Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) was once again a net seller of stocks in its most recent quarter. But if you think Warren Buffett, who will step down as CEO at the end of 2025, has caught the "AI is a bubble" bug, think again.

The Oracle of Omaha has been easing off equities and hoarding cash for quite a while. In the past three years, Berkshire was a net seller of stocks to the tune of $190 billion. Also noteworthy is that Berkshire hasn't engaged in stock buybacks since May 2024.

As a result, Buffett is running a sort of "barbell" portfolio. Berkshire, with a market cap of more than $1 trillion, holds $280 billion in stocks and a whopping $380 billion in cash.

Berkshire's cash pile has been boosted by comparatively high short-term interest rates, as well from pruning its portfolio. Buffett once again pared BRK.B's stakes in major long-term holdings such as Apple (AAPL), Bank of America (BAC) in the most recent quarter.

The Apple sales are particularly noteworthy. Not too long ago, the iPhone maker accounted for roughly 40% of Berkshire U.S. equity portfolio. Today, it's closer to 23%.

For some folks, these are highly disquieting developments. When one of the greatest investors of all time is selling massive amounts of stock in some of his favorite names, it's understandable if people believe they would feel better about it if only they knew why.

First things first, however. Buffett took pains to explain to Berkshire shareholders at their annual meeting in May that the iPhone maker is still, er, the Apple of his eye. (It would have been embarrassing not to, considering Apple CEO Tim Cook attended the event in person.)

If Buffett has a problem with AAPL, it's that the value of Berkshire's stake has grown tremendously at a time when he expects corporate tax rates to rise, probably sometime in the not-too-distant future.

As Buffett told the Berkshire faithful in August 2024: "If I'm looking at a 21% rate this year and then we're [paying] a lot higher percentage later on, I don't think you'll actually mind the fact later on that we sold a little Apple this year."

Perhaps the same thinking informed Berkshire's paring of its stake in Bank of America. The fact that owning more than 10% of a publicly traded company's shares triggers disclosure requirements large shareholders would rather avoid for as long as possible is another reason to bring one's ownership below a regulatory threshold.

What we know is that Buffett has been a net seller of equities for 12 consecutive quarters. Share repurchases have ground to a halt, too. For context, Berkshire repurchased more than $9 billion worth of BRK.B stock in all of 2023.

This is not the sort of behavior one typically sees in someone with excessive confidence in equity prices.

What gives?

Buffett stocks sales: An expert's take

If Warren Buffett is selling stocks and not buying back his own, that might tell us something about the Oracle of Omaha's view of the market, writes Nicholas Colas, co-founder with Jessica Rabe of DataTrek Research.

As a multidecade market watcher and market participant, Colas posits three potential explanations for Buffett's "unusual activity."

The first explanation is that Buffett is calling a top. "Buffett sees stocks as overvalued, including his own, and therefore susceptible to a deep correction or outright bear market," Colas writes.

It's interesting that Berkshire holds $380 billion in cash. "That’s a lot of firepower if markets see a sustained drop," notes Colas. "While Berkshire is not especially expensive, its multiple may be worrisome to a value investor."

Don't forget that Buffett likes nothing more than to be greedy when others are fearful. If stocks crash, Berkshire will be able to go shopping for assets at deep discount prices.

M&A on tap

Then there's the possibility that Berkshire is amassing cash to effect a truly whale-sized deal. "Berkshire may have identified one or more large acquisitions and is raising capital for those purchases," Colas writes. He adds that BRK.B's $380 billion in cash would comfortably buy all of Coca-Cola (KO) or Goldman Sachs (GS).

Colas emphasizes that the latter two are only examples, not risk arbitrage trading ideas. They do make sense, however. Coca-Cola, a Buy-rated Dow Jones stock, has been a core Berkshire holding for four decades.

As for Goldman Sachs, Berkshire has been a major shareholder in the past. (Recall that Buffett gave GS an injection of capital during the Great Financial Crisis.)

Passing the baton

Lastly, Colas postulates that it's possible Buffett is simply preparing the company for his departure as CEO. (He will stay on as chairman.)

Perhaps Buffett "wants to clear the decks for his successors to remake Berkshire's portfolio and rethink the company's stock repurchase program," Colas says.

"At 95 years old, he has certainly earned the right to ride off into the sunset as one of the greatest investors of all time."

The bottom line

The most important takeaway from Colas' note: "We wouldn't read too much into Buffett's latest moves since there is more than one logical explanation for his actions."

Let's pause on that for a moment, because it's important. As folks have noted before, if copying Warren Buffett's buys and sells was all it took to become the next Warren Buffett, there would be a lot more Warren Buffetts in the world.

As far as we know, there is still only one.

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Whether you like it or not, members of Congress are allowed to buy and sell stocks. True, federal law prohibits them from using "nonpublic information derived from their official positions for personal benefit," and they're required to disclose their trades.

That said, it's understandable if folks don't quite trust politicians to be on the up and up when their personal fortunes might appear to be in tension with their duties as elected representatives.

Perhaps this is unfair; even cynical. But to modify a famous quote from Upton Sinclair, it's difficult to get a person to understand something when that person's salary depends upon the person not understanding it.

Take, for instance, the uproar around President Donald Trump, who said shortly before announcing a reversal on reciprocal tariffs that it "is a great time to buy stocks."

The reversal sparked a historic stock market rally and has some high-profile Democrats questioning if anyone in the Trump administration profited off the announcement.

Disclosure rules are supposed to help mitigate this problem. Thanks to these requirements, the public can follow what members of the House and Senate are doing with their investments.

Before we go further, please note that this activity shouldn't be used for trading purposes.

After all, insider buying and selling at publicly traded companies is voluminously disclosed and analyzed, but it doesn't really tell us much. That's because insiders – the executives and board members who know what's going on – can sell for any number of legitimate reasons, from paying tuition to portfolio diversification.

When it comes to stocks, insider buying is actually a more useful piece of information. And even then, it's not exactly a screaming buy signal.

Using insider activity among members of Congress as the basis for some kind of trading system is not a rigorous idea.

With those caveats out of the way, it is indeed interesting to see which stocks, bonds and private investments are most popular with members of the House and Senate. Perhaps more interesting is how certain pols churn their portfolios, which is to be avoided if you're a retail investor.

Have a look at the below table to see which politicians were the most active traders by volume over the past 90 days, according to data from Capitol Trades.

Stocks politicians are buying and selling

Look past the municipal debt and investments in limited liability companies, and you can see that pols are pretty normal when it comes to their buys. Top-rated Dow Jones stocks, mega-cap tech names and reliable and rising dividend-payers routinely make the list of our representatives favorite names.

Both sides of the aisle like many of the hottest stocks, including Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Oracle (ORCL) and Broadcom (AVGO) these days – but then so does pretty much everyone else.

Interestingly, as much as Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) is associated with tech investing, a number of his most recent biggest buys were stalwart blue chips such as JPMorgan Chase (JPM), the nation's biggest bank by assets, and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B).

Meanwhile, in addition to buying shares in speculative artificial intelligence (AI) firm BigBear.ai Holdings (BBAI), Representative Lisa McClain (R.-Mich.) also picked up Air Products and Chemicals (APD), which happens to be one the best dividend stocks for reliable dividend growth.

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Microsoft (MSFT) knows how to keep long-term investors happy. The tech giant is returning another $60 billion in cash to shareholders through a new stock buyback plan and raised its dividend by more than 10%.

Microsoft's share repurchase program, which has no expiration date, replaces its previous $60 billion authorization announced four years ago. Meanwhile, investors also cheered the news that shareholders of record as of Nov. 21 will receive a quarterly dividend of 83 cents per share, up from the current 75 cents a share.

Microsoft disbursed nearly $22 billion in dividends over the past 12 months and still had levered free cash flow of $56.7 billion. Even better for long-time dividend-growth investors, Microsoft has hiked its payout every year for more than two decades. If it can keep its streak alive, Microsoft will be eligible for inclusion in the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, which are some of the best dividend stocks for reliable and rising payouts.

Please note that although the share repurchase program matches Microsoft's largest-ever authorization, $60 billion represents only about 1.8% of its massive $3.22 trillion market cap.

Shares in Microsoft, the world's second most valuable publicly traded company after Apple (AAPL), were actually lagging the broader market by about 3 percentage points on a price basis for the year-to-date through September 17. 

But as a long-term holding, MSFT stock is hard to beat. Indeed, anyone who put $1,000 into Microsoft 20 years ago would be very pleased with their returns today.

Wall Street loves MSFT stock

Wall Street analysts were already plenty bullish on the Magnificent 7 stock before it announced its plans to return more cash to shareholders. Only three Dow Jones stocks garner Strong Buy consensus recommendations, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. 

Of the 56 analysts issuing opinions on Microsoft stock, 40 call it a Strong Buy, 14 have it at Buy and two rate it at Hold. Only UnitedHealth Group (UNH) gets a higher rating from industry analysts than MSFT.

Meanwhile, with an average target price of $502, the Street gives MSFT stock implied price upside of 16% over the next 12 months or so. 

Analysts' bullishness on Microsoft stems largely from its enviable position in generative artificial intelligence (AI). 

As the "leading generative AI enabling provider," Microsoft offers the most "comprehensive end-to-end AI tooling stack and cutting-edge front-end generative AI applications across its entire portfolio of products," notes the software team at Truist Securities, which rates shares at Buy.

"Microsoft is expected to be a leading benefactor of AI workloads across each layer of the generative AI value chain," says Truist. "From increased data storage and high-performance compute to additive workloads across their PaaS portfolio. Additionally, their Copilot products are expected to add fuel to expansions and upsells across their application portfolio."

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) initiated small positions in Ulta Beauty (ULTA) and Heico (HEI) in the second quarter, bought more Chubb (CB), pared stakes in eight names – most notably, Apple (AAPL) and Chevron (CVX) – and exited bets on Paramount (PARA) and Snowflake (SNOW).

There were other moves, as well, but the biggest news to come out of Berkshire's latest regulatory filing was already known. Buffett slashed Berkshire's stake in Apple by almost half. As previously reported, the holding company also reduced its exposure to top holdings such as Chevron and Bank of America (BAC).

Keep in mind that Buffett told Berkshire shareholders that the Apple sales were done for tax purposes, as he expects corporate tax rates to rise sometime in the not-too-distant future. The same thinking could apply to BRK.B's other sales, but then it's not unusual for Buffett to be a net seller of equities when stocks are trading at record levels.

All told, Berkshire sold roughly $77 billion in equities in Q2 – mostly Apple – and purchased less than $2 billion. At any rate, with exactly 400 million Apple shares still in the portfolio, Buffett would appear to be done selling his favorite stock.

Earlier this year, the greatest long-term investor of all time said AAPL is "even better" than American Express (AXP) or Coca-Cola (KO), two "wonderful" businesses that Berkshire has owned since the early 1960s and late 1980s, respectively.

Perhaps it's a coincidence, but Berkshire now holds 400 million AAPL shares – or the exact same number of shares it has held in KO for decades. 

Before we detail Berkshire's quarterly buys and sells, it's important to know that Buffett has always maintained a highly concentrated portfolio. The top five holdings account for almost three-quarters of its U.S. equities portfolio value, while the top 10 account for more than 90%. 

As Buffett likes to say, diversification is for people who don't know what they're doing.

Stocks Warren Buffett is buying

Berkshire picked up two new stocks in Q2: Ulta Beauty and Heico. Berkshire bought 690,000 shares of Ulta Beauty worth $266 million at the end of the Q2. With a weight of 0.1% in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, or its 30th largest position, the cosmetics retail chain won't be moving the needle much on Berkshire's returns.

Meanwhile, with a weight of just 0.07%, Heico is even less material. Berkshire accumulated a little more than 1 million shares in the supplier to the aerospace industry. The stake was worth $185 million as of the end of Q2. 

The comparatively small size of the purchases could mean they were initiated by Buffett's co-portfolio managers Ted Weschler or Todd Combs.

On the other hand, one of the largest additions Berkshire made in Q2 was probably the work of Buffett himself. As previously disclosed, BRK.B bought another 7 million shares in Occidental Petroleum (OXY). (Buffett has added to OXY on weakness in the past.) The holding company owned 255 million shares worth $16 billion at the end of the quarter. At 5.8% of its portfolio, OXY is Berkshire's sixth largest holding.

In another interesting move, Buffett also added to Chubb, the insurance company Berkshire first picked up just a quarter ago. The holding company increased its stake by 4.3%, or more than 1 million shares. With roughly 27 million shares worth $6.9 billion at quarter's end, Chubb accounts for a hefty 2.5% of the portfolio, or Berkshire's ninth largest holding.

Elsewhere, Berkshire fiddled with some of its smallest positions, upping its bets on rather immaterial holdings such as Liberty Sirius XM Group, Series C (LSXMK) and Liberty Sirius XM Group, Series A (LSXMA). Note that the company cut its stakes in the tracking stocks last quarter. Berkshire also bought more Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI) – a position it reduced in Q1.

Stocks Warren Buffett is selling

As noted above, Apple accounted for almost all of Berkshire's Q2 sales. Other reductions included Chevron, a Buy-rated Dow Jones stock, which Buffett first purchased four years ago. In Q2, Berkshire cut CVX by 3.6%, or 4.4 million shares. With 119 million shares worth $18.6 billion at the end of the quarter, the integrated oil major is Berkshire's fifth largest holding.

Other sales included a more than 20% reduction in Capital One Financial (COF). Berkshire sold 2.7 million shares in the financial services company in Q2, bringing its position down to 9.8 million shares worth $1.4 billion. With a 0.49% weight in the portfolio, COF is Berkshire's 19th largest bet. 

