On March 29, T. Rowe Price portfolio manager Tony Wang appeared on CNBC’s ‘Closing Bell Overtime’ to discuss the current volatility in the tech sector, especially the NASDAQ. The NASDAQ underperformed throughout March and registered the largest decline since June 2022. But the question that now arises is whether this decline and volatility present a buying opportunity or not. Wang leans towards less caution and more confidence in this potential bull market. To support his sentiment, he cited that growth and momentum have both been high in recent years. Tech stocks in particular have seen substantial growth in the past 2 year. He thinks that valuations could further improve, given that the sector recent strong years came from AI infrastructure build out.
Wang also acknowledged that companies are naturally questioning whether current spending levels in the sector are sustainable or not. But he reiterated that compute will retain its value, despite concerns about whether it has a cyclical position or not. He also noted that deep tech could potentially lower inferencing costs and expand market access for companies that enter with limited capital. Like any other sector, cost reduction is an ideal long-term outcome for the tech industry as well.
Given Wang’s optimistic outlook despite NASDAQ’s decline, we’re here with a list of the 11 best performing NASDAQ stocks so far in 2025.
A successful investor reviewing the NASDAQ-100 Index® portfolio on a touchscreen monitor.
Our Methodology
We used the Finviz stock screener to compile a list of all the best-performing NASDAQ stocks. We then picked the 11 NASDAQ stocks with the highest year-to-date gains, as of March 31. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of their year-to-date performance. We have also added the hedge fund sentiment for each stock which was sourced from Insider Monkey’s database.
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).
11 Best Performing NASDAQ Stocks So Far in 2025
11. Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 2
Average Upside Potential as of March 31: 53.48%
Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) develops, manufactures, and commercializes prophylactic vaccines for infectious diseases with unmet needs. It sells its products globally and has collaborations with Pfizer Inc. to co-develop and commercialize its Lyme disease vaccine. It also collaborates with Instituto Butantan to develop, manufacture, and market single-shot chikungunya vaccine.
The partnership with Pfizer Inc. is projected the exceed $1 billion at its peak for the Lyme disease vaccine market. Positive data, regulatory approvals, and the commercialization of VLA15, which is the candidate under this partnership, will result in significant payments and royalties. This will sustain the company’s profitability from late 2027 onwards. This vaccine addresses unmet medical needs with no present preventative measures, such as Lyme disease in humans, as mentioned earlier. There are ~500,000 patients for this disease in the US, with ~130,000 cases in Europe.
VALOR is the Phase 3 study for VLA15 and is progressing positively with the first data readout expected by the end of 2025. The study involves ~9,000 participants aged 5 or older. If the study is successful, regulatory filings are expected for 2026 with potential approvals in 2027.
10. VNET Group Inc. (NASDAQ:VNET)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 26
Average Upside Potential as of March 31: 72.57%
VNET Group Inc. (NASDAQ:VNET) is an investment holding company that provides hosting and related services in China. It offers managed hosting, interconnectivity, value-added, and backup server services. It also provides cloud services that allow customers to run applications over the internet using IT infrastructure.
The company’s growth comes from its expanding AI-centric data center solutions. It capitalizes on the increasing demand from hyperscalers and enterprise customers, which require robust AI infrastructure. The company is transitioning towards high-value AI-driven computing services. Due to this focus, it was able to generate a net income of 317.63 million yuan in Q3 2024. Later on March 14, Citibank analysts also raised the company’s price target from $16 to $20.
The company’s growth is attributed to customer move-ins that are higher than the management’s anticipation. It’s also because of rapidly increasing wholesale internet data center (IDC) projects. VNET Group Inc. (NASDAQ:VNET) enjoys a competitive advantage as there are high barriers to entry for AI-driven data centers. The company has 297 MW of wholesale capacity under construction, of which 88.4% is already contracted and 490 MW is further reserved for future expansion.
