Investors had a huge win last year S&P 500 Indexthis Nasdaq,as well as Dow Jones Industrial Average All rose by double digits. The momentum has been fueled by investor enthusiasm for technology and growth stocks and the economic environment ahead.
At this time, it’s too early to predict with 100 percent certainty whether these indexes will post another annual gain, but there are reasons to be optimistic about the possibility. After all, the artificial intelligence (AI) growth story is still in its early stages, and the Federal Reserve has already initiated rate cuts. These factors are likely to support stock performance in the year ahead.
But no matter which direction the overall market goes, a few stocks could stand out in 2025, most importantly in the long term. Here are my top 10 buys, a list that gives you the perfect combination of growth and security to start the new year.
Image source: Getty Images.
Eli Lilly and Company(NYSE:LLY) is the maker of one of today’s most popular treatments: weight-loss pills. Eli Lilly and Company makes tezepatide, sold as Zepbound for weight loss and Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes. These products quickly became blockbusters, generating billions of dollars in revenue.
On top of that, Lily has two recent wins. Regulators have declared there is no longer a shortage of tezepatide, meaning compounding pharmacies can no longer produce its version and take market share from Eli Lilly. Second, Eli Lilly received approval for Zepbound to treat sleep apnea and obesity, which helped the company recently secure Medicare coverage for the drug in its sleep apnea indication.
Goldman Sachs According to Bloomberg, research predicts that the obesity drug market could reach $130 billion by 2030, and Eli Lilly is well-positioned to benefit from this growth.
meta platform(NASDAQ: META) It is a leader in social media, owning Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. This helps the company generate billions of dollars in advertising revenue year after year.
Today, Meta continues to dominate social media, in addition to investing heavily in artificial intelligence. The idea is to build artificial intelligence that all users can benefit from – as they spend more time in Meta’s apps, advertisers may spend more ads there to reach them. Over time, Meta’s work in artificial intelligence may also lead to other compelling products and services.
All of this makes now an excellent time to join this top tech company.
salesperson(NYSE: CRM)is a leader in customer relationship management software and has proven its long-term revenue strength. Now it’s facing a potentially huge new growth opportunity: agent artificial intelligence. This is the creation of artificial intelligence software or agents to analyze complex problems and apply solutions.
The tech giant recently launched Agentforce, a platform that allows users to build their own artificial intelligence agents to handle a variety of tasks, from processing transactions to resolving customer queries, and all of that 24/7. Salesforce said it has signed 200 deals and its pipeline of future deals looks strong.
This significantly increases the company’s total addressable market, providing considerable growth potential for the future. “We’ve really created a whole new market,” Chief Executive Marc Benioff said on the latest earnings call.
Chewy(NYSE:CHWY) is your furry friend’s best friend, offering everything from food and snacks to toys and prescription medications on its e-commerce platform. The company has become profitable in recent years, with revenue growth driven by repeat customers: About 80% of revenue comes from customers who choose to automatically reorder and ship their favorite products.
The company recently launched Veterinary Clinics, a major move to expand business opportunities and introduce its e-commerce platform to a whole new audience.
I also like Chewy’s financials. The company has no debt and a liquidity position of approximately $1.3 billion at the end of its most recent quarter. Free cash flow and return on invested capital are rising, suggesting Chewy is benefiting from its investments.
CHWY free cash flow (quarterly) data provided by YCharts
CRISPR therapy(NASDAQ:CRSP) An important milestone has been reached in recent years. The company has received regulatory approval for the first time for a product based on its gene-editing technology. In fact, Casgevy’s approval for the blood disease represents the world’s first endorsement of a CRISPR-based gene editing product, which involves harnessing natural repair processes to “fix” defective genes.
Because Casgevy requires a months-long treatment process, revenue growth will take time. But the company has already started treating about 40 patients, so that should gradually increase revenue. Importantly, this regulatory recognition is a vote of confidence in the technology used across CRISPR Therapeutics’ entire pipeline.
