It isn't always obvious that a growth stock will take off and generate massive returns for your portfolio. However, that's one of the reasons why sometimes taking a chance on an up-and-coming stock can be a worthwhile move, even if you're not entirely confident that it'll be successful. Taking on some risk can result in monstrous gains and rewards later on.

Three stocks that have made long-term investors rich over the past two decades include Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), and Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG). Here's a look at just how much your investment would be worth if you bought $5,000 worth of shares in each of these companies 20 years ago.

1. Nvidia: $3 million

The least-surprising stock on this list is likely Nvidia. The chipmaker has made people rich over just the past five years, let alone 20. If you invested $5,000 into the tech stock back on Dec. 1, 2005, your investment would be worth a staggering $3 million right now.

Today, Nvidia has become the most valuable company in the world, with a market cap of $4.5 trillion. A couple of decades ago, it was primarily known for its graphics cards. Nowadays, its cutting-edge chips are used in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) models, which has led to game-changing results for the business.

Over the past four quarters, the company has generated $187 billion in revenue. Just a few years ago, the company's annual revenue was less than $30 billion. Nvidia's gains have come rapidly, and for investors who want exposure to artificial intelligence (AI), this can be one of the safer stocks to hang on to for the long haul.

2. Netflix: $1.2 million

Another stock that would have made you rich over the past 20 years is streaming giant Netflix. A $5,000 investment a couple of decades ago would now have ballooned to be worth $1.2 million. Its ascent has been more gradual than Nvidia's, and there have been challenges along the way. However, Netflix has established itself as a leader in video streaming.

The company's relentless pursuit of growth is evident with its recent acquisition attempt of Warner Bros. Discovery for $72 billion. Although the deal may not end up going through, as Paramount Skydance has announced a hostile bid, and there are concerns about whether this may hurt competition, it's yet another example of Netflix looking for ways to grow and add value for its customers.

The streaming giant has gone from posting losses to now enjoying strong profit margins of 24%. Netflix is a household name and yet another good growth stock to hold for the long haul.

3. Booking Holdings: $1.1 million

Rounding out this list of impressive stocks is Booking Holdings. A $5,000 investment in the business 20 years ago would now be worth around $1.1 million. The growth in the travel industry, particularly in online bookings, has enabled it to grow at an incredible pace.

Last year, it reported $23.7 billion in sales and $5.9 billion in profit, a significant improvement from the $11 billion in sales it posted just three years earlier, when its bottom line was around $1.2 billion. Analysts from Grand View Research project that the online travel booking market is still growing at a compounded annual growth rate of roughly 10% until 2030, as there's still more growth potential ahead for Booking Holdings.

Given the plentiful opportunities ahead, it may still not be too late to invest in Booking Holdings stock. It trades at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 21, based on analyst expectations. That's slightly below the S&P 500 average of 22. For long-term growth investors, this can be a fantastic investment to simply buy and hold. 

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

The post 3 stocks that in 20 years have turned $5,000 into more than $1 million appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The ETF seeks to track the performance of the NASDAQ-100 Index (NASDAQ: NDX) before fees. This index represents the 100 largest stocks on the NASDAQ by market capitalisation.

When people think of the NASDAQ 100, they think US tech shares.

That's fair enough, particularly given the dominant presence of the Magnificent Seven, which are either tech developers themselves or use high tech in their businesses.

But in reality, only about half (49.7%) of the NASDAQ 100 is tech stocks. The rest are communications shares (16.4%), consumer discretionary (13.4%), consumer staples (5.9%), health care (5.9%), and others.

Over the past 12 months, the Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF has risen by an impressive 30.19%. The NDQ ETF was trading at $47.68 per unit on Thursday, down 0.68% for the day.

So, which stocks have contributed most to another year of exceptional capital gains for the Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF (ASX: NDQ)?

12 stocks pumping up the NDQ ETF

Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA)

Shares in chip maker Nvidia have ripped 180.6% higher to US$135.34 over the past year.

It's no surprise that Nvidia is the fastest-growing stock within the Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF.

Arm Holdings PLC-ADR (NASDAQ: ARM)

The Arm Holdings share price has shot 118.6% higher to US$133.37 over the past year.

Arm is a British semiconductor and software design company based in England.

Constellation Energy Corp (NASDAQ: CEG)

Stock in Constellation Energy has risen 102.6% to US$253.39 over the past 12 months.

