My 2 Favorite Growth Stocks to Buy Hand Over Fist in November

It’s hard for me to pick favorites. Ask me what my favorite movies, songs, or TV shows are, and I’ll deliberate for quite a while.

Answering the same question about growth stocks is even more difficult for me. I like a lot of stocks with great growth prospects. However, some rise to the top. Here are my two favorite growth stocks to buy hand over fist in November.

A free cash flow machine

If I had to sum up why I like Amazon (AMZN -1.09%) so much right now in three words, those words would be free cash flow. Amazon is a no-holds-barred free cash flow machine.

Consider that the company generated a whopping $47.7 billion in free cash flow over the trailing 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2024. Most businesses don’t generate that much revenue in a year. Even more impressive, Amazon’s free cash flow soared nearly 123% year over year.

Can Amazon’s free cash flow growth continue at that rate for too much longer? Probably not. However, CEO Andy Jassy said in the company’s third-quarter earnings call that free cash flow is Amazon’s primary focus. As a shareholder, I applaud that philosophy because I know that Amazon’s share price growth will track with its free cash flow growth over the long term.

The company certainly has levers it can pull to generate more free cash flow. Amazon’s biggest opportunity to increase revenue (which will trickle down to higher free cash flow) is its cloud unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, should provide a huge tailwind for AWS for years to come.

There’s still plenty of room to grow e-commerce revenue, too. As Jassy mentioned in the Q3 call, Amazon currently has only around 1% of the global retail market. Most of retail revenue still comes from physical stores. Jassy thinks e-commerce will make up a much greater percentage of global retail revenue over the next couple of decades. So do I.

Of course, higher revenue is only one contributor to free cash flow growth. Amazon is also making great strides in controlling costs. The company continues to drive down its costs of fulfilling orders in part by using advanced robotics. Its use of the Q generative AI software development tool saved $260 million and 4,500 developer years.

A moneymaker that’s also a miracle maker

While Amazon is pioneering advances in AI, cloud platforms, and e-commerce, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX 0.36%) is a leading innovator in the healthcare arena. This big biotech company is a moneymaker that I’d argue is also a miracle maker.

The moneymaking part is easy to see. Vertex is on track to rake in nearly $11 billion in sales this year. It’s highly profitable. Importantly, the company’s revenue and earnings should grow significantly with multiple catalysts on the way.

That leads me to my miracle-making claim. Vertex is only in the early innings of commercializing Casgevy, the first approved CRISPR gene-editing therapy. CRISPR has been referred to by some as “the biggest biotech discovery of the century.” Casgevy doesn’t just treat sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia, it can cure the two rare genetic blood disorders. For many people, Vertex’s gene-editing therapy is a miracle.

Vertex’s success has been achieved largely on the back of its cystic fibrosis (CF) drugs. The company remains the only provider of therapies that treat the underlying genetic cause of the rare genetic disease. Vertex expects to receive U.S. regulatory approval in January for its most powerful CF therapy yet — the vanzacaftor triple-drug combo.

Too many patients with pain risk becoming addicted to opioids. Vertex could soon have a solution for many of them. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to make an approval decision for suzetrigine in treating moderate-to-severe acute pain by Jan. 30, 2025. Suzetrigine is a non-opioid pain reliever that could become another blockbuster drug for Vertex.

This biotech leader’s pipeline features other promising programs as well. I’m especially watching Vertex’s islet cell therapies that are currently in early stage clinical testing. These therapies hold the potential to cure type 1 diabetes, a disease that impacts 3.8 million people.

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Keith Speights has positions in Amazon and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.