The Pros' Picks: The 11 Best Nasdaq Stocks You Can Buy

A sharp pivot away from growth has given Wall Street a much different perspective on what constitutes today's best Nasdaq stocks. Take a look.

Nasdaq sign in New York City
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The best Nasdaq stocks for new money look quite different than they did just a few months ago.

Last year, the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite, led by mega-market-value stocks such as the FAANGs – Facebook (FB), Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) – could almost do no wrong.

Indeed, the Nasdaq gained almost 44% on a price basis alone in 2020, leaving the broader S&P 500 (+7.3%) and blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average (+16.3%) far behind in its wake.

But now inflation fears and a general rotation away from growth stocks toward more value-oriented names has made finding winning Nasdaq stocks a much tougher beat. The index was up a meager 1.1% for the year-to-date through May 12. That compares unfavorably to gains of 8.2% for the S&P 500 and 9.7% for the Dow, respectively.

Although many of last year's best Nasdaq stocks have continued their winning ways, it has been harder to find promising prospects off the beaten path. So we decided to suss out some names that Wall Street analysts identify as being the best Nasdaq stocks.

To that end, we used S&P Global Market Intelligence to screen the Nasdaq Composite for stocks with the highest-conviction Strong Buy recommendations on the Street.

Here's how it works: S&P Global Market Intelligence surveys analysts' stock ratings and scores them on a five-point scale, where 1.0 equals Strong Buy and 5.0 means Strong Sell. Any score of 2.5 or lower means that analysts, on average, rate the stock a Buy. The closer the score gets to 1.0, the stronger the Strong Buy call.

We limited ourselves to stocks with at least 10 Strong Buy recommendations. Then we dove into analysts' research, fundamental factors and analysts' estimates.

The result? This list of 11 Nasdaq stocks with Strong Buy consensus recommendations. True, it's only a beginning, but this isn't a bad place to start when looking for the best Nasdaq stocks to buy during this tough time for the index.

Disclaimer

Share prices are as of May 12. Data and analysts' recommendations are courtesy of S&P Global Market Intelligence, unless otherwise noted. Stocks are listed by strength of analysts' consensus recommendation, from weakest to strongest.

Dan Burrows
Senior Investing Writer, Kiplinger.com

Dan Burrows is Kiplinger's senior investing writer, having joined the august publication full time in 2016.

A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of SmartMoney, MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, InvestorPlace and DailyFinance. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Consumer Reports, Senior Executive and Boston magazine, and his stories have appeared in the New York Daily News, the San Jose Mercury News and Investor's Business Daily, among other publications. As a senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance, Dan reported market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and hosted a weekly video segment on equities.

Once upon a time – before his days as a financial reporter and assistant financial editor at legendary fashion trade paper Women's Wear Daily – Dan worked for Spy magazine, scribbled away at Time Inc. and contributed to Maxim magazine back when lad mags were a thing. He's also written for Esquire magazine's Dubious Achievements Awards.

In his current role at Kiplinger, Dan writes about equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities, funds, macroeconomics, demographics, real estate, cost of living indexes and more.

Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Columbia University.

Disclosure: Dan does not trade stocks or other securities. Rather, he dollar-cost averages into cheap funds and index funds and holds them forever in tax-advantaged accounts.