Constellation is one of the largest energy suppliers in the United States.

Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX)

Shares in streaming company Netflix have also contributed strongly to the growth of the Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF over the past year.

Netflix shares are up 83.1% to US$877.34.

Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ: FTNT)

Stock in cybersecurity services provider, Fortinet has risen 75% to US$94.06 per share.

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG)

The Intuitive Surgical share price is up 71% to US$535.55 per share.

Intuitive Surgical is a US biotech that develops and manufacturers clinical and surgical robotics.

Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META)

Stock in social media empire Meta has risen 70.1% to US$569.20 per share over the past 12 months.

Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO)

Shares in Broadcom have ascended 68% to US$159.67 over the past year.

Broadcom is a US developer and manufacturer of semiconductor and infrastructure software products.

Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG)

Stock in Booking Holdings has lifted 66.8% to US$5,223.15 per share.

Booking is a US travel technology company and one of the priciest stocks, in dollar terms, within the NDQ ETF.

Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: CRWD)

Stock in US cybersecurity company, Crowdstrike has risen by 65.5% to US$347.59 over the year.

Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST)

The CostCo share price has ascended 61.6% to US$961.55 over the past year.

CostCo is a membership warehouse retailer that sells goods at wholesale prices.

Marvell Technology Inc (NASDAQ: MRVL)

Stock in Marvell Technology has risen 61.2% to US$90.10 per share over the past 12 months.

Marvell is a US semiconductor developer.

Price history snapshot: Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF

The Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF has risen by 125.4% over the past five years.

This compares to a 23.7% increase in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO).

The post Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF (NDQ) is up 30% in a year. Which stocks have turbocharged its rise? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The S&P 500 Index (SP: .INX), plunged 3.56%, cancelling out Wednesday's euphoric gain.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ: .IXIC) was hit harder still. As most of Australia snored, it plummeted 4.99% in its worst session since June 2020. It's now at its lowest level since 2020.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (DJX: .DJI) also suffered in Thursday's session overseas. It gave up more than 1,000 points, or 3.12%.

The US stock market's downturn could spell bad news for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) on Friday, particularly ASX 200 tech stocks, which often react to the Nasdaq's movements.

Here's what might have dinted the US stock market overnight.

US stock markets flop in Thursday's session

US stocks struggled overnight, with the nation's markets giving up Wednesday's notable gains.

The S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and Dow Jones Industrial Average launched 2.9%, 3.2%, and 2.8% respectively on Wednesday, likely driven by positive sentiment out of the United States Federal Reserve.

The Federal Open Market Committee decided to increase interest rates by 0.5% to between 0.75% and 1% on Wednesday – its biggest increase in 22 years – in an effort to tackle inflation.

However, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell also commented that the entity wasn't "actively considering" hiking interest rates by another 0.75%.

Powell's confidence appeared to quell the market's nerves on Wednesday. However, concerns apparently reared their head once more in yesterday's (Aussie time) session.

Some US stock market favourites dragged on the NASDAQ-100 (NASDAQ: NDX) overnight.

The index slumped 5% driven by the likes of Airbnb Inc (NASDAQ: ABNB) and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA). The stocks were among the Nasdaq-100's worst performers, both slumping 8%.

Meanwhile, the share price of eBay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY) tumbled 11% on the back of the company's quarterly results.  

Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BKNG) was one of only a few Nasdaq-100 stocks closing in the green on Thursday. It gained 3% on news demand for travel surged during the March quarter.

The post The US stock market just took a major dive. What's going on? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

At the time of writing, units in the exchange traded fund (ETF) are trading for $33.45 – down 0.06%. Overnight, however, the NASDAQ 100 ended its trading day up 0.92%.

So, what were the biggest movers overnight?

Let's take a closer look.

What is NDQ invested in?

As the name of the ETF suggests, NDQ is invested in the 100 largest companies listed on the New York based tech-heavy stock exchange, such as Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN), and Facebook, Inc (NASDAQ: FB).

Non-tech shares the ETF (and therefore the shareholder) are invested in include PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP), Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST), and healthcare company Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA).

What moved the Nasdaq-100?

According to Nasdaq, the most prominent movers in early trade included biotech company Biogen Inc (NASDAQ: BIIB) – up 3.1%, and Pinduoduo Inc (NASDAQ: PDD) – down 1.2%.