Berkshire also continued to clean and prune a number of its mid-level equity holdings, paring its stakes in T-Mobile US (TMUS), Louisiana Pacific (LPX), Liberty Media (LLYVK), Liberty Media (LLYVA) and specialty retailer Floor & Decor (FND).

Buffett also closed out its stake in Paramount, dumping all 7.5 million shares. The company first bought PARA in early 2022. It didn't work out.

Lastly, Berkshire exited its position in Snowflake (SNOW), which is believed to have been the work of subaltern Todd Combs. Berkshire made a rare bet on an initial public offering (IPO) with Snowflake in the third quarter of 2020. SNOW has an all-time total return of negative 16%.

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Nvidia (NVDA) has been posting blowout quarterly earnings reports for a year now, but its most recent print came with some ice cream and a cherry on top. Not only did the market's favorite pure-play bet on all things AI hike its dividend, NVDA split its stock.

Although returning more cash to shareholders and making NVDA stock more "accessible" are what Wall Street would call positive catalysts, they are not sufficient reasons in and of themselves to commit fresh capital to any name at any level.

That is not to say that you should not buy more Nvidia stock when it's trading at record highs. Rather, if you want to initiate or add to a position in Nvidia stock these days, the fact that it's effecting a stock split is immaterial.

First let's make clear that stock splits aren't nearly as important for retail investors as they were back in the days before folks could open a smartphone app and buy fractional shares for free. Nvidia is splitting its stock for pretty much the same reason Walmart split its stock, which was more for its own employees.

Secondly, let's stipulate that stock splits are like making change. In this case, shareholders received 10 shares for every one share held. This is essentially the same thing as breaking a $10 bill into 10 one-dollar bills. The fundamentals and technicals don't change – only the arithmetic does. 

Which brings us to Nvidia's dividend hike. The forward yield on NVDA's dividend comes to about 0.03%. The stock's three-year average dividend yield is 0.06%, while the current yield on the S&P 500 stands at 1.36%. Given those facts, it's probably fair to assume that few folks buy Nvidia for the income. 

Nvidia stock is everywhere 

It's also worth mentioning that you probably already have healthy exposure to Nvidia stock.

Nearly 70% of actively managed mutual funds own Nvidia, according to the team at BofA Securities data analytics. And it's not like it's hard to own Nvidia on the passive side, either. As the world's third-most-valuable publicly traded company, Nvidia is in loads of indexes tracked by passive mutual funds and ETFs. 

Take the main benchmark for U.S. equity performance. Thanks to a market cap of nearly $3 trillion, Nvidia's weight in the S&P 500, as represented by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), stands at about 6.6%. 

That's actually quite a lot. Think about it like this: if the S&P 500 were, say, an actively managed large-cap balanced fund, the portfolio managers might have to cut their NVDA position by something like half?

Nvidia is also ably represented in the Nasdaq Composite and Nasdaq-100. As for the latter, Nvidia's weight in the growth index – most popularly tracked by the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) – hovers around 8.1%

The bottom line is there's a universe of products offering exposure to the Magnificent 7 stock. No one is complaining about how hard it is to find a good ETF with Nvidia in it.

The Street loves Nvidia for lots of reasons

As we have noted, Nvidia has generated market-crushing returns for a long time. It's trading at record levels because no one knows how big this whole AI thing is going to get. They just know they don't want to miss out.

Will Nvidia keep beating the market? 

Sure, probably, why not? But stocks never go up in a straight line. Markets are cyclical. Chipmakers are highly cyclical. The good news is that Nvidia is trading on some combination of incredible fundamentals and forecasts, and not just hype.

The bad news? Stocks go down, too. There's a bull case and a bear case for everything. Ever notice how share prices fluctuate all session long? Please remember that high-beta stocks such as Nvidia, which have a history of outperforming the broader market when it's going up, also tend to underperform the broader market when it's selling off. 

On a brighter note, Wall Street makes a brawny bull case for Nvidia stock. Analysts, as a group, give NVDA an elite rating of Strong Buy (with high conviction), according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Instead of trying to summarize these analysts' investment theses in the space provided here, let's just say that of all the really good reasons to be bullish on Nvidia, the stock split isn't very high on the list.

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Have you ever noticed that equity investors can't have nice things? As miserable as we are when stocks are going down, we're even more unhappy when they're going up.

There's an empirical explanation for this psychological phenomenon. It's called "loss aversion." Humans are at the mercy of all sorts of cognitive biases, and one of the more perverse ones is that we experience far more pain from losing money than we experience pleasure from winning the same sum.

That's why when markets are rising, stocks are said to be climbing a wall of worry. The higher stocks climb, the more investor anxiety mounts. That's loss aversion at work.

Cut to today, with markets at record highs and valuations stretched by just about any metric you care to use, and it's only natural for investors to question if stocks are in a bubble.

Stocks never go up in a straight line, but that's pretty much what the S&P 500 did after bottoming out early last spring. From its April 7, 2025, intraday low to its close on December 31, the benchmark index was up 41.6% on a price basis. Such a torrid run has U.S. equities trading at some of their very priciest levels in history, according to BofA Securities.

As of December 31, on 18 of 20 metrics the S&P 500 was trading at statistically expensive levels, according to a note to clients from Savita Subramanian, head of U.S. equity strategy and U.S. quantitative strategy at BofA Global Research. Four of the metrics — Market Cap to GDP, Price to Book, Price to Operating Cash Flow and Enterprise Value to Sales were at record highs.

Is the stock market in a bubble? Here's how to tell

Happily, valuation is not a timing tool, as strategists take pains to point out. As Subramanian suggests, opportunities remain for investors willing to look for selective sector opportunities

Meanwhile, though questions remain about when and whether the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates amid a backdrop of broadening and accelerating profits, it's not hard to argue for a boom in earnings-per-share and GDP growth.

It's also possible that stocks have structurally re-rated to carrying richer valuations, as Subramanian noted earlier in 2025.

"The S&P 500 has changed significantly from the 80s, 90s and 2000s," explains Subramanian. "Perhaps we should anchor to today's multiples as the new normal rather than expecting mean reversion to a bygone era."

Perhaps most important, bubbles are as much of a psychological phenomenon as a financial one.

There's no substitute for experience on Wall Street, which is why it's always wise to listen to old hands when it comes to divining the market's machinations. Nicholas Colas, co-founder with Jessica Rabe of DataTrek Research, started working full-time on Wall Street in 1986. He lived through the October 1987 stock market crash and has witnessed every boom and bust up close ever since.

Colas has developed a three-point checklist for "spotting unhealthy, runaway markets." Here's a thumbnail version:

The market for initial public offerings gets frothy. Although the number of IPO announcements hit a multiyear high in the third quarter, the market for new issues has been subdued since it peaked in 2021. Higher interest rates and the availability of private-market funding remain headwinds.

"The good news is that history shows a rampant IPO market is a clear sign of a top," Colas notes. "We're nowhere close to that now."

Hallmark mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals. "Exceptionally bad deals happen at the top, even if at the time they seem quite sensible," Colas writes. "M&A activity is ultimately a function of CEO/board confidence. Just like retail investors chasing hot IPOs at a market peak, senior managers fall prey to the same overconfidence that the good times will last forever."

Happily, M&A activity, while picking up, also remains under control. Through November 30, M&A volume was up 2% year over year in 2025, according to PwC.

A double is a bubble. Colas has a general rule to identify unsustainably high prices in a range of markets. Whenever the S&P 500 doubles in three years or less, stock prices decline shortly thereafter. The same is true about the Nasdaq Composite over any rolling one-year window going back to the early 1970s, notes Colas.

"A double is a sign of speculative excess because macro conditions are never so different that asset prices should rise 100% over a short period of time," Colas says. "Markets are reasonably good discounting mechanisms. When prices double, you know speculation — not fundamentals — are driving those gains."

Even the Nasdaq Composite, which is the frothiest equity market right now, is up "only" 20% over the past year.

Another tech bubble?

The remarkable bull market in equities was given fresh fuel by the Federal Reserve's jumbo interest rate cut in September 2024, but it's uncertain how much more fuel monetary policy can provide from here. Meanwhile, bubble anxiety centers around the AI companies, such as the Magnificent 7, that dominate the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100.

Naturally, echoes of the bursting of the dot-com bubble are tat the op of anxious investors' minds.

"The introduction of transformative technologies typically attracts growing investor interest as well as significant capital and new competition," writes Peter Oppenheimer, chief global equity strategist and head of macro research Europe at Goldman Sachs. "As enthusiasm builds and stock prices increase, the sum of individual company valuations can overstate the total potential aggregate returns; often a bubble develops and bursts."

Oppenheimer notes the technology sector has generated 32% of the global equity return and 40% of the U.S. equity market return since 2010. This reflects stronger fundamentals rather than irrational exuberance.

"In our view, the technology sector is not in a bubble and is likely to continue to dominate returns," the strategist adds. That said, "concentration risks are high, and investors should look to diversify exposure to improve risk-adjusted returns while also gaining access to potential winners in smaller technology companies and other parts of the market."

Are stocks in a bubble?

None of Colas' time-proven indicators point to a stock market bubble, but a bubble very much remains a possibility in 2026, Colas says. Keep an eye on IPOs, M&A and how fast market levels rise from here.

Also remember that while the explosive growth in all things AI has valuations looking stretched, Goldman Sachs' Oppenheimer notes, "valuations often also understate the opportunities that can accrue in the nontechnology industries that can leverage the technology to generate higher returns."

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Shopping for stocks when markets are struggling with a June swoon might not seem like the best idea. Between rising bubble anxiety and mounting uncertainty over the direction of monetary policy, it's understandable if investors are reluctant to put cash to work these days.

On the other hand, markets rarely top out at this time of year. As Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group notes, the most recent all-time high for the S&P 500 was on June 2.

"Stocks soared for the two months off the late March lows, so some weakness in June isn't a big surprise," he writes. "June is the only month in history that hasn't seen the ultimate peak for the year. We don't think this year will be the first one to peak in June."

At the same time, not only has a strong corporate earnings season lifted sentiment, but forward earnings estimates are marching higher. In turn, rising expected operating profits have helped make valuations more attractive.

Besides, every market features select names that are set to outperform.

Although the Magnificent 7 stocks have done much of the bull market's heavy lifting, that hardly means these names are doomed to underperform from here. Indeed, many of them are in pronounced drawdowns. At the same time, a rotation out of these stocks has capital flowing to other, sometimes sleepier, sectors.

As we'll see below, five of Wall Street's top-rated S&P 500 stocks to buy hail from the Magnificent 7. Companies from the financial, healthcare and industrials sectors are ably represented, too.

How we found analysts' top-rated S&P 500 stocks

It's well known that industry analysts are reluctant to slap Sell ratings on the names they cover. There are several reasons for this, some more defensible than others.

What's less commonly understood is that Strong Buy recommendations, while not nearly as rare as Sell calls, are in somewhat short supply, too.

If you run a screen of the S&P 500 using data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, you'll see that analysts assign a consensus Sell recommendation to only one stock.

At the other end of the ratings spectrum stands the Street's highest recommendation of Strong Buy. A total of 52 stocks made the cut there as bullish sentiment soars.

First, a note on our methodology: S&P Global Market Intelligence surveys analysts' stock recommendations and scores them on a five-point scale, in which 1.0 equals Strong Buy and 5.0 means Strong Sell.

Any score below 2.5 means that analysts, on average, rate the stock a Buy. The closer the score gets to 1.0, the stronger the Buy call.

In other words, lower scores are better than higher scores.

Have a look at the chart below to see the 52 stocks in the S&P 500 that score an elite Strong Buy recommendation from industry analysts. Investors who fear it's too late to buy Amazon.com (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) or Nvidia (NVDA) will be happy to see they easily made the list.

As much as artificial intelligence (AI) is driving capital spending and market sentiment, analysts see plenty of reasons to be bullish on names across multiple sectors. Here we highlight what Wall Street has to say about three less sexy stocks on the list this month.

GE Aerospace

GE Aerospace (GE), which retained the classic GE ticker following the 2024 spinoff of GE Vernova (GEV), has seen its shares take off as the company establishes itself as a high-margin, pure-play aerospace leader with significant competitive moats.

In a report titled "No sign of stopping the growth engine; reiterate Buy," BofA Securities analyst Ronald Epstein said the company's "robust demand and best-in-class execution support double-digit growth in 2026."

The analyst likes the stock over the longer haul, too, noting that GE Aerospace is well-positioned to benefit from the ongoing ramp-up in commercial aircraft production and sustained aftermarket demand. "Following the spin-off of GE Vernova, we see the company as leaner and focused on execution and safety," Epstein added.

Meanwhile, the company's robust free cash flow – which exceeded $5.7 billion last year – allows GE to aggressively fund R&D and investments in manufacturing infrastructure, all while continuing to return cash to shareholders. GE boosted its dividend by nearly 30% last year. At the same time, it repurchased more than $7 billion in stock.

Shares have delivered only market matching returns so far in 2026 (after adding more than 86% last year), but that just has the stock priced for outperformance, Wall Street says. Of the 22 analysts covering GE, 16 rate it at Strong Buy, three say Buy and two call it a Hold. A lone analyst has a sell recommendation on the name. Nevertheless, that works out to a consensus recommendation of Strong Buy.

Smurfit WestRock

After losing about a quarter of their value in 2025, Smurfit WestRock (SW) shares are beating the broader market by about 4 percentage points this year, and bulls say they are just getting started. After all, the company is still finding its feet.

