. Fiscal years end May 31.
The company recently upped its quarterly cash dividend by 15.6% YOY to $1.56 per share, in line with its strong and consistent free cash flow generation.
Cintas has continued its track record of growth, with total revenue increasing 7% YOY to $7.7 billion for the first nine months of fiscal 2025. Operating income rose nearly 16% YOY to $1.76 billion, while net income improved nearly 18% YOY to $1.36 billion. FCF generation was robust, increasing by 14.5% year over year to $1.24 billion over the same period.
The company's vision is to expand its market, as around 60% of its new business is with customers who were not in a rental program. With customer penetration rates of less than 20%, management believes that there is significant potential to grow the business further. As Cintas does business with just 1 million out of the 16 million businesses in North America, the addressable market remains large and represents an attractive opportunity for the company to continue growing.
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Royston Yang has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Cintas and MarketAxess. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
