In this article, we will take a detailed look at the 10 Stocks Market Experts are Talking About These Days.
Piper Sandler’s Chief Market Technician Craig Johnson said in a latest program on CNBC that despite the recent market volatility and “negative” headlines, he sees buying opportunities for long-term investors.
“The headlines out here are extremely negative all over the place and the sentiment toward this market is absolutely awful. Typically, you find these readings near sort of bear market lows, which is what you typically see. And if you also start to look at the VIX, it is elevated out here at this point in time. Now, technically we have broken some uptrends, we’ve closed below 50 and 200-day moving averages, but we’re getting to some pretty washed-out levels. I started looking at new highs, new lows, breadth indicators, and all these pieces. And we’re starting to get to levels where you look back and say, “Is this 1989? Is this a period of time that’s like the great financial crisis or the ’87 market crash?” And I think the answer to that is flat out no. So, we’re setting ourselves up for, I think, a potentially pretty good buying opportunity. All this negativity, and again, as Warren Buffett has said, you’ve got to be greedy when people are fearful. When people are greedy, and definitely a lot of fear out here, that seems to me to be a little bit misplaced on the charts.”
READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In
For this article, we picked 10 stocks notable Wall Street analysts were discussing over the past few days. With each company we have mentioned the latest hedge fund sentiment. 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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A person with a cell phone who is looking for new stocks
10. Invitation Homes Inc (NYSE:INVH)
Number of Hedge Funds Investors: 28
Joshua Brown, co-founder and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, said in a latest program on CNBC that he owns Invitation Homes Inc (NYSE:INVH) in his IRA account and believes the stock has a bright future:
“Dividend yield not high for a REIT, but I think it has a better growth story than most REITs. This is single-family rental homes. They have a portfolio of 80,000 homes in desirable suburban locations, mostly in the South and the West. It’s annualized at 8% a year total return for the last five years. So the dividend is important to that calculation, and the stock has really bided its time in this low 30s level. I think ultimately it breaks out when people feel better about the housing market and want to own REITs again.”
9. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV)
Number of Hedge Funds Investors: 44
Joshua Brown, co-founder and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, said in a latest program on CNBC that Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) is “extremely oversold.”
“Live Nation, okay, looking for support at the 50-day. Take a look at this, folks. This is a stock that has been on the list pretty much for the last six months. For the most part, it’s above its 200-day, but its RSI is completely washed out. Relative strength is down at 21 in trading, and we say around 30 is an oversold stock. So, this is extraordinarily oversold, down 11% on the year, down 12% in just the past week. But again, look at where it is relative to that support level, that 200-day. I think she could hold.”
Baron Focused Growth Fund stated the following regarding Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“In the fourth quarter, we initiated a new position in Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV), the leader in the management and operation of live concerts at their owned and third-party venues. They are a leader in concert venue operations, tour promotions, event ticketing through Ticketmaster, and the selling of sponsorships and advertising on their website and owned venues. Live Nation’s dominant share in ticketing and unmatched scale in concert promotions are key competitive advantages for them and give them the ability to monetize tours through ticketing, sponsorships, and hig-margin food and beverage at their owned and operated venues. Concerts and live events are a secular growing business that we believe should grow at a high single-digit rate for the company as the industry grows and they take share. We believe the company has an opportunity to significantly increase pricing or add new supply given the continued consumer preference for experiences over goods and the scarce nature of these events. The company has an incredible brand, and benefits in both upcycles with strong demand, and downcycles through an increase in supply as touring is a significant part of artists’ incomes. Despite concerns about slower consumer spending growth from peak levels, the company continues to grow at a double-digit rate in revenue despite consumer worries and is now leaning in with increased marketing to grow internationally where it remains underpenetrated. The company is still generating strong cash flow with a robust balance sheet to fund venue renovations where it expects to generate 20% returns on capital. John Malone of Liberty Media still owns 30% of the business with the CEO owning a significant portion of his net worth in the stock. We believe valuation remains attractive at current levels given the double-digit growth we expect in both revenue and earnings over the coming years.”
8. Autozone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO)
Number of Hedge Funds Investors: 47
Joshua Brown of Ritholtz Wealth Management explained in a latest program on CNBC his bullish thesis for Autozone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO).
“This is not just recently one of the best stocks in the market — this is like a perennial All-Star. I wanted to highlight three names that are finding support at important trend lines because in this kind of market, if you want to buy strength, you should be buying strength intelligently. AZO is up 10% year to date. It’s only 5% below its 52-week high. Importantly, it is finding strong support at its 50-day moving average, which you can see in blue right there. It’s got another level at the 200, which is not far below. This is an extremely profitable company with net margins of 14% and a 23 multiple, which is not terribly expensive. It’s expecting 3% earnings growth this year. I think it’ll find that support.”
