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Markets have been so volatile this summer on U.S.-China trade tensions that investors might not have noticed: Tech stocks are absolutely red-hot in 2019.

Indeed, the technology sector of Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is leading the broader market by a mile this year, with a year-to-date gain of 29% through Aug. 21. By comparison, the S&P 500 is up about 17%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index has risen 21%. (The second-best performing sector is real estate, up 25%.)

Stellar gains are always welcome, but they do pose a challenge for investors. After such a big run-up, is there anything left worth buying at current levels?

Analysts sure think so. Between momentum and the sector’s outsize growth prospects, plenty of tech stocks have nowhere near topped out, they say.

To see which picks analysts like best at this point, we screened the Nasdaq Composite for the top-rated small, midsize and large tech stocks. S&P Global Market Intelligence surveys analysts’ ratings on stocks and scores them on a five-point scale, where 1.0 equals Strong Buy and 5.0 means Strong Sell. Any score of 2.0 or lower means that analysts, on average, rate the stock a Buy. The closer the score gets to 1.0, the better.

Here are the 12 tech stocks the analysts love right now. This group is broken down into the four best-rated stock picks in the small-, mid- and large-cap spaces.

Disclaimer

Data is as of Aug. 21. Companies are listed by strength of analysts’ recommendations, from lowest to highest. Dividend yields are calculated by annualizing the most recent quarterly payout and dividing by the share price. Analyst ratings are provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

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.