SW was formed by the 2024 merger of Smurfit Kappa and WestRock Company, creating the world's largest paper packaging company. Smurfit WestRock's operations in 40 countries make it the revenue leader in the world of corrugated cardboard, containerboard, consumer packaging and more.

"We see long-term upside potential and expect earnings growth congruent with growth in e-commerce and growth in demand for sustainable paper and packaging goods," writes Argus Research analyst Alexandra Yates, who rates shares at Buy. "We also expect to see margin growth with operational efficiency improvements in the coming quarters."

Moreover, SW expects $400 million in synergies (also known as cost cuts) as a result of the merger.

With a forward P/E of less than 14, SW trades at 36% discount to the broader market. The dividend yield, at 4.2%, is pretty spicy compared to the S&P 500's yield of less than 1.1%.

Of the 15 analysts covering the materials stock, 10 rate it at Strong Buy and five have it at Buy. That works out to a consensus recommendation of Strong Buy.

Visa

Warren Buffett was a long-time admirer of Visa (V), so it was something of a surprise to see CEO Greg Abel boot it from the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio in early 2026.

Happily for continuing shareholders, Wall Street remains bullish on the nation's largest payments processor. Shares are off about 6% over the past year – vs a 26% gain for the broader market – but that just has Visa priced for outperformance amid the relentless war on cash, bulls say.

"Visa remains well positioned to benefit from the ongoing shift to electronic payments and remains one of our top ideas," writes Oppenheimer analyst Rayna Kumar, who rates shares at Outperform (Buy).

The company is enjoying massive growth in value-added services, such as fraud protection, consulting and data analytics. Not only are these high-margin services; they create higher switching costs for banks and merchants. This stickiness helps Visa hold a dominant position in the business-to-business space.

Interestingly, the Street hasn't been this collectively bullish on the name in 16 years. Of the 39 analysts covering Visa, 29 rate it at Strong Buy, seven say Buy and three have it at Hold.

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The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index looks only a little different as we head into the second half of the year. 

Widely regarded as some of the best dividend stocks for dependable dividend growth, the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats is an index of S&P 500 companies that have raised their dividends for at least 25 consecutive years.

That's kind of a big deal if you are a long-term equity income investor. Regular dividend hikes not only increase the yield on an investor's original cost basis over time, often quite dramatically; they also help investors sleep better at night.

After all, any company that manages to raise its dividend year after year – through recession, war, market crashes and more – is demonstrating both its financial resilience and its commitment to returning cash to shareholders.

S&P Dow Jones Indices, which rebalances the index quarterly, ditched Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) at the beginning of 2024 after the pharmacy chain slashed its dividend by almost half.

Walgreens had increased its dividend every year for nearly half a century before the cut. Analysts, who regularly give WBA one of the lowest rankings of all 30 Dow Jones stocks, applauded the decision to take cash earmarked for shareholders and invest it back into the business. 

Perhaps most interesting is what will happen to long-time member 3M (MMM). The Dow stock is on the Aristocrats chopping block after slashing its dividend as part of its Solventum (SOLV) spin off. 3M is expected to be cut from the list of dependable dividend payers when S&P Dow Jones next rebalances the index.

Dividend Aristocrats Fastenal and Kenvue

The Dividend Aristocrats membership list remains at 67 stocks, however, as Fastenal (FAST) was added to the index in the first quarter of 2024. The industrial supplier has raised its dividend for 25 consecutive years, making it available for inclusion in the index. 

Most recently, Fastenal declared a quarterly cash dividend of 39 cents per share to be paid on February 29 to shareholders of record as of February 1. The company generated more than $1 billion in levered free cash flow in fiscal 2023, and that was after paying out more than a billion dollars in dividends. 

Fastenal stock sports a dividend yield of 2.4%, which is fairly generous for an Aristocrat. The exchange-traded fund that tracks the index, the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL), has a dividend yield of 2.1%. 

Other changes to the Dividend Aristocrats over the past year include the removal of VF Corp. (VFC) and the addition of Kenvue (KVUE), which was spun off from fellow Aristocrat Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). 

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Imagine a company that's enjoyed overwhelming success in its key markets for ages and also claims one of the most valuable and recognizable brands in the world.

This company was so important to both its sector and the broader economy that it was a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average for nearly a quarter of a century.

One would expect this blue chip stock to have been an outstanding buy-and-hold bet. To be fair, for a good long while, it was.

That was then. This is now.

Unfortunately, the former Dow Jones stock we're talking about is Intel (INTC).

Shares almost doubled in 2023, helped by a multibillion-dollar cost-cutting campaign and the generalized euphoria surrounding all things artificial intelligence (AI). Intel bulls harbored hopes that the year marked an inflection point for the long-time market laggard.

It hasn't worked out that way. Intel fell as much as 60% from its late 2023 peak before climbing back to about breakeven today. Heck, shares remain about 33% below their all-time high.

It's hard to believe now, but once upon a time, INTC was one of the best stocks on the planet. Cut to the present, and it's not clear if the company can reclaim its glory days.

Intel still dominates the markets for central processing units (CPUs) for PCs and servers, but it's been losing share to rivals at an accelerating rate for some time. Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are just a couple of its formidable competitors.

Where the semiconductor company really went wrong — apart from execution missteps and manufacturing delays — is the way it missed some of the biggest changes in technology. Intel famously whiffed on mobile, and now Nvidia is running away in generative AI.

There's a reason Nvidia replaced Intel in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2024.

It's been a curious ride for INTC investors. Thanks to its dot-com era heyday, Intel was one of the 30 best stocks in the world from 1990 to 2020.

In those three decades, INTC stock generated more than $340 billion in wealth for shareholders, or an annualized dollar-weighted return of 16%, says Hendrik Bessembinder, a finance professor at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

However, the past two decades of that 30-year span have been another story.

The bottom line on Intel stock?

If you go all the way back to Intel's debut in the early 1970s as a publicly traded company, it beats the broader market handily. The chipmaker's annualized all-time total return stands at 14.4%. The S&P 500's annualized total return comes to 10.8% in the same span.

If you look at pretty much any other standardized period, an investment in INTC has been a major dud.

Intel stock trails the broader market by distressingly wide margins in the past five-, 10- and 20-year periods. Indeed, its five-year annualized total return is negative.

What does this sort of performance look like on a brokerage statement? Nothing short of ugly.

Have a look at the above chart, and you'll see that if you invested $1,000 in Intel stock 20 years ago, today your stake would be worth about $4,000, or an annualized total return of 7.4%.

The same amount invested in the S&P 500 would theoretically be worth about $7,000 today. That's good for an annualized total return of 11%.

As illustrious and iconic as the Intel brand might be, Intel stock has been nothing but a sinkhole of opportunity cost for buy-and-hold investors for a very long time.

So where does INTC stock go from here? Wall Street is mostly sitting on the sidelines, giving it a consensus recommendation of Hold. Of the 47 analysts covering Intel surveyed by S&P Global Market Intelligence, eight call it a Strong Buy, one says Buy and 32 have it at Hold. Four analysts rate INTC at Sell, while two say it's a Strong Sell.

Among their worries: the company is in the midst of a major restructuring as it struggles to right its floundering foundry business. True, the federal government took a 10% equity stake in 2025, and that's given INTC stock a boost. However, the foundry business continues to generate operating losses and is having difficulty lining up outside customers, among other issues.

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Nvidia (NVDA) cemented its place as the market's favorite bet on artificial intelligence (AI) three years ago and it shows no signs of letting up.

Indeed, the company has become so important to investors that Nvidia's earnings report helps set the tone for trading for the broader market.

To recap: OpenAI's ChaptGPT kicked off the AI frenzy at the end of 2022. Seemingly insatiable demand on the part of AI hyperscalers for Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) propelled NVDA stock past $1 trillion in market capitalization midway through 2023.

It took only about eight months for yet another blowout quarterly earnings report to push Nvidia stock past the $2 trillion mark.

Cut to early 2024 when Nvidia's over-the-top first-quarter earnings – plus a NVDA stock split and a dividend hike – pushed its market cap past $3 trillion.

As of this writing, Nvidia, which replaced Intel (INTC) in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in late 2024, is the world's largest publicly traded company. Indeed, it became the first company to top $4 trillion in market cap in July 2025. Four months later, Nvidia briefly exceeded $5 trillion in market cap before shares eased back.

But then, long-time shareholders should be used to such outsized rewards and risks by now.

That's because volatility has always been the price of admission to this long-time market beater. True, Nvidia, a highly cyclical semiconductor stock, has vastly outperformed the broader market since going public at the end of the last century.

Quite naturally, it has done so with several vertiginous ups and downs along the way.

After losing half its value in 2022, NVDA stock more than tripled on a price basis in 2023, vs a gain of 24% for the S&P 500.

And as for 2024? Nvidia stock gained more than 170% vs a 25% rise in the broader market. The stock once again led the broader market in 2025, albeit by "only" 21 percentage points.

Nvidia's market-beating ways go much farther back than most folks might know, however. In fact, few stocks have done more for investors over the past few decades than Nvidia.

From its initial public offering at $12 a share in January 1999 through December 2020, NVDA stock created $309.4 billion in shareholder wealth, according to an analysis by Hendrik Bessembinder, a finance professor at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

Indeed, per Bessembinder's findings, which account for a stock's increase in market value adjusted for cash flows in and out of the business and other factors, Nvidia was one of the 30 best stocks over that 30-year time frame.

Looked at another way, over its life as a publicly traded company, Nvidia stock generated an annualized total return of 37.1%. The S&P 500, with dividends reinvested, returned an annualized 10.8% over the same period.

Importantly, most of the shareholder wealth generated by Nvidia came over just the past few years. That's because back in the day, the primary market for Nvidia's chips consisted of PC and console video game enthusiasts.

Happily for Nvidia, it just so happens that the company's powerful GPUs and related intellectual property are indispensable to the fields of artificial intelligence, professional visualization, cryptocurrency mining and more.

As noted above, NVDA processors are in demand for use in data centers – and especially data centers that power generative AI. Indeed, the company is struggling to keep up with orders from hyperscalers such as Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL).

Few blue chip stocks offer so much exposure to so many emerging endeavors, which helps explain NVDA stock's amazing returns over the longer haul. AI has been NVDA's afterburner.

But as remarkable as the company's business may be, it doesn't quite get to the heart of what NVDA stock has meant to long-term shareholders and their brokerage statements. For that, consider the following facts about Nvidia stock.

The bottom line on Nvidia stock?

Over the past two decades, Nvidia stock generated an annualized total return (price change plus dividends) of 37.2%. The S&P 500, by comparison, generated an annualized total return of 10.9% over the same span.

What does that mean in dollar terms? Have a look at the above chart and you'll see that if you invested $1,000 in Nvidia stock 20 years ago, it would today be worth more than $560,000. The same amount invested in an S&P 500 index fund would theoretically be worth not quite $8,000 today.

As for adding to NVDA at current levels, the Street remains bullish even after the stock's incredible run. Indeed, NVDA rates as a top Dow Jones stock to buy.

Of the 63 analysts issuing opinions on Nvidia stock surveyed by S&P Global Market Intelligence, 49 rate it at Strong Buy, 11 say Buy, two call it a Hold and one has it at Strong Sell.

That works out to a rare consensus recommendation of Strong Buy. Indeed, Nvidia ranks among analysts' top S&P 500 stocks to buy now.

Speaking for the bulls, Oppenheimer analyst Rick Schafer says the AI build-out is still in its early days.

"Nvidia has transformed from a graphics company to a premier leading full stack AI solutions platform company," notes the analyst, who rates NVDA at Outperform (the equivalent of Buy.) "Compute continues to chase demand. NVDA ubiquitous AI platform best positioned to win."

Just remember that NVDA is ultimately a chip company, and the semiconductor industry is cyclical. As exciting as the AI build-out may be, Nvidia's growth prospects could still one day change.

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Apple (AAPL, $151.12) fanboys and AAPL stock bulls alike are amped for the coming launch of the iPhone 13. And Wedbush Securities says their enthusiasm is very much warranted.

Analyst Daniel Ives writes that recent supply-chain checks suggest a "normal" launch for the latest iteration of Apple's wildly popular smartphone, which he expects to drop in the third week of September.

That doesn't sound like good news for AAPL. But between the global shortage of semiconductors and spread of COVID-19 Delta variant overseas, "normal," in this case, is extremely good news.

Ives' Read on the iPhone

"Asia supply chain builds for iPhone 13 are currently still in the approximately 90 million unit range compared to our initial iPhone 12 reads at 80 million units (pre-COVID), and represent an approximately 10%-plus increase year-over-year out of the gates," Ives writes in a Tuesday note to clients.

Although the iPhone 13 build number "will clearly move around" over the coming months because of the global chip shortage, the analyst believes the data "speaks to an increased confidence with Apple CEO Tim Cook & Co. that this 5G-driven product cycle will extend well into 2022, and should also benefit from a post-vaccine consumer 'reopening environment.'"

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Fanboys will be happy to hear that Ives has increased confidence that the iPhone 13 will offer an "eye-popping" one-terabyte storage option. That's double the maximum storage capacity available in any previous iPhone model.

What It Means for Apple Stock

Apple bulls, meanwhile, should be pleased to know that the iPhone 13 remains the potential catalyst AAPL stock could probably use at this point.

Shares in Apple were up 13.9% for the year-to-date through Aug. 16, lagging the Nasdaq (14.8%), Dow Jones Industrial Average (16.4%) and S&P 500 (19.3%) over that span.