Brown Advisors Global Leaders Strategy stated the following regarding AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) is the leading replacement automotive parts retailer and distributor in the US, servicing both the Do-it-Yourself (DIY) and Do-it-for-Me (DIFM) segments of the used car market, a market that is structurally growing as the fleet expands, with a high degree of visibility into future demand of the 6+ year used car cohort, which is AutoZone’s core target market. AutoZone is expanding into the faster growing DIFM market, as well as into Brazil and Mexico. The company’s superior customer outcome is immediate parts availability and the meaningful de-risking of the balance sheets of smaller garages which do not need to hold inventory themselves. It offers a differentiated service for customers based on local availability of parts (“in stock, in market”), quick turnaround speed and advice (including free specialty tool loans so DIY customers can complete necessary maintenance at lower cost but generating enduring loyalty). All this has historically proven difficult to replicate in an e-commerce setting. While there are a small number of large companies operating in this growing market, further consolidation of smaller competitors is expected as leading retailers’ scale (depth and breadth of inventory) and network effects (proximity to customers in immediate need of repair) constitute strong moats. One of the impressive characteristics of the company’s capital allocation is that it has delivered exceptional capital discipline and deployed its cash flow into share buybacks which has reduced the company’s share count by about 85% since 2000.”
7. Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO)
Number of Hedge Funds Investors: 61
Jared Holz from Mizuho said in a latest program on CNBC that he thinks Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) selloff is overdone.
“It’s been horrifying to watch—it’s basically been cut in half since last summer. They had that big analyst day that excited the street, and now we’re sitting at multi-year lows. It feels fair and not fair. The news flow out of the company and the field has impacted it dramatically, so in some respects, yes. But they’re still going to grow 15 to 20% this year, and it’s a growth entity for the next few. When you compare it to some of the other names in pharma, it’s amazing. I was talking to some investors today, and I think the sentiment on Novo is the worst among all large-cap pharma.”
The analyst talked about the Street’s reaction to Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) weight-loss drug:
“They’re going to be the market leader. I still believe it’s a two-player market in this injectable market for the foreseeable future, if for no other reason than the cost involved—the manufacturing spend and all of those things. It’s interesting because the CagriSema data didn’t really excite the street, yet they’re excited about this Roche plus Zealand asset, which is essentially the same thing as CagriSema, but investors like it. So, I think we’ve kind of gone so far in terms of the pendulum swinging out of their favor that maybe you’re right, Karen—it’s time to buy a little bit.”
ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Similarly, we used a temporary price dislocation caused by disappointing clinical trial results to purchase shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO), a Danish-based leader in diabetes and obesity treatments. Novo’s Wegovy semaglutide drug was first to market among the new generation of obesity drugs; however, the company has lost market share to portfolio holding Eli Lilly due to delays in scaling up production volumes and superior weight loss results demonstrated by Lilly’s trizepatide drugs. While the initial market reaction to Novo’s more enhanced CagriSema weight loss treatment was negative, we believe this is a more potent formulation that can better compete with Lilly’s suite. With Novo poised to have a better product portfolio and improved supply position, we find the company’s valuation very attractive given the large secular growth trends behind the diabesity market.”
6. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)
Number of Hedge Funds Investors: 68
Vivek Arya, Bank of America senior semiconductor analyst, said in a latest program on CNBC that the appointment of Lip-Bu Tan as new CEO was a very positive move by Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) and he’s hopeful of a turnaround at the company.
“I think this is a very smart move by Intel’s board. We think Lip-Bu brings a very fresh outsider’s perspective to the company. There are a lot of challenges ahead of them in trying to decide the right strategy for their manufacturing group and their product pipeline. You know, there still is no AI pipeline for the company. The manufacturing side is behind. But we think what Lip-Bu brings to the table is a broad expertise around the design side. He has worked well with foundries and was at Cadence Design Systems, so he knows how to work with external tools. At Cadence, he did a lot of restructuring, so I think he brings the right level of experience, knowledge, respect, and relationships across the supply chain. But we do think, you know, turnarounds don’t happen overnight. It takes a while to really manage something that is so asset-heavy. So we just think it’s a matter of time, but this is a very strong move.”
Invesco Growth and Income Fund stated the following regarding Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC): The chipmaker reported weaker-than-expected quarterly results as revenues declined and earnings were below expectations. Management also provided weaker guidance going forward; the stock fell on the news. We sold the position during the quarter.
The chipmaker’s quarterly earnings report was weaker than anticipated as revenues declined and earnings were below expectations. Management also provided weaker guidance going forward. Given that a potential recovery appears to be further in the future than we originally anticipated, we sold the position.”
5. Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE)
Number of Hedge Funds Investors: 92
Joshua Brown from Ritholtz Wealth Management recently talked about Pfizer during a program on CNBC. Here is what he said about the stock that is down 7% over the past 12 months:
“This is like the worst stock on earth. It stopped going down, interestingly. It’s not going up like a lot of healthcare stocks did from the start of this year. So I missed out on that rotation by literally owning the worst healthcare stock in the world. But 18 times trailing P/E, 10 times trailing EV to EBITDA. They’ve had huge earnings challenges because they bet the ranch on COVID, and that ship has sailed. They haven’t replaced it yet with a robust enough pipeline for people to start taking their estimates higher. But that’s, I think, how I get bailed out of this thing. I’m flat. I don’t want anyone to feel bad. I have much worse stocks. But just the way that this company is being treated by investors right now, it’s like a ghost. But I think ultimately this is the type of stock where when it does turn, it’ll move too fast to catch it. And so that’s what I’m positioned for.”
4. Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Number of Hedge Funds Investors: 99
Tim Higgins, business columnist at The Wall Street Journal, said in a recent interview with CNBC that Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is facing multiple challenges. He talked about the company’s decline in sales and the reasons behind it
“Musk has become very political globally, but also you’re hitting it on the head. Tesla’s lineup, its vehicles are relatively old. Sure, there is the Cybertruck, but that has never been seen as some sort of massive mass-market vehicle, very niche, especially among us buyers. It’s not something that’s going global exactly at this point. But then also the idea of the Model Y, there’s been some updates to it, some refreshes if you will. There’s some thought that maybe some buyers are on the sidelines waiting for that vehicle to come out, but it’s a big issue for Teslas. They don’t have a hot new vehicle out there to motivate people to come out and buy that sheet metal.”
Now that the era of “Trump bump” for Tesla shares are over, the stock is seeing the impact of some harsh realities facing the company. Tesla sales are falling all over the world despite the broader industry growth. For example, in California, the largest U.S. market for electric vehicle adoption and sales, Tesla sales fell about 12% year over year in 2024, causing its market share to drop from 60.1% in 2023 to 52.5% in 2024. Was it because Californians are buying fewer EVs? No. Californians purchased more than 2 million electric cars during the year, almost double when compared to the past two years.
Things aren’t looking good for Tesla in Europe, too. For example, in Germany, Tesla delivered just 1,429 new cars in February, down 76% from the same month last year. In contrast, battery-electric vehicle (BEV) registrations surged 30.8% during the month.
Tesla Inc’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) product lineup is showing signs of stagnation, with over 95% of sales still coming from the Model 3 and Model Y. Meanwhile, competitors are rolling out more advanced models. According to Reuters, Tesla’s market share in Europe is slipping as legacy automakers like BMW post stronger sales. Chinese competitor BYD is also gaining ground in Europe, despite talk of tariffs.
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“The largest relative detractors in the quarter were Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) (not owned), Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Broadcom (not owned). We’ve spoken at length about our rationale for not owning Tesla. The stock enjoyed a 54% return during the quarter, with effectively all of the share price performance strength coming in the post-election period, as the market expressed a positive view on Elon Musk’s prominent role in the incoming Trump administration and its potential implications for Tesla. While we agree this development should be a net positive for Tesla and recognize the company’s interesting future prospects for autonomous driving and humanoid robots, its current valuation demands that shareholders pay primarily for potential innovations that have yet to materialize, with uncertain risks and timelines, presenting a different type of risk profile than we are comfortable with. Today, Tesla is an automobile manufacturer limited to the higher-income segment and is increasingly challenged to sell vehicles when interest rates are not zero. As such, we continue to question the company’s long-term growth profile, its ability to scale a large robotaxi service (which seems to be the source of euphoria in Tesla shares), and its corporate governance.”
3. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Funds Investors: 158
Gene Munster from Deepwater Asset Management said in a recent program on CNBC that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) delay of Siri update was a disappointment for him but he still believes the company will benefit from the AI features and updated Siri launch down the road.
“I think the biggest day is coming, and ultimately, this has been a disappointment in terms of the rollout of Siri. It’s as big of a disappointment as I’ve seen in covering and investing in this company for over 20 years. A one-year delay on something so critical—I don’t want to pile on to the naysayers about where this product can ultimately go. But to answer your question, as we stand here today, it’s a very different place than I thought we would be back at WWDC.”
The much-awaited AI catalyst for Apple stock may never arrive. Many analysts believe just a few AI apps would not be enough to trigger a broader upgrade cycle for iPhone. Apple is dealing with currency headwinds as the stronger US dollar is expected to reduce top-line growth by 2.5% next quarter. For Q2 FY2025, management expects overall revenue to grow in the low to mid-single digits. Apple’s stock is trading at a premium valuation, with a price-to-earnings ratio of 39-40x, a price-to-free-cash-flow ratio of 33-34x, and a PEG ratio exceeding 3x. Upcoming quarters would be difficult for Apple and its current valuation is not justified.
