In this article, we will take a detailed look at the 10 Best AI Stocks to Buy According to Carolina Panthers Owner Billionaire David Tepper.
Billionaire David Tepper stands out amongst American hedge fund managers for his two recent moves: his bet on Chinese stocks despite their volatility and underperformance and his early arrival at the AI party.
David Tepper’s passion for investing goes all the way back to his high-school days. He once recalled:
“I remember my dad had made some small investments in a few companies, so I would track them and see how he was doing.”
Tepper bought his first stock when he was in high school — 100 shares of a $2 stock, “but then the whole thing went bankrupt,” he said.
“It was a bad investment, but that didn’t deter me.”
Today, Tepper is worth about $20 billion. He was piling into AI stocks when they were just getting started. This wasn’t a fluke or a one-off success from the billionaire. Data from Bloomberg shows that Tepper has posted annualized returns of 28% for investors, before fees. In 2022, when markets were tumbling amid inflation storm and rising interest rates, Appaloosa returned 12.5%. Tepper’s instincts and grip over financial markets were strong even when he was in his late 20s and 30s, raking in huge profits for Goldman Sachs, which he’d joined in 1985.
Tepper rose to fame at Goldman when his portfolio stood out in the midst of the market crash of 1987.
According to The Alpha Masters: Unlocking the Genius of the World’s Top Hedge Funds, written by Maneet Ahuja, Tepper recalled:
“Going into the crash I had set up my entire portfolio as just short—I had no long positions. I made a fortune during and after the crash,” he says with a chuckle. “It was very cool.” Unfortunately, the rest of the firm didn’t do as well. “I still got a raise but not as much as I should have.”
Tepper’s fund Appaloosa Management has released its latest holdings data and it’s time to see which AI stocks are in the billionaire’s portfolio. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
10. Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU)
Billionaire David Tepper’s Stake: $154,547,750
Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya said in a latest note that if volatility dips in the semiconductor industry and the broader market sees a resurgence, Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) would be one of the outperformers.
BofA Securities believes Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) is one of the best beaten-down tech stocks presenting an attractive entry point following the latest selloff.
Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya recently also talked about the latest declines in semiconductor stocks. However, the analyst said most of the declines were due to temporary factors and fundamentals are still “intact.”
“AI still the strongest and most dependable area of capex, driven by domestic US tech companies with solid balance sheets, proven monetization and mission-critical imperatives…” Arya said.
Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) posted quarterly results recently which came in better than expected but the market didn’t welcome the in-line guidance and rising expenses. However, this short-term view misses the fact that Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) is investing heavily in high bandwidth memory (HBM) production that is expected to generate billions in sales by fiscal 2025 compared with just hundreds of millions in 2024.
After the earnings, Arya reiterated a Buy rating and gave a $170 price target on Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU).
“Mgmt emphasized both CY24 and CY25 volumes are now fully sold out with pricing generally secured, providing visibility to its healthy sales and margin expansions (HBM is GM accretive),” Arya said.
Here is what Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) said about HBM during fiscal Q3 earnings call:
“Our HBM shipment ramp began in fiscal Q3, and we generated over $100 million in HBM3E revenue in the quarter, at margins accretive to DRAM and overall Company margins. We expect to generate several hundred million dollars of revenue from HBM in fiscal 2024 and multiple billions of dollars in revenue from HBM in fiscal 2025. We expect to achieve HBM market share commensurate with our overall DRAM market share sometime in calendar 2025. Our HBM is sold out for calendar 2024 and 2025, with pricing already contracted for the overwhelming majority of our 2025 supply. We are making significant strides toward expanding our HBM customer base in calendar 2025, as we design-in our industry-leading HBM technology with major HBM customers. We have sampled our 12-high HBM3E product and expect to ramp it into high-volume production in calendar 2025 and increase in mix throughout 2025.”
ClearBridge Value Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Stock selection in the IT sector proved to be the largest contributor to performance, particularly driven by the strong performance of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) The company, which designs, develops, manufactures and sells memory and storage products, continued its strong performance alongside other AI beneficiaries as the anticipated demand for new and additional storage essential for housing and training large language AI models continues to grow.”