Although investors would surely like to see the world's largest publicly listed company beat the major benchmarks by year-end, let's remember: AAPL stock is nothing if not a long-term holding.

Just ask Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), and arguably the greatest long-term investor of all time. AAPL is by far Buffett's favorite stock, accounting for a whopping 41.5% of Berkshire Hathaway's total portfolio value as of June 30.

Wall Street is firmly in the buy-and-hold camp as well. Of the 42 analysts issuing opinions on AAPL stock tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence, 25 rate it at Strong Buy, seven say Buy, seven call it a Hold, one has it at Sell and two say Strong Sell. Their consensus recommendation comes to Buy, with high conviction, per S&P GMI.

The Street's average target price of $163.29, however, gives Apple stock implied upside of just 8% over the next year or so.

The bulls, naturally, expect much more from shares. As for Wedbush's Ives, he maintained his Outperform (Buy) rating, calling Apple "a top tech name to own." Meanwhile, the analyst's $185 price target gives AAPL implied upside of about 22% over the next 12 months.

"Our favorite large-cap tech name to play the 5G transformational cycle is Apple," writes Ives, "with the one-two punch of its massive services business and iPhone product cycle translating into a $3 trillion market cap for Cupertino in the next six to 12 months."

Apple's market cap was roughly $2.5 trillion as of Aug. 16.

A cyberthreat environment that was only getting more complex has been made even more dangerous with the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI). According to feedback from more than 3,500 cybersecurity and business leaders for IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025, the average cost of a data breach has reached $4.4 million.

It's a pretty safe bet that a world made even more dangerous by a hot war in the Middle East that threatens to escalate beyond the region and onto other fronts, cybersecurity costs will continue to increase.

"Threat actors are using AI to increase the success of their campaigns," says Nathaniel Jones, vice president of security and AI strategy at Darktrace. "Large language models (LLMs) make it easier to conduct research on targets, tailor phishing emails even more granularly and craft emails with more accurate spelling and grammar in a variety of languages."

And demand for cybersecurity solutions will likely remain robust. Grand View Research estimates the global cybersecurity market will reach $663.2 billion by 2033, growing at a compound annual rate of 11.9%.

How can investors play this secular trend? Here are six of the best cybersecurity stocks to buy as growth in the industry ramps up.

Data is as of March 24. Analysts' annual long-term earnings-per-share (EPS) growth estimate represents the estimated average rate of earnings growth for the next three to five years and is courtesy of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

• Market value: $7.0 billion
• Analysts' consensus annual EPS growth estimate: 349.0%

SailPoint (SAIL) develops identity security solutions for enterprises. The SailPoint cybersecurity solution provides customers with extensive visibility across an organization.

It manages employees and non-employees, like contractors and partners, as well as machine entities, such as application-level accounts, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and even AI agents. There are also tools to create, control and automate policies.

Identity has become a growing target of cybersecurity threads. According to a survey from the Identity Defined Security Alliance, about 90% of the respondents said they suffered a breach.

SailPoint has shown that its solutions can make a difference, and it continues to gain traction with large customers. The company reported annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $1.12 billion for fiscal Q4 2026, up 28% on a year-over-year basis.

SailPoint completed its initial public offering last February, raising $1.38 billion. Its post-IPO performance has been lackluster, with the stock down more than 45%. Yet price action does provide an attractive entry point for investors seeking the best cybersecurity stocks.

• Market value: $3.3 billion
• Analysts' consensus annual EPS growth estimate: 7.7%

Founded in 1999, Qualys (QLYS) is one of the pioneering developers of software-as-a-service (SaaS) for cybersecurity. Its initial focus was on vulnerability management and providing automated scans of local area networks (LANs).

At the time, it was a controversial strategy. The standard approach to cybersecurity was to use hardware systems — such as firewalls — for on-premise environments.

But leadership at Qualys was convinced the SaaS approach was superior, creating advantages on cost efficiency, scale, real-time monitoring and collaboration.

Over the years, the strategy proved to be spot-on. Qualys also would go on to build a comprehensive suite of capabilities, including identity management, remediation, compliance assessments and analysis of large IT security data. Despite all these efforts, Qualys has seen a deceleration in growth. But there is a potential catalyst to get things back on track.

In late 2024, Qualys launched TotalAI, which is focused on addressing the cybersecurity threats of generative AI. TotalAI handles the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) Top 10 most critical risks for LLMs, such as prompt injections, model theft and the disclosure of sensitive information. TotalAI could help accelerate growth for Qualys.

According to a survey, about 70% of enterprises plan to use LLMs in production within the next year, and 40% say that AI model risk is a notable concern. So Qualys is well-positioned among the best cybersecurity stocks.

• Market value: $4.4 billion
• Analysts' consensus annual EPS growth estimate: 0.3%

Tomer Weingarten cofounded SentinelOne (S) in 2013 because he believed cybersecurity solutions were becoming obsolete. They were mostly based on the brute force of pattern matching. Weingarten imagined a much better approach using AI. It would be more adaptable, and it could learn in real time.

The first few years proved to be challenging. His AI-first vision mostly fell on deaf ears. But, as AI started to gain momentum — accelerated by breakthroughs in deep learning — Weingarten's startup started to get more attention.

Customers wanted better approaches and saw SentinelOne as something to take a bet on. Its longtime focus on endpoint protection, detection and response helps it fend off a variety of threats like malware and ransomware. These solutions would ultimately become part of SentinelOne's comprehensive Singularity platform.

In April 2024, SentinelOne launched Purple AI, which leverages LLMs so users can write natural language queries. In practice, it means a security analyst can use the system without having to understand query languages.

So far, the customer response has been quite positive. The company reported full-year revenue growth of 20% for fiscal 2026. And it forecast revenue growth of 20% for fiscal 2027.

SentinelOne has announced several partnerships to distribute Purple AI, including one with Lenovo, the world's largest PC manufacturer. The company plans to bundle Singularity and Purple AI on new enterprise PC shipments.

"Purple," Weingarten has said, "is one of the fastest-growing solutions in SentinelOne's history and will continue to drive meaningful growth into the future."

• Market value: $2.2 billion
• Analysts' consensus annual EPS growth estimate: 13.5%

In 1998, when Renaud Deraison was only 17 years old, he created an open software project called Nessus. It was a full-blown vulnerability scanner.

From the start, Nessus saw a large number of downloads. Four years later, Deraison would cofound Tenable (TENB) with Nessus at the heart of the business.

He's continued to build on that solid foundation. Tenable has entered other categories like cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) solutions and cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM).

Ultimately, the company's product focus would converge on exposure management and developing systems that take a proactive approach to cybersecurity by providing comprehensive visibility into potential vulnerabilities.

Tenable's acquisition of Vulcan Cyber is a key strategic investment in exposure management. The combination will allow for consolidating data into a single hub, which will be a part of the Tenable One platform. Ultimately, it will boost visibility on potential threats and enable the more effective use of AI.

Tenable's top line has looked a little lackluster lately. But bolstering exposure management applications should provide a revenue boost.

And the company enjoys strong customer loyalty and market penetration. More than half of its customers are Fortune 500 companies, and the remainder includes Global 200 enterprises and major government agencies.

Solid long-term fundamentals and continuing investments in scalable operations should support long-term growth and make Tenable one of the best cybersecurity stocks to buy.

• Market value: $128.3 billion
• Analysts' consensus annual EPS growth estimate: -0.3%

In early 2024, Palo Alto Networks (PANW) CEO Nikesh Arora, introduced his "platformization" strategy.

"Platformization" was based on Arora's belief that customers had to manage too many point solutions. His breakthrough idea was that companies wanted to consolidate on fewer vendors.

Fewer vendors would allow for improved integration, more cohesive user interfaces and lower costs.

Wall Street was skeptical of Arora's plan, mostly due to his willingness to give away some of his solutions in the bundle. Would there be enough to make up for the shortfall?

It appears these worries were overblown. Platformization has driven larger deals with customers. Palo Alto Networks recently said that contracts worth more than $5 million and more than $10 million both grew by about 50% year over year.

This has made a difference for total revenue, which increased by 15% during its fiscal 2026 second quarter to $2.6 billion.

Palo Alto has completed roughly 1,550 platformizations among its top customers. And there's much more runway left for growth, as the sweet spot for this tech stock's strategy is about 5,000 customers. And that makes PANW one of the best cybersecurity stocks to buy.

• Market value: $15.5 billion
• Analysts' consensus annual EPS growth estimate: 8.7%

In 1993, Gil Shwed, Marius Nacht and Shlomo Kramer cofounded Check Point Software Technologies (CHKP). It was the perfect time to start a cybersecurity company: the dawn of the internet revolution.

The company capitalized by building pioneering firewall systems for network security. Check Point has continued to focus on innovation and now has several cybersecurity platforms.

They include Quantum Network Security (firewalls and security gateways), CloudGuard Cloud Security (protection across cloud systems), Harmony Endpoint Security (security for devices) and Infinity Unified Management (a centralized security system).

Despite its evolving solutions, Check Point has seen somewhat sluggish growth over the past couple of years. Sales grew by 6.3% to $2.73 billion in 2025.

But management has been making major changes. A key part of the update is, of course, AI. And Check Point has seen traction with its Infinity AI Copilot.

Based on generative AI, Innfinity AI helps automate complex security tasks and allows for proactive threat detection. And tests indicate it can reduce by up to 90% the time needed to perform common tasks.

Check Point has also been using generative AI to streamline its own operations, including product design and customer experience. Just as the internet was a catalyst for growth in the company's early days, generative AI may provide a boost for CHKP in the current era.

And that's why it's one of the best cybersecurity stocks to buy.

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5G technology is set to become one of the most important technologies for the next several years. This isn't news – 5G stocks have been on investors' radars for quite some time.

In fact, 5G stocks as purely 5G plays are almost played out.

Still, the tremendous growth in the space is hard to ignore. For instance, 5G network infrastructure spending doubled in 2020 after a staggering 350% rise in 2019, according to a forecast from Gartner.

"Early 5G adopters are driving greater competition among (communication services providers)," says Kosei Takiishi, senior research director at Gartner. "In addition, governments and regulators are fostering mobile network development and betting that it will be a catalyst and multiplier for widespread economic growth across many industries."

But investors looking to play this powerful trend should perhaps consider 5G stocks that have other things going for them. Most catalysts likely will at least tie into 5G use as the network continues to roll out and new uses are discovered, but in some cases, strong parts of the bull argument are completely independent from 5G.

Here are seven 5G stocks that can continue to benefit from the growth in the technology, but also boast other factors that make them even more appealing.

Data is as of March 1. Dividend yields are calculated by annualizing the most recent payout and dividing by the share price.

• Market value: $126.1 billion
• Dividend yield: 2.7%
• Catalyst: Automation

The German-based industrial conglomerate Siemens (SIEGY, $78.91) isn't an obvious play on 5G … at least when looking at 5G as purely a consumer-based technology. However, outside the world of faster downloads to a smartphone, 5G networks can be built on non-cellular networks.

For a giant factory, enabling a business-level 5G network can allow for more optimized automation, which can drive costs down and directly improve a company's bottom line.

"Enterprise applications allowing different machines to talk to each other in factories and automation. That's a real 5G use case that you're starting to see," says Reaves Asset Management analyst Brian Weeks. "That's not mobile internet, those are private networks that don't rely on a wireless spectrum."

Siemens is the leader in these business and industrial applications for 5G technology – not just in use, but in development. In November, for instance, the company released the first industrial 5G router. These routers will allow companies to integrate networks and better automate processes across giant plants.

BofA Securities analysts give Siemens a Buy rating and recently upgraded their estimates in part because of "strong growth and good visibility in China on both industrial automation and software businesses."

While SIEGY shares, which trade over-the-counter in the U.S., have been flat for years, a broader shift into industrial stocks, as well as Siemens' advances in industrial automation, could drive better performance going forward.

• Market value: $200.8 billion
• Dividend yield: 7.4%
• Catalyst: Streaming

You can't have a list of 5G stocks without one of the major telecoms.

AT&T (T, $28.09) has spent several years and mountains of debt – $151 billion in long-term IOUs as of the end of 2020 – building itself into more than just a telecom play.

Its acquisitions of DirecTV and Time Warner gave it access to broadcasting as well as content creation. The former hasn't gone so well; AT&T has been trying to unload its satellite business for months, and finally agreed to a deal with private equity firm TPG Capital that will see the firm spin off DirecTV into a separate entity.

However, Time Warner – which includes Warner Bros., HBO, and numerous Turner properties including CNN, TBS and TNT – is a catalyst some investors might be sleeping on.

The company's HBO Max service saw signups surge by 40% amid the exclusive release of Wonder Woman 1984 starting on Christmas. That's a higher growth rate than Disney's (DIS) Disney+ enjoyed when it released the highly anticipated Hamilton on its service in July, though it was starting from a lower number.

It's a potential catalyst, albeit one with some risks. Some signups might not stay with the service, especially given its high price of $14.99. There also are worries about streaming interest waning as COVID-19 does.

"The nearly $5 billion investment in HBO Max over the next five years represents a substantial risk for AT&T if subscriber acquisition/retention metrics and/or financial returns for the service do not accord with management's projections," writes Argus Research analyst Joseph Bonner (Buy). But he adds, "We think management did a good job with content and pricing, and will undoubtedly market the new service through all of its many consumer touch points."

