If I could only buy 3 stocks in the last half of 2024, I would pick these

A successful investment requires digging into a company’s financial situation and evaluating its prospects. This process may sound tedious, but it gives you a better understanding of which growth stocks can do well over the long term. Because research takes time and effort, it’s good to shortlist stocks that you feel comfortable buying for long-term capital appreciation. Ideally, these stocks should have a solid growth track record, a dominant market share, and possess catalysts that can ensure steady and continuous growth.

As you gain more business knowledge, you’ll end up with a number of solid stock ideas to consider. The next step is to first select the best ideas to buy, as these will be the most compelling purchases. When push comes to shove, here are three stocks I’ll pick above the rest for their promising outlooks and solid business fundamentals.

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Hawkins

Hawkins (HWKN 1.16%) is a specialty chemicals and ingredients company that manufactures products for the industrial, water treatment, and health and nutrition sectors. The company has not only demonstrated consistent growth in revenue and net income over the years, but has also paid a dividend for 39 consecutive years.

Hawkins saw sales grow from $774.5 million in fiscal 2022 (ended March 31) to $919.2 million in fiscal 2024. Net income rose 46 percent over the period, from 51, $5 million to $75.4 million. Most impressive was the company’s free cash flow generation, which grew more than eightfold from $14.3 million in fiscal 2022 to $119.3 million in fiscal 2024.

Hawkins’ strong performance continued in the first quarter of fiscal 2025. Sales rose nearly 2% year-over-year to $255.9 million, but operating income managed to grow 22.5% from year over year to $39.8 million. Net income improved 23.3% year-over-year to $28.9 million, and the business also generated positive free cash flow of $6.9 million, continuing its track record of free cash flow generation. In tandem with its strong results, management increased the company’s quarterly cash dividend from $0.16 to $0.18.

Investors can also look forward to acquisitive growth to drive earnings to the next level. Hawkins has demonstrated a strong track record of incremental acquisitions, averaging two per calendar year since 2020. In June and July of this year, the company completed two acquisitions — that of Wofford Water Service and Intercoastal Trading, both for its water treatment division the water. .

Wofford will help Hawkins build a larger customer base in Mississippi, while Intercoastal helps the business expand into the East Coast region. In the industrial and health and nutrition segments, Hawkins will focus on new product development to grow its specialty brand products supported by research and development.

Garmin

Garmin (GRMN -0.48%) is a technology and engineering company that manufactures products for five key sectors: fitness, outdoor, aviation, marine and automotive OEM. The company is well known for using Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology and incorporating it into its various products such as multi-sport watches, smartwatches and golf devices. Garmin saw its revenue grow from $5 billion to $5.2 billion from 2021 to 2023, while its net income rose from $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion. The business also generated average positive free cash flow of $810 million during the period.

Garmin’s robust results continued in the first half of 2024. Sales rose 17% year-over-year to $2.9 billion, with operating income up 33% year-over-year to 640.4 million USD. Net income increased 17.6% year over year to $576.6 million and the business generated positive free cash flow of $620.3 million. Garmin paid a quarterly dividend of $0.75 per share, bringing the annualized dividend to $3. The company has consistently increased its dividend since paying $0.40 per quarter in 2011.

Garmin raised its full-year revenue guidance and expects revenue to grow 13.8% year-over-year to $5.95 billion for 2024, demonstrating healthy growth for this accessories company. The company continues to launch innovative new products across its five divisions, along with Garmin Pay, which supports contactless payments. With its wide range of products appealing to customers, the business seems to continue to do well.

Symbolic

Symbolic (Sym 1.55%) is an automation technology company that integrates artificial intelligence (AI) into its platform to solve distribution challenges and supply chain issues. The company helps its customers by implementing solutions to improve their product delivery efficiency and accuracy to help them achieve cost savings and better workflow. Symbotic saw its revenue grow nearly fivefold from $251.9 million in fiscal 2021 (ended September 30) to $1.2 billion in fiscal 2023. Gross profit rose sharply, from just $10.4 million to $189.7 million over the same period. The business also saw its free cash flow more than double, from $97.4 million in fiscal 2021 to $209.5 million in fiscal 2023.

The tech company continued to report strong results for the first nine months of fiscal 2024. Revenue rose 63.6% year-over-year to $1.3 billion, while gross profit rose nearly 39 % year-over-year to $181.7 million. The business also generated positive free cash flow of $18.3 million. Symbotic has 39 systems in deployment, which helped revenue reach a record high for the current quarter. Although gross margin was temporarily impacted by implementation delays, CFO Carol Hibbard expects margins to return to historic levels by the fourth quarter of the fiscal year.

There may be more to come for Symbotic. In August, the company paid $8.7 million to acquire Veo Robotics, which deals in intelligent protection for industrial robots. Veo has developed a FreeMove 3D computerized depth sensing system that Symbotic plans to integrate into its robotic warehouse automation system to increase productivity in line with enhanced human-machine collaboration. Management sees a large, serviceable domestic supply chain market of $432 billion, which means Symbotic has significant opportunities to expand its reach and continue to grow for many years.