In this piece, we will take a look at Morgan Stanley’s highest conviction stocks and the top 20 stocks to buy.

With the second half of 2024 having settled in, the broader economic environment that will determine the future course of the stock market is becoming clearer. While the surge in investor interest surrounding artificial intelligence stocks placed the macroeconomic picture in the background for a while, now, as the second quarter earnings season is nearly over, macroeconomics is coming back into play. Investors are eager to read the mind of Fed chairman Jerome Powell for future interest rate cut decisions and the crystal ball to see what way the economy is heading.

On this front, investment bank Morgan Stanley has been churning out quite a lot of reports to guide investors. One such report came out in July and shared the bank’s key themes to focus on during the month. While July is over, this report contains key details that can provide information about what to expect for the rest of the year too. Two of the biggest takeaways from this report cover an economic soft landing and the potential for equities performance to widen.

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On the former front, the bank shared that July “bolstered the case for a soft landing as inflation has declined and a few major central banks cut rates.” It believes that forward looking data suggests that “wage growth should continue to slow in the U.S. and Eurozone” which will eventually contribute to cooling inflation and eventually lower rates to increase the chances of a soft landing. In terms of data, the bank’s estimates for 2025 suggest that year over year wage growth could sit at 3% in 2025 for a marked growth over the 2022 peak.

Back then, wage growth percentages as indicated by Indeed postings and the Fed had stood at ~9.4% and ~6.5%, respectively. As an additional positive note, the bank also adds that the US is leading the EU and the UK because of its wage growth of 3% which is less than half of the UK’s roughly 7%.

On the latter front, i.e., MS’ belief that equities performance can widen, it shares that there “is ample room for equities performance to broaden, but this requires a cyclical recovery.” What this means is that big tech has accounted for most of the market’s returns this year due to the AI hype, and this can spread out to smaller firms but only if the broader economy recovers. Underlying this belief is data for the flagship S&P index’s price to earnings ratio, as the bank shares that the 12 month forward P/E “runs at 21x on a cap-weighted basis but only 16x equal- weighted.” This suggests that the smaller companies have room to catch up with the larger companies, but their performance will only improve if consumer and business spending flourishes during a cyclical uptrend.

This potential has led the bank to lament that “we turned neutral too soon” as it also cites forward earnings data to support the hypothesis of the bifurcation in valuation. For the Magnificent Seven stocks, the 12 month forward earnings rebased to 100 as of December 2023 sit at a whopping 120 while the estimate for the remaining 493 firms on the S&P index is ~106. However, before you get too optimistic, MS also cautions against investing in small cap stocks. It shares that small cap “requires economic growth acceleration with lower interest rates, which seems unlikely in the current inflation environment.” Plotting the returns of small caps with bond yields to signify a relationship with interest rates, its data shows that when bond yields were at 1%, small cap relative returns to large caps were 100%. But when the yields soared to ~5.6%, these returns dropped to ~82%.

MS’ August report builds on the July themes. It builds on the bearishness surrounding small caps, shifts the focus on the labor market over inflation, and brings real estate into the mix. Reducing wage growth allows the Fed to shift its focus from inflation “to potential cracks in the labor market,” says the bank, but it cautions that recession “indicators such as the Sahm Rule are creeping toward a recessionary threshold based on the rising national unemployment rate.” Its data shows that the 3 month national unemployment average is 0.5% over the previous 12 month low, which rings a warning bell, to say the least. Still bearish on small caps, it adds that while “recent inflation data and the resulting decline in rates was a lift to small cap, softer economic data may constrain its continued outperformance.”

There is some positivity in the August report, though. The bank shares that commercial real estate, which has been one of the hardest hit sectors from rising rates and shifting trends to remote working, now presents an “emerging opportunity set.” The analysts outline that commercial real estate valuations “valuations have become more attractive in the face of higher interest rates and elevated supply,” adding that they “expect volumes to pick up this year due to upcoming debt maturities, reinforcing these lower entry points.” Counterintuitively, this optimism is based on depressed valuations as it uses the commercial real estate cap rate. As per MS’ data, this rate sat at 9% in March 2024, for nearly a two percentage point lead over retail real estate and a wider three point lead over residential real estate. The bank is also quite impressed with hedge fund performance in 2024 as it commented that the funds “delivered attractive risk-adjusted performance in the first half of 2024 and their positioning suggests confidence in the opportunities for skill-based returns.”

