In this article, we discuss the 5 best Vanguard stocks to buy now. If you want to read our detailed analysis of these stocks, go directly to the 10 Best Vanguard Stocks to Buy Now.
5. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Vanguard’s Stake Value: $46,994,694,000
Percentage of Vanguard Group’s 13F Portfolio: 1.29%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 159
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) ranks 5th on the 10 best Vanguard stocks to buy now. The California-based tech behemoth provides online advertising services. Alphabet Inc. operates in various segments like Google Cloud, Google Play, Google Maps, and Youtube, to name a few. At the end of the first quarter, Vanguard Group Inc owned 22,785,085 shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) worth $46.9 billion, representing 1.29% of Vanguard’s investment portfolio. The stock has gained 15% over the last three months.
GOOGL stock earnings have increased as a result of the ongoing stock repurchase program. On April 23, Alphabet’s Board of Directors approved the business to buy back up to $50.0 billion of its Class C capital stock, which will be done on a case-by-case basis. Meanwhile, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), announced a $7 billion investment in office and data center development across 19 states in the United States in March. The project is slated to be completed this year, and Google estimates the expansion to generate at least 10,000 full-time jobs.
The company has a market cap of $1.72 trillion. The company’s first-quarter revenue grew 34% to $55.3 billion, up from $41.2 billion in the same quarter in 2020. The company’s earnings came in at $26.29 per share compared to a $15.82 per share forecasted by Wall Street analysts. April 28, Piper Sandler maintained an Overweight rating on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), with a price target of $2,635 per share.
At the end of the first quarter of 2021, 159 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $29 billion in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), up from 157 the preceding quarter worth $20.5 billion.
In its Q1 2021 Investor Letter, Artisan Partners mentioned Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and shared their insights on the company. Here is what the fund said:
“Large-cap tech companies have been resilient through the pandemic—Alphabet among them. A top contributor, Alphabet’s Play Store, and Google Cloud are in demand as businesses accelerate online activity which, along with strong YouTube user growth, is helping stabilize temporarily weaker search ad revenue trends. Through the lens of our disciplined bottom-up research process, we view Alphabet as one of the best businesses in the world, capable of expanding revenues at a rapid rate for years to come, with a bulletproof balance sheet and an average asking price. It’s a name we’ve owned since 2012 and for which we continue to have high hopes regarding future prospects.”
4. Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB)
Vanguard’s Stake Value: $53,945,171,000
Percentage of Vanguard Group’s 13F Portfolio: 1.48%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 257
Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) ranks 4th on the 10 best Vanguard stocks to buy now. Facebook, Inc. is the largest social media network globally. At the end of the first quarter, Vanguard Group Inc owned 183,156,795 shares of Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) worth $53.9 billion, representing 1.48% of Vanguard’s investment portfolio. The stock has gained 43% over the last twelve months. Shares of FB also increased 12% in the past three months.
The company has a market cap of $993 billion. The company’s revenue in the first quarter of 2021 grew 48% to $26.2 billion, up from $17.7 billion in the same quarter in 2020. The company reported a net income of $9.5 billion or $3.30 diluted earnings per share, up from a net income of $4.9 billion or $1.71 diluted earnings per share in the first quarter of 2020. At the end of the first quarter, Facebook, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: FB) monthly active users grew 10% year over year to 2.85 billion. On June 30, Argus Research maintained a Buy rating on Facebook, Inc., with a price target of $410 per share.
At the end of the first quarter of 2021, 257 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $40.9 billion in Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), up from 242 the preceding quarter worth $38.2 billion.
In its Q1 2021 investor letter, investment management firm ClearBridge Investments mentioned Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) and shared their insights on the company. Here is what the fund said:
“We continued to keep our learnings from 2020 in mind during the quarter as we sought to increase the up capture of the portfolio. We also made adjustments to the portfolio’s top 10 holdings to increase the participation of select stocks, including Facebook, while trimming our weighting to stable names, which now represent 47% of the portfolio. Our repositioning has been encouraging so far with the portfolio performing better on up days in the market while maintaining good down capture during more turbulent sessions.”
3. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)
Vanguard’s Stake Value: $100,911,111,000
Percentage of Vanguard Group’s 13F Portfolio: 2.78%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 243
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) ranks 3rd on the list of 10 best Vanguard stocks to buy now. Amazon.com, Inc. is the biggest online retail platform in the US. The company also offers cloud services with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and provides video-on-demand services through Amazon Prime Video. At the end of the first quarter, Vanguard Group Inc owned 32,614,254 shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) worth $100 billion, representing 2.78% of Vanguard’s investment portfolio. AMZN shares have returned 16% to investors in the past twelve months. The stock has also gained 12% in the past three months.