Speaking of pipeline, the company is working on several other product candidates, so this could be just the beginning of its growth story.
intuitive surgery(NASDAQ: ISRG) is a global leader in robotic surgery, and its solid moat, or competitive advantage, should help it maintain that position. Most surgeons train on Intuitive’s flagship da Vinci robot, making it likely they’ll want to stick with that platform. After a hospital spends more than $1 million to buy or lease a robot, it may continue to use it to amortize the investment.
I also like that Intuitive actually makes more quarterly revenue from sales of instruments and accessories than from sales of the robots themselves. These are tools that must be ordered for every program of the device. This suggests that every robot sold or leased represents an opportunity for recurring revenue and growth.
All of this makes Intuitive a long-term stock worth betting on right now.
mass strike(NASDAQ: CRWD) As a leader in cybersecurity, it proved its mettle last year after weathering the worst of times. A faulty CrowdStrike software update in July caused one of the world’s largest information technology outages. In response, CrowdStrike quickly resolved the issue, offered the company a compensation package, and took steps to ensure that an incident like this never happens again.
The company said in a subsequent earnings report that its deal pipeline had not been affected and that most customers remained loyal. The compensation package will impact CrowdStrike’s growth to some extent in the short term, but should drive growth over time. That’s because they offer customers the opportunity to scale their work with CrowdStrike.
In CrowdStrike’s latest quarterly earnings report, annual recurring revenue climbed by double digits to more than $4 billion, having just added about $153 million in the quarter, indicating that customers continue to flock to CrowdStrike.
Image source: Getty Images.
I like Amazon(NASDAQ: AMZN) Because it is a leader in two growing business areas: e-commerce and cloud computing. They’ve helped the company generate billions of dollars in revenue over time, and the moves Amazon has made in recent years to adjust its cost structure should put it on the right path to profitability in the coming months and years. .
Beyond that, Amazon could be one of the biggest winners from the artificial intelligence boom. The company is already benefiting from artificial intelligence in two ways. Amazon uses artificial intelligence to make its fulfillment network more efficient, such as streamlining warehouse operations. Amazon provides artificial intelligence tools to customers through its Amazon Web Services (AWS) business. In fact, AWS’ annual revenue run rate has reached $110.
Amazon is therefore well-positioned to maintain its leadership in e-commerce and the cloud, while its focus on artificial intelligence could spur a new wave of growth in the future.
Speaking of artificial intelligence, NVIDIA(Nasdaq: NVDA) Probably one of the biggest winners in this market. The company is the number one chip designer and has expanded into a wide range of related products and services. All of this has produced quarter after quarter of double-digit and triple-digit revenue, and high profitability, as evidenced by Nvidia’s gross margins of over 70%.
Now, with a new wave of artificial intelligence growth emerging, Nvidia may continue to soar. This growth has to do with software and the idea of applying artificial intelligence to the real world. For example, Nvidia’s enterprise software platform and tools for creating artificial intelligence agents should help the company win in this area.
This means that even though Nvidia is up 140% over the past year, the stock may still have a lot of room to rise, especially over the long term as the artificial intelligence story develops.
this SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(NYSE:SPY) Not a stock, but it is an asset that allows you to invest in the performance of a variety of stocks. This exchange-traded fund tracks the S&P 500 Index, giving you exposure to the top players driving the economy that day. It trades on the market every day, just like a stock, so buying it is simple and easy for investors.
One key difference between ETFs and stocks is that ETFs charge fees, expressed as an expense ratio. With an expense ratio of 0.09%, the SPDR S&P ETF is cheap and well worth investing in.
Why buy this ETF now? It’s a great way to instantly diversify your portfolio, giving you exposure to 11 industries and many of today’s top stocks. That’s why, along with the handpicked stocks on this list, this asset will be a great addition to your 2025 portfolio.
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*Stock Advisor returns as of January 13, 2025
John Mackey is the former CEO of Amazon subsidiary Whole Foods Market and a board member of The Motley Fool. Randi Zuckerberg is the former director of market development and spokesperson for Facebook, the sister of Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and a board member of The Motley Fool. Adria Cimino works at Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions and recommendations at Amazon, CRISPR Therapeutics, Chewy, CrowdStrike, Goldman Sachs Group, Intuitive Surgical, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Salesforce. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
My 10 Best Stocks to Buy to Start the New Year Originally Posted by The Motley Fool
