Now may be a smart time to buy small stakes in these fundamentally robust companies.
In 2025, Wall Street has been rattled with increasing concerns about U.S.-China trade wars, escalating geopolitical pressures, rising economic uncertainties, and growing recession fears. The benchmark S&P 500 index is down nearly 4.7% in 2025.
However, this market volatility and sell-off have opened up attractive entry opportunities for retail investors. Companies such as Broadcom (AVGO 3.17%), Shopify (SHOP 2.34%), Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX 0.40%), and Intuitive Surgical (ISRG 2.29%) can be smart bets now. Here’s why.
Broadcom
Broadcom’s stock has seen a dramatic decline of almost 22% from its recent high in December 2024, driven by escalating market fears due to trade wars between the U.S. and China. Yet, the stock remains an alluring buy due to its robust artificial intelligence (AI) strategy and strong financial position.
Unlike many other chip players, which focus on developing general-purpose accelerators that can cater to multiple applications, Broadcom focuses on custom XPUs tailored to the specific needs of its hyperscaler clients. This customization makes the chips optimal for particular workloads, delivering higher performance and energy efficiency for hyperscaler clients.
This strategy seems to be paying off, since management estimates an addressable market of $60 billion to $90 billion from its existing three hyperscaler clients by 2027. This projection does not include the four additional hyperscaler clients already designing custom XPUs. Furthermore, Broadcom’s networking solutions are also in high demand, as they are a critical component of large AI clusters.
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Broadcom also boasts robust financials, as evidenced by the 25% year-over-year revenue jump and 44% year-over-year operating income surge in the recent quarter (first-quarter fiscal 2025 ended Feb. 2).
Broadcom is trading at 29.4 times forward earnings, far lower than its five-year average of 70.5. Hence, considering its upside potential and reasonable valuation, this may be an opportune time to pick a small stake in this stock.
Shopify
E-commerce giant Shopify is currently down nearly 25% from its recent high in February 2025. Despite this, with the company posting solid 31% year-over-year top-line growth and operating margin of 17% in the recent quarter and reaching an annual gross merchandise value (GMV) of $300 billion, this share price pullback seems like an excellent entry opportunity for retail investors who are ready to ignore short-term share price volatility.
While Shopify does not sell anything online, it provides a complete tech-powered omnichannel setup for merchants to reach out digitally to customers. Once known mainly for focusing on small and medium enterprises, the company now caters to several larger global brands.
Shopify also sees significant growth potential in international markets and has invested strategically in localization, compliance improvements, and local payment methods. Offline commerce and B2B commerce have also emerged as potent growth opportunities. Shopify is also committed to using advanced AI technologies to help new merchants launch and larger merchants scale with greater productivity on its platform.
The stock is trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 66.2, greater than its five-year average of 39. However, the rich valuation seems justified considering its diversified business model, multiple growth drivers, and resilience. Analysts also expect revenue to grow 25.3% year over year to $2.33 billion. That’s a healthy growth projection, even though elevated tariff wars may affect it indirectly through its merchant clients. Therefore, the stock seems like an attractive choice now.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals have risen by nearly 23.9% in 2025. However, this healthcare giant still has significant potential for growth.
Vertex continues to dominate the cystic fibrosis (CF) market with drugs such as Trikafta/Kaftrio and the more effective and conveniently dosed next-generation Alyftrek. In 2024, Trikafta/Kaftrio accounted for nearly $10.2 billion of the company’s $11 billion net product revenue. With Trikafta’s patent protection extending till 2037, the company has robust revenue visibility.
Vertex has also made its presence felt in blood disorders, pain management, diabetes, and renal diseases. Journavx, the first new non-opioid pain medicine to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in over 20 years, has a potential market of 80 million patients with all types of moderate to severe acute pain. The recently launched Casgevy is also proving to be a transformative one-time treatment for patients with certain blood disorders.
The company has demonstrated robust financial strength, with $11.2 billion in cash and hardly any debt. Considering the company’s many strong tailwinds and solid financials, a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 24.2 does not seem expensive, making the stock a worthwhile buy now.
Intuitive Surgical
Leading surgical robotics player Intuitive Surgical’s shares have been mostly flat in 2025. However, with its global da Vinci installed base exceeding 10,000 systems across 70 countries, the company’s stock seems well-positioned for rapid growth in the coming years, despite facing challenges in importing and exporting medical device components due to the ongoing trade wars.
Intuitive Surgical has demonstrated robust operational and financial performance, with 18.5% year-over-year procedure growth on a day-adjusted basis and a 19% revenue jump in the first quarter of 2025. The company’s latest da Vinci 5 system is gaining strong momentum, with nearly 147 systems placed and more than 32,000 procedures performed in the first quarter.
Intuitive Surgical also expects to enable additional features for its da Vinci system, such as real-time surgical video review, force feedback technology, and real-time 3D model review.
The company is also continues to develop its Case Insight computational technology, which has delivered data sets such as video, kinematic energy, and force data for over 22,000 procedures performed with the da Vinci system. This helps surgeons effectively review procedure videos to identify operational and clinical insights. Intuitive expects these computational tools to be a major differentiator in the long run.
Against this backdrop, although a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 56.6x appears expensive, the rich valuation reflects the company’s market-dominance and significant growth prospects — making it a smart buy even at elevated levels.
