Buy These 3 Growth Stocks Now, Ignore the Noise, and Thank Yourself Later

By John Ballard – Apr 19, 2026 at 2:45AM ESTKey PointsNetflix's lower-priced plans and content investments are expanding its audience reach.MercadoLibre has a massive advantage in Latin America with its scale and data.Amazon is turning AI investments into revenue-generating products.Economic worries and geopolitical flare-ups rattled stocks at the start of 2026, but the market's rebound in April shows how quickly sentiment can shift. If you're a long-term investor, you will rarely regret buying quality businesses when they're selling at a discount. Three growth leaders that are still worth buying are Netflix (NFLX 9.71%), MercadoLibre (MELI +1.85%), and Amazon (AMZN +0.34%). Each dominates its market and continues to invest to extend its lead. Here's why this trio could reward patient investors from here. Image source: Getty Images. 1. Netflix Netflix is in a league of its own in entertainment. It spends billions on content each year and still delivers robust profits. It has also rolled out a fast-growing advertising business, making the service more affordable and expanding its addressable market. Last year, ad revenue more than doubled to top $1.5 billion, and management is guiding for that figure to roughly double again to about $3 billion this year. Lower-priced plans are helping Netflix push its potential audience to 1 billion people. ExpandNASDAQ: NFLXNetflixToday's Change(-9.71%) $-10.47Current Price$97.32Key Data PointsMarket Cap$411BDay's Range$95.10 - $98.7352wk Range$75.01 - $134.12Volume5MAvg Vol50MGross Margin49.44% Meanwhile, the company remains aggressive in expanding its already unmatched content offering. It plans to increase content spending by 10% to $20 billion in 2026, supporting a growing mix of live events, games, and podcasts. Combined with cheaper ad-supported plans, that could make Netflix even more essential for households. Despite these tailwinds, the stock is down about 20% from its recent high, reflecting concerns about heavy spending and near-term uncertainty. Shares trade at 34 times this year's earnings estimate, but analysts forecast earnings growth of 21% annually over the next few years. That is enough growth to potentially support market-beating gains. ExpandNASDAQ: MELIMercadoLibreToday's Change(1.85%) $33.70Current Price$1855.83Key Data PointsMarket Cap$94BDay's Range$1832.50 - $1875.0052wk Range$1593.21 - $2645.22Volume361KAvg Vol568KGross Margin44.50% 2. MercadoLibre Latin America is one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in the world, and MercadoLibre is helping drive that growth in an underpenetrated region. It leads with 121 million marketplace shoppers and 78 million people using its digital payments services through Mercado Pago. MercadoLibre is building the kind of scale advantage that helped Amazon dominate U.S. e-commerce. MercadoLibre's logistics network keeps expanding, and higher order volumes are driving down costs. Net profit margin has risen from virtually zero to about 7% over the past five years. Higher order volumes and rising Mercado Pago transactions also generate more data, which the company can use with artificial intelligence (AI) to improve personalization and speed up credit decisions. The stock is down 29% from its recent high, partly due to near-term margin pressure as the company invests in logistics and its fast-growing credit card business. That pullback has pushed its price-to-sales valuation to the lowest level in years, making the stock compelling right now. ExpandNASDAQ: AMZNAmazonToday's Change(0.34%) $0.86Current Price$250.56Key Data PointsMarket Cap$2.7TDay's Range$250.11 - $256.1852wk Range$165.28 - $258.60Volume52MAvg Vol52MGross Margin50.29% 3. Amazon Investors know Amazon as the e-commerce leader, but it's also building a powerful edge in AI infrastructure that can strengthen the entire business. Amazon's fastest-growing and most profitable segments are increasingly non-retail, led by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Its custom chips, including Trainium and Graviton, help customers achieve cost-efficient compute, supporting AWS' 24% year-over-year revenue growth last quarter. An acceleration in this growth rate as Amazon adds more data center capacity would be a bonus for investors. Amazon plans to raise capital spending to roughly $200 billion in 2026, up 53% over 2025. This supports cloud growth and funds innovation that can improve the shopping experience. Those investments are already showing up in products like Rufus, its AI shopping assistant, and Amazon Lens, its visual search feature. AI is also improving ad relevance on product pages and Prime Video, helping drive a 22% increase in ad revenue in 2025. Wall Street may criticize heavy spending, but Amazon has a long track record of turning investments into revenue-producing products. That's why investors should ignore the noise and consider buying Amazon stock. It trades at less than 20 times trailing-12-month operating cash flow, making it a potential bargain.Read NextApr 17, 2026 •By Josh Kohn-LindquistStock Market Today, April 17: Netflix Drops As Reed Hastings Departs From Board and Company Offers Soft GuidanceApr 17, 2026 •By Howard SmithNetflix Stock Tanked Today.

Should You Buy the Dip?Apr 17, 2026 •By Anders BylundWhy Netflix Stock Fell 11.8% Friday MorningApr 17, 2026 •By The Motley Fool TeamStock Market Today (LIVE): Is Netflix (-10% Today) Finally Cheap?; Stocks Buoyed by Open StraitApr 16, 2026 •By Daniel SparksNetflix Stock Is Down, and It Could Get Worse. Here's Why Shares Could Fall Even More.Apr 16, 2026 •By Danny Vena, CPANetflix Investors Just Got Fantastic News From Co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted SarandosAbout the AuthorJohn Ballard has been a contributing writer at The Motley Fool since 2016, covering consumer goods and technology stocks. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a focus in real estate finance from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.TMFRazorbackStocks MentionedNetflixNASDAQ: NFLX$97.32(-9.71%)-$10.47AmazonNASDAQ: AMZN$250.36(+0.26%)+$0.66MercadoLibreNASDAQ: MELI$1,855.83(+1.85%)+$33.70*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.