Despite this, and the potential wave of growth from 5G service, shares trade like … well, a telecom. T stock is priced at less than nine times future earnings estimates, largely out of concerns about the company's high debt level and what it means for the sustainability of the dividend. AT&T pays out $2.08 per share annually, translating into a high 7% yield at current prices.

The good news on that front? The TPG deal will give AT&T $7.8 billion to use against its debt, and Argus believes it will "have a positive effect on margins and EBITDA growth."

• Market value: $29.2 billion
• Dividend yield: 0.9%
• Catalyst: 4G

What if 5G networks take more time than expected to roll out? Technological hiccups aren't exactly rare, and already, some early predictions for 5G network coverage have been proven overly optimistic.

In that case, companies still providing 4G coverage should fare well.

But no matter how fast or slow 5G rolls out, it's all good news for cell tower companies. Why? Because these firms act as the onramp for network coverage, no matter what generation. It's effectively an oligopoly that drives strong returns for the participants. Even better, the likelihood of future tower growth is slim; most 5G tech will use much of the same tower real estate as the existing 4G network.

"The biggest winner from 3G to 4G were the towers," says Reaves Asset Management's Weeks. "You didn't even have to pick the right one, you just had to throw a dart. It's one of the best business models ever. The existing inventory of towers in the U.S. is the inventory in the future. You can't really build new towers because of zoning and regulatory issues."

Enter SBA Communications (SBAC, $262.80).

SBA Communications is a telecommunications real estate investment trust (REIT) that leases infrastructure out to telecom providers. While REITs are a traditionally dividend-friendly sector given their mandate to share most of their profits with stock owners, SBAC doesn't offer much in the way of yield. Fortunately, that's largely a byproduct of its rapid share price growth over the past few years.

Given the company's likely growth trajectory on fixed costs and rising profits, however, the yield is likely to increase over time.

The company recently made a $973 million deal with PG&E (PCG) to place its antennas on the utility company's electric towers – a deal UBS's Batya Levi (Buy) says "will increase leverage." She adds, however, that "management expects to return to its targeted range by YE21 while still supporting a 25% dividend increase, other portfolio growth and/or continued share repurchases."

SBAC shares have cooled off significantly after years of ramping higher, and are now down roughly a quarter from their 52-week highs. That provides a much better entry point for this eventual 5G beneficiary.

• Market value: $342.9 billion
• Dividend yield: 0.1%
• Catalyst: IoT, AI, machine learning, cryptocurrency

Nvidia's (NVDA, $553.67) graphics processors are a key ingredient for the various tools that will run on 5G networks. For instance, in early 2020, Nvidia reported that researchers were using the company's processors to develop artificial intelligence that could use machine learning more efficiently for growing out the 5G network.

"We have found that for some very hard telecom problems, there's no math formulation, but AI can learn the problem models automatically, enhancing our GPU-based parallel solutions," says Yan Huang, a PhD student and researcher on the project.

In short, Nvidia might just surprise as a 5G play, as it can help develop the technologies that run on it. It might even come up with the most ubiquitous uses that, 10 years for now, seem obvious in hindsight if they seem impossible today.

Regardless, Nvidia's current role in a number of other emerging technologies – take your pick, whether it's the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies – places it front and center of a digital gold rush, much like the pick-and-shovel sellers in the gold rushes of yore obtained the safest and most consistent profits.

Consider the company's most recent report, which showed 2020 revenues up 53% year-over-year, and adjusted earnings up 73%. Those results were driven by products attached to a number of these trends, such as the company's A100 universal AI data center GPUs.

"Thousands of companies across the world are applying NVIDIA AI to create cloud-connected products with AI services that will transform the world's largest industries," CEO Jensen Huang said in a release.

From a hardware standpoint, Nvidia is a major player in a lot of areas. 5G is just a slice of a fast-growing pie.

• Market value: $158.8 billion
• Dividend yield: 1.9%
• Catalyst: Mobile infrastructure upgrades

Qualcomm (QCOM, $139.49), which is essentially a warehouse of patents on wireless communications, is another likely winner in the 5G race.

"Qualcomm is truly an incredible company (we own its shares, which we bought for the first time in 2015)," writes portfolio manager Vitaliy Katsenelson. "It owns essential patents on wireless technology. Your mobile phone runs on Qualcomm's intellectual property. Every time a mobile phone is sold on any part of this large planet, Qualcomm collects a few bucks. An incredible and very profitable business."

That's true whether a phone is 4G or 5G. Even if the upgrade cycle to 5G takes longer than expected, Qualcomm still benefits. That's the beauty of the company's royalty business model.

Remember: This isn't a one-and-done event. A study by Cambridge's Edward Oughton and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid's Zoraida Frias estimates that 5G won't even reach 90% penetration until 2027. No matter how long the rollout takes, that leaves a long runway for companies benefitting from the trend, and a company selling products to suppliers of mobile devices on a royalty basis will likely continue to be a big winner, even if the market has already realized it.

QCOM has other avenues of growth, too. For instance, Argus Research's Jim Kelleher (Buy) says of Qualcomm's recent acquisition of Nuvia, "This under-the-radar acquisition, in our view, can accelerate Qualcomm's development of ARM-based CPUs for cloud and data center applications."

Still, 5G is an unquestionably significant driver for QCOM going forward.

"We believe that Qualcomm has barely begun to monetize its significant intellectual capital and multigenerational lead in 5G technology," Kelleher says. "As the 5G ramp moves from mainly infrastructure investment to the mass adoption of 5G handsets, we continue to look for a significant boost to revenue, margins, and EPS."

• Market value: $1.6 trillion
• Dividend yield: N/A
• Catalyst: Autonomous fleets and warehouses

Amazon.com (AMZN, $3,146.14) founder Jeff Bezos announced in early February that he would step down as CEO later this year. His replacement? Andy Jassy, who currently leads the company's cloud business.

Many consumers still see Amazon as a primarily online retail operation. While that's a massive business, the profit driver is the company's Amazon Web Services. The development of the company's cloud storage business and ancillary services has generated far thicker profits – which the company admittedly sometimes wipes clean with massive expansion reinvestments – than in its internet retail operations.

Here, the industrial applications of local 5G networks come into play. Amazon could easily test out autonomous fleets running on a local 5G network, which might allow it to better automate its warehouses.

"AWS is uniquely positioned for enabling the grid of the future," the company notes. "With the scalability that can deliver dynamic load flows in near-real time, AWS can offer unprecedented insights to the grid operators of the future. With sophisticated AI/ML tools, AWS can carry the heavy lift of complex decision making in controlling these dynamic grids, where generation and load (electric vehicles) can itself be mobile too."

5G or not, Amazon will continue to benefit from the two-headed monster that is its e-commerce and AWS services.

"As the leader in two large and rapidly growing sectors (eCommerce & cloud), with an emerging high margin marketing business, Amazon remains well positioned in a recovery scenario given cloud services, marketing services and certain eCommerce categories/geographies are still in the early phases of development," say Stifel's analysts, which rate the stock at Buy.

• Market value: $1.4 trillion
• Dividend yield: N/A
• Catalyst: Software suite for 5G applications

Sure, Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL, $2,069.66) is already releasing 5G versions of its Pixel smartphone. But that hardware story has been known for some time.

At the end of 2020, Google expanded its Anthos 5G ecosystem, which allows its software applications to better utilize 5G networks. Anthos is simply the company's old Cloud Services division, which was rebranded in 2019.

This software side of the equation is where the real catalyst for higher profits for the company going forward – and likely a higher share price.

"When 5G is available to them, enterprise customers can benefit from higher speeds and lower latency, and Anthos makes it very easy for these customers to then deploy an application once and scale it across networks, including to the edge – which is why we call it 'the effortless edge,'" Amol Phadke, Google Cloud's managing director, said in a release announcing the Anthos expansion.

Right now, this side of the business is still reinventing itself for 5G applications. In February, Google reported $15.6 billion in Q4 earnings. This cloud services division lost more than $1.2 billion – more than its notoriously unprofitable "Other Bets" division, which lost $1.1 billion.

In time, however, this division could end up being a major growth and profit center for the company. "5G needs the cloud more than the cloud needs 5G," Reaves Asset Management's Brian Weeks quips.

Dow Jones stocks won't always keep up in a rising market, but you can't beat them when it comes to stability and defense in a down market.

Case in point: the benchmark S&P 500 is up 22% on a price basis since over past 52 weeks, while the "growthier" but riskier tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has added more than 30%.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, that elite list of 30 more mature industry leaders, rose less than 18% over the same span.

You can blame the Magnificent 7 stocks for much of the Dow's lagging ways in the bull market. Of the mega-cap tech names driving so much of the bull market's returns, only Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Nvidia (NVDA) can be found in the blue-chip average.

The fact that the Dow is weighted by price rather than market cap limits the Mag 7's contributions on the way up, but then it also helps limit any damage on their way down.

That sort of underperformance hurts, but remember that stocks don't always go up. Take 2026, for example. When the market swooned in March, the Nasdaq was off nearly 11% for the year to date at one point, while the S&P 500 shed more than 7%. The more resilient Dow lost 6% at its year-to-date nadir.

That's generally what the Dow is supposed to do. Half of the average's components are low-beta stocks. That means they tend to lag in up markets, but hold up better when everything is selling off.

This low-beta influence can have advantages for long-term investors. After all, as bright a time as it's been for equity investors over the past several years, downside risks very much remain.

A new international trade regime had already injected uncertainty into markets – and that was before the war with Iran threatened to upend the global economy.

Although fears of an economic slowdown are receding, worries about an AI-fueled bubble are rising. BofA Securities recently cut its year-end price target on the S&P 500 to 7,100. That gives the index implied downside from current levels.

Savita Subramanian, head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy, noted that seven out of 10 of BofA's bear market indicators have now been triggered – a signal that historically matches levels seen right before market peaks.

Should such a change in market fortunes come to pass ... well, that's where Dow Jones stocks come in.

Dow Jones stocks ranked

This collection of industry-leading companies and dividend growth stalwarts with their fortress-like balance sheets can offer relative stability in tempestuous market times.

From the best Dow dividend stocks to the most widely held blue chip stocks, components of the industrial average occupy top spots in the portfolios of hedge funds and billionaire investors.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), in particular, is a huge fan of select Dow stocks.

To get a sense of which Dow Jones stocks Wall Street recommends at an increasingly uncertain time for equities, we screened the DJIA by analysts' consensus recommendations, from worst to first, using data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Here's how the ratings system works: S&P surveys analysts' stock calls and scores them on a five-point scale, where 1.0 equals a Strong Buy and 5.0 is a Strong Sell. Scores between 3.5 and 2.5 translate into Hold recommendations.

Scores higher than 3.5 equate to Sell ratings, while scores equal to or below 2.5 mean that analysts, on average, rate shares at Buy. The closer a score gets to 1.0, the higher conviction the Buy recommendation.

In other words, lower scores are better than higher scores.

See the table below for analysts' consensus recommendations on all 30 Dow Jones stocks, per S&P Global Market Intelligence, as of June 9, 2026.

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Forget the Dow. Forget the S&P 500. If you're looking for the major index with the most pep in its performance step, look to the Nasdaq-100 – and the growing number of Nasdaq-100 ETFs and mutual funds that allow you to enjoy its fortunes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was for decades America's premier stock index, the favored proxy of domestic industry.

Over time, the Dow was eclipsed by the S&P 500 Index. By virtue of tracking 500 companies versus the 30 Dow Jones stocks, the S&P could cover a wider array of firms and better represent the spectrum of U.S. business.

But, from a pure return perspective, both suffer in comparison to the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 Index. The Nasdaq-100, introduced in 1985, is a select slice of the larger Nasdaq Composite's largest nonfinancial companies.

The index has long been dominated by the best tech stocks, with technology currently accounting for roughly 60% of its total weight.

But it also includes sizeable slugs of high-growth consumer discretionary plays, communication services stocks, and significant health care and industrials exposure too.

The Nasdaq-100 has been a monster outperformer over the long run, delivering a 464% total return (price change plus dividends) during the past decade, easily outdoing the Dow (+213%), S&P 500 (+265%) and the Nasdaq Composite (357%).

The folks over at investment management company Invesco are surely loving it. They sponsor the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), which has allowed investors to take advantage of those rapid gains for decades.

The popularity of QQQ has spawned several related equal-weight, inverse and leveraged products over the years.

More recently, Invesco has leveraged QQQ's success into a number of related investment products tied to the fund (more on those in a moment).

Read on as we examine 14 of the best Nasdaq-100 ETFs and mutual funds. A few of these funds are direct plays on the index itself, while the rest offer various ways to slice, dice and even amplify the Nasdaq-100.

Data is as of July 29.

• Assets under management: $362.4 billion
• Expenses: 0.20%, or $20 annually for every $10,000 invested

Ultimately, the Nasdaq-100 Index is just a set of data. The Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) turned that dataset into shareholder returns.

QQQ came to life in March 1999 – unfortunate timing for its first few years, given the dot-com bubble burst shortly thereafter. But, given its total return, long-term investors aren't exactly complaining.

Between 2010 and 2013, QQQ assets had grown from $22 billion to $38 billion. Today, it's more than $360 billion under management, and QQQ has become ubiquitous. You can find it in limited-selection beginner investment apps and robo advisers, and even its options contracts are popular.

As for its innards, the QQQ ETF is a simple index fund that tracks the Nasdaq-100. Top holdings include artificial intelligence juggernaut Nvidia (NVDA) as well as familiar tech names such as Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT).

The portfolio also includes consumer giant Amazon.com (AMZN), upstart semiconductor company Broadcom (AVGO), electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla (TSLA) and social media conglomerate Meta Platforms (META).

