Latest news with #ChrisVerrone
CNBC
12-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Chris Verrone: The big question is whether discretionary can get back in gear
Chris Verrone, Strategas chief market strategist and partner, joins CNBC's 'Closing Bell' to discuss market outlooks.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Meta Platforms (META) the Best Tech Stock to Buy For Long-Term Investment?
We recently published a list of 12 Best Tech Stocks to Buy For Long-Term Investment. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) stands against other tech stocks to buy for long-term investment. On April 1, Chris Verrone, chief market strategist at Strategas Research Partners, appeared on CNBC's 'Closing Bell' to talk about his outlook on the tech sector. Verrone believes that most of the current market's negative sentiment has already been factored into recent stock prices. He highlighted that even after the market's decline, the VIX, and the currency and bond volatility are lower than they were during the mid-March stress period. Plus, fewer stocks are hitting new lows. He thinks that market lows are formed during periods of bad news, and the market will rally from its current level with an anticipated range of 5,900 to 5,950. Verrone believes that the current downturn is more than a typical 10% correction so it will take some time to figure out the market's true direction. He emphasized the importance of monitoring market breadth, new highs, and credit conditions in the upcoming weeks and months. He also acknowledged the shift in investor sentiment, with more bears than bulls. As the conversation touched on the impact of the Fed and politics in a market, Verrone stated that he pays more attention to what the 2-year Treasury yield tells him instead of listening to what Fed officials have to say. He noted that the 2-year yield's decline from 3.83% to 3.85% suggests a shift in the market expectations for the Fed's actions. He highlighted the resilience of financials during the correction and contrasted it with the weakness of tech. He thinks that, unlike financials that entered the correction as leaders, the tech sector might not be able to regain the leadership role. While Verrone's stance acknowledges the current weakness in tech, it's important to note that the tech sector remains one of the more innovative markets in the long run. For instance, MAG7 continues to be a driving force for this market. We first sifted through financial media reports to compile a list of the top tech stocks that are being touted as long term investment plays. We then selected the 12 stocks that were the most popular among elite hedge funds and that analysts were bullish on. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of the number of hedge funds that have stakes in them, as of Q4 2024. The hedge fund data was sourced from Insider Monkey's database which tracks the moves of over 900 elite money managers. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here). A team of developers working in unison to create the company's messaging application. Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 262 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) develops products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family. It operates through two segments: Family of Apps (FoA), which includes Facebook and Instagram among other apps; and Reality Labs (RL) which provides virtual, augmented, and mixed reality-related products through consumer hardware and software. In Q4 2024, the company's FoA generated $47.3 billion in revenue which was up 21% year-over-year due to advertising. Advertising alone made $46.8 billion and increased by 21% year-over-year. Over 3.3 billion people use at least one of the company's apps daily. The online commerce vertical majorly contributed to the year-over-year ad revenue growth. The company is integrating its AI assistant called Meta AI across FoA, which now reaches more than 700 million monthly active users. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) also uses AI to enhance ad ranking and targeting through Advantage+ to improve monetization efficiency. The company's investments in these areas are expected to contribute to continued revenue growth in 2025 and beyond. On March 28, Evercore ISI maintained a Buy rating on Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META). Nightview Capital highlighted the company's strong growth potential, due to its AI leadership with Llama model, advertising ecosystem, and AR capabilities. It stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its Q4 2024 investor letter: 'Core Opportunity: Meta Platforms, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:META) platforms—Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger—reach nearly half the world's population daily, making it one of the most powerful advertising ecosystems globally. With investments in AI and augmented reality (AR), we believe Meta is also creating significant optionality for long-term growth. Overall, META ranks 3rd on our list of the best tech stocks to buy for long-term investment. While we acknowledge the growth potential of META, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than META but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
Yahoo
13-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) the Best Tech Stock to Buy For Long-Term Investment?
