10 Best Technology Stocks to Buy for Long Term

Published June 10, 2022 at 9:14 am EDT Updated September 7, 2026 at 11:32 am EDT

In this article, we take a look at the 10 best technology stocks to buy for the long term.

The technology industry includes companies that design (research & develop), manufacture and sell products and services in software, robotics, biotechnology and electronics among others. The overall global market size for these industries stood at $10 trillion in 2021 and information technology comprised 80% of this market share.

The tech sector was already huge prior to 2020 but the pandemic accelerated the technology adoption due to lockdowns which led to a huge surge in online shopping, gaming and tele-working.

For instance, the e-commerce giant Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) soared by 220% due to a spike in online shopping during the pandemic. On the other hand, cloud-based productivity software such as Google Workspace by Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Office 365 by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), among others, replaced in-office collaboration to a large extent, allowing people to work from home during lockdowns. These trends continue to endure even as the effects of the pandemic wither away.

According to a report by Adobe, US consumers spent $1.7 trillion in online shopping from March 2020 to February 2022 which was $609 billion more than in the period of 2018-2020. Adobe estimates online shopping to surpass the $1 trillion figure in 2022 alone.

Apart from increased adoption of online shopping, adoption of remote work during the pandemic was another feature that has lingered on. A Pew report shows that only 20% of Americans whose jobs did not strictly require office presence worked from home all or most of the time before the pandemic. That share increased to 71% during the pandemic and 54% respondents said they’d want to continue to work from home even after the pandemic.

These, among others, are clear signals that increased adoption of technology that was observed during the pandemic, is set to stay even as the lockdowns ended. This translates to a consistent growth for tech companies that was observed during periods of lockdown. The IT sector is projected to add $1 trillion to its market share, reaching $9.3 trillion in 2022 even as inflation and the countering interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve has caused a downturn in the overall market.

Wall Street remains optimistic about the tech sector and analysts have raised earnings estimates by 2 percentage points for tech companies in the S&P 500. Other analysts suggest the timing is ideal to buy the dips in the tech industry and hold for the long term.

In the long run, the tech sector is projected to grow at a CAGR of 9% with a valuation of $12 trillion by 2025 according to a report by Research and Markets. The foremost arenas of innovation for the next decade include artificial intelligence, virtual reality, exascale computing and robotics. In this sense, companies innovating in these industries are expected to surge in value.

Photo by Javier Esteban on Unsplash

Our Methodology

For our list of the 10 best technology stocks to buy for the long term, we have used certain valuation metrics to list fundamentally strong tech companies as well as to filter out drastically overvalued tech companies with massive debt.

Most importantly, we’d be factoring in the number of hedge funds that are bullish on each of these stocks as of the first quarter of 2022 as well as opinions from money managers. With that in mind, let’s move down to the 10 best technology stocks to buy for the long term.

10. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 76

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is an American multinational technology company primarily involved in designing and manufacturing Central Processing Units (CPUs). Intel 4004, a 4-bit microprocessor, was the world’s first microprocessor the company released in 1971. Ever since, Intel’s microprocessors have been the brains of the majority of the computers in the world.

Additionally, the company also represents the supercomputing industry. In February, 2022, Intel Corporation unveiled its processor, Ponte Vecchio, that will power the Aurora Supercomputer which is designed to hit the exascale computing threshold.

Intel Corporation is also heavily invested in autonomous driving technologies and acquired Mobileye, an Israel-based company, in 2017. On the AI front, the company is focused on the hardware side of things and manufactures accelerators exclusively optimized for AI like Xeon, Habana and Xe.

As of June 6, Intel Corporation has a dividend yield of 3.37% and its most recent payout was $0.365 per share on March 1, 2022, in line with previous ones. The company boasts an optimistic hedge fund sentiment with 76 hedge funds bullish on the stock and Baupost Group of Seth Klarman being the leading stakeholder with $0.8 billion worth of shares.

O’Keefe Stevens Advisors discussed Intel at length in their Q1, 2022 investor letter. Here is what it had to say:

“Intel announced they are removing stock-based compensation from non-GAAP earnings in 2022 to report results aligning with semiconductor peers. This may seem like a reasonable thing to do as comparability between peers becomes easier. On the other hand, what exactly is the point of adjusted earnings? It is not to conform to some industry norm or because the management teams need to make performance metrics. The point of adjusting earnings is to present results in a light that more closely reflects the actual underlying performance of the business. That is, backing out expenses that might be one-time in nature, such as legal or fire expenses. First off, share-based compensation is an actual expense. Decreasing my ownership stake in a company without receiving any compensation is not free. If a company paid its employees in all stock, would they add back the entire SBC? What a margin profile that would be. Second, should a company be worried about reporting results similar to other companies? Every company is unique. Management should not waste time determining what expenses should be excluded. Run the business, don’t worry about adjusting the numbers.”