It's not quite accurate to call the Nasdaq-100 a broad index because there are so many areas of the market that are quiet or downright missing in QQQ. But it's not a wholesale tech ETF, either.

It is what it is, mostly for better than for worse.

Learn more about QQQ at the Invesco provider site.

• Assets under management: $1.3 billion
• Expenses: 0.35%

Invesco might be the most well-known fund to leverage the Nasdaq-100, but Direxion offers an interesting take on the index, too.

The Direxion Nasdaq-100 Equal Weighted Index Shares (QQQE) invests in an equal-weighted version of the Nasdaq-100. Every March, June, September and December, the index is rebalanced, resetting each of its 100 stocks at 1% of assets.

Their weight will fluctuate depending on how they perform over the next three months, but once the next rebalancing occurs, they're all set back onto equal footing.

That means "bottom" Nasdaq-100 holdings like Micron Technology (MU) and Automatic Data Processing (ADP) have just as much sway as the Apples and Microsofts – and, now, the Nvidias – of the world.

The good news? There's far less single-stock risk. Consider that, with QQQ, three stocks each account for more than 7% of its performance, and there are a few more with healthy single-digit weights.

A bad stretch for any one of those stocks could cancel out the progress of several smaller-weighted constituents, thus dragging on the ETF's returns. Equal-weighting blunts this downside risk.

The bad news? Over the long term, it doesn't allow its winners to ride.

The reason the likes of Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia are overwhelming factors in the major indexes (which tend to be weighted by market capitalization) is simply because they've grown so much. This allows these indexes to increasingly benefit in their upside.

Ultimately, the choice between QQQE and QQQ comes down to what you're comfortable with from a risk perspective.

Learn more about QQQE at the Direxion provider site.

• Assets under management: $56.1 billion
• Expenses: 0.15%

While QQQ is wildly popular, it does have one small shortcoming: Compared to many other broad-market and sector index funds, its annual fees are a touch on the high side.

However, Invesco took care of that in October 2020 by launching the Invesco Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQM). It's simply a cheaper version of QQQ. At 0.15% annually, it costs five basis points fewer than its sister fund. (A basis point = 0.01%.)

So . . . why not just make QQQ cheaper? The QQQ ETF is an extremely liquid fund that changes hands at a rate of more than 40 million shares daily. As a result, it's able to create tight bid-ask spreads.

That's ideal for traders, who aren't as concerned about low expense ratios as longer-term investors. Rather than drop the fee on QQQ, Invesco created QQQM for buy-and-hold investors who are focused on cost savings.

Invesco can't complain. In fewer than three years, QQQM soaked up more than $56 billion in assets – without kneecapping the QQQ, which continues to expand apace.

As for investors, if you want to buy the Nasdaq-100 Index and hold it, your most significant cost savings will be from the five-basis-point discount in QQQM.

Traders, however, will benefit more from entering and exiting trades with pinpoint precision, which the QQQ's trading volume offers.

Learn more about QQQM at the Invesco provider site.

• Assets under management: $7.7 billion
• Expenses: 0.42%

Before we discuss a few other Nasdaq-100 ETFs, we should point out that the index can support more than just exchange-traded funds.

It might sound funny to call a $7.7 billion mutual fund a "hidden gem." But it's not far from the truth with Victory Nasdaq-100 Index Fund (USNQX).

USNQX, which launched in October 2000, is almost as old as QQQ. But it boasts a small fraction of the ETF's assets.

And it's not for lack of performance: USNQX ranks in the top 10% of funds in its category (large growth) for every meaningful long-term time frame.

The 0.42% expense ratio is more than you'd pay for the Invesco QQQ Trust (and it's much higher than ETFs on average, for that matter).

But it's roughly half the Morningstar category average expense of 0.785%, so USNQX is at least relatively cheap. And it should be, given that this is an index fund.

As you might expect, Victory Nasdaq-100 Index Fund's holdings and breakdown are virtually identical to QQQ. They both just track the index.

Learn more about USNQX at the Victory Capital provider site.

• Assets under management: $74.3 million
• Expenses: 0.20%

The Invesco ESG Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQMG, $38.98) is another of the funds Invesco created to capitalize on QQQ's popularity. Its October 2021 launch also dovetailed with the rising popularity of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing.

As the name suggests, this ETF invests in Nasdaq-100 stocks that also meet certain ESG criteria. Among the requirements for inclusion:

• meet an ESG Risk Rating Score threshold;
• be deemed compliant with U.N. Global Compact principles;
• meet business controversy-level requirements; and
• not be involved in certain business activities, including alcohol, cannabis, controversial weapons, gambling, military weapons, nuclear power, oil & gas and tobacco.

The ESG filters keep out fewer than 10% of QQQ's holdings – mostly energy stocks but also industrial heavyweight Honeywell (HON).

From a sector perspective, you lose a little exposure to several sectors. The portfolio is concentrated in tech, which represents 62.5% of assets vs 53.3% in QQQ.

It's not a massive difference. But if you're looking for a slightly greener version of QQQ without any oil and gas exposure, QQMG does the trick.

Learn more about QQMG at the Direxion provider site.

• Assets under management: $173.8 million
• Expenses: 0.29%

The Invesco Nasdaq 100 Index Fund (IVNQX), which was launched alongside QQQM, allows investors to track the Nasdaq-100 Index with a mutual fund.

This fund, which will provide similar coverage as QQQ and QQQM, was created to allow Invesco to reach a broader audience. Specifically, it's aimed at retirement accounts, which often can't access ETFs.

Indeed, IVNQX represents Class R6 shares, which are primarily intended for retirement plans, shareholders of omnibus intermediaries that meet certain standards, and institutional investors. In short, it's unlikely you'll be able to access IVNQX with a traditional brokerage account.

Fortunately, your traditional brokerage account will have access to QQQ and QQQM, so it's not an issue.

Learn more about IVNQX at the Invesco provider site.

Call 'em sequels, call 'em spinoffs: The next three funds aren't traditional Nasdaq-100 ETFs. But they're closely related, and they've picked up significant followings of their own. The expense ratios for the following funds range from 0.15% to 0.20%.

First to market, in October 2020, was the Invesco Nasdaq Next Gen 100 ETF (QQQJ). Think of this as the Nasdaq-100's junior varsity squad. While QQQ ETF tracks the 100 largest Nasdaq non-financials, QQQJ tracks the next 100 largest stocks, hence the name.

QQQJ is similar to QQQ in some ways but different in others. For instance, like its older sister fund, QQQJ is heavy in tech, which is the top sector allocation at 39%.

What has set it apart from inception is a much larger position in health care (20.6% to QQQ's 4.8%) and industrials (10.2% to QQQ's 3.5%).

Since inception, the Next Gen's index has traded similarly to the Nasdaq-100 but with periods of clear outperformance and underperformance.

In October 2021, Invesco launched the Invesco ESG NASDAQ Next Gen 100 ETF (QQJG), an ESG-screened version of QQQJ.

The ESG screening doesn't have much of an impact at present, eliminating just a few holdings.

Then, in October 2022, Invesco introduced the Invesco NASDAQ Future Gen 200 ETF (QQQS) – and no, it's not the next 100 stocks up after the Next Gen ETF.

QQQS tracks the Nasdaq Innovators Completion Cap Index, which is made up of 200 small-cap stocks "with the most valuable patent portfolios relative to their total market value as deemed by Nasdaq," according to the fund site.

The index selects its holdings from the Nasdaq Composite, but those holdings can't be Nasdaq-100 or Nasdaq Next Generation 100 stocks.

Learn more about these ETFs at Invesco: QQQJ | QQJG | QQQS

• Expenses: 0.95%

This last group of ETFs is not for the faint of heart. More specifically, these funds are not designed for buy-and-hold investors. Except for ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ, which has an expense ratio of 0.84%, the expense ratio for these funds is 0.95%.

ProShares offers several ETFs that provide leveraged, as well as inverse, exposure to the Nasdaq-100 Index.

"Leveraged" exposure typically means the fund produces multiple times the performance of an index on a daily basis.

With the ProShares Ultra QQQ (QLD), you're getting two times – or two-times – the daily performance of the Nasdaq-100. That gives you the opportunity to double your gains . . . but also to double your losses. The ProShares UltraPro QQQ provides three-times positive exposure.

"Inverse" exposure means you're getting the inverse of an index's performance. Let's say the Nasdaq-100 Index goes down 1% tomorrow; the ProShares Short QQQ (PSQ) should gain 1% (minus expenses, of course).

You can combine the two ideas – leveraged and inverse exposure – via the ProShares UltraShort QQQ (QID), a negative two-times fund, and the ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ (SQQQ), a negative three-times fund.

We've previously noted that the ProShares Short S&P500 ETF (SH) provides inverse, or negative 1x, exposure to the S&P 500 and is a fairly safe and straightforward hedge against the market. That makes it one of the best bear market ETFs to buy.

The same goes with PSQ, which also offers negative 1x exposure to the Nasdaq-100. If the market heads higher, these products naturally will lose value – but not at an accelerated rate like their leveraged brethren.

However, two-times and three-times products are best left to day traders and the pros. A wrong bet on these products can compound in a hurry.

They're generally too heavy on risk for most individual investors.

Learn more about these inverse ETFs at ProShares: QLD | TQQQ | PSQ | QID | SQQQ

• The Best Tech Stocks of All Time
• The 25 Best No-Load Mutual Funds You Can Buy
• Kip ETF 20: The Best Cheap ETFs You Can Buy

Cheap stocks – those that trade for a small nominal dollar amount, say, less than $10 – are a double-edged sword. And those blades can be even sharper in the case of tech stocks.

On the one hand, while the actual dollar price of a stock typically doesn’t tell you much about it (a $50 stock can be every bit as secure as a $500 stock), at a certain point, stock price does matter. Some institutional buyers (such as mutual funds) will avoid stocks under $10, and even more will give the cold shoulder under $5. Under the $1 mark, exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq likely will threaten to delist the stocks. That’s because typically, at those prices, stocks are trying to tell you something – and it’s often not a positive message.

The flip side? Institutional buyers can inflate stock valuations, so a lack thereof can keep them undervalued. The same goes for Wall Street analysts – typically, sub-$10 stocks may only have a few pros paying attention, further lowering the likelihood that these shares are overcrowded.

Here are 10 cheap tech stocks to buy that all trade for less than $10. Importantly, they all show significant growth potential, and according to TipRanks’ data covering the past few months, they all boast a “Moderate Buy” or “Strong Buy” consensus rating from the few Street analysts still covering the stocks. Just remember: Cheap stocks often are cheap for a reason; all of these carry considerable risk. Only approach these plays with funds from the speculative portion of your portfolio.

Data is as of March 10.

• Market value: $243.6 million
• TipRanks consensus price target: $4.04 (30% upside potential)
• TipRanks consensus rating: Strong Buy

Mobile app advertising platform Digital Turbine (APPS, $3.10) is enjoying strong momentum right now thanks to its recent release of stellar earnings results for the December quarter.

Revenue came in at $30.4 million, up from $22.7 million in the previous quarter, and the company recorded EBITDA from continuing operations of $3.8 million (it earned roughly zero in the year-ago period). Gross margins soared for the third quarter in a row.

“We believe that Digital Turbine’s results over the past few years and focus on the core product and new products has positioned the company with some of the best fundamentals in the technology sector,” writes National Securities analyst Ilya Grozovsky.

As a result of the earning results, and a positive 2019 outlook, the analyst ramped up his calendar-year 2019 revenue and adjusted EBITDA estimates to $121 million and $11 million, respectively, from $116 million and $8 million.

Grozovsky also reiterated his “Buy” rating and boosted his price target from $3.50 to $4.15 – 34% upside from current prices. For more information on Digital Turbine’s shares, get a free APPS Research Report from TipRanks.

• Market value: $179.8 million
• TipRanks consensus price target: $9.38 (54% upside potential)
• TipRanks consensus rating: Strong Buy
• Adesto Technologies (IOTS, $6.11) is a leading developer of semiconductors including non-volatile memory solutions, application-specific integrated circuits and intellectual property cores.

Four analysts are currently covering IOTS, and all four have “Buy” ratings on the stock. One of these pros is Canaccord Genuity’s Michael Walkley. This five-star analyst recently reiterated his bullish call on the stock with a $9 price target (47% upside potential).

“Our positive investment thesis is based on our expectation that strong (Internet of Things) endpoint growth over the next several years will require low-power and long-battery-life solutions that should benefit Adesto’s portfolio and its differentiated memory solutions,” he writes. “We believe new products including MavriqCM and EcoXiP address new large market opportunities and even modest share gains could result in upside versus our estimates and consensus.”

Walkley thinks this will drive strong revenue growth and generate significant operating leverage. He now believes the company will go from a non-GAAP net loss in 2018 to a 43-cent-per-share profit in 2020. He concludes, “We believe Adesto is uniquely positioned with its products to generate strong long-term earnings growth.”

For further insights on this tech stock, turn to TipRanks’ IOTS Research Report.

• Market value: $526.7 million
• TipRanks consensus price target: $4.50 (23% upside potential)
• TipRanks consensus rating: Moderate Buy
• Castlight Health (CSLT, $3.67) is a cloud-based software provider that focuses on health benefits management. Its Complete app makes it easy for employees to use their benefits and provides tailored health recommendations all on one single platform.

“After launching Castlight Complete, which was one of the key milestones for 2018, management remains confident it can overcome churn and the loss of Walmart,” writes five-star Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Steven Halper. Walmart (WMT) revealed that it wouldn’t be migrating to the new Complete platform back in August 2018, costing the company $13 million.