9. Qualcomm Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM)
Billionaire David Tepper’s Stake: $167,311,200
QUALCOMM Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM) was seen as a laggard in the AI arms race but all of a sudden the stock has a new growth catalyst: AI PCs and AI handsets.
O’keefe Stevens Advisory explained its bullish thesis on the stock based on these two factors in its latest investor letter, saying:
“During the quarter, the A.I. rally broadened beyond the obvious players of Nvidia, AMD, and hyperscalers. QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM), a long-standing investment, is gaining recognition for integrating artificial intelligence into mobile phones. Qualcomm’s A.I. on-device capabilities enable real-time language translation, improved voice recognition, and sophisticated imaging techniques as A.I. becomes more integral to mobile experiences. Qualcomm benefits by leading the market in providing robust, efficient, and versatile A.I. solutions. A.I. could be the first technology advancement in several years to accelerate the smartphone replacement cycle as users desire these advanced capabilities.”
The company’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform can power smartphones to process up to 10 billion parameters of generative AI models, effectively making them intelligent personal assistants.
What about AI PCs? Microsoft has announced that its Surface Laptop and Surface Pro will be powered by QUALCOMM Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM) chips. These devices can run several AI tasks without the internet. QUALCOMM Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM) is a key partner of Microsoft to deliver Copilot+ PCs.
Wall Street expects Qualcomm’s revenue to grow 10% in 2025 and earnings to rise by 13.10% in the year. Despite these growth catalysts, QUALCOMM Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM) is trading at a forward P/E of 20, lower than the industry median of 23.73.
8. Adobe Inc (NASDAQ:ADBE)
Billionaire David Tepper’s Stake: $199,994,400
Adobe has crushed all market fears around generative AI potentially denting the demand for company products. Some believed the rise of generative AI tools would dampen the demand for Adobe’s tools since everyone can now just give simple text-based commands to AI to make images and edit videos. But Adobe turned the tables around and used AI to its advantage. Adobe Inc (NASDAQ:ADBE) Digital Experience segment is integrating AI tools to enhance its tools and deliver AI-driven features for automation and personalization, catering to marketers, advertisers, ad agencies, publishers, and business executives. Through Adobe Experience Cloud, it offers solutions for B2B marketing and content creation.
A new addition to this segment is Adobe GenStudio, a generative AI product designed for marketing. It creates AI-generated images and supports content planning and management. Despite its content creation features, Adobe Inc (NASDAQ:ADBE) classified GenStudio under Digital Experience due to its primary focus on marketing applications.
After the Q2 results more Wall Street analysts think Adobe is in a position to use the generative AI revolution to its advantage. For the third quarter, the company expects $5.38 billion in revenue for Q3, marking a 12.1% year-over-year growth and signaling sequential acceleration.
Growth at Adobe Inc (NASDAQ:ADBE) is aided by AI products like Firefly, which has not only attracted new users but also boosted retention rates.
JPMorgan has upgraded Adobe Inc (NASDAQ:ADBE) to Overweight from Neutral and raised its price target to $580 from $570. Analysts believe the stock has significant upside potential and is poised to recover to its previous highs, potentially outperforming the broader market. They think current investor concerns, particularly around the Firefly product, might be overblown, and that monetization could start to improve in the latter half of this year and into the next.
Polen Global Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“With Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE), in some ways, we see it as a microcosm of the market’s “shoot first, ask questions later” approach to categorizing AI winners and losers. In the early part of last year, Adobe came under pressure with a perception that generative AI (GenAI) would represent a material headwind to their suite of creative offerings. In short order, the company introduced its GenAI offering, Firefly, which shifted the narrative to Adobe as a beneficiary with a real opportunity to monetize GenAI in the near term. Earlier this year, that narrative was again challenged as the company reported a slight slowdown in revenue growth. Results in the most recent quarter were robust as the company raised its full-year forecast across a number of key metrics and showcased better-than-expected results.”
7. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD)
Billionaire David Tepper’s Stake: $222,227,700
Dan Ives of Wedbush in a fresh note said the latest results from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) and some other top tech companies should soothe market concerns about AI monetization.
“On the semi front, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) is now on the cusp of getting a piece of the growing AI $1 trillion of Cap Ex we expect to see over the next few years with the Godfather of AI Jensen and Nvidia leading the charge,” Ives said.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) impressed Wall Street with solid second-quarter results amid strong data center revenue. Data center revenue in the period grew 49% year over year.
But can Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) continue gaining in the coming months? Analysts are hopeful amid the launch of its Instinct™ MI300 Series accelerators that are designed for AI and HPC workloads. The new chip competes with Nvidia’s H100 AI chip. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) now plans to release new AI chips annually, including the MI325X in Q4 this year, the MI350 in 2025, and the MI400 in 2026. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) said MI350 would be a competitor to Nvidia’s Blackwell.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) data center business doubled its revenue but this growth was not at the cost of profits. The segment’s operating income increased by 405% compared to the year-earlier period. However, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) data center business is still very small compared with NVDA. It generated about $2.8 billion in revenue vs. $22.6 billion in quarterly revenue for NVDA. However, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) CPU and GPU businesses are also thriving. Ryzen CPU sales increased 49% over year and slightly quarter over quarter. Although gaming revenue declined 59% due to decreased PlayStation and Xbox sales, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) Radeon 6000 GPUs saw a year-over-year sales increase.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) is trading 17% below its 3-year average P/E ratio. The company is estimated to grow its EPS by 43% in the long term, compared to 33% for Nvidia. During the third quarter, its revenue growth is expected to come in at 15% on a QoQ basis. Amid growth forecasts based on new chips and an expected increase in AI spending by other companies, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) forward P/E of 38 makes the stock undervalued at the current levels.
Meridian Contrarian Fund stated the following regarding Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) is a global semiconductor chip maker specializing in central processing units (CPUs), which are considered the core component of most computing devices, and graphics processing units (GPUs), which accelerate operations running on CPUs. We invested in 2018 when it was a mid-cap value stock plagued by many years of underperformance due to lagging technology and lost market hi share versus competitors Intel and Nvidia. Our research identified that changes and investments made by current management under CEO Lisa Su had, over several years, finally resulted in compelling technology that positioned AMD as a stronger competitor to Nvidia and that its latest products were superior to Intel’s. We invested on the the belief that AMD’s valuation at that that time did not reflect the potential for its technology leadership to generate significant market share gains and improved profits. This thesis has been playing out for several years. During the quarter, AMD unveiled more details about its upcoming GPU products for the AI market. The stock reacted positively to expectations that AMD’s GPU servers will be a viable alternative to Nvidia. Although we pared back our exposure to AMD into strength as part of our risk-management practice, we maintained a position in the stock. We believe AMD will continue to gain share in large and growing markets and is reasonably valued relative to the potential for significantly higher earnings.”
6. Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL)
Billionaire David Tepper’s Stake: $282,400,000
According to CNBC, an analyst at Bernstein recently gave bullish commentary about Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL).
“The best mix of downside protection and upside opportunity driven by idiosyncratic growth acceleration at a reasonable valuation,” the analyst reportedly said of Oracle.
Dan Ives of Wedbush is also bullish on the stock following the AI revolution and its trickle-down effects. Ives named Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) among the stocks he thinks could benefit from the AI wave.
Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) earlier this month posted weak fiscal Q4 results, but the stock remained steady after the company said it signed multiple AI deals with leading horses in the industry. Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) said it reached a deal with OpenAI and Microsoft to extend Azure Al platform to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to provide additional capacity for OpenAl. Oracle also revealed a partnership with Google after which Google Cloud will offer Oracle Cloud Infrastructure database services and high-speed network interconnect.
