Successful investing requires digging into a company’s financials and assessing its prospects. This process may sound tedious, but it allows you to have a better sense of which growth stocks can do well over the long term. As research takes time and effort, it’s good to shortlist a bunch of stocks that you feel comfortable buying for long-term capital appreciation. These stocks should ideally have a solid growth track record, a dominant market share, and possess catalysts that can ensure their steady and continuous growth.
As you gain more knowledge about businesses, you will end up with a pool of solid stock ideas to consider. The next step is to select your best ideas to buy first as these will be your most compelling buys. When push comes to shove, here are three stocks that I will pick above the rest for their promising prospects and strong business fundamentals.
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Hawkins
Hawkins (NASDAQ: HWKN) 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 steady growth in revenue and net income over the years, but has also paid out a dividend for 39 consecutive years.
Hawkins saw sales rise from $774.5 million in fiscal 2022 (ending March 31) to $919.2 million in fiscal 2024. Net income climbed 46% over this period from $51.5 million to $75.4 million. The most impressive was the company’s free-cash-flow generation, which leapt more than eightfold from $14.3 million in fiscal 2022 to $119.3 million in fiscal 2024.
Hawkins’ strong performance has carried on in the first quarter of fiscal 2025. Sales inched up almost 2% year over year to $255.9 million but operating income managed to jump 22.5% year over year to $39.8 million. Net income improved by 23.3% year over year to $28.9 million, and the business also churned out a positive free cash flow of $6.9 million, continuing its track record of free-cash-flow generation. In tandem with its good results, management upped the company’s quarterly cash dividend from $0.16…
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