In an interview with CNBC on November 25, Dan Ives, Global Head of Technology Research at Wedbush Securities said that he sees the AI sector entering a new phase, describing it as the start of a “fourth industrial revolution.” He believes the AI market is still in its early stages but will continue to grow rapidly. Ives highlighted software companies, which he believes will be key players in AI’s future, especially by 2025.
Apart from a handful of skeptics, most experts and analysts see AI as the most revolutionary technology of the 21st century. There has also been a rise in AI startups. According to a June report by Morgan Stanley, the tech IPO market is picking up after a two-year pause. High interest rates had previously dampened IPO activity, but demand is returning, especially for companies using AI to improve business operations or customer experiences. While challenges like high capital costs remain, the AI-driven growth in tech and healthcare sectors is fueling the IPO revival.
Read Also: 15 AI Stocks on Wall Street’s Radar and Jim Cramer’s List of 7 Energy Stocks for the Trump Trade.
Anticipating the Next Wave of Startup IPOs
One of the most promising startups the market is watching is Anthropic AI, an AI company focused on developing safe and reliable large language models. It has received funding from big names, including Amazon. The partnership designates AWS as Anthropic’s primary cloud and training partner, with a focus on improving AI capabilities through collaboration on machine learning hardware development.
Additionally, AI chipmaker Cerebras is seeking to go public with a valuation of around $7 to $8 billion, building on strong AI infrastructure demand. The firm filed for an IPO on September 30. MS expects 10 to 15 tech IPOs in 2024, driven by companies using AI in sectors like technology and healthcare.
Read more about these developments by accessing 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock and Beyond the Tech Giants: 35 Non-Tech AI Opportunities.
For this article, we chose 10 AI stocks that have outperformed the S&P 500 over the last 30 days as of November 27. They are also popular among hedge funds.
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. PROCEPT BioRobotics Corporation (NASDAQ:PRCT)
30-day Stock Price Performance: 7%
PROCEPT BioRobotics Corporation (NASDAQ:PRCT) specializes in surgical robotics for urology, offering the AquaBeam Robotic System and Aquablation therapy for treating benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The company’s AI-driven solutions provide image-guided, minimally invasive procedures to improve patient outcomes in urologic surgery.
While PROCEPT’s (NASDAQ:PRCT) stock has seen quite a bit of volatility over the last 30 days, its stock performance got a significant boost after a strong earnings report on October 28 and the stock has been up over 40% since the announcement.
After the earnings, TipRanks reported that Josh Jennings from TD Cowen maintained a Buy rating on the company stock with a $99 price target, owing to strong third-quarter results driven by higher system and consumable sales. The company showed solid growth in both U.S. and international markets, especially in the UK, and improved its financial outlook. The positive revision in guidance, increased gross margin, and reduced net loss contributed to Jennings’s favorable view of PROCEPT’s (NASDAQ:PRCT) future performance.
9. Verint Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:VRNT)
30-day Stock Price Performance: 11.5%
Verint Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:VRNT) delivers advanced customer engagement solutions globally. In 2023, the company introduced a new AI-driven platform designed to improve analytics and streamline customer interactions across several channels. Verint (NASDAQ:VRNT) has underperformed the market significantly in 2024. However, its stock performance has been going well since the start of November, primarily due to positive news surrounding the company’s strong performance in the AI-powered customer engagement market.
On October 31, the company was named a market leader in ISG Research’s “Contact Center Advanced” Buyers Guide, recognized for its strong contact center tools and advanced AI-driven solutions. Later on November 5, it secured an $11 million contract with a leading bank to deploy its AI-powered Agent Copilot Bot, assisting 6,500 agents in a contact center handling 400 million minutes of calls annually.
On November 11, Verint (NASDAQ:VRNT) announced that a leading telecommunications company saved $10.5 million annually by using its Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) to manage half of its 7 million annual calls. The AI-powered solution handled 80% of billing inquiries and prevented 3.5 million calls from requiring live agents. More details in our 15 AI News That Broke The Internet article.
On November 19, the company announced that its AI-powered Intelligent Voice Assistant (IVA) replaced a legacy IVR system for a U.S. travel company, boosting self-service call containment from 10% to 50% in just one month. This change resulted in $10 million in annual savings by improving intent recognition and integrating with CRM and other backend systems.