Other prominent movers earlier in the day include Moderna – up 2.8%, and Okta Inc (NASDAQ: OKTA) – down 1%.

By the end of the day these were the 3 biggest gainers:

• Marriott International Inc (NASDAQ: MAR) – up 3.82%.
• Moderna Inc – up 3.15%.
• Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BKNG) – up 2.88%.

And these were the 3 heaviest fallers on the index by the end of the day:

• Seagen Inc (NASDAQ: SGEN) – down 1.74%.
• Charter Communications Inc (NASDAQ: CHTR) – down 1.28%.
• Okta Inc – down 0.80%.

Let's see if NDQ follows the NASDAQ 100's lead and ends today higher.

NDQ share price snapshot

Over the past 12 months, shares in the ETF have increased 31.9%. This is greater than the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) but less than the actual NASDAQ 100 composite (by about 9 percentage points). It is, however, roughly matching its namesake's performance since the beginning of the year – both up about 21%.

The post What were the biggest movers on the Nasdaq 100 (ASX:NDQ) overnight? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

It reminded everyone that investing, even for those who do it for a living, never has a 100% win rate.

"To be perfectly honest, we target getting 60% of our decisions correct," Sage Capital portfolio manager Sean Fenton told The Motley Fool.

"If you don't do the hard accounting and actually track your investment decisions and work out your wins and losses, people tend to overestimate their skill. But we do do that — and if we can get 60% of our investment decisions right, it means we're absolutely knocking it out of the park."

So to counter that friend who brags about his new-found riches, here are stories of 6 more ASX shares that fund managers regretted:

Temple & Webster Group Ltd (ASX: TPW)

Online retailers did very well out of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

People around the world stayed bunkered down and ordered homewares remotely to make their lives more comfortable.

Sage Capital portfolio manager Kelli Meagher regretted not buying into Temple & Webster, with its shares as low as $2.05 last year. They are trading for $10.16 early Thursday afternoon.

"I regret how conservative I was with my valuation discipline, I suppose, when it came to pure online retail stocks when they first started moving last year," she told Ask A Fund Manager.

"And they've gone up, doubled and tripled, I saw that I'd missed the opportunity – and they just kept going. So there's definitely some remorse from sitting on the sidelines there."

Challenger Ltd (ASX: CGF)

Investment company Challenger has frustrated many shareholders over the last few years.

Trading at $5.34 Thursday afternoon, the stock is more than 38% down on 5 years ago.

U Ethical portfolio manager Jon Fernie admitted defeat.

"The one stock retreat where we got the timing wrong was investing into Challenger several years ago when we thought that interest rates were going to move higher. We also thought that there were going to be regulatory changes that would drive underlying demand for annuities," he told Ask A Fund Manager. 

"Unfortunately, both those things didn't happen. And that led to us ultimately exiting the stock at a lower level. So that was probably one investment decision that we regretted."

Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE) and Lululemon Athletica Inc (NASDAQ: LULU)

For Forager research analyst Chloe Stokes, she wished she was better prepared when markets nosedived in March 2020.

"We saw brilliant companies like Nike and Lululemon down more than 30% in a couple of days," she told Ask A Fund Manager.

"Those stocks would have been excellent investments at market prices, but because I never thought they were cheap enough to invest any time into, I didn't have a thesis ready."

Nike is up almost 30% in the past 12 months, while Lululemon shares have risen 19.2%.

The big lesson for Stokes was that investors, whether professional or amateur, need to have a 'hit list' ready for price dips.

"It might seem like a waste of time, but you never know when the opportunity could come along to own a high-quality business at a more than reasonable price," she said.

"I wouldn't want to miss out on owning some of my favourite businesses if the opportunity presents itself again."

Zoom Video Communications Inc (NASDAQ: ZM)

If ever there was a COVID beneficiary, the video conferencing company that became a verb is it.

Zoom shares have risen about 460% since the start of 2020 when no one was thinking twice about going into the office 5 days a week.

Spaceship portfolio manager Jason Sedawie regretted not getting a piece of that action.

"It's always what you don't buy that hurts you because they can be the potential multi-baggers," he told Ask A Fund Manager.

"Whenever I'm on a Zoom call or Google Meet, I just get reminded of that company."

The video tech provider surprised Sedawie in the way it rose above hot competition from deeper-pocketed rivals.