However even without Walmart, Halper sees Complete as a “new chapter” for the company and a “major driver of longer-term growth.” Management remains optimistic about Complete and has indicated that four of its top five customers will be on the platform. “Complete, which is now live with 300,000 users, is important for 2019 performance,” Halper writes.

The risk-reward tradeoff looks attractive at these levels. Halper is modeling another 36% upside from current share prices with his target of $5. Find out what other analysts think of this healthcare tech stock in TipRanks’ CSLT Research Report.

• Market value: $4.7 billion
• TipRanks consensus price target: $5.35 (4% upside potential)
• TipRanks consensus rating: Moderate Buy

Social game developer Zynga (ZNGA, $5.12) is the name behind long-ago hits such as FarmVille and Words With Friends. Although the company faced a few hard years following its split with Facebook (FB) and its inability to come up with titles to rival its older blockbusters, it is now recovering thanks to savvy acquisitions and a renewed focus on core “forever franchises.” CEO Frank Gibeau – a former Electronic Arts (EA) exec – recently went so far as to say that the company’s “turnaround is now complete.”

The numbers are starting to show it. Zynga reported record mobile online game revenues and bookings, as well as record mobile advertising revenues and bookings, in its recently reported Q4.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter recently wrote a report titled “Positive Momentum to Continue in 2019, with New Releases the Icing on the Cake,” which is a less-than-subtle indication of which way he’s leaning on ZNGA. The analyst, who has a $6.40 price target (25% upside), reiterated his “Buy” rating, writing, “Zynga is a company without peer, generating over 3x the bookings of its closest publicly traded competitor, Glu Mobile (GLUU).”

The company expects bookings of $1.35 billion this year and “double digit” bookings growth in 2020 “implying bookings approaching $1.5 billion that year,” Pachter writes. Find out more from TipRanks in its ZNGA Research Report.

• Market value: $101.4 million
• TipRanks consensus price target: $1.92 (79% upside potential)
• TipRanks consensus rating: Strong Buy
• Sequans Communications (SQNS, $1.07) is a 4G chipmaker and leading provider of single-mode LTE chipset solutions. In an encouraging sign, several five-star analysts have recently signaled their support for this often-overlooked, and super-cheap, stock.

Top Needham analyst Rajvindra Gill believes growth can reaccelerate this year, principally driven by the company’s CAT 1 (voice-grade copper) cable business.

The analyst writes, “We expect growth to reaccelerate throughout CY19 principally driven by CAT 1 business (new projects with Gemalto), CAT 1 modules vis-a-vis Sprint (S) network, new projects in Japan and a rebound in broadband.”

The company also is enjoying industry support: “Sequans continues to expand design wins and partnerships, with currently over 75 design wins … representing $200 million in revenue over the next 3-5 years,” writes Baird’s Tristan Gerra.

He writes that a new strategic investor has agreed to invest $8.4 million to help accelerate Sequans’ 5G product roadmap. With these developments in mind, the analyst sees 87% upside potential for SQNS. Check out other analyst targets for Sequans in TipRanks’ SQNS Research Report.

• Market value: $142.2 million
• TipRanks consensus price target: $14.00 (68% upside potential)
• TipRanks consensus rating: Moderate Buy

Innovative semiconductor stock Everspin Technologies (MRAM, $8.32) has surged by an incredible 50% year-to-date. Shares exploded on news that semiconductor giant Intel (INTC) is endorsing the company’s MRAM (magnetic random access memory) technology.

MRAM memory is a rival to the more traditional DRAM memory – another type of random-access semiconductor memory. The notable advantage of MRAM is that it can retain its data even when power is switched off.

Intel will now integrate embedded MRAM into its 22nm FinFET CMOS technology. “We don’t know if Intel is using the Everspin’s technology but Intel’s decision certainly validates the MRAM technology, which has been the crux of the investment theme,” Needham’s Gill wrote on Feb. 20.

Gill believes major MCU suppliers “will eventually replace eFlash with MRAM as it has higher endurance and faster write cycles.”

“We believe over the next several years, nearly 50% of the 32-bit MCU market could transition to MRAM as they transition to smaller process nodes,” he writes. “All the major MCU suppliers are actively reviewing their current flash technology.”

Given this promising outlook, Gill is sticking with his “Buy” rating and $10 price target (20% upside potential) for now, but he sees shares hitting even higher down the road. “Ultimately, we see value for the shares to $14 PT, based on an EV/sales multiple of 3.3x our 2019 revenue estimate.” Find out more from TipRanks in its MRAM Research Report.

• Market value: $407.8 million
• TipRanks consensus price target: $8.00 (47% upside potential)
• TipRanks consensus rating: Moderate Buy
• The Meet Group (MEET, $5.46) is motivated by “the universal need for human connection.” MEET operates mobile social entertainment applications that enable users to interact with new people around them, generating revenue through ad sales and subscriptions.

One of the stock’s big supporters is Roth Capital’s Darren Aftahi. He applauds the recent acquisition of German dating app Lovoo for $70 million, and writes: “Overall, in 2019, MEET continues to be a favorite name of ours and we remain buyers on what we feel is a strong outlook for further incremental video monetization on both Lovoo scale and the broader portfolio through new features.”

These new features include Battles – which allows for two livestreamers to compete in front of an audience – and should be positive catalysts for video monetization, Aftahi says. Moreover, MEET has announced another feature called Levels, rolling out in the first half of this year, which “gamifies” the platform by creating a ranking system and unlockable features for video users. The analyst thinks this is a sticky feature that will help drive engagement.

Aftahi reiterated his “Buy” rating with a $8 price target (47% upside potential). Bear in mind, shares have more than doubled over the past year. You can check out more analysis in TipRanks’ MEET Research Report.

• Market value: $310.5 million
• TipRanks consensus price target: $14 (64% upside potential)
• TipRanks consensus rating: Moderate Buy
• Camtek (CAMT, $8.52) develops optical inspection systems for printed circuit boards. Helping the stock is a deal with Taiwan’s Chroma in which the equipment provider will pay $74.3 million for a 20.5% stake in the company.

Following the deal announcement, Camtek CEO Rafi Amit said, “Today we signed agreements of strategic importance for Camtek, whereby Camtek is gaining an important shareholder that will enable it to strengthen its presence in Asia in general, and in Taiwan in particular.”

The market certainly approves; shares are up 27% year-to-date. And Wall Street’s recent price-target ramps are another positive indicator that the company is moving in the right direction.

Five-star Northland Capital analyst Gus Richard has just boosted his price target from $15 to $16 (88% upside potential). Richard writes that CAMT continues to significantly outperform other capital equipment stocks, thanks to higher-speed memory interfaces, market-share gains and new products and applications.

B. Riley FBR’s Craig Ellis has recently lifted his price target, too, from $10.50 to $12 (41% upside), citing strong earnings and execution. Discover more about this lesser-known cheap stock in the TipRanks’ CAMT Research Report.

• Market value: $329.0 million
• TipRanks consensus price target: $4.50 (56% upside potential)
• TipRanks consensus rating: Moderate Buy
• Limelight Networks (LLNW, $2.88) is a premier content delivery network (CDN) service provider that helps organizations deliver faster websites, more responsive applications, high-quality videos and consistent downloads to any device.

Five-star Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan recently met with the company’s CFO in Philadelphia. Following the meeting, he wrote, “Management believes it is moving past churn/pricing pressures that negatively impacted (the second half of 2018).” He thinks LLNW’s unique infrastructure “can provision (over-the-top) video gaming better than its peers.”

Limelight recently just signed a partnership with Ericsson (ERIC) that Horan deems a “game-changer.” The deal will double the company’s network capacity, and in doing so, should also drive a meaningful revenue bump come the second half of this year.

Horan says the stock is attractive at these levels, and if the company can hit a 15% revenue-growth goal, there is upside to his $4 price target (39% potential upside). For more information on Limelight’s shares, get the LLNW Research Report from TipRanks.

• Market value: $179.5 million
• TipRanks consensus price target: $9.35 (56% upside potential)
• TipRanks consensus rating: Strong Buy
• Akoustis Technologies (AKTS, $6.00) specializes in acoustic wave technology for mobile and wireless devices. Share prices have exploded by roughly 275% over the past three years, but the Street still sees significant upside potential looking forward.

Five-star Oppenheimer analyst Rick Schafer has just reiterated his “Outperform” rating (equivalent of “Buy”) with a $10 price target for 67% upside potential. Note that Schafer is in the top 100 of all tracked analysts for his stock picking abilities.

“Early engagement and order traction from OEMs in diverse end markets, including LTE infrastructure, defense and CBRS, are indications of Akoustis’s steady progression toward revenue ramp,” Schafer writes.

Following fiscal second-quarter results, Schafer told investors, “We see revenues accelerating as customer production orders transition to revenues.” He notes that management continues to execute on key milestones, including expanding Wi-Fi and network infrastructure share.

Keep your eye out for groundbreaking developments, too. “The company is also sampling industry’s first 5.6GHz WiFi filter, paving the way for a tandem BAW solution and opening the door to a full tri-band solution,” Schafer writes. Find out more from TipRanks in its AKTS Research Report.

Harriet Lefton is head of content at TipRanks, a comprehensive investing tool that tracks more than 5,000 Wall Street analysts as well as hedge funds and insiders. You can find more of their stock insights here.

It takes guts to invest in the future. Thirty years ago, an investment in Amazon.com might have been met with derision. That it was not yet profitable was just one knock against it. Would people really prefer to buy a book online and wait for it to be delivered to their door, rather than visit the neighborhood bookstore to buy it? We all know the answer to that now.

Indeed, investing in innovation takes not only courage, but also foresight and even a little faith. But it can pay off big time. The not-so-simple trick, says David Eiswert, who manages the T. Rowe Price Global Stock fund, “is to invest on the right side of change.”

The 13 stocks highlighted here stand to benefit from one of five sweeping trends that will be catalysts for long-term growth: climate change, human longevity, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and 5G technology. Despite their promise, however, most of these stocks aren’t for the faint of heart. Most aren���t bargains, either. Consider them long-term holdings that you might have to turn a blind eye to once in a while before you eventually reap the rewards. Change, after all, takes time. “The world moves in little, incremental steps that lead to giant changes,” says Shelly Palmer, chief executive of the Palmer Group, a tech-focused consulting firm.

Unless otherwise noted, prices and other data are as of February 15. Earnings growth rate is estimated for the next three-to-five years. P/E ratio is bas earnings for the next four quarters. Sources: Yahoo Finance, Zacks Investment Research.

In its fourth national climate assessment, a coalition of 13 U.S. government agencies, drawing on the research of more than 300 scientists and policy experts, concluded that climate change will cause extreme weather, such as droughts, floods and heat waves; increase the spread of infectious diseases; and negatively impact the quality and safety of air, food and water. Signs of environmental distress are everywhere. Over the past year, the country has suffered intense hurricanes and devastating wildfires.

Many cities and states have responded, believing that the storms are the result of excess carbon dioxide emissions and global warming. Nearly 100 U.S. cities have committed to switching from coal, oil and gas to the use of only renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, to power their electricity. California, Hawaii and New York have said they’ll ditch fossil fuels for renewable energy and have committed to doing so over the coming 20 to 25 years.

Companies have decided that being ecologically proactive is good for business. Starbucks is switching to paper from plastic straws, Nike incorporates recycled material in 75% of its shoes, and a legion of firms, including Adobe Systems and PNC Bank, are following green construction guidelines for some offices. “If a company doesn’t have a good environmental track record, a number of reports show that consumers will stop buying its products,” says Lori Keith, comanager at Parnassus Mid Cap, a Kiplinger 25 fund.

• Market value (in billions): $13.3
• Earnings growth rate:17.5
• Price-earnings ratio: 22

Concern about climate change has heightened awareness of how we use our natural resources, with the supply and quality of water near the top of the list. Xylem (XYL, $74), which takes its name from a Greek term for the tissue that transports water in plants, is a water equipment and technology company that enables public utilities and commercial and industrial customers to transport, treat, test and efficiently use water. Xylem’s know-how makes water safer and more accessible.

It is a steady business that’s growing. Xylem customers tend to stick with the company because costs to switch to another water services provider can be high, and that creates an “annuity-like” stream of revenue, says Keith. Revenues over the past three years have increased by 13% annualized. A string of recent acquisitions has added a number of smart meters, pressure sensors, and diagnostic and analytics tools to the company’s lineup. One such tool is a sensor that can identify leaks in water pipes—a necessity these days, given the many municipalities with aging infrastructure.

Analysts expect earnings at Xylem to increase by 18% a year, on average, over the next three years. Parnassus Mid Cap added more shares in Xylem when prices dropped in late 2018. At $74 a share recently, the stock trades at 22 times estimated earnings for 2019, just a tad higher than its 10-year median price-earnings ratio of 20.

• Market value (in billions): $88.0
• Earnings growth rate: 7.7
• Price-earnings ratio: 22

Electric utilities aren’t your typical climate-change bet. In fact, they’re often cast as part of the problem. But some utilities, such as NextEra Energy (NEE, $184), are also big players in renewable energy production and storage. NextEra, which owns the largest Florida electric utility, is one of the world’s leading producers of clean energy, mostly through wind, solar and nuclear power, which it sells to other power companies for distribution.

