In this article, we will discuss the 8 Best Robinhood Stocks to Buy According to Analysts.
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management has announced quarterly retail investor pulse survey results. The majority of investors’ views were bullish. Investors began the year on the bullish (58%) note, in line with last quarter (59%). Furthermore, the results also revealed that around 2 out of 3 investors (64%) saw the market rising by the end of the quarter.
What’s On Retail Investors’ Minds?
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s survey revealed that inflation has been the top worry for investors’ portfolios at 45%, almost in line with the last quarter at 46%, with market volatility at 24% coming out to be the second. Notably, the concerns related to the new administration declined 13 percentage points since the last quarter. Furthermore, around 3 out of 5 (59%) of investors see that the broader US economy remains healthy. Chris Larkin, Managing Director, Head of Trading and Investing, E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley, stated that with any new administration taking power, the potential policy changes can bring uncertainty in the broader markets. That being said, investors are optimistic and resilient amid a soft start to the new year.
READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In.
Current Trends in Retail Investing
Retail outflows from the US equities increased to ~$4 billion over the previous 2 weeks due to the uncertainties related to tariffs and increased economic concerns, which resulted in a strong pullback in the S&P 500, reported CNBC, while quoting data from Barclays. Rob Austin, director of research at Alight Solutions, says that if people tried to buy the dip, there would have been evidence hinting at the increased buying of the large-cap equities. On the contrary, people are selling large-cap equities. Austin believes that this seems to be a bit of a reactionary trading activity.
CNBC, while highlighting the comments made by Venu Krishna (Barclays head of U.S. equity strategy), reported that there remains sufficient capacity for the retail investors to further disengage from the broader equity market. Notably, Barclays’ proprietary euphoria indicator exhibited that the sentiments are down to the levels that were seen around the time of the US election back in November, but remain elevated by historic standards. The increased sell-off came as American households remained more sensitive than ever to the significant volatility in the broader equity markets.
Amidst these trends in retail investing, let us now have a look at the 8 Best Robinhood Stocks to Buy According to Analysts.
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Our Methodology
To list the 8 Best Robinhood Stocks to Buy According to Analysts, we sifted through several online rankings to shortlist the stocks trending on Robinhood. We also took help from the Robinhood Investor Index. Next, we chose the ones that analysts see significant upside to. Finally, the stocks were arranged in ascending order of their average upside potential, as of March 17. We also mentioned the hedge fund sentiment around each stock, as of Q4 2024.
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).
8 Best Robinhood Stocks to Buy According to Analysts
8) Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR)
Average Upside Potential: ~11.05%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 64
Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) is engaged in building and deploying software platforms for the intelligence community to help in counterterrorism investigations and operations. William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma reiterated a “Market Perform” rating on the company’s stock after the recent announcement of a partnership with Databricks. The partnership is expected to provide an open and scalable data architecture combining Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR)’s powerful Ontology System with Databricks’ processing scale and industry-leading data and Al platform. The analyst believes that the partnership leverages the large total addressable market and increasing demand for Al data analytics solutions.
Additionally, Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR)’s recent customer acquisition announcements, consisting well-established firms such as Qualcomm and Epirus, hint at the continued commercial momentum. Elsewhere, Loop Capital Markets analyst Mark Schappel reaffirmed a “Buy” rating on the company’s stock. The analyst remains confident about Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR)’s future. The company continues to emerge as a key player in enterprise Al, says Schappel. The analyst opines that the enterprise Al sector remains in the growing phase in which small-scale pilot programs have been expanding into full-scale production.
Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its Q4 2024 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:
“Two software stocks that the Fund did not own, Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) and AppLovin Corporation, each gained more than 100% and accounted for 52% of the Benchmark’s gain during the quarter. At year end 2024, Palantir was valued at approximately 200 times its expected 2024 earnings, while AppLovin was valued at 80 times. The market cap of each exceeded $100 billion, and the two stocks represented nearly 8% of the Index. Neither company met our criteria for investment. The total impact on relative performance from Palantir and AppLovin was about 7 times higher than we have seen historically for two securities that are unique to the Benchmark, showing just how unparalleled the event was and something that we believe is unlikely to be repeated.”
7) Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)
Average Upside Potential: ~14.3%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 144
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) entertainment services. MoffettNathanson upped the company’s stock to “Buy” from “Neutral” with a price objective of $1,100, up from $850. As per the firm, its ability to monetize the engagement remains underappreciated. The upgrade stemmed from Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)’s strong user engagement, which can fuel future profitability. As per the firm, the company remains well-placed to generate healthy advertising revenue over the upcoming years, aiding margin expansion. This is expected to stem from a combination of ad revenue growth and the growth in subscription revenues.
Elsewhere, Bernstein analysts maintained an “Outperform” rating on Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)’s stock, with a steady price target of $1,200.00. As per Laurent Yoon, an analyst at the firm, the company’s revenue growth, mainly driven by subscriber additions, continues to outpace the content spending increases. Yoon believes that Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)’s fundamental business drivers are strong and can support continued growth. The analyst’s rating stems from the company’s ability to navigate through short-term challenges and use its healthy subscription growth as well as margin expansion for long-term success.
RiverPark Advisors, an investment advisory firm and sponsor of the RiverPark family of mutual funds, released its Q4 2024 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:
“Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX): NFLX was a top contributor in the fourth quarter powered by a 3Q earnings report that included stronger-than-expected revenue and operating income, solid subscriber additions, and positive forward commentary. Anti-password sharing and ad tier initiatives continue to drive subscriber growth while improving revenue per user trends, from recent price increases, drive margin expansion. The company was optimistic about future revenue growth, margin expansion, free cash flow generation and future return of capital programs.
The recent re-acceleration of subscriber growth, plus price increases on premium memberships and a stabilization of content investments, should position the company for low double digit annual revenue growth over the next few years while driving operating margin to more than 25%. We also believe that the stabilization of content spend should allow the company to continue to scale its free cash flow.”
6) Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Average Upside Potential: ~18.9%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 166
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s unique ecosystem offers significant opportunities for leveraging AI advancements. Its control over hardware and software offers it an advantage in implementing AI features that are deeply integrated and optimized for the devices. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s large installed base of devices offers a significant platform for rolling out AI features. This scale enables the company to gather significant amounts of data that can be utilized to train and improve AI models. Its emphasis on on-device AI processing remains in line with the privacy-centric approach and can act as a differentiating factor with AI becoming more prevalent in the broader consumer technology space.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s investments in chip design, mainly its custom silicon, place it favorably to develop specialized AI hardware allowing more advanced features while, at the same time, maintaining energy efficiency. This can result in AI capabilities uniquely customized to the company’s devices and ecosystem. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s healthy position in wearables and home devices offers opportunities related to AI integration beyond smartphones.
Columbia Threadneedle Investments, an investment management company, released its Q4 2024 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:
“The fund maintained a position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) throughout the quarter through the release of the company’s new iPhone 16 in September. Company leaders were excited about the release of the new model, as this is the first model that will feature enhanced AI capabilities through the Apple Intelligence features. Sales for the first few weeks in October and November trailed behind year over year sales from the iPhone 15, as availability of Apple Intelligence was not compatible with all iPhone models. Apple announced a partnership with OpenAI that has allowed the integration of ChatGPT into the Apple ecosystem, separate from the core Apple Intelligence features. This partnership highlights continued progress from Apple to introduce AI capabilities into its products and we expect the iPhone 17 to have even more expansive AI capabilities, increasing potential demand for the new model that is on track to be released in 2025.”
