There's no question: Analysts love Nvidia. But they love two Magnificent Seven stocks in the S&P 500 even more.
Amazon.com and Microsoft are rated a buy by 95% of the analysts who follow the stocks, says John Butters of FactSet. That's the highest percentage of buy ratings of any S&P 500 stocks. It's even higher than the 94% of analysts who rate Nvidia shares a buy.
"Three of the top four companies with the highest percentage of buy ratings are also Magnificent Seven companies: Amazon.com, Microsoft and Nvidia," Butters said.
Gearing Up For Third Quarter
And don't think analysts hand out buy ratings to everyone. Of the 11,882 ratings on S&P 500 stocks, just 54.5% are buy ratings, FactSet says. That's actually slightly below the five-year average of 54.6%. More than 40% of ratings are holds.
Meanwhile, the percentage of buy ratings has been falling. It was 55.2% at the end of June 2024.
Going All-In On Amazon And Microsoft
Amazon.com is a strong favorite. Not only are 95% of its ratings a buy, there are no sell ratings on the stock.
Shares are up more than 26% this year. Investors are anticipating a 63% jump in 2024 profit and a 24% rise in 2025. AMZN stock's Composite Rating is already 93.
As for Microsoft, 95% of the ratings are a buy and just 2% a sell. That's impressive given the 16% rise in MSFT shares this year. Analysts see 12% earnings growth for Microsoft in 2025. And the stock's Composite Rating is 75.
Of course, analysts aren't always right. But it's still interesting to see where their favorites are.
Top Buy-Rated S&P 500 Stocks
| Company | Symbol | Buy | Hold | Sell | YTD stock change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon.com | AMZN | 95% | 5% | 0% | 26.1% |
| Microsoft | MSFT | 95% | 3% | 2% | 15.8% |
| General Electric | GE | 94% | 6% | 0% | 46.9% |
| Nvidia | NVDA | 94% | 6% | 0% | 134.2% |
| Schlumberger | SLB | 94% | 6% | 0% | -18.5% |
| Axon Enterprise | AXON | 93% | 7% | 0% | 52.2% |
| UnitedHealth Group | UNH | 93% | 7% | 0% | 9.2% |
| Vistra | VST | 92% | 0% | 8% | 180.1% |
| United Airlines | UAL | 91% | 4% | 4% | 26.4% |
| Delta Air Lines | DAL | 91% | 9% | 0% | 16.7% |
