If you're looking to take advantage of the recent market crash to make your first investment, then you're in luck.
The shares of a large number of high quality companies have fallen heavily since mid-February and are now trading at very attractive prices.
If you have a spare $500 to invest, then I would suggest you think long-term. This is because brokerage costs (which are usually around ~$10 a trade) will eat into your profits if you are constantly buying and selling.
But which shares should you buy? I think the 3 ASX shares listed below would be great long-term options for investors:
Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT)
I think this payments company would be a great option for a $500 investment. Although there's a chance that the coronavirus pandemic could stifle its near term growth, it hasn't done so far. The buy now pay later provider recently released its third quarter update which revealed quarterly underlying sales of $2.6 billion. This was a 97% increase on the prior corresponding period. Perhaps even better was news that its losses and margins were stable. This appears to have quashed concerns that the pandemic could cause a spike in bad debts. All in all, I'm confident that its long term prospects remain as bright as ever and expect strong returns over the next decade.
Appen Ltd (ASX: APX)
The shares of this leading developer of high-quality, human annotated datasets for the machine learning and artificial intelligence markets are still down heavily from their highs. This is despite it recently reaffirming its guidance for FY 2020. It is expecting underlying EBITDA in the range $125 million to $130 million, up 23.8% to 28.7% year on year. Thanks to the rapid growth expected from machine learning and artificial intelligence markets over the next decade, I believe Appen is well-placed to continue growing its earnings at an above-average rate for many years to come. As such, I think it would be a great option for a $500 investment.
Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN)
Finally, another option for that $500 could be Kogan. It is growing ecommerce company which appears to be benefitting greatly from store closures during the pandemic. Kogan recently released its third quarter update and revealed strong sales and gross profit growth. During the third quarter it reported gross sales growth of more than 30% over the prior corresponding period. Notably, in March its sales and gross profits jumped more than 50% on the same period last year. Given how more and more spending is shifting online, I believe its long term prospects are very bright.