Despite the weak fiscal Q4 results, Oracle’s Cloud business was strong. Cloud infrastructure (IaaS) revenue jumped 42% year over year. For fiscal first quarter, Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) expects its revenue to rise by 6% to 8% in constant currency, while adjusted EPS growth is expected in the range of 11% and 15%. One of the metrics in Oracle’s Q4 report that impressed the Street was Remaining Performance Obligations (RPOs), which surged 44% YoY in the period. Management expects 39% of this amount to come in the next twelve months. Oracle’s Cloud is exposed to the IaaS market, which is projected to grow to $738.11 billion by 2032, according to some estimates. Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) management said the company is building data centers and analysts believe the company’s automated OCI services will grow amid rising demand. Given Oracle’s partnerships with major AI players and its dominance in the niche OCI market, it’s forward P/E ratio of 22.03 looks attractive when compared to peers.
Mar Vista Global Strategy stated the following regarding Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is seeing revenue acceleration as it benefits from several years of investing in cloud-based solutions that are now driving demand. Oracle’s OCI offering is recognized as a viable hyper scaler offering and is winning mindshare from leading cloud customers including Open AI. This is driving accelerating demand as it offers a strong value proposition to customers due to its favorable performance and cost metrics. This coupled with Oracle’s recently announced partnerships with Microsoft Azure and Google Compute Platform, which could help facilitate the migration of the Oracle Database to the cloud. We believe this should support a third leg of growth for Oracle as its large installed base of database customers shift from on-premise to cloud deployments. As database customers migrate to the cloud, Oracle could increase database software support revenues by two-to-three times. We continue to believe Oracle is well positioned to grow intrinsic value low-double-digits over our investment horizon.”
5. Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Billionaire David Tepper’s Stake: $353,083,500
Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares slipped recently following reports that OpenAI is working on a web search product called SearchGPT. Before that, the stock fell following earnings despite posting strong numbers. Revenue in the second quarter jumped 14% year over year driven by search and Cloud. At a forward P/E of 22, analysts believe Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) continues to be one of the cheapest AI stocks in the market as its valuation remains depressed amid fears caused by an overreaction.
Despite constant alarms going off about its search business, Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) search revenue jumped about 13.7% in the second quarter year over year. As of the end of June, Google has about 91.06% share of the search engine market, just 1.65% lower than the December 2019 levels. With AI overviews and other search initiatives, Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) will be able to stave off any competitors given its dominance in the market.
Cloud and YouTube are two key strong catalysts for Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares. During the second quarter, Alphabet’s Cloud revenue rose 28.8% to $10.35 billion, crushing past analysts’ forecasts of $10.16 billion. Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) is on the path to reach a $100 billion revenue run-rate from YouTube Ads and Google Cloud by the end of 2024.
Mar Vista Focus strategy stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) reported robust quarterly financials, demonstrating accelerated revenue growth and improved margins from restructuring efforts. The company’s core advertising business is rebounding after a challenging 2022-2023 period, when advertisers curtailed spending due to economic concerns. While this quarter’s exceptional growth rate may not persist, Alphabet’s performance indicates it is likely to exceed our annual projections.
Following Meta’s lead, Alphabet is adopting a more stringent approach to expenses. The company continues to reduce headcount and consolidate teams, aiming to counterbalance the impact of infrastructure investments on profitability. Alphabet’s better-than-expected revenue and earnings underscore both the resilience of its core business and management’s early success in sustainably restructuring the cost base.
Notably, AI advancements are already showing promising results, enhancing consumer engagement, and improving advertiser performance. These developments position Alphabet favorably in an increasingly AI-driven digital landscape.”
4. Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META)
Billionaire David Tepper’s Stake: $471,445,700
Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) crushed past analyst estimates for its latest quarterly results, giving signs that the huge AI spending it’s doing would bear more results in the future. After the results, Citi said it remains “incrementally positive” on Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) shares due to engagement and monetization gains, along with expanding margins. The firm raised its price target for META to $580 from $550.
JPMorgan said it sees AI benefiting Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) at three levels: core Family of Apps (FoA) improvements, new opportunities and experiences, and scaling the Metaverse. It also upped META price target to $610 from $480.
Morgan Stanley also liked how Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) is improving its recommendation systems and quality with AI.
The market has been reluctant about Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) massive spending on AI. What does Meta want to achieve with its AI spending? The company wants to use AI to improve engagement and language models like Llama 3 to improve user interactions, boost engagement, and better monetize its 3.2 billion daily active users.