The company has robust fundamentals, making it an attractive long-term investment with a P/E ratio of 6.9 which is considerably lower than average in the tech sector. Its debt is also only 36% of its equity reducing its overall risk profile as far as long term value investment goes. The consensus EPS forecast for fiscal year 2024 for the company is $3.9, evolving in line with past earnings. The metrics suggest INTC is one of the best technology stocks to buy for the long term.

Intel Corporation, unlike Amazon.com, Inc., Microsoft Corporation and Alphabet Inc., is primarily focused on hardware development.

9. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 83

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor corporation that develops CPUs and discrete GPUs. Its chips are widely popular among the video-gaming community across the world.

The company also develops and manufactures machine learning hardware like Instinct MI100 and MI200. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. has also partnered with US Department of Energy and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to produce El Capitan, a supercomputer that is expected to cross the threshold of 2 exaFLOPS.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ by Piper Sandler analyst Harsh Kumar on May 17. The analyst set the price target of $140, up from $98. The analyst said that AMD’s catalysts in the medium to long-term remain intact in the face of strong server and semi-custom trends, commercial growth in personal computers’ market offsetting consumer exposure in PCs, and Xilinx being a significant predictor to growth.

Kumar added that Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. has a coming catalyst in its investor day in the early days of June. “Buy good companies when they are down,” said the analyst. The consensus EPS forecast for AMD is $4.89 in the fiscal year end of 2024. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. means business when it comes to fundamentals. It has only 3% debt as compared to its equity and a current ratio of 2.4 as of the first quarter of 2022 signifying an overall low risk profile.

The company beat consensus estimates on revenue and EPS by $313.37 million and $0.20 respectively with a revenue of $5.89 billion and an EPS of $1.13 in the first quarter of 2022.

The sentiment of hedge funds/investment firms around the stock is generally optimistic. Carillon Tower Advisers, an investing firm, brought AMD in discussion in their Q4, 2021 investor letter, highlighting its future prospects. Here is what the letter said:

“Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) supplies semiconductor chips for central processing units (CPUs) and graphic processing units (GPUs). The firm has been gaining share against its primary competitor in the datacenter server CPU space, as this rival has been unable to match the design and manufacturing capabilities of AMD and its partners. Investors are also looking forward to the closing of the previously announced merger with a semiconductor manufacturer that is another one of the portfolio’s holdings. The merger will increase AMD’s capabilities in the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chip space, and the combined company should possess the potential to win additional market share in the datacenter chip market.”

8. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 87

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) is an American cybersecurity corporation selling digital security services to over 70,000 organizations (including 85, in Fortune 100) in more than 150 countries. Its flagship products include advanced firewalls and malware detection/neutralization software like Traps and Wildfire which employ advanced techniques like deep learning to detect and neutralize cyber threats on enterprise scale.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. had 87 hedge funds bullish on its stock in the first quarter of 2022. ClearBridge Investments, an asset management firm, discussed various stocks in a positive light in their Q1, 2022 letter and Palo Alto Networks, Inc. was one of them. Here is what the fund had to say about the stock.

“The portfolio also saw solid performance from cybersecurity names Palo Alto Networks, Inc. which is gaining prominence as the risk of global cyberattacks increases as part of the Russian offensive. On an individual stock basis, leading contributors to absolute returns in the first quarter included positions in Palo Alto Networks.”

On May 20, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives lowered the price target on Palo Alto Networks, Inc. to $580 from $660 and kept an ‘Outperform’ rating on the stock.

“Palo Alto Networks, Inc. beat across the board for the April quarter and it appears the company’s cloud-driven strategy is resonating well with cybersecurity clients in the field,” Ives told investors in a research note. The analyst contended that the switch to cloud is a massive tailwind for Palo Alto as the cybersecurity firm is in the right spot at the right time to take advantage of the multi-year tide of cybersecurity enterprise spending.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is hyperspecialized in cybersecurity and is not as diversified as Amazon.com, Inc., Microsoft Corporation and Alphabet Inc..

7. Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 100

Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) is the only Chinese multinational technology company to make it to the list of 10 best technology stocks to buy for the long term. The company operates various technology subsidiaries and has a diverse portfolio in the technology sector surpassing software and hardware.

Apart from e-commerce platforms like Alibaba and AliExpress, Alibaba Group Holding Limited provides other services in cloud computing, messaging services, web browsing, web hosting and payment processing solutions on the software side. It also produces microprocessors and AI accelerators.

