11 Best Stocks to Buy for Q4

When it comes to investing, growth is the name of the game. You want to grow your portfolio and net worth by finding the best stocks at the right moment.

That's what I'm after. And I use the Portfolio Grader to narrow down the field to identify stocks with the potential for amazing growth.

The Portfolio Grader gives you an overall grade on an "A" through "F" scale that helps you identify the best names on the market today based on a variety of metrics.

But it also scores for individual categories, like earnings growth. And that's the category we're going to key in on today.

Growth stocks typically have a high rate of revenue growth and/or earnings growth. They are increasing sales at a high rate, and they are typically putting a significant portion of their profits back into the business to encourage expansion.

For that reason, many of the best growth stocks to buy don't do a great job of giving out dividends, but that's OK. The money is going to be of good use if it means growth stocks are outperforming the market.

Here are eleven outstanding growth stocks to buy in the fourth quarter, identified by the Portfolio Grader...

1. United Airlines (UAL)

United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) continues to profit from what I call a coronavirus backlash.

People were tired of being shut in for much of 2020 and 2021 and started venturing out cautiously in 2022.

Now that the virus is three years old and vaccines are common, many people are shedding their inhibitions and flying once again, both domestically and internationally.

United Airlines has more than 120 international destinations and 210 locations in the U.S., which puts it in a good position to profit from the trend. And it's doing just that.

Revenue for the second quarter was $14.18, up 17% from a year ago. Income for the quarter was $1.08 billion, or $5.03 per share.

Rising fuel costs have the potential to cut into United Airlines' profits in the third quarter, which explains the recent dip in UAL's stock. But United Airlines is still showing a 17% gain this year.

If you're a long-term investor, you have to like the potential of UAL and what appears to be an attractive price. The forward price-to-earnings ratio is less than 4.

It gets a "B" rating in the Portfolio Grader.

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2. McDonald's (MCD)

Bring on the Golden Arches. McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) is perhaps the best-known restaurant in the world, with more than 38,000 locations in 100 countries.

If you're looking for a market leader in the restaurant business, the conversation starts and ends with McDonald's.

It struck gold this year from an unlikely source, its 50-year-old character Grimace, a clumsy purple walking blob of a creature that's one of Ronald McDonald's buddies.

McDonald's marketed Grimace in a big way this year with its Grimace shake and the promotion went viral. Company executives said there were more than 3 billion views of Grimace shake videos on TikTok.

That helped second-quarter revenue jump 14% to $6.47 billion. Net income of $2.31 billion was up 94% from a year ago, and earnings per share of $3.15 was up 97% from a year ago.

Grimace may be ridiculous, but MCD investors will take that kind of performance at any time.

McDonald's also gives you the added bonus of offering a dividend -- currently, the yield is just over 2%.

MCD stock is up 5% this year. It gets a "B" rating in the Portfolio Grader.

3. Palantir Technologies (PLTR)

Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) is a good way to play the growth of generative AI.

The company sells customized data analytics software to help companies analyze data and make decisions.

Its No. 1 customer is the U.S. government. Contracts include helping the State Department monitor the health of its diplomats and Department of Defense contracts to help units in combat situations communicate.

Revenue in the second quarter was $533.3 million, up 12.7% from the previous year. Net income was $28.1 million, up more than 100% from a year ago.

Palantir also issued Q3 guidance for revenue to increase to a range of $553 million to $557 million.

PLTR stock is up 129% this year. It gets a "B" rating for growth and a "B" overall rating in the Portfolio Grader.

4. Shopify (SHOP)

Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) is an e-commerce stock that's up 75% so far this year, despite a slight pullback in August and trading roughly flat since May.

The company operates a platform that lets small businesses build an online store and connect with customers around the world.

Earnings performance was solid in the first quarter and then accelerated in Q2. Revenue of $1.7 billion was up 31% from a year ago, and profits grew 27% to $835 million.

"We're not just shipping products faster, but we are also expanding our global merchant base, all while improving our ability to generate greater free cash flow," Shopify President Harley Finkelstein said.

Shopify issued guidance for the third quarter for continued revenue growth in the low-20s percentage, and free cash flow to be better than in Q1 and Q2 combined.

SHOP stock has an "A" growth rating and an overall "B" rating in the Portfolio Grader.

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5. Salesforce (CRM)

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) provides cloud-based customer relations management software that's used by sales teams, IT support and marketing teams.

The company's software-as-a-service platform is designed to help companies find potential customers and provide a higher level of service.

Salesforce is leaning hard into the artificial intelligence movement by recently launching a new conversational AI assistant called Einstein Copilot. The tool is going to be built into the user experience of every Salesforce application, the company says.

Earnings for the company's fiscal Q2 2024 saw revenue up 11.4% to $8.6 billion, and earnings per share of $1.28. Guidance for the fiscal third quarter and the full year shows revenue growth continuing at 11%, with full-year earnings per share coming in at a range of $3.50 to $3.52.

Operating cash flow growth should be at 22% to 23% for the full year, Shopify says.

SHOP stock is up 64% this year. It gets "B" ratings for growth and its overall score in the Portfolio Grader.

6. Exxon Mobil (XOM)

For a long time, Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) has been one of my favorite oil and gas stocks. The company is massive, with a market cap of nearly $460 billion, making it the biggest energy company in the U.S.

The stock itself had an up-and-down 2023, currently showing only a 4% gain for the year. And second-quarter earnings raised some concerns among investors because profits were down 56% from a year ago.

