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6 Tech Giants Setting the Northbound Trajectory of Wall Street

After a disappointing March, Wall Street had a dream run in April, registering its best monthly performance in more than five decades. The rally was broad-based as 10 out of the 11 broad S&P 500 sectors advanced strongly. Only the utility sector received a minor setback. Among the top performers, it was the technology sector that alone set the rally on track.

Technology Sector Fuels Rally

In April, the S&P 500 gained 12.7%, while the Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK), the most important component of the broad market index, rallied 13.7%. Moreover, the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite index advanced 15.5% last month. The Nasdaq Composite witnessed the best April in its history and registered the best monthly performance since 2000.

Meanwhile, the three major stock indexes — the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite — declined 3.7%, 3.7% and 3.5%, respectively, in the last day of April and the first day of May. However, on May 4, all three major stock indexes ended in the green buoyed by the strong performance of large-cap tech stocks. In fact, the Dow and the S&P 500 registered their best intraday comeback since Mar 19 and 25, respectively.

Technology Sector on Strong Footing

In financial literature, technology is known as the high-growth sector. During severe market downturn, growth stocks likely to suffer the most. Recently, the situation was aggravated as almost all U.S. tech behemoths are highly dependent on China for their business.

China plays the role of both a low-cost supplier as well as the largest market of high-tech products. With the coronavirus outbreak starting in China and then spreading across the world, the global supply chain was completely destroyed.

The technology sector was feared wide to suffer major setbacks owing to the coronavirus-induced economic disaster. In contrast, its strong growth came as a pleasant surprise to market participants.

The world is witnessing rapid technological improvements owing to unprecedented growth in high-speed mobile Internet traffic, particularly with respect to wireless data and video. These developments have transformed this sector into an ever-evolving, inventive and keenly contested space.

Growing deployment of next-generation super-fast 5G technology and massive application of IoT have created significant demand for technically sophisticated products. Moreover, large tech companies are rapidly shifting to the digital media platform offering online TV streaming services, resulting in innovative product differentiation.

6 Tech Behemoths Flying High

Six technology behemoths have popped in the past month and set Wall Street on a rally. These stocks have strong growth potential and either a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The chart below shows the price performance of six tech behemoths in the past month.

 

Facebook Inc. FB continues to witness significant traction in online and mobile advertising spending. The company intends to capture the opportunity presented by ever-increasing video viewing on social media platforms. Online video is the most lucrative component of digital advertising.

Instagram has emerged as an important cash cow for Facebook after introducing its ad platform to worldwide advertisers. Messenger and WhatsApp are the other prized possessions.  Ephemerality and end-to-end encryption are also driving the popularity of WhatsApp.

The Zacks Rank #3 company has an expected earnings growth rate of 12.1% and 32.3% for the current and next year, respectively. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year and next-year earnings has improved by 0.1% and 0.8%, respectively, over the past 7 days. The stock has rallied 33.1% in the past month.

Apple Inc.'s AAPL Services and Wearables businesses are expected to drive top-line growth in fiscal 2020 and beyond. Although Apple’s business primarily runs around its flagship iPhone, the Services portfolio has emerged as its new cash cow. Robust App Store sales coupled with solid adoption of Apple Pay and Apple Music are expected to help the company double its  Services revenues by 2020.

Apple is encouraging developers to use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in their apps. Apple’s focus on autonomous vehicles and augmented reality/virtual reality technologies presents growth opportunity in the long haul.

The Zacks Rank #3 company has an expected earnings growth rate of 0.6% and 26.2% for the current (ending September 2020) and next year, respectively. As of Mar 28, 2020, its net cash position was $93.37 billion The stock has jumped 21.4% in the past month.

Alphabet  Inc.'s GOOGL Google has been growing rapidly in this fast-growing highly-competitive cloud market. The Google search engine is advanced, simple and adaptable, all at once. This is the main reason for its leading search market share. Per netmarketshare.com Google had 74.1% of desktop search market share.

Alphabet is leveraging its Android OS not just to build search market share but also to drive sales of apps and digital products through Google Play.

The Zacks Rank #3 company has expected growth rate of 33.4% for next year. Notably, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year and next-year earnings has improved by 1.1% and 1.5%,respctively, over the past 7 days. The stock has climbed 21.1% in the past month.

NVIDIA Corp. NVDA is gaining a decent market share among the gaming service providers. The strong line-up of advanced graphics cards has made it a favorite graphics card provider among PC makers. Datacenter presents a solid growth opportunity for the company. Its foray into the autonomous vehicles and other automotive electronics space is a positive. NVIDIA’s GPUs are rapidly benefiting from the proliferation of artificial intelligence.

The Zacks Rank #2 company has an expected earnings growth rate of 27.6% and 19.6% for the current (ending January 2021) and next year, respectively. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year and next-year earnings has improved by 0.7% and 0.8%, respctively, over the past 7 days. The stock has soared 19.4% in the past month.

Microsoft Corp. MSFT has a dominant position in the desktop PC market, with its operating systems being used in the majority of PCs worldwide. The company has doubled down on the cloud computing opportunity. It is one of the three largest providers of gaming hardware. Its Xbox console was one of the first gaming devices of its kind.

Microsoft also offers a hybrid cloud solution that enables the integration of existing IT infrastructure with the public cloud. The company is also pursuing growth in the SMB segment through partnerships with infrastructure providers such as GoDaddy.

The Zacks Rank #2 company has an expected earnings growth rate of 18.7% and 9.8% for the current (ending June 2020) and next year, respectively. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year and next-year earnings has improved by 2% and 0.5%, respctively, over the past 7 days. The stock has surged 16.3% in the past month.

Adobe Inc. ADBE continues to be the market leader in the Digital Media space. The company provides one of the best solutions in most categories of digital media design and publishing, including Internet and video. Acrobat is one of the company’s most successful product lines with a huge installed base of satisfied customers.

The Zacks Rank #2 company has an expected earnings growth rate of 24.4% and 13.5% for the current (ending November 2020) and next year, respectively. The stock has advanced 18.9% in the past month.

Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential

The biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $775 billion by 2024 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. They’re also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases.

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Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Apple Inc. (AAPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Adobe Systems Incorporated (ADBE) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Facebook, Inc. (FB) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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