We recently published a list of 12 Best Tech Stocks to Buy For Long-Term Investment. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) stands against other tech stocks to buy for long-term investment. On April 1, Chris Verrone, chief market strategist at Strategas Research Partners, appeared on CNBC's 'Closing Bell' to talk about his outlook on the tech sector. Verrone believes that most of the current market's negative sentiment has already been factored into recent stock prices. He highlighted that even after the market's decline, the VIX, and the currency and bond volatility are lower than they were during the mid-March stress period. Plus, fewer stocks are hitting new lows. He thinks that market lows are formed during periods of bad news, and the market will rally from its current level with an anticipated range of 5,900 to 5,950. Verrone believes that the current downturn is more than a typical 10% correction so it will take some time to figure out the market's true direction. He emphasized the importance of monitoring market breadth, new highs, and credit conditions in the upcoming weeks and months. He also acknowledged the shift in investor sentiment, with more bears than bulls. As the conversation touched on the impact of the Fed and politics in a market, Verrone stated that he pays more attention to what the 2-year Treasury yield tells him instead of listening to what Fed officials have to say. He noted that the 2-year yield's decline from 3.83% to 3.85% suggests a shift in the market expectations for the Fed's actions. He highlighted the resilience of financials during the correction and contrasted it with the weakness of tech. He thinks that, unlike financials that entered the correction as leaders, the tech sector might not be able to regain the leadership role. While Verrone's stance acknowledges the current weakness in tech, it's important to note that the tech sector remains one of the more innovative markets in the long run. For instance, MAG7 continues to be a driving force for this market. We first sifted through financial media reports to compile a list of the top tech stocks that are being touted as long term investment plays. We then selected the 12 stocks that were the most popular among elite hedge funds and that analysts were bullish on. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of the number of hedge funds that have stakes in them, as of Q4 2024. The hedge fund data was sourced from Insider Monkey's database which tracks the moves of over 900 elite money managers. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here). A technician working at a magnified microscope, developing a new integrated circuit. Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 161 Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) is a tech company that designs, develops, and supplies various semiconductor devices. It focuses on complex digital and mixed signal complementary metal oxide semiconductor-based devices and analog III-V-based products. It operates in two segments: Semiconductor Solutions and Infrastructure Software. The company's Semiconductor Solutions improved its revenue by 11% year-over-year in FQ1 2025 to generate an amount of $8.2 billion. A lot of this was the segment's AI revenue, which reached $4.1 billion alone, and marked a surge of 77%. In FQ2, the company expects AI revenue to increase by 44%. This growth comes from hyperscale customers who heavily invest in next-gen AI models. Three of these major hyperscale clients are expected to create a SAM of $60-$90 billion by FY27. Additionally, Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) is working with such clients to develop systems that will support massive AI clusters, ranging from 500,000 to 1,000,000 AI accelerators. The company is also developing cutting-edge technologies like two-nanometer AI XPUs with 3.5D packaging, which targets a performance of 10,000 teraflops. It's working on the next-generation 100 terabit Tomahawk 6 switch to support the scaling of large AI clusters. On March 7, Piper Sandler reiterated its Overweight rating on the company with a $250 price target due to its strong performance driven by AI growth. Renaissance Large Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) in its Q4 2024 investor letter: 'Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) was another large contributor in the quarter after reporting solid operating results. The company presented an optimistic outlook, driven by its dominant position in artificial intelligence application-specific chipsets. In addition, the company should continue to benefit from its leading position in several end markets including data centers and cloud infrastructure, which have favorable secular growth trends. Broadcom is also seeing margin expansion and improved visibility, as the mix of software revenues increases, following the acquisition of VMWare.' Overall, AVGO ranks 10th on our list of the best tech stocks to buy for long-term investment. While we acknowledge the growth potential of AVGO, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AVGO but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
13-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Visa (V) the Best Tech Stock to Buy For Long-Term Investment?
