Julian Emmanuel, Evercore ISI senior managing director, said in a recent program on CNBC that the AI-driven bull market will continue, but he expects a pullback in the short term. The analyst believes any such weakness would be a buying opportunity.
“Great bull markets and this is a structural AI technology-driven bull market,” Emmanuel said. “Great bull markets find ways to try in to get investors to get off the theme to do some selling. And our our feeling here is you don’t do that because basically when you think about it, what really drives stock prices higher in the long term is earnings and we’re very optimistic uh on earnings into 2026.”
The analyst said companies that are actually using AI, have strong earnings and “reasonable” valuations offer opportunities for investors if a market downturn hits.
“There are companies who in their conference call transcripts have been very public about how they’re using and deploying AI. And importantly, and we like these types of screens, not only are their valuations reasonable based on their last 5 years history, but they have upward earnings revisions in in a tape like this where there is some uncertainty. Those are the kinds of safeguards that to us really are an extra edge.”
READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In.
For this article, we picked 10 stocks analysts were recently talking about. For each stock, we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. 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).
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10. Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 54
Bryn Talkington, managing partner at Requisite Capital Management, said in a CNBC program on August 20 that she trimmed her stake in Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL), but would pile into the stock if it retreats to low $100s.
“Dell’s growth engine is their infrastructure services group and inside of that, that’s where they are like the key tech stack within the AI build,” Talkington said. “I think they’re taking really strong market share from SMCI, but because it’s just part of the company, they still have a big consumer company with the computers. I think that as the stock got into the high 130s, I just felt it was going to be a top, and so I think a temporary top. But once again, they’re buying back shares. I’m a huge fan of Michael Dell. I’ll definitely look to get back in if I get an opportunity into the low 100s.”
9. Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors:78
Derek Yan, KraneShares Senior Investment Strategist, said in a recent program on CNBC that Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) has the potential to become the “operating system for enterprises” in the world of AI. He also explained the key reasons investors usually worry about Palantir and mentioned why he’s bullish on the stock:
“Palantir is offering the similar opportunity here for investors to really disrupt the enterprise world along with many other agentic AI solutions. So the recent like selling I would think that’s largely driven by macro factors and there’s some profit taking. We own Palantir over a year ago and now it’s over $150. So many other investors they’re concerned about valuation and worry about like potential risk off triggered by the fat policies that’s coming. Well I believe this is a singular grow structural growth opportunity right. So AI agent option is accelerating. The cost per token will keep declining. As a result, the return on investment for enterprises to deploy AI and use Palantir service to automate their workflow will become increasingly attractive.”
Palantir has proved its skeptics wrong and so far defied conventional valuation approaches, enjoying an insanely high P/E ratio. The company is consistently growing. In the recently reported quarter, its revenue rose 48% year over year. The company’s full-year outlook points to sales growth of about 45%. While Palantir bears have highlighted its high dependence on just a few customers for most of its revenue, all signs indicate that the company’s growth won’t stop anytime soon. Why? Because Palantir’s Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) is becoming indispensable for companies to deploy and operate AI systems and infrastructure. The AI software boom is just getting started, paving the way for more growth for companies like Palantir. Hyperscaler capex is expected to reach $1.15T from 2025 through 2027, more than double the $477B spent from 2022 through 2024.
Carillon Eagle Mid Cap Growth Fund stated the following regarding Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR), a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) software and services to governmental organizations, reported robust results and provided a strong outlook, as both the U.S. military and NATO purchased large contracts. Palantir also has had success penetrating non-military agencies of the U.S. government, as well as the commercial (corporate) side of the market with AI use cases that deliver quantifiable added value through its bootcamp product demonstrations.”
8. Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors:82
Steve Levy, Wired editor-at-large, said in an interview on CNBC a couple of weeks ago that he believes the US government’s stake in Intel would make CEOs of major companies believe that the government could target their companies next. He was commenting on the US government’s decision to buy a 10% stake in Intel.
“They have gone all in some not very happily with Trump. But Trump isn’t satisfied with the deal he makes in Mara Lago or the White House on a given day. He’s going to come back and ask for more,” Levy said. “We’ve already seen that he’s very eager to run the businesses, you know, the the biggest businesses of America. He thinks he knows more than they do. So you look at the Intel bill and he’s bragging we got it for nothing. And you could argue that’s true because as you said up top this was money that Congress already granted the president the previous president signed off. They were going to get anyway. They have a contract to do this classified work. They’re going to do that work anyway. But now essentially for free I guess you know I wonder if the shareholders might have something to say about that. But what happens now when the government’s the biggest shareholder in Intel? AMD can’t be happy about that. So maybe you know Trump will say well you give me 10% too.”
7. Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 121
Bryn Talkington, managing partner at Requisite Capital Management, explained in a recent program on CNBC why she bought Salesforce shares.
“Salesforce is Uber in the 60s. And Marc Benioff has been very clear. Let’s focus on free cash flow. Let’s focus on margins. Let’s focus on growth and financial stability. I think what they’re doing, I think the market is completely missing this nonsense that some other nebulous AI is going to come in and take over what Salesforce is doing — just is absurd. Salesforce is using AI. Their acquisition of Informatica I think is going to be great; it’s going to be creative the year after next. I just think this is an unloved stock that’s getting caught up in the hedge fund shorts of shorting these software companies, and this is one to me. It’s been up the past few days and it can easily trade up 15 to 20% in after earnings because I just think the market is missing this name and it’s an Uber in the 60s,” Talkington said.
Salesforce shares are down 24% so far this year. The company recently reported a decent quarter, but the stock fell amid weak guidance. For the third quarter, the company expects revenue between $10.24 billion and $10.29 billion, below the Wall Street estimates at the midpoint.
Oakmark Fund stated the following regarding Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is a leading technology company that offers a collection of software products aimed at providing businesses with a full front office productivity suite. We believe Salesforce is a wonderful business going through a transformation into a profitable, shareholder-focused enterprise. Since management announced their renewed focus on operating discipline a couple years ago, Salesforce’s margins have increased substantially. In our view, there is further room to improve as the company leverages its unique position to help businesses deploy AI and continues to restructure its sales organization. Since exiting our position in Salesforce in December, the stock price has declined by over 30% despite continuing to report fundamental results that are in line with our expectations. We were pleased to buy the stock, but we first established our position using a put writing strategy to lower our entry price. We believed the puts were overvalued as they implied that Salesforce was among the most volatile large companies, which was completely at odds with our assessment of its business value.”
6. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 156
Joe Terranova, senior managing director at Virtus Investment Partners, said in a program on CNBC on August 20 that he trimmed his stake in Apple. Here is how the analyst explained the move:
“It’s not a portfolio type position. So, I’ve been riding the momentum higher. I’ve been buying high, continuing to buy it higher. I started at 206. I bought it all the way up to 232. I spoke each time on air when I bought it and I said, I’m going to manage the risk when I think I see the exhaustion. I think I’ve seen the exhaustion. It got to about 235, 236. It looks like that’s a temporary ceiling. I think it will go through there eventually and go back towards 240–245. But in the near term, the smart thing to do was ring the register, take a little profit, reduce the size. I cut the position in half. I have no problem with that.”
Baron Opportunity Fund stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a leading manufacturer of consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. Shares declined amid mounting headwinds, including new U.S. tariffs on Apple’s China centric supply chain, which are pressuring gross margins, and increased regulatory scrutiny of the App Store model in both the U.S. and Europe. These developments have introduced greater uncertainty around the growth and profitability of Apple’s high margin services business. While we continue to admire Apple’s brand, ecosystem, and long-term innovation capabilities, the ongoing regulatory overhang and heightened risk to margins and growth prospects led us to exit the position and reallocate capital to holdings with more compelling risk/return profiles.”
5. Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors:156
Dan Nathan, the principal of RiskReversal Advisors and CNBC Fast Money trader, was recently asked during a program whether there are other names out there that investors can consider in addition to Nvidia. Here is what Nathan said:
“This is kind of consensus here but it would be Broadcom and Marvell. So the idea that you know Nvidia has this customer concentration. You know who they are. They’re all the hyperscalers. They’re Open AI and all of them are working let’s say with Broadcom or Marvell to create their own custom chips, right?”
For the fiscal fourth quarter, AVGO expects $6.2 billion in AI revenue, up 66% from a year earlier. The company said it secured $10 billion in AI infrastructure orders from a new customer. Many analysts believe this customer is OpenAI. Some media reports said the two companies co-designed a chip that will be launched next year.
What’s Broadcom’s moat? It makes ASIC, chips designed for specific applications and tasks. As major companies look for custom chips to break Nvidia monopoly and lower costs, Broadcom is positioned well to thrive. Many top AI spenders are teaming up with Broadcom to develop these chips, which are expected to be high-margin, high-volume products, potentially driving substantial growth in both revenue and profits.
Janus Henderson Forty Fund stated the following regarding Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO), another top contributor in AI infrastructure, has benefited from hyperscalers’ interest in a second source behind NVIDIA’s merchant silicon. The semiconductor company leads in custom silicon development, offering lower cost and better efficiency for specific workloads that don’t require maximum performance GPUs. The market also continues to evolve as custom silicon has gained share relative to merchant chips. Broadcom’s leadership position makes it a clear beneficiary of this shift.”