But can Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) sustain this high spending? The company’s free cash flow margin is around 30%, and it’s well on track to report $50 billion in free cash flow this year. Based on this target the stock is trading at around 26 times this year’s free cash flow. Given the current trajectory continues Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) can post $58 billion in free cash flow by next year, which means the stock is trading at 21 times next year’s free cash flow. With a whopping $35 billion in net cash, a strong user base, and a key position in the consumer-facing side of the AI industry, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) could be a solid long-term investment.
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“In the second quarter, the top relative contributors to the Portfolio’s performance were all names we do not hold: Home Depot, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), and AbbVie. Meta Platforms delivered robust results in the period, with revenue growth accelerating in the first quarter. However, revenue comparisons for Meta will become more difficult from here, and its guidance for 2Q revenue fell below market expectations. After the company’s “year of efficiency,” where it cut costs in its core business, management is now indicating another ramp-up in GenAI and metaverse spending, spurring concerns about future profit margins. Metaverse spending, by our calculations, is now over $20 billion per year with little to no expected return on the foreseeable horizon.”
3. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Billionaire David Tepper’s Stake: $528,007,064
Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares recently fell following its latest quarterly results which showed the company’s Cloud business growth was lower than expected. For the ongoing quarter, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) expects revenue in the range of $63.8B and $64.8B, compared to the $65.07B estimate. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) Azure revenue is expected to grow by 28% and 29% year over year.
But what about AI? While Microsoft does not mention specific AI numbers, analysts believe Copilot is already playing a key role in growth at several segments of the company. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) Office’s commercial customer sales soared to $48 billion, significantly up from last year’s 10% growth, likely driven by Copilot Pro subscriptions. Office for individual users also saw a boost, with sales reaching $6.2 billion, a 4% increase compared to last year’s 2% growth, indicating accelerating growth from Copilot integration. Dynamics ERP and CRM software sales hit $6.3 billion, up 19%, surpassing last year’s 16% growth. This uptick is likely due to customers switching to Dynamics for the Copilot integration in the Dynamics Contact Center platform, which provides automated customer service chatbots and significant cost reductions. Bing sales jumped 3% year over year as more users switched to the search engine from Google Search, thanks to AI features.
While Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) expenses are expected to remain elevated, its investments are working and will bear fruit in the long term. The stock is down about 11% over the past month. It trades 26x next fiscal year’s earnings. MSFT could be an attractive buy on the dip for long-term investors.
Mar Vista Focus strategy stated the following regarding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) continues to occupy a strong position, poised to capture market share as businesses, both large and small, navigate the transition to a digital-first landscape and embrace generative AI-driven solutions. The company’s commanding presence in the enterprise arena, combined with its comprehensive product portfolio encompassing Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), establishes it as a crucial provider of IT solutions for companies of all scales. Microsoft is effectively executing its strategy in a sizable market by offering a roadmap for digital transformation and adoption of innovative, AI-driven solutions, such as ChatGPT, while enhancing productivity and reducing costs. Consequently, we anticipate that Microsoft’s solutions should exhibit resilience even in a more challenging macroeconomic environment, supporting low-double-digit growth in intrinsic value within our investment horizon.”
2. Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Billionaire David Tepper’s Stake: $671,543,750
Mark Mahaney, Evercore ISI head of internet research, recently reshuffled his portfolio after which Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is one of his three top picks. During a CNBC program, the analyst said that many are still questioning whether major companies like Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) will get any returns on their AI investments. He thinks, “if you look hard enough” you will see these tech companies have started to get a “little bit of a bang” on the bucks they are spending.
For Amazon, Mahaney likes “AWS growth acceleration.”
AWS’s revenue growth accelerated from 17.2% in Q1 to 18.8% in Q2, driven by a shift from on-premises infrastructure to cloud solutions and increasing demand for AI capabilities. Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) advertising segment added over $2 billion in revenue year-over-year, indicating significant potential in video advertising and opportunities within Prime Video offerings.
