Buying quality growth stocks fills an important role in helping investors build wealth for retirement. If you consistently add money to a group of competitively positioned companies that are benefiting from emerging trends in the economy, great returns are bound to follow.
Assuming you have extra cash available that you can commit to a long-term investing strategy, here are two excellent growth stocks you can buy right now with $1,000 or less.
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1. Microsoft
Microsoft (MSFT -0.24%) is a leader in two of the biggest trends in technology today: cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI). The tech giant’s consistent financial performance and leadership in these markets make its stock a solid long-term buy. The stock recovered from its brief sell-off earlier this year and is now sitting near record highs at around $496 per share. Microsoft reported another stellar earnings report, with revenue and earnings growing at double-digit rates, led by its cloud computing business.
Microsoft Azure continues to gain share in the enterprise cloud market, with revenue up 33% year over year in the most recent quarter. About half of this growth was driven by AI services, as companies look to build and deploy AI-powered applications using their data.
Microsoft is seeing growing cloud migrations across every industry. It noted accelerating demand from companies across retail (Abercrombie & Fitch), beverages (Coca-Cola), and enterprise software (ServiceNow).
The stock is not cheap, trading at 28 times forward earnings estimates for fiscal 2026. But Microsoft‘s superior cloud growth and innovation (like the recent introduction of its Majorana quantum computing chip) justifies the premium. This is a relatively safe growth stock to ride the AI tsunami spreading across the economy.
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2. Monday.com
Monday.com (MNDY -0.12%) is tapping into the shift to remote work, requiring digital collaboration and workflow management tools. Monday is a leader in the work management software market and is seeing strong growth from large enterprise customers.
This has been a volatile stock, but the shares have climbed 150% since bottoming out with the broader market in 2022. Monday generates revenue from subscriptions, which has led to steady, high growth on the top line. It reported a 30% year-over-year increase in revenue in Q1, with record free cash flow.
Monday released new enterprise capabilities in the quarter, powered by AI. A more feature-rich platform is drawing the attention of larger companies, which opens up a huge opportunity for Monday. In fact, it is seeing the lowest amount of growth with small businesses that have just 10 or more users. Its fastest-growing customer segment is those with $100,000 or more in annual recurring revenue.
The faster rate of growth among larger customers indicates sustainable long-term demand for Monday’s platform. Importantly, Monday’s high margins indicate its offering is standing out from competitors. The company earned a high 90% gross profit margin on its revenue in Q1, suggesting a solid competitive differentiation in a crowded field.
The stock (priced around $305 a share) trades at 66 times next year’s earnings estimates. But Monday is also growing its earnings at high rates as it expands margins. Given a $100 billion addressable market for the company, the stock should be worth a lot more in 10 years than it is today.
John Ballard has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Microsoft, Monday.com, and ServiceNow. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.