You Should Still Buy These 2 “Speculative” Stocks Now

Key Takeaways:

• UBER and DASH have been on market-beating tears so far this year. 
• The Juice thinks the sky’s the limit for both companies, whether they combine or stay independent. 
• UBER and DASH continue to make all the right moves as they create ubiquitous ecosystems that can touch consumers multiple times per week or day. 

Source: Google Finance 

Late last year, The Juice suggested two speculative stocks for your radar. At this point, we probably need to remove the “speculative” designation. Uber (UBER) and DoorDash (DASH) survived the most recent tech boom, which focused on the sharing and gig economies. 

As companies such as Carvana (CVNA) implode (and become memes!), Uber and DoorDash look a lot like Amazon.com (AMZN):

• Amazon emerged from the 1999-2000 tech bubble, unlike names such as Pets.com and Webvan. 
• Amazon built its business on an ecosystem that kept growing, expanding, and – eventually – dominating. 

Here’s a quick look back on our thinking when we started getting high on UBER and DASH:

As DoorDash builds out DashPass and enters new spaces, Uber is doing likewise via Uber One (its monthly subscription program) and Uber Eats […]

DoorDash is following the Amazon and Uber playbook. Building out an impressive ecosystem to keep consumers loyal. It’s doing what TechCrunch said about Uber in [an] article we liked: “creat(ing) a closed business loop with each product feeding customers back into other [of its] channels. And that loop is growing.”

For more context on our bull case for the stocks, go here. 

Now, we’ll look at how that bull case continues to evolve rapidly at both companies.

This latest news from Uber nicely illustrates our bull case. 

Imagine calling an Uber to take you to the airport. Then, when you’re about to ignore the driver and doomscroll Twitter, Uber pushes a notification letting you know you can order food, drinks, and other items now so they’ll be ready for pickup at one of your terminal’s restaurants or concession outlets. 

Takes a lot of stress out of the traveling experience, as Uber points out in the press release announcing this program at Tampa International Airport:

A top pain-point for travelers can be getting their […] items quickly when they might have only a few minutes to spare before boarding a flight. This frustration is shared by airport staff from flight crews to security officers, who might have only a short lunch break. Uber Eats at Airports now gives consumers greater control of their travel day or work schedule, getting what they need quickly and reliably.

For now, this is only in Tampa. Sort of like Uber’s move to deliver weed, which is live only in Toronto at the moment. It’s nice to see Uber move fast yet cautiously, unlike so many tech flops that expand their locations and offerings too aggressively. 

Along similar lines, DoorDash continues to find ways to be part of its customers’ lives for more than one purpose. 

For example, it just unveiled a rewards Mastercard (MA) in conjunction with JPMorgan Chase (JPM). In addition to providing perks, DASH’s diversification ensures that its customers see its logo more than just when they order delivery via its app. 

The new credit card comes just after a slew of big, ecosystem-building partnerships: 

• A hookup with ALDI’s more than 2,100 grocery stores across 38 states for on-demand delivery
• An expansion of its partnership with Starbucks (SBUX), which should reach all 50 states this month
• An agreement with WeWork (WE) to be the company’s “corporate meal solution,” “exclusive food and beverage delivery partner,” and collaborator on nationwide marketing and charity events
• Showing DASH’s broad ambitions, a unique deal with Tractor Supply (TSCO) to offer on-demand delivery of things like firewood and poultry feed – things more prevalent in rural than urban America – from TSCO’s nearly 2,000 locations 

The Bottom Line: We’re excited about Uber and DoorDash. We see so much of Amazon in these two companies. 

So we look at them the way we did Amazon back in its hypergrowth days. As long as we’re seeing revenue growth and the execution of a sound ecosystem-focused expansion plan, we’re on board. 

Profits don’t matter as much at this stage of growth. While that statement might scare you, remember lack of profits was the top criticism of Amazon as the company’s stock only rose over the last 20 years. 

If, in 2023, you have a similar time horizon to the person considering AMZN in 2000, The Juice thinks you should at least nibble at UBER and DASH. But we’d be comfortable taking bigger bites as both companies move closer to being core tech names rather than speculative ones. 

And there’s always the chance Uber and DoorDash combine forces. It makes a ton of sense, as together they could get leaner in areas such as payroll. Plus, the Amazon-like roadmaps they’re building to increasingly pervade our everyday lives continue to look and feel more complementary. UBER and DASH could be a match made in one-app-for-everything heaven.

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