The ultimate goal for growth investors is to outperform S&P 500. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time and should be looking for an index fund. While I consider myself a growth investor, the reality is that they are just different varieties of value investing. If you are a growth investor, you are buying stocks because you believe their business will grow quickly and allow the stock to outperform your chosen index. At its core, this is value investing because you buy something now at a discount in the hope that it will increase in price later.

While most definitions of value investing point to buying an asset that is currently cheap, sometimes growth and value investing intersect. This is exactly what I see happening The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD). Historically, the Trade Desk has been a growth stock, but after its 80% drop from its highs, it’s also easily in value investing territory.

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I think this stock has an incredible chance of outperforming the S&P 500 during 2026, and investors should load up on this slumping growth stock while it’s still cheap.

The trade office operates in shopping ad platform which helps to place its clients’ ads in the best place on the Internet. The Trade Desk has connections to websites, podcasts, connected TV and pretty much anywhere else you place an ad. Programmatic advertising is the next big thing in the advertising market, and it continues to take market share from linear TV and traditional ads all the time. However, this is not a secret, so this space is attracting many competitors.

One of the biggest that The Trade Desk has disrupted is Amazon. Amazon has a massive and growing advertising wing, and is a smart partner to advertise with. Amazon ads have the unique ability to advertise your products that a consumer is looking for, in a trusted and known marketplace. This gives Amazon ads a high return on investment, making them a better partner than The Trade Desk. While the advertising market is more than just things you can buy on Amazon, it has taken over some of The Trade Desk’s core market.

Still, The Trade Desk is fine. Last quarter, its revenue rose 18%. While that’s slower than previous growth rates, it’s still faster than the market’s 10% average annual return. For 2026, Wall Street analysts project revenue growth of 16%, so it should also outperform the market this year.

Despite this, The Trade Desk shares are trading at around 13 times forward earnings.

For reference, the S&P 500 is trading at 22.2 times forward earnings.

Rarely is there an opportunity to own a stock that is growing at a double-digit rate at such a discount to the market that isn’t in a cyclical industry, but this is the great investment opportunity The Trade Desk presents. I think it’s poised to beat the market going forward, and investors should load up on stock while it’s cheap.

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Keithen Drury has positions at Amazon and The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool has positions and recommends Amazon and The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool has one disclosure policy.

Prediction: This growth stock could outperform the S&P 500 by 2026 was originally published by The Motley Fool