3 Soaring Stocks I'd Buy Now With No Hesitation

Key Points

• Lyft may never be as big as Uber, but doesn’t need to be in order to reward investors.

• Cruise line operator Carnival continues to prove its sizable debt load is manageable.

• The chief of the world’s most important chipmaker right now is singing TSMC'S praises.

• 10 stocks we like better than Lyft ›

Generally speaking, it's better to step into a good stock after a pullback rather than buying it in the midst of a rally. You simply get more bang for your buck when you do.

Every now and then, though, a soaring stock is worth buying despite the apparent risk of sudden weakness. The greater short-term risk is missing out on continued upside, and in the long run, getting a slightly better entry price won't matter much anyway.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

To this end, here's a rundown of three such stocks I'd buy right now even if it means jumping in mid-rally.

Lyft

Given the lead that its rival already has, it's unlikely that Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) will ever be as big as ride-sharing leader Uber Technologies. And in most instances, an industry's leading name is often its best investment. That was certainly the case here for a long while anyway.

In this case, though, the second-place player is arguably the better option right now. Uber is technically growing its top line faster than Lyft is at this time, but the latter is at a pivotal point in its existence. It's just now reaching critical mass, resulting in an explosion of its bottom line.

The company's second-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization improved 26% year over year, while its net income soared from $5 million a year earlier to $40 million. Per-share profits are predicted to grow from last year's $0.06 to $0.28 for all of 2025 before nearly doubling to $0.47 next year.

That's why the stock is up nearly 70% just since August's low. More and more investors are starting to see and believe in this up-and-comer's viability.

The company has still only scratched the surface of its ultimate opportunity, though, particularly now that it has acquired Europe's taxi-like service Freenow that will benefit from its new parent's marketing know-how and technological capabilities.

At the same time, it's forging more partnerships like the ones it recently entered into with autonomous ride-sharing brand Waymo as well as DoorDash. Lyft now seems to recognize that its brand name and network of drivers can be leveraged in a range of revenue-bearing ways.

Even without knowing exactly what its distant future might look like, it seems bright enough to be willing to dive in without waiting for a pullback.

Carnival

Anyone who knows anything about cruise line operator Carnival (NYSE: CCL) likely knows it was nearly wiped out because of the pandemic. It borrowed a huge amount of money to remain afloat. And although the coronavirus contagion has now ebbed, that debt remains.

As of the latest look, the $42 billion market-size company was doing roughly $25 billion worth of annual business and was sitting on nearly $26 billion worth of long-term obligations that are costing it on the order of $400 million in interest expenses every quarter. That's the chief reason the stock rekindled its pandemic-prompted weakness in 2021 and 2022 even though most other stocks were on the mend by then.

There's also a reason, however, that its shares have been rallying (albeit erratically) from their 2022 low. As it turns out, the maritime cruise business is thriving enough to allow Carnival to handle its debt load and have a little something left over.

From its record-breaking second-quarter revenue of $6.3 billion (up 10% year over year), $934 million of it was turned into operating income -- also a record -- leading to net income of $470 million. Customer deposits toward future business also reached an all-time high of $8.5 billion, establishing a ton of future revenue that technically can't be booked yet.

What gives? Although consumers may be tightening their purse strings on other fronts, they're not skimping on leisure travel. They are, however, looking for the best bang for their vacation buck. For many people, that's a surprisingly affordable cruise.

Now, do know that the bulk of the post-pandemic rebound of this business is in the rearview mirror. From here, Carnival's double-digit growth on the top and bottom lines is likely to cool to a single-digit number, in step with the Cruise Lines International Association's expectation for the industry's growth through 2028.

That's OK, though. Even if the industry's recovery is slowing, Carnival also manages some of the more marketable brand names in the cruise business, like Holland America and Princess. Even just a little more scale will do it a lot more good, by virtue of widening its net profit margins.

Taiwan Semiconductor

Lastly, add Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) to your list of soaring stocks that are still buys despite their current rallies.

It's not exactly a household name, although there's a very good chance you or someone in your household regularly relies on a product made by this company. Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC for short) is a third-party microchip manufacturer, contracted by players like Apple, Qualcomm, and Intel just to name few.

Since building and managing a semiconductor foundry can be expensive as well as complex, it's often cheaper and easier for these companies to outsource production to a third-party specialist like TSMC. Its customers simply need to provide the chip foundry with the proper product specifications.

Image source: Getty Images.

That doesn't mean it has no competition, nor does it mean it doesn't face cyclical headwinds. For example, after a banner 2022, concerns of economic weakness prompted technology companies to curtail their spending in 2023.

The growing secular need for new chips dramatically outweighs any cyclical slowdown though. Deloitte says the global semiconductor market could swell from last year's $627 billion to more than $1 trillion by 2030, on the way to $2 trillion by 2040.

And even that outlook may understate the opportunity ahead. Jensen Huang, CEO of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware leader Nvidia, recently suggested the AI infrastructure market alone could be worth $3 trillion to $4 trillion within the next five years. And given Nvidia's place in the silicon business, Huang would most definitely know.

It's something else he specifically said about TSMC, however, that makes this stock so compelling despite its seemingly frothy valuation of nearly 30 times this year's expected earnings: "You can't overstate the magic that is TSMC."

This follows his comments last month that TSMC "is one of the greatest companies in the history of humanity," and anybody who wants to buy the stock "is a very smart person."

If for no other reason than sheer logistics and the fact that Taiwan Semiconductor already has the know-how and manufacturing infrastructure in place, it's positioned to win more than its fair share of the chip industry's brewing growth.

Should you invest $1,000 in Lyft right now?

Before you buy stock in Lyft, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Lyft wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $651,593!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,089,215!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 188% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of September 22, 2025

James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, DoorDash, Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends Carnival Corp. and Lyft and recommends the following options: short November 2025 $21 puts on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.