We recently published a list of 12 Best NASDAQ Stocks To Buy in 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) stands against other best NASDAQ stocks to buy in 2025.

As 2025 began, King Lip, chief strategist and partner at BakerAvenue Wealth Management expressed his bullish outlook for tech stocks in 2025 during a CNBC interview. He underscored a strong belief in the continued outperformance of tech stocks in 2025, driven by robust earnings growth and ongoing investments in AI infrastructure. Here’s a short excerpt from our article on the 12 Best Technology Stocks to Invest In for the Long Term that covered this:

“…Lip was against the prevailing sentiment among investors that big tech has peaked and that funds should rotate into smaller stocks or other themes. He argued that the recent weakness in the tech sector is largely due to technical rebalancing rather than a fundamental downturn. He emphasized that cash is likely to flow back into leading tech stocks, as they are projected to deliver the highest earnings growth in 2025, with an anticipated earnings increase of over 20%.”

While acknowledging the high valuations of many tech stocks, he argued that they remain within acceptable historical norms. On January 9, Mark Avallone, president at Potomac Wealth Advisors, joined ‘The Exchange’ on CNBC to discuss why technology is the best sector to invest in right now. He asserts that above-target inflation will prevent the Fed from implementing further easing measures, countering the notion that higher rates are detrimental. He noted that market rates have surged to all-time highs, with a significant increase of 1,800 points since October 2023. Avallone emphasizes that tech stocks, particularly cash-flowing mega-cap and large-cap companies, have shown resilience against rising rates, attributing this to improved operational efficiencies and ongoing technology spending even in a slowing economy.

Avallone highlighted recent deal chatter in the tech sector, including Shutter Stock’s potential acquisition in the uniform space, reflecting growing interest in technology-driven solutions. He is optimistic about the incoming administration’s impact on economic efficiencies and stock performance, particularly for large-cap tech firms and mid-cap companies focused on innovation. He views Hilton favorably for its technological advancements in office management and cost efficiency. In the defense sector, he expressed confidence in Boeing’s growth potential, emphasizing that significant cuts to defense spending are unlikely and that advancements in tech will enhance military capabilities.

Methodology

We first sifted through the Finviz stock screener to compile a list of the top 20 NASDAQ for 2025. We then selected the 12 stocks that were the most popular among elite hedge funds and that analysts were bullish on. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of the number of hedge funds that have stakes in them, as of Q3 2024. The hedge fund data was sourced from Insider Monkey’s database which tracks the moves of over 900 elite money managers.

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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 286

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is a technology conglomerate with e-commerce as its core business. It also operates Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is a cloud computing platform. The company continues to innovate and expand into streaming services, AI, advertising, and even physical retail.

In Q3 2024, AWS was the primary driver of profitability for the company, contributing $10.4 billion to its total operating income of $17.4 billion. This reflected a 49.7% rise in profits. AWS revenue increased by 19.1% year-over-year, due to customer-centric initiatives. One advancement is the introduction of the Oracle Database@AWS service, which facilitates the seamless migration of Oracle workloads to AWS infrastructure with minimal adjustments.

AWS leads the AI sector due to its unmatched computing power, which is crucial for training large models. Its AI platform and scalable infrastructure make it the preferred option for businesses over managing their own AI systems. The total cloud market is projected to expand from $700 billion in 2024 to ~$2.4 trillion by 2032, positioning AWS for growth. In 2025, AWS plans to invest at least $11 billion in Georgia to expand its data center infrastructure.

Cantor Fitzgerald’s Deepak Mathivanan raised Amazon.com, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) price target to $270 from $240 while maintaining an Overweight rating. Mathivanan expects growth in digital ads, online shopping, and mobility to drive internet stock performance in 2025. He views the company as a top pick due to its strong AI development.

Montaka Global Investments increased its holdings in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) due to a near -20% stock price decline, believing it offers more upside potential than other holdings like AMD and KD. Here’s what the company’s Q3 2024 investor letter stated:

“Secondly, in August, we sold some of our holdings in two tactical positions in the tail of Montaka’s portfolio – Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Kyndryl Holdings (KD) – to take advantage of a near-20% drawdown in the stock price of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).

We still see plenty of upside in AMD and KD, but Amazon has more substantial and higher-probability upside that demanded we allocate even more of Montaka’s capital to the online retailer.

Investment opportunities always compete for capital. Through this lens, Montaka’s largest investments act as a kind of ‘benchmark’: Any new investment must be more attractive than these holdings to get included in our portfolio.

Because we believe Montaka’s largest investments remain so attractive, our annualized portfolio turnover has been low for many years now – typically around 25%.

We continually identify quality global businesses with upside potential – but few new investment opportunities have greater upside than Montaka’s existing portfolio investments.

While Montaka is focused on investing over the long term, and most days don’t require any action on our part, paradoxically we need to be agile on a daily basis. That is, we must be ready to act if stock price changes throw up attractive investment opportunities.”

Overall, AMZN ranks 1st on our list of best NASDAQ stocks to buy in 2025. While we acknowledge the growth potential of AMZN, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AMZN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.