Most investors don’t mind risking a few hundred bucks to take a flier on a high-risk/high-reward prospect. When you’re looking to put a few thousand bucks on the table though, thing change. That’s not a throw-away amount of money for most households. You’ll take a little less upside in exchange for less risk.
With that as the backdrop, here’s a rundown of three names to consider stepping into if you’re ready to put $5,000 to work in the stock market.
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Last year wasn’t a great one for heavy-construction outfit Fluor (NYSE: FLR). Largely thanks to economic uncertainty, full-year revenue is expected to shrink by nearly 4%. That’s ultimately why the stock’s now priced right around where it was as of the middle of 2024.
But there’s a case to be made for buying a stake in FLR stock here and now, in anticipation of better days ahead. That is, many infrastructure projects simply can’t be postponed any longer.
Then there’s the underappreciated facet of the long-term bullish argument for Fluor. That’s its experience in constructing nuclear power facilities. With the need for electricity soaring, by 2050 the U.S. Department of Energy aims to triple the amount of nuclear power being produced within the United States alone. That’s going to require at least a few dozen new reactors, boding well for this company’s business.
You didn’t hear nearly as much about it this time around as you have in the past; there’s simply too much else going on. But the Identity Theft Resource Center reports that there were a record-breaking 3,322 data breaches last year, up 79% from 2020’s count, and exposing personal sensitive information for millions of people.
Clearly the problem isn’t simply going away — it’s getting worse! And that’s just one type of cyberattack. That figure underscores the need for high-level cybersecurity services from industry leader Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW), which is expected to report top-line growth of 14% this year followed by 13% growth next year.
Yes, like Fluor, this ticker’s not been able to sustain any net progress since 2024. Don’t be too dissuaded, though. Analysts aren’t. Most of them still consider PANW a strong buy, with a consensus price target of $228.79 that’s 37% above the stock’s present price.
