Buy 5 AI-Focused Mid-Cap Internet Software Stocks for a Solid Portfolio
The Internet Software and Services space is gathering momentum owing to robust IT spending on solutions that support hybrid operating environments. Outstanding penetration of mobile devices among users makes sense for businesses to invest heavily in web-based infrastructure, applications and security software.
Within the Technology sector, the Zacks-defined Internet Software industry is currently within the top 17% of the Zacks Industry Rank. Since the Internet Software industry is ranked in the top half of Zacks Ranked Industries, we expect it to outperform the market over the next three to six months.
We recommend five artificial intelligence (AI)-focused mid-cap stocks from this space that have strong potential for the second half of 2025. These are — UiPath Inc. PATH, Five9 Inc. FIVN, Fastly Inc. FSLY, Calix Inc. CALX and Confluent Inc. CFLT. Each of our picks currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The chart below shows the price performance of our five picks in the past three months.
UiPath Inc.
UiPath provides an end-to-end automation platform that offers a range of robotic process automation solutions primarily in the United States, Romania, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and internationally. PATH offers a suite of interrelated software to build, manage, run, engage, measure, and govern automation within the organization.
The PATH platform's embedded AI, ML, and NLP (Natural Language Processing) capabilities improve decisioning and information processing. PATH introduced new generative AI features, including specialized LLMs (Large Language Model) such as DocPATH and CommPATH, and Context Grounding, to enhance automated AI models for specific business needs.
UiPath has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 8.5% and 3.8%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 1.9% over the last seven days.
Five9 Inc.
Five9 provides intelligent cloud software for contact centers in the United States, India, and internationally. FIVN offers a virtual contact center cloud platform that delivers a suite of applications, enabling a broad range of contact center-related customer service, sales, and marketing functions.
FIVN's platform comprises interactive virtual agents, agent assistance, workflow automation, workforce engagement management, AI insights, and AI summaries. It allows management and optimization of customer interactions across voice, chat, email, web, social media, and mobile channels directly or through its application programming interfaces.
FIVN has been benefiting from the growing adoption of AI tools in its call center services, with personalized AI agents emerging as a major growth driver. On Feb. 19, Five9 introduced its Intelligent CX Platform powered by Five9 Genius AI on the Google Cloud space. FIVN also released new Five9 AI agents tailor-made for Google Cloud.
Five9 has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 9.6% and 11.7%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 5.7% over the last 60 days.
Fastly Inc.
Fastly provides infrastructure software offering cloud computing, image optimization, security, edge computer technology and streaming solutions. On Dec.16, 2024, FSLY unveiled Fastly AI Accelerator, a semantic caching solution that allows developers to optimize their LLM generative AI applications.
FSLY operates an edge cloud platform for processing, serving, and securing its customer's applications in the United States, the Asia Pacific, Europe, and internationally. FSLY's Edge Cloud Platform offers more efficient performance as developers need only a single line of code instead of repeated calls to the AI provider to update their application to a new API endpoint.
Fastly has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 8.6% and 25%, respectively, for 2025. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings has improved 10% over the last seven days.
Calix Inc.
Calix provides cloud and software platforms, and systems and services in the United States, the rest of the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. CALX's cloud and software platforms, and systems and services enable broadband service providers to provide a range of services.
CALX offers the Calix Cloud platform comprising Calix Engagement Cloud, Calix Operations Cloud, and Calix Service Cloud, which are configurable to display role-based insights and enable BEPs to anticipate and target new revenue-generating services and applications through mobile applications, such as CommandIQ for residents and CommandWorx for businesses.
CALX has integrated AI into its cloud platform and products to enhance broadband experience providers' operations, subscriber engagement, and service delivery. CALX offers AI-powered marketing solutions for the health and finance industries, AI-powered chat bots, and AI-driven initiatives like Calix AI Agents.
Calix has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 7.1% and 65.4%, respectively, for 2025. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings has improved 21.1% over the last 60 days.
Confluent Inc.
Confluent operates a data streaming platform in the United States and internationally. CFLT provides platforms that allow customers to connect their applications, systems, and data layers comprising Confluent Cloud, a managed cloud-native software-as-a-service (SaaS), and Confluent Platform, an enterprise-grade self-managed software.
CFLT serves banking and financial services, retail and ecommerce, manufacturing, automotive, telecommunication, gaming, insurance, and technology industries, as well as the public sector. Using the Confluent Data Streaming Platform, individuals can stream data in real time from everywhere to deliver production-scale AI-powered applications faster.
CFLT has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 19% and 24.1%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 2.9% in the last 60 days.
7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days
Just released: Experts distill 7 elite stocks from the current list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys. They deem these tickers "Most Likely for Early Price Pops."
Since 1988, the full list has beaten the market more than 2X over with an average gain of +23.5% per year. So be sure to give these hand picked 7 your immediate attention.
See them now >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Calix, Inc (CALX): Free Stock Analysis Report
UiPath, Inc. (PATH): Free Stock Analysis Report
Five9, Inc. (FIVN): Free Stock Analysis Report
Fastly, Inc. (FSLY): Free Stock Analysis Report
Confluent, Inc. (CFLT): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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