NextEra’s renewable energy division isn’t a side hustle. In 2018, the unit accounted for 40% of the firm’s net income, and the division is growing faster than the firm’s electric utility business. The company has solar energy centers in states across the country, including Alabama, California, Florida and New Mexico. Next­Era also has more than 100 wind farms scattered across the western U.S., in California, Iowa, North Dakota and Texas, among other states. Demand for renewable energy is expected to increase as costs fall for renewable energy and energy storage. Credit Suisse analyst Michael Weinstein expects an “explosion” in wind and solar power usage over the next decade.

NextEra’s earnings should increase between 7% and 9% annually over the next three years, according to analysts’ estimates, driven mostly by the company’s renewable energy business. That’s better than the 6% annualized earnings growth expected for the electric utility sector overall.

• Market value (in billions): $42.0
• Earnings growth rate:12.3
• Price-earnings ratio: 23

Waste management may not relate directly to climate change, but it’s a pressing world problem that affects the health of the planet. According to the World Bank, the world’s cities generated 2.2 billion tons of solid waste in 2016. By 2050, that figure is expected to increase 70%, to 3.7 billion tons. Americans are among the biggest generators of trash. We create 4.5 pounds of trash per person a day, and the amount creeps up every year. The rest of the world clocks in closer to 3.1 pounds per person—or less.

That makes managing waste a high-growth business. How our trash is picked up, sorted and recycled, and where it ends up, is what Waste Management (WM, $99) is all about. It is the country’s biggest provider of waste-management services, a recession-proof, necessary job that throws off “compelling” amounts of free cash flow (cash left over after necessary expenses to run the business), says Stifel analyst Michael Hoffman. Analysts expect annualized earnings growth of 12% over the next three years.

The company has also invested in projects with an eye to the future. Many of Waste Management’s landfills, for instance, capture methane gas, which is produced naturally as waste decomposes, for use as a clean, renewable energy alternative to fossil fuels. In some cases, the gas is used to fuel the company’s fleet of trucks. It also fuels electricity generators, which produce energy that is then sold to public and municipal utilities and power cooperatives. “It’s a closed-loop waste management strategy,” says Keith, a win-win for the environment.

People everywhere are living longer. A baby born in the U.S. today has a life expectancy of 78 years. In 1900, it was just 50 years. Meanwhile, the number of people worldwide age 60 and older is expected to double, to 2.1 billion, by the middle of this century.

But even though we are living longer, we’re not living healthier, more active lives, according to the World Health Organization, a United Nations agency concerned with public health. To better manage health problems in old age, says WHO, early detection is key. That’s where genomic science comes in.

• Market value (in billions): $44.1
• Earnings growth rate: 21.5
• Price-earnings ratio: 46
• Illumina (ILMN, $300), the leading maker of DNA sequencing tools and instruments, is at the center of the genomics revolution. So far, 2.4 million human genomes have been sequenced, says Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest, a money management firm that focuses on innovative companies. By the end of 2023, the number of sequenced genomes will hit 70 million. Last year, Illumina reported that more than 90% of all gene sequencing performed so far has used the company’s technology.

DNA sequencing may become more routine as the cost to sequence falls further—from $1,000 today to as little as $100 in two to three years. Someday, says Wood, doctors may have patients get their DNA sequenced every three years to identify which genes, if any, have mutated in that time. Gene mutations are precursors of diseases, not a sign that a person has the actual disease itself. But sequencing may be a way to catch cancer in an early or even precancerous stage.

Illumina booked a record $3 billion in revenues in 2018. Over the next three years, analysts expect annual revenue growth in the double-digit percentages and earnings growth of 22% or better. That’s close to 1.5 times better than analysts’ earnings growth expectations for the biomedical-genetics subindustry as a whole, which includes 105 companies.

• Market value (in billions): $10.9
• Earnings growth rate: NA
• Price-earnings ratio: NA

The more genes and gene mutations we identify, the more companies spring up to address specific maladies.

• Exact Sciences (EXAS, $89), a company with $266 million in annual revenues, is known for Cologuard, its at-home, noninvasive colon-cancer screening test. Cologuard identifies DNA mutations in your stool sample (sorry, there’s no delicate way to say it) that can be associated with the presence of colon cancer or precancerous lesions. “Exact Sciences is a stellar example of how unlocking genetic markers can be life-changing,” says Eiswert, of T. Rowe Price Global Stock. More advertising, a beefier in-house sales staff and a new deal with Pfizer to promote the prescription-ordered, mail-delivered Colo­guard kit could boost sales by 58% in 2019 and 48% in 2020.

Exact Sciences isn’t profitable yet, but losses are shrinking. Analysts expect a loss of $1.18 per share in 2019 and a loss of $0.25 per share in 2020. UBS analyst Dan Brennan rates the stock a “buy” and recently raised his 12-month target price from $100 to $109.

• Market value (in billions): $1.6
• Earnings growth rate: NA
• Price-earnings ratio: NA

Even more cutting edge—and thus riskier for investors—is the field of gene-editing therapy. In this experimental technique, mutated genes are tackled in one of three ways: They are knocked out entirely; they’re replaced with a copy of a healthy gene; or a new gene is introduced into the body to help fight a disease.

Three companies have patents on the knock-out type of gene therapy, using a technique known by the acronym CRISPR, which is arguably the most revolutionary technology of the three gene therapies. The companies tackle monogenic diseases, or illnesses caused by one mutated gene, says Wood. Monogenic disease therapies, she adds, are a $75 billion market for drug firms, and the three patent-holding companies stand to capture roughly 10% of that.

But only one company, CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP, $32), has a therapy in clinical trials—for blood disorders. CRISPR, founded in 2013, has little in revenue and no profits. That makes it a risky bet—good for your mad money, not your college or retirement fund.

The cloud has been forming for years, but there’s a lot of growth left. Companies that migrate to the cloud use a network of remote services hosted on the internet to store, manage and process data, instead of doing so on their own servers located on site. It turns out that many enterprises haven’t yet fully shifted to the cloud. The consulting firm McKinsey estimates that only 20% of companies have done so.

• Market value (in billions): $789.8
• Earnings growth rate: 26.9%
• Price-earnings ratio: 61

And yet, firms that do make a complete transition can offer better services and save money. After a major database breakdown in 2008, for instance, Netflix shifted its databases to Amazon Web Services, a division of Amazon.com (AMZN, $1,608). Over the next seven years, Netflix migrated all of its business to the cloud, from billing to customer and employee data management. The timing was good: Netflix started to grow exponentially and now streams video content in 190 countries to 139 million subscribers.

Considering Amazon.com a play on cloud computing has heretofore been a tricky call, because the firm’s e-commerce business dwarfed everything else. But AWS is finally moving the needle at Amazon. Though AWS accounted for just 11% of overall sales in 2018 at Amazon, it represented 59% of operating profits. And AWS dominates cloud computing with a 34% market share—more than double the share of its closest competitor (more on that company below). Analysts expect AWS to maintain its top spot for years to come.

• Market value (in billions): $830.3
• Earnings growth rate: 12.4
• Price-earnings ratio: 24

Still, there’s room for more than one winner in the cloud. With a 15% share of the market, Microsoft’s (MSFT, $108) Azure service is growing faster than AWS. Sales rose 76% in the second quarter of Microsoft’s 2019 fiscal year, compared with the same quarter a year earlier, making Azure Microsoft’s fastest-growing business. By contrast, AWS grew 45% year-over-year in the most recent quarter.

Someday, Microsoft may be better known for Azure than for its Windows operating system. Analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets predict that Azure will generate more sales than Windows by 2021.

• Market value (in billions): $121.7
• Earnings growth rate: 24.2
• Price-earnings ratio: 62

As firms such as Amazon and Microsoft provide the hosting, other companies are prospering by producing cloud-based software applications. Salesforce.com (CRM, $159) sells customer relationship management applications. Its software helps 150,000 large and small companies keep track of sales, services and marketing, among other tasks. Customers include sportswear apparel firm Adidas as well as Yeti, the maker of coolers and drinkware.

Salesforce.com has had a cult-like following since it began trading publicly in 2004. It is still outpacing its peers, though. Revenues are expected to increase by 26% in 2019 and 21% in 2020—a slowdown from an annualized growth rate over the past 10 years of 28%, but double the expected growth rate of companies in the computer software services industry overall. Profits are expected to increase 24% annualized over the next three years, better than the 15% pace expected for similar firms.

You can see every day how artificial intelligence shapes our lives. Milliseconds after you click your Netflix user profile, for example, an algorithm has picked TV shows and movies especially for you, based on what you’ve watched as well as on the viewing histories of 100 million subscribers. Now, a higher tier of artificial intelligence—machine learning and a subset of that called deep learning—is emerging that will enable machines to do things that humans do, only better.

For instance, an international study found that an AI machine—essentially a specialized computer network—could more accurately diagnose skin cancer than a group of human dermatologists. Scientists taught the network how to identify skin lesions by introducing more than 100,000 images marked with a diagnosis. The AI network correctly diagnosed malignant cases 95% of the time; a team of 58 dermatologists were only 87% accurate. That’s deep learning.

An abundance of data is required for deep learning, which makes the big tech companies, including Google parent Alphabet, Amazon.com and Facebook, fearsome competitors in artificial intelligence. But AI represents a fraction of overall revenue at those firms, so investing in them is not a focused bet on AI. “It’s difficult to find a pure-play AI company,” says Chris Lin, manager of Fidelity OTC Portfolio. Many are still privately held.

• Market value (in billions): $96.0
• Earnings growth rate: 10.7
• Price-earnings ratio: 30

Semiconductor firm Nvidia (NVDA, $157) might be an exception. It is the biggest player in the “brains” that enable deep learning. Its graphics processing units, or GPUs, can process images at lightning speed, finding patterns and producing insights. The more data there are, the more accurate the insights. When it comes to training devices to recognize patterns from mountains of data and predict things accurately, it’s essential to use GPUs, says ARK Invest’s Wood.

AI chips fueled 133% growth in sales at Nvidia’s data-center business in the company’s 2018 fiscal year, which ended in January. CFRA analyst Angelo Zino expects continued significant growth in this business. An oversupply in the market for another Nvidia product—crypto­currency mining chips—is weighing on the firm’s results. But at $157 a share, the stock trades at just over half its 52-week high. Take advantage of any further price dips to build a stake in the company over time.

• Market value (in billions): $1.7
• Earnings growth rate: 35.0
• Price-earnings ratio: Not meaningful

These days, many people of all ages—not just millennials—prefer to communicate through text or e-mail rather than converse live. That’s what the ironically named LivePerson (LPSN, $26) is hoping to cash in on, along with better customer service. LivePerson combines AI with a customer-service software platform that allows consumers to connect with their favorite brands in a high-tech way.

Adobe, Citibank and Home Depot, among others, use the AI-backed messaging and chatbot solutions from LivePerson to interact with their customers. Instead of calling a toll-free number, consumers can communicate when they want through text, by chat or even with a smart-home device such as Google Home. Such communication often (but not always) lacks the human touch, but it’s real-time and personalized. LivePerson’s sales have grown 13% over the past 10 years, annualized, and analysts expect an average 14% increase over each of the next three years.

Artificial intelligence may be powering innovation, but 5G wireless technology provides the connections for us to take advantage of it. For autonomous vehicles to take over the streets, for instance, thousands of bits of data have to move across the web instantaneously. That’s a load the current 4G mobile communications system just can’t handle.

Therein lies the promise of 5G, the next-generation mobile communication system that will be as much as 10 times faster than current connections. With 5G technology, self-driving vehicles will be able to communicate with each other in real time as they move together in traffic, as well as pick up signals from sensors as they approach traffic lights or a pedestrian. Sensors on grocery store shelves will signal to robots that the paper goods aisle needs restocking. Movies will download in seconds, not minutes. The technology will revolutionize industries ranging from transportation to health care, retail and manufacturing.

5G isn’t here in a big way yet, no matter how much the mobile carriers tout it. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon launched the technology in only a handful of cities last year. But most carriers promise nationwide service by 2020, and 5G-enabled laptops and mobile phones are coming.

• Market value (in billions): $30.7
• Earnings growth rate: 41.7
• Price-earnings ratio: 23

When we’re living in a 5G world, we’ll want seamless connections as we walk around town, enter buildings or ride in elevators. Ericsson (ERIC, $9) makes devices that are crucial to making that possible. The devices, called small cells, act like hotspots to connect pockets of the 5G world.

Ericsson’s 4G small cells, which are upgradable to 5G, line some Los Angeles streets. In 2015, the city installed dozens of so-called SmartPoles in the Hollywood area, which combine Philips LED street lights with an Ericsson mini cell to help areas with poor cell phone reception. In other locations, Ericsson’s small-cell devices are attached to electricity cables. Interior versions look like smoke detectors.

The Swedish company is still in turnaround mode. CEO Borje Ekholm arrived in early 2017 after the previous CEO was ousted amid claims of mismanagement. Ekholm has made 5G a priority at Ericsson. Analysts expect earnings over the next three years to grow by 42% annualized, reflecting a reversal of the recent declines.

• Market value (in billions): $62.9
• Earnings growth rate: 9.8
• Price-earnings ratio: 13

Telecommunications equipment maker Qualcomm (QCOM, $52) might be a more obvious beneficiary of 5G. From smartphones to small cells, Qualcomm is involved in just about every facet of 5G, and it holds 13% of all 5G patents—more than most of its semiconductor and telecom equipment peers. “Qualcomm will lead the transition to 5G,” says Stifel analyst Kevin Cassidy. At $52 a share, the stock trades at 13 times estimated earnings for the year ahead, close to its 10-year P/E low of 12.