Columbia Seligman Global Technology Fund stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“The fund maintained a position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) throughout the quarter through the release of the company’s new iPhone 16 in September. Company leaders were excited about the release of the new model, as this is the first model that will feature enhanced AI capabilities through the Apple Intelligence features. Sales for the first few weeks in October and November trailed behind year over year sales from the iPhone 15, as availability of Apple Intelligence was not compatible with all iPhone models. Apple announced a partnership with OpenAI that has allowed the integration of ChatGPT into the Apple ecosystem, separate from the core Apple Intelligence features. This partnership highlights continued progress from Apple to introduce AI capabilities into its products and we expect the iPhone 17 to have even more expansive AI capabilities, increasing potential demand for the new model that is on track to be released in 2025.”
2. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Number of Hedge Funds Investors: 193
Todd Gordon, founder of Inside Edge Capital, said in a latest interview with CNBC that he likes NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) and expressed surprise that the stock is declining despite strong earnings growth:
“If you look at Nvidia, I mean, what do they grow earnings—50, 60, 70%? The shock and awe of Nvidia is off, but the stock is still well supported. I think the pipeline they’re looking at going forward—the AI evolution—is very much real. It’s going to touch multiple industries, multiple sectors. I like Nvidia.”
Nvidia stock has not been able to recover from the DeepSeek shock. Why? About 50% of the company’s revenue comes from large cloud providers, which are rethinking their plans amid the DeepSeek launch and looking for low-cost chips. Nvidia’s Q1 guidance shows a 9.4% QoQ revenue growth, down from the previous 12% QoQ growth. Its adjusted margin is expected to be down substantially as well to 71%. Market does not like when Nvidia fails to post a strong quarterly beat. The stock will remain under pressure in the coming quarters when the company will report unimpressive growth.
Columbia Threadneedle Global Technology Growth Strategy stated the following regarding NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) continued to outperform the market during the fourth quarter. The technology giant and top position in the fund delivered on sky-high expectations during the quarter and reported quarterly expectations that exceeded expectations. The red-hot company provided forward-looking expectations which were regarded as slightly lackluster as compared to prior quarters that smashed expectations. While the stock did churn a bit in the quarter, the AI giant remains top of mind for investors, especially as the company is on pace to satisfy the ‘staggering’ demand for its new product, Blackwell, which is poised to enter the market over the next year. The company’s position of owning all the major pieces of the evolving AI data center enables it to strengthen its competitive position and to define the technology roadmap for generations to come.”
1. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Number of Hedge Funds Investors: 286
Mark Mahaney, Evercore ISI head of internet research, said in a latest program on CNBC that he believes the fundamentals of top tech stocks are intact and most of the latest selloff was “self-inflicted.” According to CNBC, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is one of the top picks of Mahaney.
“It seems like most of this stuff, from where I stand, seems self-inflicted. I looked at the fundamentals of most of the large-cap internet names — all the high-quality names — and their fundamentals were very consistently strong or robust. As recently as maybe the end of January or the beginning of February, when they gave their earnings and talked about the March quarter outlook, things seemed very consistent. We’ve just had a lot of policy volatility, as far as I can tell, that’s really impacted these stocks. The backdrop here, of course, Scott, is that we had a two-and-a-half-year bull market in some of these tech stocks, especially the highest-quality names. The large-cap internet stocks I look at were up 100% from the middle of 2022, when interest rates stopped rising, to the end of last year. So, there was a setup here for — if you had a negative catalyst come through — there was a setup for a correction.”
Despite weak guidance, Amazon could easily surpass $100 billion in operating income within the next two years because of its AWS growth engine. In the latest quarter, Amazon Web Services sales jumped 19% and operating profit for the segment jumped 62% in 2024 on an annual basis.
The market is currently forecasting $6.27 per share in profits this year (a 13% YoY growth) and $7.59 per share next year (a 21% YoY growth). Amazon’s stock is priced at a profit multiple of 30.2x. This valuation might look rich, but when we incorporate AWS growth, the stock seems to have more upside potential.
Parnassus Core Equity Fund stated the following regarding Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings, lifting investor confidence in the e-commerce giant’s ability to generate margin while continuing to invest into its large AI and retail end markets.
Amazon’s shares experienced volatility throughout the year as IT spending and the company’s margin structure came under scrutiny. Despite this, the stock outperformed as sentiment and results improved across both the overall environment for Amazon Web Services and the company’s ability to show margin.”
While we acknowledge the potential of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), 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 time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AMZN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. Insider Monkey focuses on uncovering the best investment ideas of hedge funds and insiders. Please subscribe to our free daily e-newsletter to get the latest investment ideas from hedge funds’ investor letters by entering your email address below. You can also look at Jim Cramer Was Talking About These 10 Stocks Amid Tariff Chaos and the Top 10 AI Stocks Dominating Wall Street.