"We did know about it, but it wasn't something we were really excited about because everyone used Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts," he said.

"They were a business service that schools and consumers just all of a sudden knew. So they went from 10 million daily meeting participants to 300 million a couple of months later. Just how they scaled and executed and pivoted – I just have a lot of respect."

Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ: TRIP)

Hyperion Asset Management lead portfolio manager Jason Orthman remembers buying Tripadvisor shares thinking the business could disrupt traditional booking engines.

"Our research didn't pick up how sticky consumer behaviour was and how strong the competitive offerings were," he told Ask A Fund Manager.

"It took us about 2 quarters to realise our research was incorrect, and we exited. And that saved our investors a lot of money. We lost money on that investment, but we didn't experience the significant downside that those that have held onto that business had."

Tripadvisor stocks have lost more than 34% over the past 5 years.

But there was a final twist to rub salt into the wound.

Stocks for Tripadvisor rival Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BKNG) have surged almost 83% in the last half-decade.

"We compounded that error, not only buying Tripadvisor, but selling out of Priceline, which is now called Booking Holdings."

The post 6 more shares that haunt fund managers appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The Motley Fool chats with fund managers so that you can get an insight into how the professionals think. In part 1 of our interview, Hyperion Asset Management lead portfolio manager Jason Orthman explained why Tesla shares are still cheap. Now in part 2, he tells us the ASX stock purchase that he's most proud of and the travel company that bit him.

MF: If the market closed tomorrow for 5 years, which stock would you want to hold?

JO: It'd be easy to say Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), but I'm going to go with Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN). Just to have something different. 

We really like its culture in terms of how relentless they are, how they continually want to improve their product, improve their offering, focused on the consumer continually. It's very hard to compete against. 

There's a lot of optionality in that business. It's still very early, if you think of the transition to digital advertising, the transition to cloud [computing], the transition from physical retail into e-commerce. They're all multi-trillion dollar opportunities. And Amazon's still really early in it, despite its dominance. 

[Regarding] the regulatory issues… our research suggests the risks around that are actually relatively low. So something like Amazon, if you woke up in 5 years' time, I think you'd do pretty well.

MF: What did you think of Jeff Bezos stepping down as chief executive?

JO: The fact that he'd been driving that business for 20, 25 years means the culture's really embedded. Even if you go and visit an outpost, [like] some of their offices here in Australia, that same culture and core values are embedded as they would be in the head office in Seattle. Being founder-led for all that period of time, he really embedded those values in the business. 

The business is now bigger than Jeff Bezos, and he'd been stepping back from day-to-day management for a number of years. So that focus on, again, the product, the consumer, innovation, that's going to continue on as is. 

We took that in its stride. If it happened 10 years earlier, that would've been a concern. But happening now, I think they'd be absolutely fine.

MF: Have you held Amazon for a long time?

JO: The fund will be 7 years [old] on the 1st of June. And it's been in that fund for most of that journey, not from day one, but for most of that journey. We would've held that comfortably over 5 years.

Looking back

MF: Which stock are you most proud of from a past purchase?

JO: Tesla's a really good one. There wasn't a lot of need for us to make that investment. As I said, we watched that for 5 years before we purchased it. 

The amount of controversy, misinformation, level of shorting on that stock was extreme. So to go ahead and still purchase that and seek out 6 or 7 times [return] is pretty pleasing. 

Closer to home, Domino's Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP), [which] we still own in our Australian products, and we did own it in the global equities fund at one stage. 

It went through the mainstream media through 2017 – there were question marks over the sustainability of its business model. We believed that that was a false narrative – the underlying economics of that business was strong.

There was no need to have underpayments through that system. Franchising is a tough business, so you're always going to have pockets of that. But we believe that the underlying economics were there, the management team was really strong, and our market research suggested the system is really robust. 

So [we were proud] to buy that stock when there was a lot of negative media through the traditional papers and TV. As far as we're aware, we're the only large institutional fund manager that actually purchased stock through that period. 

And it's gone from $40 to over $100 today. We're pretty proud of that because it was a long consensus call and went against everything that was being spoken about in the market and the media.

MF: Is there a move that you regret from the past? For example, a missed opportunity or buying a stock at the wrong timing or price.

JO: Yeah, it was purchasing Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ: TRIP). We've put it down as one of the mistakes that we've made on this journey. 

