Stock Market Plunge: 5 Unstoppable Stocks on Sale to Buy Now and Hold Forever

These innovative and time-tested companies are trading at a discount and begging to be bought by long-term investors.

What a difference a year makes.

Last year, the benchmark S&P 500 retraced by no more than 5%. Meanwhile, in 2022, the S&P 500, iconic Dow Jones Industrial Average , and tech-driven Nasdaq Composite have all entered correction territory with double-digit percentage declines. The latter is mired in a bear market with a recent peak decline of roughly 30% since mid-November.

Although bear market declines can be unnerving and tug on investors’ emotions, history is quite clear that buying during these big downturns is a smart move. That’s because every notable decline throughout history has eventually been put into the rearview mirror by a bull market rally. In other words, bargains abound for patient investors. Image source: Getty Images. The recent stock market plunge has unearthed quite a few innovative and unstoppable stocks that are on sale. What follows are five of those unstoppable stocks to buy now and (ideally) hold forever. Intuitive Surgical

The first unstoppable stock trading at a discount that can be bought right now and never sold is robotic-assisted surgical system developer Intuitive Surgical ( ISRG 0.43%). Shares of the company are 39% below their all-time high, which was hit six months ago.

What makes Intuitive Surgical so special is the company’s market dominance and operating model. In terms of the former, it’s installed 6,920 of its da Vinci surgical systems in hospitals and surgical centers worldwide over the past 20 years. Not only are none of Intuitive’s competitors even close to this installation figure, but given the large upfront investment associated with da Vinci systems ($0.5 million to $2.5 million), as well as the training provided to surgeons, clients tend to stay customers for a long time .

As for Intuitive Surgical’s operating model, it’s geared to grow operating margins at a faster pace than sales over time. During its early years, the company generated the bulk of its revenue from selling da Vinci systems. Unfortunately, these are intricate and costly systems to build, which means margins associated with their sale are only mediocre. But as more systems have been installed, instruments and accessories sold with each procedure, as well as servicing, have grown into the lion’s share of Intuitive’s revenue stream. The margins associated with these categories are considerably higher.

Da Vinci is still just scratching the surface in thoracic, colorectal, and other general soft tissue surgical indications. This gives Intuitive Surgical an incredibly long double-digit growth runway. Image source: U.S. Bank. U.S. Bancorp

Although bank stocks aren’t traditionally thought of as “unstoppable,” regional banking giant U.S. Bancorp ( USB -0.06%) might change your tune.

The biggest knock against bank stocks is that they’re cyclical. This means that when recessions and economic slowdowns rear their heads, banks typically see an increase in loan delinquencies and charge-offs.

But this is a two-way street. Even though recessions are inevitable, they don’t last very long. By comparison, economic expansions last disproportionately longer than recessions. Buying bank stocks like U.S. Bancorp allows investors to take advantage of these extended periods of economic expansion and win the long-term numbers game.

On a more company-specific basis, arguably no large-scale bank has done a better job of promoting digital banking than U.S. Bancorp, the parent of the more familiar U.S. Bank. As of the end of February, 81% of its customers were active digitally, with 65% of all loan sales completed online or via mobile app. The latter is up 20 percentage points from the beginning of 2020. Digital transactions are substantially cheaper for banks than in-person or phone-based interactions. Thus, U.S. Bancorp’s digital push is allowing the company to lower its costs and improve its operating efficiency by consolidating branches.

At roughly nine times Wall Street’s forward-year earnings forecast, U.S. Bancorp is deeply discounted and ripe for the picking. Image source: Starbucks. Starbucks

A third discounted but unstoppable stock that investors can buy right now and hold forever is coffee chain Starbucks ( SBUX 2.03%).

Though Starbucks is facing no shortage of headwinds (e.g., unionization efforts, soaring coffee prices, and COVID-19 lockdowns closing select stores in China), this is a company that’s successfully navigated its way through many recessions and stock market corrections over the years.

Perhaps the most front-and-center advantage Starbucks has is the incredible loyalty of its customers . No amount of inflation or price hikes has scared away the company’s faithful base (myself included). This should allow Starbucks to outpace even historically high domestic inflation.

To add to this point, […]

source Stock Market Plunge: 5 Unstoppable Stocks on Sale to Buy Now and Hold Forever