Just been scrolling through some market data and noticed something interesting about the past couple years. While the S&P 500 climbed around 60%, there's been a whole different tier of performance happening in individual stocks. Some companies have genuinely crushed it, and I'm talking 10x returns kind of crushing it.

There's this thing called GARP investing - growth at reasonable price - that's been on my radar lately, and honestly, some of these recent winners fit that playbook pretty well. Let me break down three that have been absolute monsters.

First up is Summit Therapeutics. This pharma company went absolutely mental when word got out that their cancer drug ivonescimab outperformed Keytruda in trials. Keytruda's been printing money for Merck for years, and we're talking about a company worth like $270 billion. Summit's way smaller, but investors are clearly betting this drug becomes a serious revenue driver. The stock's up like 1,600% in two years. That said, the trial was done in China, and there's real uncertainty whether US regulators will see it the same way. Classic GARP opportunity, but with real execution risk.

Then there's Carvana. The used car market got interesting when interest rates started normalizing. People started looking at Carvana again, especially as their financials actually started looking decent - they're reporting actual profits now instead of constant losses. Up 1,330% from the lows. But here's the thing - those margins are thin, like under 20%, and they had a $72 million operating loss last year. They need to stay disciplined. This one's more volatile, and it got absolutely destroyed in 2022 - down 98% in a single year. So yeah, the gains look great on paper, but that's partly recovery from a bloodbath.

Now Nvidia is the obvious one. Everyone knows the AI story. Jensen Huang basically said demand for their Blackwell chips is insane - so insane that customers ordering today are waiting over a year. That's the kind of supply constraint that makes investors happy. Sales jumped 122% year-over-year to $30 billion in their recent quarter, with data center revenue up 154%. This is a company that's actually growing into its valuation, which is what you want in a best GARP stocks scenario. But at nearly $3.5 trillion in market cap, the question is whether there's still room to run.

Here's what gets me about these three - they're all examples of what happens when you find companies with real products people actually want. The gains don't come from nothing. They come from businesses that are either creating value or have potential to create massive value. That's the core of GARP thinking.

The real question now is whether these are still worth buying or if the moves have already priced everything in. Summit's got regulatory risk. Carvana needs to prove consistency. Nvidia's already massive. All three have already had their big runs, so if you're thinking about best GARP stocks to buy today, you might want to wait for some pullback or at least see how these companies execute over the next few quarters. The gains were incredible, but that doesn't mean the party's over - just means you need to be more careful about entry points now.