Only Have $100? 3 No-Brainer Stocks to Buy Right Now

By Rich Duprey Published Apr 3, 9:28AM EDT

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You no longer need a lot of money to start making a lot on Wall Street because the barriers to investing have been torn down.

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Only Have $100? 3 No-Brainer Stocks to Buy Right Now — © Thinkstock

The saying, it takes money to make money also used to be the rule on Wall Street, but not any more thanks to the democratization of investing.

The first cracks began to appear with the appearance of discount brokers and then deep discounts, like E-Trade made buying and selling stocks comparatively cheap. You used to have to buy stocks in lots of 100 shares, otherwise you paid a higher commission for “odd lots.”

When Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD | HOOD Price Prediction) launched its app in 2014, it marked the beginning of the end for commissions on trades by making transactions free, and when almost the entire industry followed suit five years later, the widespread availability of buying fractional shares quickly followed.

Chipping away at the walls erected around Wall Street has now made investing easier and accessible to anyone, even if you have just $100 to invest. And since trading is free, all of your money is put to work for you. So long as you don’t need it to pay bills or for an emergency, you can put your C-note into one of the three stocks below for long-term growth.

Dutch Bros (BROS)

Drive-thru coffee shop Dutch Bros (NASDAQ:BROS) is the first stock you should consider investing in. While still much smaller than industry giants Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) or Dunkin, Dutch Bros. recently opened its 1,000th store and wants to double that by 2029.

Ultimately, the coffee shop chain sees 7,000 locations operating nationwide, up from its previous estimate of 4,000. It expects to open 160 stores in 2025.

Using the concept known as “fortressing” that was popularized by Domino’s (NYSE:DPZ), Dutch Bros. is flooding markets with its coffee shops to drive efficiency, cost-savings, and mind share with consumers. And it’s working as sales are percolating higher.

Fourth-quarter revenue jumped 35% from the year-ago period while profits grew 75% to $0.07 per share from $0.04 per share last year.

The quarter represented the coffee chain’s first full year with mobile ordering, which is increasingly popular with consumers. It helped pump comparable transaction volume 2.3% higher, the highest level Dutch Bros has achieved in two years. The quarter also marked the seventh straight quarter the java slinger topped analyst estimates.

Visa (V)

Payments processor Visa (NYSE:V) is the second no-brainer stock for savvy investors to buy. It thrives on the relentless shift to digital transactions, processing $14 trillion in volume annually. With e-commerce booming and U.S. online sales hitting $1.1 trillion in 2024, according to the Commerce Dept., Visa’s network handles 60% of all U.S. debit card transactions. Rival Mastercard (NYSE:MA) is a distant second at 25%, making Visa indispensable.

Its asset-light model generates fat margins, sporting operating margins of 62% in Q4, which fueled $18 billion in free cash flow.

Visa also pays a dividend, which despite yielding just 0.8% a year, has grown 15% annually for over a decade. It is backed by a $25 billion buyback program that shrinks shares 2% yearly. Trading at a forward P/E of 27 making it reasonably priced for revenue forecast to grow 13% annually for the next five years.

Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL)

The third no-brainer stock to buy with your $100 is Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL). As it offers a steady diet of growth and stability.

Dominating search with a 92% share globally, Alphabet raked in $307 billion in 2024 revenue, driven by advertising, which represent 80% of the total. YouTube’s 2.7 billion users and Google Cloud’s 30% growth add extra firepower.

Arguably the biggest factor for Alphabet’s future growth prospects are its AI investments, such as those in Gemini, which position it to lead in generative tech, a market projected to hit $1 trillion by 2030.

The tech giant $110 billion in cash and just $13 billion in debt, making it virtually bulletproof financially. The cash hoard has also funded $70 billion in buybacks since 2022. Trading at less than 20 earnings, well below its five-year average of 27, it’s a bargain for 14% projected earnings growth. Considering its AI edge, which it has infused throughout its offerings, especially in search, it cements Alphabet as a must-own titan.

About the Author Rich Duprey →

After two decades of patrolling the dark corners of suburbia as a police officer, Rich Duprey hung up his badge and gun to begin writing full time about stocks and investing. For the past 20 years he’s been cruising the markets looking for companies to lock up as long-term holdings in a portfolio while writing extensively on the broad sectors of consumer goods, technology, and industrials. Because his experience isn’t from the typical financial analyst track, Rich is able to break down complex topics into understandable and useful action points for the average investor. His writings have appeared on The Motley Fool, InvestorPlace, Yahoo! Finance, and Money Morning. He has been interviewed for both U.S. and international publications, including MarketWatch, Financial Times, Forbes, Fast Company, and USA Today.