A few stocks recently eclipsed the $1 trillion mark. A couple more attained $2 trillion valuations. And others, such a the top stock to buy below, could reach the $500 billion mark shortly. These names are some of the top stocks for future growth and among the best stocks to buy. All are growing rapidly and are exploiting very strong, favorable trends likely to continue for many years to come. Without further ado, here are the seven stocks to buy, which could become $500 billion companies.
| ADBE | Adobe | $415.39 |
| MA | Mastercard | $374.37 |
| CRM | Salesforce | $215.44 |
| NFLX | Netflix | $378.88 |
| AVGO | Broadcom | $812.73 |
| ASML | ASML. | $735.93 |
| JPM | JPMorgan | $136.94 |
Stocks to Buy: Adobe (ADBE)
Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) has become the “go-to” software for design and marketing professionals. And the company is starting to incorporate AI into its products, For example, it recently launched an AI tool for its popular Photoshop software. One reviewer raved that “Photoshop’s new AI features look like magic.” And the company’s Chief Strategy Officer, Scott Belsky, recently indicated that its Adobe Experience Management platform, which is used by marketers, would utilize AI in order to personalize its output.
Belsky added that Adobe is working on enabling its users to generate new, unique images from various, separate images. He also indicated that the company’s marketing tools are “going to become far more personalized than we can even imagine.”
On March 22, investment bank RBC Capital raised its price target on ADBE stock to $415 from $395, citing its belief that the company is “well positioned” in AI. The firm kept an “outperform” rating on the shares.As of May 25, ADBE had a amrket capitalization of $180 billion.
Stocks to Buy: Mastercard (MA)
Mastercard (NYSE:MA) is likely to continue to benefit from the ongoing shift to card spending and away from cash and checks. Additionally, I expect consumer spending trends in the U.S. to still remain strong for some time. On April 27, MA reported that its first-quarter top line had jumped 9.6% year-over-year, while its operating income,excluding currency fluctuation, had climbed 10% versus the same period a year earlier. Moreover, the company expects its sales growth to accelerate slightly during the current quarter.
Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach, speaking on the company’s earnings call on April 27, reported that MA was winning many, new significant deals around the globe. For example, it established partnerships with Costco (NASDAQ:COST) in Taiwan and a new card launched by “Wells Fargo and Choice Hotels” in America. It also made new, expanded deals with several of Australia’s largest banks.
In the wake of MasterCard’s Q1 results, investment bank BMO Capital increased its price target on the shares to $442 from $414, citing the company’s revenue from overseas travelers and increases in its “value-added services, The Fly reported. The bank maintained an “outperform” rating on the shares. As of May 25, the market capitalization of MA stock was $350 billion.
Stocks to Buy: Salesforce (CRM)
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM), which develops customer relationship manager software and is the leader in the space, has clearly been embraced by the “big money” in recent months. For example, well-known investor Daniel Loeb bought 800,00 shares of CRM stock last quarter, JPMorgan bought 3.9 million shares in Q1, and State Street added over 391,000 shares during the period. CRM also clearly has faith in its own outlook, as it doubled the size of its share buyback authorization earlier this year to $20 billion.
In recent months, CRM has raised its fiscal 2024 profit guidance and has promised to cut costs. Moreover, the company has launched “the world’s first generative AI for CRM” and now “delivers AI-produced content for sales, service, marketing, commerce, and IT interaction,” Seeking Alpha columnist Steven Cress reported in April. CRM’s incorporation of AI should makes its products much more valuable. The market capitalization of CRM stock as of May 25 was $205 billion.
Netflix (NFLX)
Netflix’s (NASDAQ:NFLX) financial results should get big boosts from its addition of advertising and ts crackdown in password sharing. The rollout of the new plan with advertising appears to be going well, as it has almost 5 million users just six months after it was launched. Addiotionally, in the not-too-distant future, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see the company add live sporting events to its content. That would certainly meaningfully increase the company’s customer base and greatly boost its top and bottom lines, making it a gret stock to buy.
JPMorgan bought 3.4 million shares of NFLX last quarter, while BlackRock increased its stake by 41.36 million shares, showing the the “big money” has faith in NFLX stock. NFLX had a market capitalization of $160 billion on May 25.
Broadcom (AVGO)
As I noted in a previous column, Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), one of the world’s largest makers of computer chips, is well-positioned to benefit from “the proliferation of AI, connected cars, and data centers.” Additionally, many analysts and industry insiders believe that overall chip demand has bottomed and is set to rebound meaningfully in the second half of the year. And research firm Gartner expects the industry’s sales to surge a very robust 18% next year.
Meanwhile, Broadcom’s financial results should be meaningfully lifted by the company’s recently announced, long-term deal with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and by the proliferation of AI.On the AI front, AVGO last month launched its own AI chip, Jericho3AI. According to the firm, the product offers “perfect load balancing [and] congestion-free operation, helping it complete AI workloads faster. The market capitalization of AVGO stock on May 25 was $304 billion.
ASML (ASML)
Holland-based ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) makes equipment used by chip makers. Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) prosperity, brought about by the proliferation of AI, should indirectly benefit ASML, since the latter company makes the equipment used to make NVDA’s chips. Also noteworthy is that ASML predicts that its sales will surge 25% this year, while analysts, on average, expect its earnings per share to come in at $20.39 this year and $24.50 in 2024. That put its forward price-earnings ratio, based on the 2024 average EPS estimate, at 29. That’s a reasonable valuation, given the company’s rapid growth and powerful outlook.
In Q1, the company’s sales climbed to 6.75 billion euros from 6.43 billion euros in the previous quarter. Moreover, ASML reported that “The overall demand still exceeds our capacity for this year and we currently have a backlog of over” 38.9 billion euros. On May 25, ASML had a market capitalization of $246 billion.
JPMorgan (JPM)
JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) will get a significant lift from its acquisition of First Republic’s assets. Indeed, Dick Bove, a well-respected bank analyst, upgraded JPMorgan to “buy” from “hold” in the wake of the deal. Bove thinks the acquisition could boost JPM’s annual net income by $500 million to over $1 billion annually. He placed a $153.60 price target on the shares. Moreover, JPMorgan should benefit greatly from a stronger-than-expected performance by the U.S. economy in the coming months and years.
In the first quarter, the bank generated earnings per share of $4.10, versus analysts’ average estimate of $3.41. In Q1of 2022, its EPS came in at $2.63. The bank raised its 2023 net interest income outlook to $81 billion. In the wake of the First Republic deal, it increased its NII outlook to $84 billion. The forward price-earnings ratio of JPM stock is an attractive 9.8, and its market capitalization on May 25 was $400 billion.
On the date of publication, Larry Ramer did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