Baron Funds discussed Alibaba Group Holding Limited in their Q1, 2022 investor letter. Here is what they said.

“We have eliminated 6 holdings during the first quarter (including) Alibaba. We have sold our Alibaba Group Holding Limited position as the company continues to face competitive challenges and regulatory pressures remain, making it difficult (if not impossible) to appropriately assess the range of outcomes and associated probabilities for the future profitability of the business.”

However, its worth mentioning that while Baron Funds sold their position, 100 hedge funds remain bullish on the stock as of the first quarter of 2022 with the prominent Fisher Asset Management being the leading investor holding shares worth $1.5 billion.

Insofar as the analyst expertise is concerned, Truist analyst Youssef Squali raised the price target on Alibaba Group Holding Limited to $145 up from $132 and kept a ‘Buy’ rating on the shares on May 31.

Squali stated that while Alibaba Group Holding Limited is not “out of the woods” from macro headwinds just yet, he is more optimistic on the stock given the bullish commentary from PRC’s Vice President about upcoming measures to boost economic growth, the healthy early cues for Chinese audit concessions amid the US de-listing warnings, and the management’s cost optimization measures to reduce Alibaba Group Holding Limited’s short-term margin pressures.

Citi analyst Alicia Yap lowered the price target on Alibaba Group Holding Limited to $176 from $177 and kept a ‘Buy’ rating on the shares after the “solid” fiscal Q4 results. The analyst brings to light strong cash flow and BABA stock’s valuation trading close to a historical trough for the ‘Buy’ rating.

When it comes to risk assessment, Alibaba Group Holding Limited is in safe waters with a higher than industry-average current ratio of 1.66 and a lower than risky D/E of 14% as of the first quarter of 2022. The consensus EPS forecast for the stock for the fiscal year end of March, 2026 is $10.8, in line with earnings in the previous years. Fundamentals and earnings estimates cement Alibaba’s position as one of the best technology stocks to buy for the long term.

6. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 102

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is another American multinational company in the list of 10 best technology stocks to buy for the long term. NVIDIA Corporation is primarily in the business of hardware and specializes in producing Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) for the gaming and AI industry.

NVIDIA Corporation traditionally focused on gaming-optimized hardware but has also taken a keen interest in artificial intelligence as well as virtual reality as of late. When it comes to AI, the company has come up with competitive solutions on both the hardware as well as software sides like DGX systems and Megatron.

It is also represented in the autonomous driving sector and provides machine-learning solutions in the self-driving automotive industry. On the virtual reality front, NVIDIA Corporation has announced ambitious plans in what it termed the Omniverse, a virtual environment for design collaboration and 3D simulation as well as game development. It also unveiled plans for a supercomputer called Earth 2. A supercomputer to model Earth with high fidelity for climate studies/simulations and other applications.

The consensus EPS forecast for the year 2025 for NVIDIA Corporation was $6.18 evolving in line with previous earnings. Risk wise, NVIDIA Corporation is relatively safe with an impressive higher than industry-average current ratio of 5.3 and D/E ratio of 41.5% in the Q1, 2022, making it one of the best technology stocks to buy for the long term.

RiverPark Long/Short Opportunity Fund had some good things to say about NVIDIA Corporation in their Q1, 2022 investor letter.

“Nvidia is the leading designer of graphics processing chips (commonly known as GPU’s- graphics processing units), required for powerful computer processing. Over the past 20 years, the company has evolved through innovation and adaptation from a predominantly gaming- focused chip vendor to one of the largest semiconductor/software vendors in the world, dominating the core secular growth markets of gaming, data centers and professional visualization. Over the past decade, the company has grown revenue at a compound annual rate of over 20% while expanding operating margins and, through its asset light business model, producing ever increasing amounts of free cash flow. For 2021 the company generated 61% revenue growth to $27 billion, expanded its EBITDA margins to over 44% and generated over $8 billion of free cash flow. Over the past five years, the company has generated a cumulative $23 billion of FCF after cumulative capital expenditures of less than $4 billion.”

Analysts are also optimistic when it comes to Nvidia. On May 26, Evercore ISI analyst C.J. Muse reiterated Nvidia as a “Top Pick” with an ‘Outperform’ rating and a price target of $300.

Muse stated that NVIDIA Corporation offered a weaker than consensus guidance but the blame was placed on lockdowns in China rather than investors’ fears of a gaming reset and the “cut may fall short of a desired full reset.”

