5 Best Big Data Stocks To Buy Now

In this article, we discuss 5 best big data stocks to buy now. If you want to see more stocks in this selection, check out 12 Best Big Data Stocks To Buy Now. 

5. Elastic N.V. (NYSE:ESTC)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 53

Elastic N.V. (NYSE:ESTC) is a California-based search company that delivers technology solutions designed to run in public or private clouds in multi-cloud environments. It is a self-managed and software as a service company that specializes in search, logging, security, observability, and data analytics use cases. For 2023, Elastic N.V. (NYSE:ESTC) expects total revenue to be between $1.067 billion and $1.073 billion, representing 24% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. The consensus revenue estimate came in at $1.08 billion. It is one of the best big data stocks to invest in. 

On January 10, Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow reiterated an Overweight rating on Elastic N.V. (NYSE:ESTC) but lowered the firm’s price target on the shares to $62 from $77. Valuation levels are “still interesting” for U.S. software in 2023, but estimates remain “seemingly too high” given the macro headwinds, the analyst told investors in a research note. 

According to Insider Monkey’s data, 53 hedge funds were bullish on Elastic N.V. (NYSE:ESTC) at the end of September 2022, compared to 57 funds in the prior quarter. Daniel Patrick Gibson’s Sylebra Capital Management is the leading stakeholder of the company, with 4.65 million shares worth $333.6 million. 

Jackson Square Partners made the following comment about Elastic N.V. (NYSE:ESTC) in its Q3 2022 investor letter:

“Case Study: Pivot to Profitability: Driving free cash flow growth at Elastic N.V. (NYSE:ESTC)

Similar to the Wix and NYT examples above, we have been working with a number of companies (Warner Music Group, Upwork, Grocery Outlet, Lyft, Pacific Biosciences, Vimeo, Lending Club, etc.) to drive operations toward an acceleration in free cash flow growth and to clearly articulate this pivot in strategy to the broader investment community — many of whom are skeptical in the face of current GAAP financials showing low or no profitability. This is a nearly uniform dynamic across all of our Disruptor holdings and much of the reason behind the recent strong headwinds in performance, which we believe will be temporary and fleeting as strength becomes more evident in financial statements. Below we outline our thinking on Elastic — a high conviction Disruptor holding in the midst of this FCF transition.

Background: Elastic is an infrastructure software company that develops the Elastic Stack, an open source suite of software that stores, searches, and visualizes huge quantities of data. Elastic has over 18,000 paying customers across every major industry who leverage its software for a variety of use cases. These include search tools for apps and websites like Booking.com (search tools represent 35% of annual contract value, ACV); logging and analysis software for huge volumes of machine generated events across a global IT footprint, such as Telefonica monitoring performance across its global network (logging and analysis represents 40% of ACV); and security tools to detect and investigate suspicious incidents, such as USAA monitoring its internal network and applications for suspicious activity (25% of ACV). Customers primarily choose Elastic for the breadth of its software suite and cost efficiency versus point solutions. Elastic customers realize ROI through higher customer conversion from better search, faster and more reliable IT infrastructure with robust logging and analysis of traffic, and fewer costly security incidents…” (Click here to read the full text)

4. Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 58

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) was founded in 1951 and is based in Dublin, Ireland. It is a professional services company that specializes in strategy and consulting, data management, robotic process automation, natural language processing, virtual agents, data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management, data democratization, artificial intelligence solutions, metaverse, and sustainability services. On December 16, Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) declared a quarterly dividend of $1.12 per share, in line with previous. The dividend is distributable on February 15, to shareholders of record on January 10. Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) is one of the best big data stocks to consider. 

On December 20, Cowen analyst Ashwin Shirvaikar raised the price target on Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) to $300 from $295 and kept an Outperform rating on the shares. The analyst said short-term caution on growth and margin yields a second half ramp that may be hard to underwrite as 2023 enterprise IT budgets await finalization. 

According to Insider Monkey’s data, 58 hedge funds were bullish on Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) at the end of Q3 2022, compared to 61 funds in the prior quarter. Nicolai Tangen’s Ako Capital is the biggest stakeholder of the company, with nearly 2 million shares worth $500 million. 

Here is what  Distillate Capital has to say about Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in its Q3 2022 investor letter:

“The largest new purchases include Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN). Accenture modestly lagged the market last quarter and became similarly attractive enough to warrant ownership. Similar to our prior presentations, one way to visualize the current portfolio and note recent changes versus the benchmark is to look at scatter plot of all of Distillate’s FSV holdings versus those in the benchmark with valuation on the vertical axis and free cash ϲow stability on the horizontal axis.”

3. Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 73

Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) was incorporated in 2012 and is based in Bozeman, Montana. Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) provides a cloud-based data platform in the United States and internationally. The company’s platform offers Data Cloud, which allows customers to consolidate data into significant business insights, build data-driven applications, and share data. Its platform is used by various organizations. Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) is one of the premier big data stocks to buy. 

On January 6, Wells Fargo analyst Michael Turrin initiated coverage of Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) with an Overweight rating and a $170 price target. While shares are down nearly 60% TTM as concerns about cloud consumption models have surfaced, the firm’s work suggests Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) is built to survive this storm given the company’s mission-critical technology, solid expansion dynamics inherent to this model, and impressively well-balanced financial profile, the analyst told investors in a research note. 

According to Insider Monkey’s Q3 data, 73 hedge funds were bullish on Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW), compared to 66 funds in the preceding quarter. Brad Gerstner’s Altimeter Capital Management is the leading stakeholder of the company, with 17 million shares worth $2.8 billion. 

Baron Funds made the following comment about Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) in its Q3 2022 investor letter:

“Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) provides a cloud platform for large-scale data analytics. Snowflake’s shares were up 22%, reacting positively to second quarter results that beat market forecasts with revenue growth of 83% year-over year and adjusted free-cash-flow margins of 12%. Record new customer additions and world-class dollar net retention of over 170% implied resiliency in demand despite increasing macro uncertainties. We remain shareholders and believe that Snowflake will be able to benefit from long-term growth with favorable unit economics, addressing one of the largest opportunities in technology. Snowflake’s culture of innovation (such as its expansion into cloud application development and data sharing), go-to-market initiatives, and an ongoing secular shift to the cloud in its end markets should help, in our view, sustain the company’s competitive moats over the long term.”

2. Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 74

Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG) is a New York-based company that offers a monitoring and analytics platform for developers, information technology teams, and cloud enterprises in North America and internationally. It is one of the top big data stocks to invest in. 

On January 4, Oppenheimer analyst Ittai Kidron named Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG) as a top pick for 2023. His bullish stance is based on his view that Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG) is relatively resilient to macro pressures, given the mission-critical nature of its observability solutions, and the company is benefitting from selling additional product modules which should further expand with a move to application/cloud security. Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG) can maintain operating margins in the “high-teens” and grow revenue over 30%. The analyst views Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG) as a core long-term holding and reiterated an Outperform rating on the stock with a price target of $105.

According to Insider Monkey’s data, 74 hedge funds were bullish on Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG) at the end of September 2022, compared to 82 funds in the last quarter. Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management is the leading position holder in the company, with 5.7 million shares worth $512.70 million.

Baron Funds made the following comment about Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG) in its Q3 2022 investor letter:

“Similarly, we continued scaling up our investment in Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG), recognizing significant opportunities for the long term, while the majority of investors remain preoccupied with the here and now. While the company may see some short-term headwinds to growth (the company reported seeing some impact to its volume-driven logs and Application Performance Management modules), long-term prospects remain bright, in our view. Datadog reported a best-in-class gross retention rate in the “mid-to-high 90s%,” 74% year-over-year revenue growth, and 21% adjusted operating margins.”

1. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 117

Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is an American cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, data analytics, and application development. It is one of the best big data stocks to invest in. On January 16, Goldman Sachs rebalanced its ROE growth basket, which outperformed S&P 500 ROE by 10 percentage points in 2022. The investment advisory named Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) as one of the top 50 picks for 2023. 

On January 9, investment advisory Piper Sandler reiterated an Overweight rating on Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) but lowered the firm’s price target on the stock to $171 from $175. Analyst Brent Bracelin issued the ratings update. 

According to Insider Monkey’s data, Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) was part of 117 hedge fund portfolios at the end of September 2022, compared to 116 in the prior quarter. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management held the leading stake in the company, with 12.7 million shares worth $1.8 billion. 

Aristotle Atlantic made the following comment about Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in its Q3 2022 investor letter:

“We sold Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) to reduce our weighting in the Information Technology sector. Salesforce held their investor day, and the company reiterated their organic Fiscal Year 2026 revenue target of $50 billion. This target remains more back-end loaded based on current slowing macroeconomic conditions and requires new annual contract growth well ahead of what the company has been averaging for the past few years. We are skeptical that the company will be able to achieve this revenue target organically and see Merger & Acquisitions (M&A) being key to achieving the growth. While we believe Salesforce has shown good success in growing its non-CRM clouds, we do see more competitive pressures emerging for the Marketing and Customer Service Clouds, specifically on the pricing side during a global economic slowdown.”

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