We recently published a list of 12 Best Tech Stocks to Buy For Long-Term Investment. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) stands against other tech stocks to buy for long-term investment. On April 1, Chris Verrone, chief market strategist at Strategas Research Partners, appeared on CNBC's 'Closing Bell' to talk about his outlook on the tech sector. Verrone believes that most of the current market's negative sentiment has already been factored into recent stock prices. He highlighted that even after the market's decline, the VIX, and the currency and bond volatility are lower than they were during the mid-March stress period. Plus, fewer stocks are hitting new lows. He thinks that market lows are formed during periods of bad news, and the market will rally from its current level with an anticipated range of 5,900 to 5,950. Verrone believes that the current downturn is more than a typical 10% correction so it will take some time to figure out the market's true direction. He emphasized the importance of monitoring market breadth, new highs, and credit conditions in the upcoming weeks and months. He also acknowledged the shift in investor sentiment, with more bears than bulls. As the conversation touched on the impact of the Fed and politics in a market, Verrone stated that he pays more attention to what the 2-year Treasury yield tells him instead of listening to what Fed officials have to say. He noted that the 2-year yield's decline from 3.83% to 3.85% suggests a shift in the market expectations for the Fed's actions. He highlighted the resilience of financials during the correction and contrasted it with the weakness of tech. He thinks that, unlike financials that entered the correction as leaders, the tech sector might not be able to regain the leadership role. While Verrone's stance acknowledges the current weakness in tech, it's important to note that the tech sector remains one of the more innovative markets in the long run. For instance, MAG7 continues to be a driving force for this market. We first sifted through financial media reports to compile a list of the top tech stocks that are being touted as long term investment plays. We then selected the 12 stocks that were the most popular among elite hedge funds and that analysts were bullish on. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of the number of hedge funds that have stakes in them, as of Q4 2024. The hedge fund data was sourced from Insider Monkey's database which tracks the moves of over 900 elite money managers. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here). A close-up of a modern payments terminal with a pile of credit cards on the side. Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 181 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is an international payment technology company. It operates VisaNet, which is a transaction processing network for authorizing, clearing, and settling payment transactions. It also offers credit, debit, and prepaid card products, along with Visa Direct, Visa B2B Connect, Visa Cross-Border Solution, and Visa DPS. It serves merchants, financial institutions, and government entities. The company also increased its volume by 6% year-over-year in the commercial payments sector. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) works by targeting specific verticals, such as food and grocery delivery, and travel and entertainment. This has resulted in partnerships with DoorDash, iFood Pago, mySofie, and Airwallex. By developing innovative solutions and forming partnerships, the company drives growth in this evolving market. Its New Flows segment includes Visa Direct and commercial payment solutions and had its revenue surge by 19% year-over-year in FQ1 2025. Visa Direct processed more than 10 billion transactions in the past 12 months. 3 billion of these transactions occurred in FQ1 alone. The company is growing Visa Direct by pursuing partnerships with issuers and fintechs. Some instances of such collaborations include the ones with X Money, OnePay, Banco Pichincha in Ecuador, Libra Internet Bank, and OCBC. Meridian Hedged Equity Fund stated the following regarding Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in its Q4 2024 investor letter: 'Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is the world's largest retail electronic payments network. We hold Visa in the portfolio because of its formidable competitive moat, built on network effects spanning billions of cards and millions of merchants globally. The company continues to benefit from the secular shift toward electronic payments while expanding its portfolio to include high-growth adjacent offerings. While U.S. market penetration is mature, international markets—particularly in emerging economies, where cash usage remains prevalent— offer significant growth opportunities. Visa's operating model demonstrates strong leverage, with incremental revenue efficiently flowing to the bottom line. This quarter, Visa outperformed expectations across key metrics, with payment volumes and transaction growth proving resilient despite macro uncertainties. Looking ahead, we anticipate continued momentum into fiscal 2025, driven by the ongoing transition to digital payments, international expansion, and the scaling of newer business lines.' Overall, V ranks 7th on our list of the best tech stocks to buy for long-term investment. While we acknowledge the growth potential of V, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than V but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
13-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) the Best Tech Stock to Buy For Long-Term Investment?