However, data center now holds the largest segment in the company and it was guided to grow again quarter-over-quarter into the month of July and see sequential growth keeping on through the year, Muse continued. With shares at $158 in the after-market, he contended “it’s time to put a line in the sand” and made the case that Nvidia shares “are now at a point too cheap to ignore.”

NVIDIA Corporation is a direct competitor of Amazon.com, Inc., Microsoft Corporation and Alphabet Inc. when it comes to artificial intelligence.

5. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 131

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is an American technology company with a market cap of $2.37 trillion, highest in the world. Apple Inc. develops both software (operating systems) and hardware for its line of smartphones, tablets and computers.

When it comes to profitability, Apple has a massive return on equity of 149%. The company has an annual dividend yield of 0.63% as of June 6. Its most recent payout was $0.22 per share on February 10, in line with previous payouts.

Apple was talked about in the Q4, 2021 investor letter by ClearBridge Investments. This is what the letter said:

“Despite these mixed emerging growth results, the ClearBridge Global Growth Strategy outperformed the benchmark due to resilience among our secular and structural growth holdings. The bulk of these contributions came from U.S. mega-cap growth stocks Apple and Microsoft which continued to uniquely act both offensively and defensively as they have through most of the pandemic.”

On June 2, Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani reiterated Apple with an ‘Outperform’ rating on the shares with a price target of $210. In the first quarter of 2022, Berkshire Hathaway, managed by famed investor Warren Buffett, was the leading stakeholder in Apple with shares worth $155 billion.

In terms of its future goals, Apple is putting focus towards launching its own search engine in 2023 and is in the research & development phase for the design and production of its own autonomous electric vehicle.

4. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 200

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) formerly known as Facebook is the largest social media conglomerate in the world.

Vulcan Value Partners, an asset management firm, discussed Meta in their Q4, 2021 investor letter and here’s what they said:

“Meta Platforms, Inc., the parent company of Facebook, reported excellent operating results in 2021. Its revenue increased 37%, operating earnings increased 40%, and the company generated $40 billion of free cash flow. Despite these excellent results, Meta experienced extreme volatility in its stock price during the first quarter. We believe that two factors are responsible for this volatility. First, the company quantified the headwind to revenue from Apple’s recent privacy changes in the amount of approximately $10 billion for 2022. Meta is rebuilding its advertising technology, and we believe the long-term headwinds from Apple’s privacy changes will be limited because Meta will create a suitable solution. Second, Meta Platforms, Inc. continues to invest heavily into its Reality Labs segment, also known as the metaverse. While we believe the metaverse presents great opportunity for Meta, we are not assigning any value to it in our valuation work. While 2022 may be challenging for Meta, the company’s competitive advantages are still intact, and the company trades at a significant discount to our estimate of its intrinsic value. Despite our concerns about a possible recession, we expect Meta to return to double-digit bottom line growth next year.”

On June 1, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak lowered the price target on Meta to $300 from $330 and kept an ‘Overweight’ rating on the stock.

Meta’s famous social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The company’s social media user-base is over 3 billion as of 2022.

In October 2021, the CEO of Meta announced an ambitious plan to evolve Facebook to a virtual reality ecosystem, they called the metaverse. In the following years, it was reported that Meta is building a powerful AI accelerated supercomputer in order to boost transition towards the metaverse.

The company also acquired Oculus, a virtual reality technology company in 2014 that amalgamated with Meta’s reality labs to produce hardware and software for virtual reality. FB’s fundamentals establish it as a value stock with a low P/E ratio of 14 as of the first quarter of 2022. The company also relies less than half on debt as compared to equity and has a current ratio of 2.8, lowering long term as well as short term risks. The consensus EPS forecast is $16 for December 2025.

3. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 205

Alphabet Inc. is an American technology conglomerate and the parent company of Google. Alphabet is involved in the business of information technology, computing and biotechnology.

Alphabet Inc has a low risk profile as far as investment goes. The company boasts a D/E ratio of 5.8% and a current ratio of 2.87 as of the first quarter of 2022. The analyst sentiment surrounding Alphabet is also favorable.

On June 2, Piper Sandler analyst Thomas Champion lowered the price target on Alphabet Inc. to $2,775 down from $2,900 and kept an ‘Overweight’ rating on the stock. On May 28, AI Root wrote in the then Barron’s edition that stocks like Alphabet and Meta are bargain stocks to buy now amid the market downturn. The analyst noted that although investors are rightly concerned during such downturns to avoid “picking up a dud” but there are opportunities amid the rubble and says Alphabet and Meta are discount buys at the moment.

Here is what Vulcan Value Partners had to say about Alphabet in their investor letter from the last quarter of 2021.