Our research didn't pick up how sticky consumer behaviour was and how strong the competitive offerings were. And we compounded that error, not only buying Tripadvisor but selling out of Priceline, which is now called Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BKNG). 

We thought Tripadvisor could disrupt those traditional booking engines. It took us about two quarters to realise our research was incorrect, and we exited. And that saved our investors a lot of money. We lost money on that investment, but we didn't experience the significant downside that those that have held onto that business had. 

So there are some learnings we took out of it. But that experience with Tripadvisor was disappointing.

The post The stock that I'd hold for the next 5 years: fundie appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Both companies plummeted to 52-week lows on 19 March last year and have struggled to recover as travel restrictions took hold and Australia and the world went into lockdown.

Over the past 12 months, the Flight Centre share price is still down 45.5%. The Qantas share price has gained more ground, but it still has another 2.9% to go to reach where it was a year ago.

Credit Suisse plugs Qantas and Flight Centre

According to today's Australian Financial Review (AFR), Credit Suisse has positions in both Qantas and Flight Centre.

Here's what Credit Suisse Private Banking portfolio manager Mike Jenneke had to say: 

These companies have very good hibernation strategies and that will see them through the present downturn. The vaccine news is positive and there's risks obviously but when it's safe to do so, it will recover.

Demand is pent up and we think we'll see a pretty significant rebound in travel. These kind of stocks will be volatile but we think there is an overall opportunity there.

Struggling to touch pre-pandemic numbers

The AFR notes that while the S&P/ASX200 Index (XJO) has regained ground, the Qantas share price is 30% lower than pre-pandemic levels. AFR estimates that the Flight Centre share price is 60% lower.

Senior portfolio manager of American Century Investments, Brent Puff, said that since the air services industry was one of the hardest hit by COVID, he sees opportunity.

Mr Puff recently added Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BKNG) to his portfolio. He believes that the Booking.com business has a far way to recover and that pent up travellers will resume their regular habits once the vaccine widely circulates. 

Foolish takeaway

While ASX travel shares and the air services industry, in particular, put themselves back together in the aftermath of COVID, analysts see opportunity in the recovering companies. The expert advice to savvy investors is to keep an eye on updates on the vaccines and changes to travel restrictions.

The post Why analysts are backing these 2 ASX travel shares appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Oil prices have tumbled due to weak demand and the Russia versus Saudi Arabia supply war. Parts of my second industry to avoid are generally a strong beneficiary of weaker oil prices, as fuel is one of its greatest inputs. However, with the one-two punch of COVID-19, this industry has an uncertain short term.

Travel

The travel industry is very broad. There are online aggregators like Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BKNG); cruise lines like Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL); corporate and consumer-facing travel agents like Corporate Travel Management Ltd (ASX: CTD) or Webjet Limited (ASX: WEB); hotels; and, airlines like Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) among other parts of the sector.

Each part of the travel industry has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but this article will focus on the ASX airlines.

Airlines

There is no doubt that air travel will exist in the future. But right now is an extremely tough time for the industry. Qantas has slashed services for the next 6 months. As a result, Qantas and Jetstar have temporarily stood down two-thirds of their 30,000 employees from late March until at least the end of May. During this time, the company has announced that stood down workers cannot get sick leave. International flights are changing and the company is deferring the payment of its interim dividend from 9 April until 1 September.

This is a stunning example of the impact that COVID-19 and the containment measures put in place to slow the spread of the virus are having on both domestic and international travel. Even if the spread of the virus is contained in the next few months, airlines could lose out on some international travel associated with the Northern Hemisphere summer.

Similar to the previously discussed oil companies, a strong balance sheet is imperative to surviving this rut and thriving on the other side.

Additionally, with so many people and organisations experiencing working remotely for the first time, I don't expect our ways of working to completely return to how they were. Improvements in technology are allowing for quality work to be performed from across the globe, and this could see a long term reduction in business travel.

A Foolish thought

If the valuations in the travel industry are too attractive for you to ignore, make sure you have a long time horizon, diversify and invest with cash you won't need for the next few years.

The quicker we beat COVID-19, the quicker our lives go back to normal. Following the government's directives for social isolation and the like not only helps health outcomes, but will help the economy and your businesses get back on the path to growth.

Tomorrow I'll be sharing my final industry to avoid in 2020.

The post Another ASX industry to avoid in 2020 appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.