We recently published a list of 12 Best Tech Stocks to Buy For Long-Term Investment. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) stands against other tech stocks to buy for long-term investment. On April 1, Chris Verrone, chief market strategist at Strategas Research Partners, appeared on CNBC's 'Closing Bell' to talk about his outlook on the tech sector. Verrone believes that most of the current market's negative sentiment has already been factored into recent stock prices. He highlighted that even after the market's decline, the VIX, and the currency and bond volatility are lower than they were during the mid-March stress period. Plus, fewer stocks are hitting new lows. He thinks that market lows are formed during periods of bad news, and the market will rally from its current level with an anticipated range of 5,900 to 5,950. Verrone believes that the current downturn is more than a typical 10% correction so it will take some time to figure out the market's true direction. He emphasized the importance of monitoring market breadth, new highs, and credit conditions in the upcoming weeks and months. He also acknowledged the shift in investor sentiment, with more bears than bulls. As the conversation touched on the impact of the Fed and politics in a market, Verrone stated that he pays more attention to what the 2-year Treasury yield tells him instead of listening to what Fed officials have to say. He noted that the 2-year yield's decline from 3.83% to 3.85% suggests a shift in the market expectations for the Fed's actions. He highlighted the resilience of financials during the correction and contrasted it with the weakness of tech. He thinks that, unlike financials that entered the correction as leaders, the tech sector might not be able to regain the leadership role. While Verrone's stance acknowledges the current weakness in tech, it's important to note that the tech sector remains one of the more innovative markets in the long run. For instance, MAG7 continues to be a driving force for this market. We first sifted through financial media reports to compile a list of the top tech stocks that are being touted as long term investment plays. We then selected the 12 stocks that were the most popular among elite hedge funds and that analysts were bullish on. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of the number of hedge funds that have stakes in them, as of Q4 2024. The hedge fund data was sourced from Insider Monkey's database which tracks the moves of over 900 elite money managers. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here). A development team working together to create the next version of Windows. Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 317 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) develops and supports global software, services, devices, and solutions. One of its business segments includes Productivity and Business Processes which offers Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and others. It also provides LinkedIn, on-premises ERP, and CRM applications. The company's Intelligent Cloud segment offers server products and cloud services. It's primarily driven by Azure and achieved $25.5 billion in FQ2 2o25 revenue, which was up 19% year-over-year. This was fueled by the expanding AI services, which saw a 157% revenue increase. The AI business recorded an annual revenue run rate of $13 billion, which was up 175%. The company has more than doubled its data center capacity in the last 3 years, with the highest expansions made last year to ensure supporting the current cloud workloads and next-gen AI applications. Azure AI Foundry, which is Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) AI platform has 200,000+ monthly active users within just 2 months of its launch. It provides tools for AI development which includes support for OpenAI's leading models and open-source models like DeepSeek's R1. Similarly, Copilot Studio creates custom AI agents and has seen 160,000 organizations create 400,000 agents in just 3 months. Piper Sandler maintained an Overweight rating with a $520 price target on the company because they believe in its AI-driven cloud, productivity, and business offerings. Columbia Seligman Global Technology Fund stated the following regarding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q4 2024 investor letter, believing that Oracle is positioned to capitalize on the AI-driven cloud demand: 'Within software, the fund maintained an underweight position to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which proved beneficial as share price for the company fell during the fourth quarter. Microsoft's outlook for its Azure business came down slightly, which hampered the stock price at times during the quarter and, combined with losses on the Open AI business, led to a disappointing end to 2024. The company has guided its capital expenditure spending up slightly and investors continue to wait for additional monetization from the company's large commitment to AI infrastructure spending. The fund continued to hold an overweight allocation to Oracle as we believe Oracle is positioned to be a major beneficiary of the AI rollout and has the potential to compete with other large cloud providers, such as Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft. Oracle shares moved lower during the quarter and the stock suffered its worst day of the year in December, as the company narrowly underperformed analysts' average estimates. Oracle's business model remains strong as demand for computer power that can handle AI is increasing and the company's revenues from its cloud infrastructure unit moved higher year over year.' Overall, MSFT ranks 2nd on our list of the best tech stocks to buy for long-term investment. While we acknowledge the growth potential of MSFT, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MSFT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
