As 2025 winds down, the stock market's still a wild ride. Investors are on the hunt for the next big thing. Let's take a peek at some hot stocks under $500.

Costco's killing it. Their membership model? Gold. People can't get enough. They're doing something new with online shopping. Bulky stuff, in-store pickup. Online sales jumped almost 15%. Pretty neat.

Amazon's still the e-commerce king. Maybe 40% of the U.S. market? That's huge. But there's more. AWS is cloud computing royalty. And now they're diving into AI and ads. Growing like crazy. It's kind of surprising how many pies they've got their fingers in.

Growth stocks? Snowflake and Shopify are turning heads. Analysts are hyped about Snowflake's future earnings. Shopify keeps pulling in merchants left and right.

Dividend lovers, listen up. JPMorgan Chase and American Express might be your jam. Solid payouts, room to grow. Their financials look good. Not too shabby.

Value hunting? Check out Verizon. Super low P/E ratio. High earnings yield. In energy, Dominion Energy's looking tasty. Good P/E, nice dividend.

2026 is coming fast. These sub-$500 stocks? They've got a bit of everything. Growth, value, income. Past performance looks great, but who knows what's next? Do your homework. Think about what you want. Then decide.