This article presents an overview of the 5 Best Big Name Stocks to Buy Right Now. For a detailed overview of such stocks, read our article, 11 Best Big Name Stocks to Buy Right Now.
5. NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 173
That NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) is among the hot favorite stocks among hedge funds is not a surprise since NVIDIA Corp’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares have been flying high amid AI-related growth catalysts. Recently, Loop Capital set a $1200 price target on NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA). This price target shows a 65% upside potential to the stock’s current price ($726).
Insider Monkey’s database of 933 hedge funds shows that 173 funds had stakes in NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA). The most notable stakeholder of NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) was Rajiv Jain’s GQG Partners which owns a $6.8 billion stake.
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Apple and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) alone drove over 1,100 basis points of the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 42% return, so not owning them was a meaningful headwind to our relative return in 2023. NVIDIA shares rocketed higher by well over 200% in 2023 although they slightly underperformed our Portfolio and the Russell 1000 Growth in the fourth quarter. Generative AI has been a huge boon for NVIDIA as the use of LLMs like ChatGPT and others requires tremendous processing power that, today, is mostly provided by NVIDIA’s GPUs. All large cloud service providers, AI factories, and many large consumer internet companies are laying the foundation for generative AI by deploying NVIDIA GPUs and other parallel processing chips to be able to do large scale generative AI either for internal use (i.e., Meta) or as a service for others (i.e., AI factories) or both (cloud service providers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google).
Given many of NVIDIA’s customers or its end customers are still very much in the experimentation phase with generative AI, it is unclear how sustainable the current demand for GPUs truly is. At the same time, it is known that NVIDIA has historically been highly cyclical. By the end of 2024, we believe NVIDIA will already account for roughly half the market for datacenter chips, servers, and networking equipment, which is unprecedented. Even though the valuation at 25x forward earnings doesn’t look very demanding at first glance, it assumes NVIDIA will own virtually the entire datacenter chip market in just the next few years and will sustain year-on-year growth despite being a cyclical business that is currently experiencing much higher new peaks.
We believe NVIDIA is a highly advantaged business, but we also believe the long-term growth outcomes are currently too variable, and the expectations built into the company’s $1.2 trillion valuation as of this writing assume the most optimistic of those scenarios.”
4. Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 214
Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) ranks fourth in our list of the best big name stocks to buy according to hedge funds. Last month, Citi reiterated its Buy rating on Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and set a $168 price target on the stock.
A total of 214 hedge funds in Insider Monkey’s database had stakes in Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as of the end of 2023. The biggest stakeholder of Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management which owns a $6.3 billion stake in Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
The FPA Crescent Fund stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) continued going from strength to strength during 2023 despite concerns that competition may infringe on the company’s dominant position in Search. Thus far, Alphabet has continued to hold its own, and we look forward to seeing how the company incorporates further AI developments across the Alphabet ecosystem. Lastly, we are hopeful that the impending arrival of a new CFO will bring a renewed focus on efficiency – an area where we believe Alphabet has ample room for improvement.”
3. Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 242
Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) is in the spotlight after the company crushed Q4 estimates set by the Wall Street. Meta Platforms Inc’s (NASDAQ:META) ads revenue jumped 23.8% year over year to $38.7 billion. GAAP EPS in the fourth quarter totaled $5.33, beating estimates by $0.39. Revenue in the quarter jumped 24.7% year over year to $40.11 billion, surpassing estimates by $940 million.
A total of 242 hedge funds in Insider Monkey’s database had stakes in Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META). The biggest stakeholder in Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) was Rajiv Jain’s GQG Partners which owns a $3.95 billion stake in Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META).
Fundsmith Equity Fund stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its 2023 investor letter:
“Meta Platforms, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:META) (formerly Facebook) performance makes me wonder whether I should have a fund which invests solely in the one stock in our portfolio each year for which we have received the most critical comments. Meta makes its third appearance in this list of top contributors while Microsoft appears for the eighth time having attracted strident criticism when we started buying at about $25 a share in 2011 (2023 year end price $376).”
2. AMAZON.Com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 293
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is among the best big name stocks to buy right now according to hedge funds.
Back in December, Citi analyst Ronald Josey upped his price target on Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares to $210 from $177 and kept a Buy rating on the stock.
A total of 293 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey had stakes in Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2023.
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“For the full year, the top relative and absolute contributors were Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Salesforce, and ServiceNow. Amazon shares appreciated 88% in 2023, driven primarily by rapidly expanding operating profit margins and free cash flow growth. After the pandemic, Amazon experienced a period of inefficiency and overinvestment in its distribution and logistics infrastructure. Amazon is now leveraging these investments as growth returned to its e-commerce business in 2023 after a highly unusual 2022. At the same time, Amazon’s rapidly growing and high-margin advertising business is contributing strongly to the entire company’s operating profit growth. The AWS (Amazon Web Services) cloud infrastructure and services business continued to slow in 2023 as customers anticipating a more difficult economic environment looked to save money on their cloud spend, but these cloud spending optimizations began to stabilize in the second half of 2023. We now expect customer interest in generative AI will begin to contribute to growth.”
1. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 302
Microsoft is one of the top big name stocks to buy and hold for 2024 according to hedge funds.
Insider Monkey’s database of 933 hedge funds updated for the fourth quarter of 2023 shows that 302 hedge funds had stakes in Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT).
Earlier this month, Jefferies upgraded the brokerage’s global long-only portfolio. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) is part of this portfolio.
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