The company has a market cap of $1.86 trillion. The company’s first-quarter total net sales came in at $108 billion, up from $75.4 billion in the same period in 2020. Amazon.com, Inc. reported a net income of $2.5 billion or $5.09 basic earnings per share. On June 18, JP Morgan maintained a Buy rating on Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), with a price target of $4,600 per share.
At the end of the first quarter of 2021, 243 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $50.4 billion in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), down from 273 the preceding quarter worth $51.5 billion.
In its Q1 2021 investor letter, investment management firm Polen Capital mentioned Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and shared their insights on the company. Here is what the fund said:
“We purchased Amazon in February 2021, which accounts for 5% of the Portfolio’s weighting. For most of the last decade, Amazon did not meet our guardrails. We also did not have enough visibility into future free cash flow margins to indicate that the company would sustainably meet our guardrails and, relatedly, if valuation supported the double-digit annualized returns we seek. We now believe we have that visibility.
In 2008, almost all of Amazon’s revenue and operating profits came from its e-commerce business. Amazon Prime and Amazon Web Services (AWS) were new and relatively small back then. The company had roughly 5% operating profit margins overall, entirely from the e-commerce business. In 2009, the company began harvesting its retail business profits to accelerate investment in its distribution and logistics infrastructure globally and very heavily build out and scale AWS data centers. The company’s return on equity began to decline at that time and turned negative for three full years from mid-2012 to mid-2015 (margins and free cash flow declined similarly). So, beginning in 2010 and continuing to mid-2018, Amazon’s business was outside our guardrails. We chose to stick to our guardrails and not on Amazon.” (Click here to see the full text)
2. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Vanguard’s Stake Value: $144,020,103,000
Percentage of Vanguard Group’s 13F Portfolio: 3.96%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 251
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) ranks 2nd on the 10 best Vanguard stocks to buy now. The Washington-based tech company manufactures consumer electronics and laptops. On top of the operating system products and Microsoft Office applications, the company also provides cloud computing services through Microsoft Azure. At the end of the first quarter, Vanguard Group Inc owned 610,849,992 shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) worth $144 billion, representing 3.96% of Vanguard’s investment portfolio. MSFT shares have returned 31% to investors in the past twelve months. The stock has also gained 11% in the past three months.
The company has a market cap of more than $2 trillion. The company’s revenue in the third quarter increased 19% to $41.7 billion, up from $35 billion in the same quarter in 2020. The company earned a net income of $15.5 billion GAAP or $2.03 diluted earnings per share GAAP. On June 28, Jefferies maintained a Buy rating on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), with a price target of $310 per share.
At the end of the first quarter of 2021, 251 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $58.9 billion in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), down from 258 the preceding quarter worth $52.9 billion.
In its Q1 2021 investor letter, Polen Capital mentioned Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and shared their insights on the company. Here is what the fund said:
“We have written extensively about Microsoft in recent commentaries. It was our leading contributor last year and one of our largest weightings within the Portfolio. It continues to experience business momentum through several dominant, essential, and competitively advantaged businesses, like Office 365 and Azure. The markets it competes for are enormous, which gives the company the ability to compound at scale. In the past quarter alone, the company generated over $40 billion in revenue, representing a 17% growth rate. The inherent operating leverage in Microsoft’s business model continues and led to 34% earnings growth this past quarter. Despite the broad rotation we saw in the first quarter and Microsoft’s robust performance in 2020, we think its business fundamentals continue to exhibit strength, and the stock continues to reflect the fundamentals.”
1. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)
Vanguard’s Stake Value: $151,390,601,000
Percentage of Vanguard Group’s 13F Portfolio: 4.17%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 127
Topping the list of the 10 best Vanguard stocks to buy now is Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). The California-based tech company sells Apple products like iPhone, iPad, iMac, and wearables. Apple Inc. also offers cashless payment service Apple Pay and exclusive original video content on Apple TV+. At the end of the first quarter, Vanguard Group Inc owned 610,849,992 shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) worth $151 billion, representing 4.17% of Vanguard’s investment portfolio. AAPL shares have returned 51% to investors in the past twelve months. The stock has also gained 11% in the last three months.
The company has a market cap of $2.41 trillion. The company’s second-quarter revenue grew 54% year over year to $89.6 billion. Apple Inc. also recorded quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.40. On July 6, JP Morgan maintained an Overweight rating on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), with a price target of $170 per share.
At the end of the first quarter of 2021, 127 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $131 billion in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).
In its Q1 2021 investor letter, investment management firm Distillate Capital mentioned Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and shared their insights on the company. Here is what the fund said:
“Apple is an even more notable situation and one that highlights our free cash valuation methodology and bears further discussion given its Q3 ’20 sale from our strategy. For an extended period, Apple was extraordinarily inexpensive on a free cash flow basis and was the largest position in our strategy, exceeding 5% of the portfolio.”
You can also take a peek at 10 Best Recycling Stocks to Invest In and 10 Top Hedge Funds Focusing on ESG and Impact Investing.