Like other tech companies, fears stemming from high CapEX are keeping investors on the sidelines. Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) spending is expected to rise amid broadband project Project Kuiper and AI growth. Investors are still figuring out whether AI monetization and ROI will come anytime soon. Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is also facing a slowdown in consumer spending, especially for higher-ticket items like electronics and computers.
Based on Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) Q3 guidance, its revenue growth would be 11%. The stock is trading 35x its fiscal 2025 earnings estimates set by Wall Street. This shows the stock is fairly priced and investors looking for strong growth could look elsewhere.
Diamond Hill Select Strategy stated the following regarding Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Among our top individual contributors in Q2 were Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Texas Instruments and Mr. Cooper Group. Internet retail and cloud infrastructure company Amazon is benefiting from strong profitability, particularly in its Amazon Web Services (AWS) business. Shares also received a boost amid growing optimism around the demand for AWS as Amazon customers’ investments in generative AI projects continue growing.”
1. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd – ADR (NYSE: BABA)
Billionaire David Tepper’s Stake: $756,000,000
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd – ADR (NYSE:BABA) recently posted its quarterly results which were mixed as revenue missed Wall Street estimates. BofA Securities and Truist reaffirmed their Buy ratings on the stock after the results. Bernstein, on the other hand, gave it a Market-Perform rating while upping the price target from $80 to $85. Truist also kept its Buy rating but adjusted its price target down from $110 to $100, noting that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd – ADR (NYSE:BABA) fiscal Q1 2025 results showed solid operational performance despite a challenging macro environment.
UBS is bullish on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (NYSE:BABA) exposure to AI because of Alibaba Cloud, or Alibaba Cloud, which makes the Chinese company a formidable player in the AI enabling layer. In the intelligence layer, UBS highlighted Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (NYSE:BABA) Qwen large language model, while the Qwen agent makes the company’s presence notable in the application layer.
However, uncertainties in China and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (NYSE:BABA) lackluster performance have damaged the sentiment around the stock. While Alibaba Cloud is a significant player in the market, analysts believe enormous growth and advancements of Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft in the public Cloud markets have left Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) behind. Wall Street analysts expect Alibaba earnings to grow at a CAGR of just 1.7% only over the next five years. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (NYSE:BABA) forward PEG ratio is 3.29, which is high when we incorporate the unimpressive earnings growth expectations.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (NYSE:BABA) e-commerce business is also struggling as buyers in China become price-conscious amid a broader slowdown. However, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) bulls believe the stock could rebound if the situation improves in the country, given the company’s massive cash flow position.
O’keefe Stevens Advisory stated the following regarding Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“We initiated two new positions during the quarter: Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) and Perrigo (PRGO). Both have seen their stocks decline over 70%+ from their all-time highs.
Alibaba is the largest e-commerce player in China, with 40% gross merchandise volume (GMV) market share through its Taobao and T-mall businesses. While the cloud computing business is relatively small, its 37% market share in China positions it well to capitalize on the increasing demand for AI-related products. In the most recent quarter, AI-related cloud revenue recorded triple-digit growth y/y, with the expectation that total cloud revenue will accelerate to double-digit growth in 2H 2025.
It’s rare to find a dominant market share business with significant tailwinds trading for ~10x adj. EPS. After accounting for their ~$60B net cash balance sheet, the stock is trading at 6-7x, which, we believe, is far too cheap. We understand this business would not trade at this price if it were a U.S. business. However, the valuation gap at a high single-digit P/E is pricing in a combination of the following risks – 1. China invading Taiwan. 2. Cash can never leave mainland China (disproven). 3. Increasing competition from Pinduoduo and Shien resulting in market share loss 4. China’s geopolitical tensions worsen. 5. Economic slowdown stemming from the recent housing market downturn. 6. VIE structure creates doubt over the actual ownership of the business. All risks have merit, with cash distribution restrictions at the lower end due to the recently announced dividend and special dividend. Cash returned to shareholders totaled $16.5B in FY24, up from $13.4B in FY23…” (Click here to read the full text)
While we acknowledge the potential of Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA), our conviction lies in the belief that under the radar AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than BABA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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