3 Growth Stocks Worth Buying Through the Chaos and Holding for the Long Term

Carvana posted Q4 revenue of $5.6 billion, up 58% year over year, with operating income rising to $424 million and retail unit sales climbing 43% to 163,522 vehicles, though EBITDA of $511 million missed expectations and gross profit per unit declined again. Block remains range-bound despite consistently positive results and a strong-buy analyst consensus with a $87.27 12-month target, about 25% above the current price. WM is highlighted as a durable long-term compounder with 23 consecutive years of dividend-per-share growth and strong landfill/network advantages, though near-term weakness reflects higher spending and medical waste investments.

Analysis

The market is treating these as three very different stories, but the common thread is operating leverage to pricing power. In CVNA, the key question is not growth but whether unit economics are stabilizing fast enough to keep the equity story in the “scale winner” bucket; if gross profit per unit keeps slipping, the market will stop paying for volume and start discounting cash burn risk again. The second-order winner in used autos may be the more traditional omnichannel dealers and service/finance partners that benefit if consumer demand stays elevated while CVNA is forced to compete harder on margin.

XYZ looks like a classic case of investor skepticism outrunning the fundamentals. The stock’s failure to re-rate despite steady operating performance suggests the market is still waiting for a fintech-specific deterioration that has not shown up; if that fear continues to miss, the squeeze higher can be abrupt because positioning is likely light. The most important catalyst here is not earnings upside, but multiple expansion if the next 1-2 prints confirm that transaction activity and cash-app engagement remain resilient into a slower macro backdrop.

WM is the highest-quality setup in the group because it benefits from a structurally constrained supply curve: landfill scarcity is a pricing tailwind that compounds over years, not quarters. The near-term weakness tied to reinvestment spending should be viewed as a temporary drag on margins, not a thesis break; that creates an opportunity for patient capital to buy a defensive compounder before the market re-prices the long-duration franchise value. The contrarian miss is that “boring” infrastructure businesses can quietly become inflation beneficiaries when replacement costs and permitting barriers rise faster than headline demand.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Add WM on weakness over the next 2-6 weeks; target a 12-18 month hold. Risk/reward is favorable because the downside is cushioned by recurring cash flows and dividend growth, while any margin normalization can drive a mid-teens multiple re-rating.
• Initiate a tactical long XYZ position into the next earnings cycle, sized for a 3-6 month catalyst window. Best setup is a low-cost call spread to capture a potential multiple expansion if guidance stays steady; risk is capped if investor patience breaks before re-rating.
• Avoid chasing CVNA after the rebound; wait for the next quarterly report or any meaningful pullback. If taking exposure, prefer a small short-dated call spread rather than stock, since the equity remains highly sensitive to even modest margin disappointments.
• Pair long WM / short CVNA for a relative-quality trade over 6-12 months. The thesis is that durable cash generation and pricing power will outperform a higher-beta consumer cyclical name if the market gets more selective on earnings quality.
• For more aggressive accounts, consider a broken-wing bullish structure on XYZ into the next two earnings dates. The trade benefits if the stock wakes up to fundamentals, while downside is limited if the market continues to ignore the story.