That was because of the price of oil, of course. When oil prices go up, so do Exxon's revenues and profitability. And the price of oil topped $100 in 2022, which meant massive profits that are challenging to duplicate in 2023. Especially when the price of oil fell below $70 in the second quarter.

But look at where we are now. The price of gas is back on the rise as Saudi Arabia cuts production. JPMorgan projects that oil could return to $120 per barrel. While that would be bad for your wallet as you're filling up the gas tank, it will also put Exxon in a position to return to near-record profitability.

XOM stock has a "B" rating in the Portfolio Grader.

7. Uber Technologies (UBER)

Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) is a disruptive company that just keeps changing the game.

First, it completely upended the taxi industry by popularizing the rideshare concept and opening up the gig economy to anyone who wanted to make some extra money.

Then it expanded into food delivery via its Uber Eats service and added Uber Freight and Uber Business to serve businesses' shipping needs.

The company just announced plans to launch a chatbot for its Uber Eats service later this year.

The service, which would be available to customers in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada, would help customers find restaurants and order food. It would eventually help customers with tasks such as meal planning, Uber says.

Uber's second quarter included revenue of $9.23 billion, up 14% from a year ago. Net income of $394 million was an improvement over a $2.6 billion loss in the same quarter a year ago.

UBER stock is up 82% this year. It gets "B" ratings for growth and overall in the Portfolio Grader.

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8. Intel (INTC)

I'm impressed that Intel's (NASDAQ:INTC) turnaround has been so effective that it's now getting a good grade in the Portfolio Grader.

Just this summer INTC was languishing with a failing grade after two consecutive quarters of losses.

But in the second quarter, Intel showed some progress. It returned to profitability by posting net income of $1.5 billion, or 35 cents per share. That was an improvement from a quarterly loss of $454 million in the second quarter of 2022.

Intel's turnaround was in part because it cut $1.7 billion in costs as part of its goal to trim expenses by $3 billion this year. Overall, the company is looking to be leaner by saving $10 billion annually by 2025.

That helped gross margins increase to 40% in the second quarter, beating Intel's projections of 37.5%.

Intel has high hopes for its Gaudi 2 chip for AI applications, saying it matches up well to competitors in certain tasks. It also plans to release its next-generation Gaudi 3 chip in 2024.

The turnaround isn't over, but it's time to show Intel some respect. INTC stock gets a "B" rating in the Portfolio Grader.

9. Nvidia (NVDA)

Any progress that Intel is going to make brings Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) into the conversation.

Nvidia continues to be my No. 1 pick in the semiconductor space. It's also a massively successful blue-chip stock, with a market cap that soared over the $1 trillion mark this year, and is now the No. 6 stock in the world by capitalization.

There are very few stocks growing as quickly and spectacularly as Nvidia this year.

Nvidia reigns supreme because we are living in an age where generative AI is wildly popular, and developers are working overtime to work AI technology into most tech products.

Nvidia makes the chips that are required for generative AI, with a dominant market share of 80% to 95% of the AI computing market. It had spectacular Q2 numbers, beating expectations.

Nvidia issued third-quarter guidance for $16 billion in revenue because it's making money at a ridiculous rate. I'm betting on it to hit that number again.

NVDA stock is up 190% and has an "A" rating in the Portfolio Grader.

10. Alphabet (GOOG,GOOGL)

With Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG,NASDAQ:GOOGL) effectively in a legal battle with the US Government at the moment, this might present a buying opportunity for savvy investors.

The owner of the Google search engine, YouTube, Waze driving app, Fitbit fitness trackers and Waymo self-driving cars has a market cap of $1.6 trillion.

It's best known for Google, of course, which enjoys a global market share of nearly 92%.

Its dominance is so complete that competitors complain it uses unfair tactics such as exclusionary contracts to maintain a monopoly. That issue is currently being debated in court in Washington, D.C.

Yes, investors should keep an eye on the trial, and I wouldn't be surprised to see GOOGL stock sink a bit during the trial.

But I'm also confident that Alphabet's Google will maintain its dominance and superior market share for a long time.

Alphabet is also working generative AI into its products, the most recent being Bard Extensions.

This is something like a chatbot for your Google account that will use generative AI to answer questions using information from Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps and other extensions.

Revenue for the second quarter was $74.6 billion, up 7% from a year ago. More than $42 billion of that came from Google search revenue.

GOOGL is up 47% in 2023 and gets a "B" rating in the Portfolio Grader.

11. Apple (AAPL)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is simply the biggest company in the world, with a market cap of more than $2.7 trillion. The maker of smartphones, tablets and computers saw its stock rise 33% in 2023.

On Sept. 12, the company released its newest lineup: the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. It also released its Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2, and second-generation AirPods Pro.

Pre-orders of Apple's new iPhone 15 are strong, particularly in the massive China market. Morgan Stanley says the lead time for the iPhone 15 Pro Max is five to six weeks, which is the longest wait time for an Apple smartphone in seven years.

"While it's far too early to call the cycle, these data points are encouraging," Morgan Stanley analysts said.

Apple's iPhone cycles can be a huge windfall for the company. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives says he thinks the iPhone will push AAPL stock up to $240 per share over the next 12 months.

AAPL stock has a "B" rating in the Portfolio Grader.

On the date of publication, Louis Navellier had a long position in NVDA, GOOG and XOM. Louis Navellier did not have (either directly or indirectly) any other positions in the securities mentioned in this article.

The InvestorPlace Research Staff member primarily responsible for this article had a long position in AAPL and PLTR. The staff member did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any other positions in the securities mentioned in this article.

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