A taxi waits to pick up a passenger at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in Los Angeles, California, on February 8, 2023, with an Uber rideshare sign posted nearby.
Tama Mario | Getty Images
The new year has just begun, but macro uncertainty is already worrying investors, with Federal Reserve officials expressing concern about inflation and its impact on the path to rate cuts.
In these volatile times, investors can boost portfolio returns by adding stocks backed by solid financials and long-term growth opportunities. Investment theories from top Wall Street analysts can help investors choose the right stocks. Because professionals base their analysis on a deep understanding of the macro environment and company-specific factors.
According to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on business performance, the three stocks that the Street’s top pros like are:
Uber Technologies
Starting with ride sharing and food delivery platforms Uber Technologies (Uber). The company achieved better-than-expected sales and profits in the third quarter of 2024, but gross bookings were lower than expected.
Mizuho analyst James Lee recently reiterated his buy rating on Uber Technologies stock, with a price target of $90. Analysts see 2025 as an investment year for UBER. These investments may impact the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the short term, but are expected to drive long-term growth.
Based on his analysis, Mr. Lee expects Uber’s growth investments to result in a compound annual growth rate of 16% in core gross bookings from FY2023 to FY2026, which is higher than the company’s analysts. This is in line with the mid-to-high 10% growth target. The analyst believes Uber’s EBITDA growth is on track to be in line with its analyst-day CAGR of 30% to 40%. “Despite the tilt towards growth investments, margin risks should be offset by economies of scale and efficiency gains,” Lee said.
Additionally, Lee believes concerns about the growth of the company’s mobility business appear to be overblown. Analysts expect gross booking growth (FX-neutral) in FY2025 to be in the high teens, with a slower pace of deceleration than in the second half of 2024.
Furthermore, analysts expect the total booking value of Uber’s delivery business to remain in the mid-teens in FY2025. This increase is expected to be supported by increased adoption of new verticals while maintaining food delivery market share. The analyst added that Mizuho’s check reveals order frequency is further reaching an all-time high. The checks also show strong grocery store adoption and strong user penetration in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
Mr. Lee is ranked #324 out of over 9,200 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His valuation is profitable 60% of the time, with an average return of 12.9%. View Uber Technologies stock price chart on TipRanks.
data dog
move to data dog (DDOG) is a cloud monitoring and security product company. In November, the company announced better-than-expected results for the third quarter of 2024.
On January 6th, Mones analyst Brian White reiterated his buy rating on Datadog stock with a price target of $155. The analyst believes the company is taking a more balanced approach to the generative artificial intelligence trend, “avoiding the absurd claims spread by many across the software conglomerate.” There is. He noted that DDOG performed well relative to its peers in a difficult software environment in 2024, but added that it lagged other stocks in Mones’ coverage universe.
That said, White believes Datadog and the broader industry will begin to see increased activity over the next 12 to 18 months due to the long-term boom in generative AI. The analyst highlighted DDOG’s strong performance relative to peers and transparency around generative AI advances, noting that AI-native customers will continue to account for the company’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) in Q3 2024. It pointed out that this figure was more than 6%, an increase from more than 4% in the same period last year. 2.5% for the second quarter of 2024 and the third quarter of 2023.
White also highlighted some of the company’s AI products, including LLM Observability and its Gen AI assistant, Bits AI. Overall, analysts are bullish on Datadog, saying that its cloud-native platform, rapid growth and strong secular tailwinds in the observability space, and new generative AI-led push the stock to We believe it deserves a premium valuation compared to software vendors. Opportunity for growth.
Mr. White is ranked No. 33 out of more than 9,200 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His valuation is profitable 69% of the time, with an average return of 20%. See Datadog ownership structure on TipRanks.
Nvidia
Major semiconductor company Nvidia (NVDA) This is our third stock pick of the week. The company is considered one of the key beneficiaries of the generative AI wave and is experiencing strong demand for advanced GPUs (graphics processing units) needed to build and run AI models.
After chatting with Nvidia CFO Colette Kress, JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sahr reaffirmed his buy rating on the stock with a price target of $170. The analyst highlighted the CFO’s belief that the company’s Blackwell platform production ramp-up is on track thanks to solid execution despite supply chain challenges.
Additionally, the company expects data center spending to remain strong in calendar year 2025, supported by Blackwell’s business expansion and broad-based demand strength. Additionally, Sur noted that management believes there is a significant revenue growth opportunity by capturing a large portion of the $1 trillion worth of installed base of data center infrastructure.
Sur added that he expects Nvidia to benefit from the shift to accelerated computing and growing demand for AI solutions. Management believes that the company has a strong competitive advantage compared to ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) solutions due to several strengths, including ease of implementation and comprehensive system solutions. .
Sur agreed with this perspective, saying, “We believe enterprise, vertical market, and sovereign customers will continue to prefer Nvidia-based solutions.”
Among other key points, Sur highlighted the rollout of next-generation gaming products and the opportunity to expand beyond high-end gaming into markets such as AI PCs.
Sur is ranked #35 out of over 9,200 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His rating is profitable 67% of the time, with an average return of 26.9%. See Nvidia Hedge Fund activity on TipRanks.