So, as MS takes a deep look at the economy, we decided to look at its conviction stock picks. Read below to find out what stocks it has absolute faith in.

Our Methodology

To make our list of MS’ top stocks, we used its latest 20 top conviction stock ideas and ranked them by the average percentage share price upside to the bank’s own share price targets.

For these stocks, we also mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. 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).

20. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Share Price Upside: 6%

Number of Hedge Fund Investors In Q2 2024: 114

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is one of the largest healthcare coverage providers in America. Morningstar’s data shows that the firm serves the needs of more than 50 million people, which offers it stability even during economic downturns. Key to UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)’s future is an aging global population which should only increase the demand for its services. Additionally, revolutionary new drugs such as GLP weight loss medicine or cancer treatments are often quite expensive and require additional coverage, which opens up new and lucrative markets for UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH). The firm’s Optum business serves an additional 104 million customers, and it further increases the firm’s penetration in the $5 trillion US healthcare services market. At the same time, the firm’s size means that it is always the target of nefarious actors, as was evidenced earlier this year when UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) suffered from cyberattacks.

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)’s management believes that it is well positioned for strong performance in 2025. During the Q2 2024 earnings call, it shared:

“We’re also well positioned for growth in 2025. In the selling season to date, the most sophisticated thoughtful buyers of health benefits and services in the US, such as large employers, unions, states, seniors, all continue to choose the offerings of UnitedHealth Group, when they’re looking for managed care, pharmacy services or a Medicare Advantage plan that provides the best value. This consistent growth reflects customers’ recognition of the need for a company like ours. As you know, UnitedHealth Group strives to help reduce the fragmentation and lack of coordination that drives up costs and erodes care outcomes in the $5 trillion US healthcare marketplace. We aim to better coordinate and align incentives among caregivers, payers, and pharmacy, enabling us to focus on the whole patient throughout their health journey.

We believe this increases value for customers and consumers, improves people’s experience and health, reduces redundancies and waste, and ultimately leads to a more sustainable health system. For example, the proven health and economic value to consumers and taxpayers of Medicare Advantage. A recent study by Milliman found that the cost of taxpayers of Medicare Advantage is 4% less than traditional fee-for-service Medicare. At the same time, Medicare Advantage provides seniors well over $2,000 per year in additional value through lower out-of-pocket cost and important services like dental, vision and hearing, none of which fee-for-service Medicare covers. That means a lot to the majority of the people Medicare Advantage serves, who have limited economic resources and otherwise would lack access to such services.”

19. Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA)

Share Price Upside: 6%

Number of Hedge Fund Investors In Q2 2024: 60

Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is a healthcare company that provides diagnostic services such as fetus screenings, organ rejection, cancer detection, and more. The firm is uniquely placed in a tangential position to the growing biotechnology market which is developing a plethora of treatments for cancer. This is because Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) provides blood tests that enable physicians to determine if their treatments have completely eliminated cancer from the body. These products are among the few of their kind in the industry, which has allowed Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) to rapidly gain market share and provided it with an early mover advantage. As of Q2, more than 40% of all oncologists in America order a cancer screening from Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA), and this percentage can grow in the future if the firm expands the type of cancers the screening covers. On this front, Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is running trials to see if its screenings work with gastric cancer and colorectal cancer. The screening product, called Signatera, added 13,000 sequential units in Q2, which was 63% higher than Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA)’s baseline of 8,000. During the call, management shared that moving forward, the screening could add between 8,000 to 10,000 units.

Baron Funds mentioned Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) in its Q1 2024 investor letter. Here is what the firm said:

“Natera’s stock was bolstered by significant momentum in the oncology market, where its personalized blood-based DNA test Signatera is driving strong testing volume growth. The test detects and quantifies how much residual cancer DNA remains in the body after surgery. Signatera helps physicians determine whether chemotherapy is necessary after surgery and monitor for cancer recurrence before the cancer is detectable with standard imaging. We think Natera has a long runway for growth with expanding margins and profitability.