6 Strong Buy Stocks Top Investors Are Buying ·InvestorPlace
Harriet Lefton
[Editor’s note: This story was previously published in Feb. 2019. It has since been updated and republished.]
Did you ever copy from the smart kid in class and then score straight A’s? Well, now you can replicate this savvy move with top investor trades — and make some money while you’re at it!
By tracking the most popular picks of investors who consistently outperform the market, you can easily boost your own returns. And unlike following analysts, these are investors who are actually investing their own money. This means no conflicts of interest or corporate politics going on here. Just pure stock picks with a strong buy rating from the investors.
In order to find these key top investor stocks, I used TipRanks’ Individual Investor Sentiment tool. This nifty tool enables you to pinpoint the most popular stocks from the best-performing investors in any sector. Even more usefully, we can see if top investors are ramping up their holdings over the last month/week, as well as the proportion of the portfolio these investors (on average) dedicate to that stock.
So without further ado, let’s delve into these seven strong buy stocks now:
Strong Buy Stocks: Amazon (AMZN)
Far and away, the No. 1 stock for top investors is Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). To be honest, this can’t come as much as a surprise. Amazon appears to be on the path to world domination. And analysts are about as bullish as they come. Out of 45 analysts covering the stock, no less than 45 rate AMZN a “buy.” So you can see why investors would want to buy in to this killer growth story.
Everyone is buzzing about cannabis stocks right now. And the cream of the crop for top investors is Canopy Growth Corp (NYSE:CGC) — the biggest pot company in the world. CGC is currently the sixth most popular stock in the Consumer Goods sector for top investors.
What’s interesting is that its popularity is also rising. In January, the change in the number of best-performing portfolios holding CGC increased by 2.4% — a pretty massive leap when you think about it. This gives the stock a “very positive” investor sentiment.
CGC’s sales have exploded since cannabis was legalized last fall. And Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Lavery (Track Record & Ratings) expects Canopy Growth to remain in investment mode as it drives growth in new markets globally. “We continue to estimate a $250 billion-$500 billion potential long-term global cannabis market, with a $15 billion-$5 billion near-term opportunity,” says Lavery. Get the CGC Stock Research Report.
Nvidia (NVDA)
Chip stock Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) plunged by 30% in 2018, but top investors are staying onside. And luckily, shares are already up 33% year-to-date. After Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Nvidia is the most popular consumer goods stock for best-performing investors.
“NVDA is set for rare secular growth/GM expansion” Oppenheimer’s Rick Schafer (Track Record & Ratings) told investors on Feb. 15. Macro uncertainty and a slowdown in hyperscale spending aside, Nvidia continues to boast long-term structural/secular growth drivers in high performance gaming, auto/autonomous and DC AI training/inference.
Apple may have its skeptics, but top investors are actually becoming more bullish on the stock. As of February, AAPL was the second-most-popular stock after Amazon, making up close to 10% of the average best-performing portfolio.
Indeed shares are up 29% in 2019, indicating that investors are happy with Apple’s current track. While the company still faces major headwinds like China’s economic deceleration, shifting consumer preferences and product pricing challenges, Wedbush’s Daniel Ives (Track Record & Ratings) remains bullish.
In February, he reiterated a “buy’ rating and $200 price target. Ives pointed to the company’s strong customer loyalty to the company, saying, “Apple must prove there is enough gas left in the growth engine and most importantly put a steel fence around its golden customer base.”
According to Ives, Apple’s Services segment is “playing a major role and a linchpin to Apple’s future success,” and has the potential to significantly add to shareholder value. Even more so if Apple’s upcoming video content subscription service is as successful as expected. Get the AAPL Stock Research Report.
AT&T (T)
For a stellar dividend stock pick, look no further. AT&T (NYSE:T) had a “strong buy” rating from both investors and the Street in February.
That’s understandable when its yield comes out to 6.65%, driven by a $2.04 annualized payout. And that’s on top of 34 consecutive years of dividend growth — an extremely impressive track record.
As far as Oppenheimer’s Timothy Horan (Track Record & Ratings) sees it, “T has a solid balance sheet and an attractive dividend yield.” He believes 2019 is about positioning for better services growth in 2020 and beyond. Bear in mind this analyst comes in at No. 36 out of over 5,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. So his stock picking skills are pretty solid, to say the least.
Even though the company is temporarily sidelined by their debt load following the massive TimeWarner acquisition, Horan believes that “combined with TWX, FCF/share could grow 6% per year.” Get the T Stock Research Report.
Alibaba (BABA)
Top investors are currently ramping up holdings in Chinese e-commerce king Alibaba (NYSE:BABA). As of February, it was the fifth biggest holding for top investors- at about 6% of the portfolio.
And the Street’s rating also catches the eye. 48 of 49 analysts are bullish on BABA right now.
“Though Macros remain a big unknown, we view BABA’s Fundamental Risk/Reward as very compelling here” cheered RBC Capital’s Mark Mahaney (Track Record & Ratings)..
Why? Improving profit growth from Alibaba’s core marketplace EBITA as BABA continues to invest in strategic initiatives (Ele.me, Lazada, New Retail and Cainiao). These initiatives are key to BABA improving their total addressable market size and business moats. Get the BABA Stock Research Report.
TipRanks.com offers exclusive insights for investors by focusing on the moves of experts: Analysts, Insiders, Bloggers, Hedge Fund Managers and more. See what the experts are saying about your stocks now at TipRanks.com. As of this writing, Harriet Lefton did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