“In contrast, we made a different kind of mistake about a decade ago. Google, now Alphabet Inc., performed very well for us while we owned it. The company kept outperforming our assumptions and we kept lowering them to be conservative. “Trees do not grow to the sky.” The stock kept going up and our value grew but did not keep pace with the stock. It hit our estimate of fair value and we sold it with a nice gain, patting ourselves on the back. We kept following the company and what they actually did over the next several years was roughly double the assumptions we used to value it. Therefore, our value was too conservative, and we sold it too cheaply, missing many years of compounding. Fortunately, we experienced some volatility several years ago that allowed us to purchase Alphabet Inc. (Google) again with a margin of safety.”

Apart from the search engine Google, the company provides other services on the software side, most prominent of which include Chrome (the most popular web browser), Adwords for web advertisement, Google Cloud, Android operating system (the default operating system in over 3 billion smartphones and tablets) and video sharing application Youtube with 2.6 billion active users.

On the hardware side, two of its most popular business lines include Google Pixel and Google Nest. Alphabet designs and manufactures laptops, smartphones, tablets and earbuds among other accessories through its Google Pixel business-line. Through its Google Nest business-line, it provides hardware solutions like smoke detectors, smart thermostats, wireless routers, smart media players and displays and speakers etc.

Alphabet Inc. also owns and operates Verily, a biotechnology research & development lab with various biotech products to offer.

2. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 259

Microsoft Corporation is the world’s second most valuable company in the world by market cap. Unlike many on the list of 10 best technology stocks to buy for the long term, Microsoft pays out dividends to its shareholders. Its latest dividend payout of $0.62 per share is due on June 9 in line with its dividend payment history.

On May 23, Jefferies analyst Brent Thill lowered the price target on Microsoft to $325 down from $400 and kept a ‘Buy’ rating on the shares. Microsoft beat analyst expectations in its quarterly filings of Q1, 2022. With a revenue of $49.3 and EPS of $2.22, it beat consensus estimates on EPS and revenue by $0.02 and $311.18 million respectively. Its consensus EPS forecast for July 2024 stands at $12.09 based on the estimates of 7 analysts.

Microsoft Corporation produces both software and hardware products. Its most popular products on the software side include windows operating systems, Office Suite, Bing, Skype, Visual Studio and Azure among others. On the hardware side, its most popular product includes the Xbox gaming console.

Fisher Asset Management was the most bullish on MSFT stock among the 259 bullish hedge funds in the first quarter of 2022. The fund managed by Ken Fisher had Microsoft shares worth $8.6 billion.

This is what Baron Opportunity Fund had to say about Microsoft in their Q4, 2021 investor letter:

“Shares of Microsoft Corporation, a cloud-software leader and provider of software productivity tools and infrastructure, rose during the quarter, following a strong earnings report highlighting solid demand for its broad product stack and continued momentum migrating its business to the cloud. Microsoft’s results continued to be strong across the board, with total revenue growing 20% in constant currency, beating Street estimates by 3%; an acceleration in Commercial Cloud revenue to 34% constant-currency growth; operating margins expanding to just under 45%; earnings growth of 23%; and free cash flow growth of 30%. We believe the company is positioned to deliver 13% to 15% organic growth over the next three years, underpinned by total addressable market expansion and continued market share gains across its disruptive cloud product portfolio.”

1. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 271

Amazon.com, Inc. is the number one on the list of the 10 best technology stocks to buy for the long term, thanks to the number of hedge fund holders which amount to 271. Amazon is an e-commerce giant with secondary services as well like Amazon Web services and Amazon Prime Video.

Here is what the Baron Funds had to say about Amazon in their Q1, 2022 investor letter:

“Jeff Bezos sums up the current market behavior well in his 2000 shareholder letter where he quoted Benjamin Graham’s famous statement that, in the short term, a stock market is a voting machine, while in the long term, it is a weighing machine, saying that Amazon is a “company that wants to be weighed, and over time we will be – over the long term, all companies are. In the meantime, we have our heads down working to build a heavier and heavier company.”

We have a lot of conviction that our businesses are doing the same – working to build heavier and heavier companies.”

On June 1, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak lowered the price target on Amazon.com, Inc. to $3,500 down from $3,800 and kept an Overweight rating on the shares. He lowered the estimates across online ad and e-commerce platforms as he adopted a more conservative base case to account for rising macro as well as micro uncertainties. The analyst now models around 13% and 16% YoY online ad growth and around 8% and 10% growth in e-commerce in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

You can also take a peek at 5 Largest Chip Producers in the World and 5 Best Up and Coming Stocks to Invest In

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