In this article, we will take a look at the 11 Best Predictive Analytics Stocks to Buy According to Analysts.
Predictive analytics, sometimes called big data analytics, is an integral part of today’s corporate arsenal. It is a subset of advanced analytics that makes use of statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques to predict future occurrences and gain insights from previous data. In addition, it includes tools and processes such as data mining and modeling, all aimed at examining data, identifying trends, and making informed predictions. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global predictive analytics industry was valued at $14.71 billion in 2023, and is predicted to reach $95.3 billion by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.1%.
Companies are always looking for ways to stay ahead of the competition and make smart choices that lead to success. This has led to a growing reliance on data-driven decisions. With consolidated analytics, machine learning models, and AI technologies, it’s now possible to analyze more companies in a larger area range at a faster rate than ever before. This is especially true for the practice of venture capitalism. Many early-stage startup investors use data-driven decision-making to guide their lead sourcing and investments. While the instinct for scouting great investment opportunities is typically developed over years of experience, venture capital firms and associates can improve their scouting process by analyzing a variety of ecosystems. According to a data-driven VC analysis, by this year, data, analytics, and artificial intelligence would be used to guide investment decisions in 75% of all VC deals. This access to high-quality data reduces venture capitalists’ risk of losing out on opportunities and assists them in identifying high-potential firms that might otherwise go undiscovered. Moreover, the combination of predictive analytics with artificial intelligence has resulted in a significant improvement in the depth of data insights. According to a Fortune Business Insights report on the AI sector, it is predicted to grow rapidly, with a CAGR of 29.2%. This rise is expected to bring the industry’s size to $1.7 trillion by 2032, a significant increase from the $233.46 billion in 2024.
Predictive Analytics in Healthcare
Much like many other industries, predictive analytics can be a boon for the healthcare sector. Due to its data-driven approach, it offers the potential to improve preventative care, resource management, and operational efficiency. In this perspective, the global healthcare predictive analytics market was valued at $12.96 billion in 2023 and is expected to rise at a compound yearly growth rate of 35% between 2024 and 2032. Furthermore, the growing volume of healthcare data from numerous sources, including wearable devices, mobile health applications, and electronic health records (EHRs), creates new opportunities for sophisticated analytics solutions. To illustrate this, the World Economic Forum estimates that hospitals create 50 petabytes of data every year.
With that, let’s take a look at the best predictive analytics stocks to buy now.
A data analyst in front of a computer monitor, analyzing a series of financial trends.
Our Methodology
To come up with our list of the 11 best predictive analytics stocks to buy, we went through a variety of online publications, ETFs, and stock screeners. We then looked at the analyst upside of each company and ranked the ones with the highest upside potential. Our ranking is arranged in ascending order of analyst upside as of March 10, 2025. Additionally, we have included the hedge fund sentiment around each stock, as of Q4 2024.
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).
11. SAP SE (NYSE:SAP)
Analysts’ Upside: 15.88%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 27
SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) is a German company that offers software, technology, and services globally. A well-known name in predictive analytics, the company provides SAP Analytics Cloud, an end-to-end analytics and planning solution that allows customers to explore important data sources and mission-critical business applications. Users may use artificial intelligence to automate reporting and uncover hidden information. Furthermore, the company provides Joule, a co-pilot that helps customers complete planning and analytics tasks faster.
On March 13, TD Cowen analysts reiterated their buy rating and $310 price target for SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) shares. The firm’s analysts noted the company’s healthy growth prospects and margin expansion possibilities, focusing on its strong European presence, which accounts for around 45% of revenues. In addition, SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) announced a 27% rise in Cloud revenue, its third consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Furthermore, SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) made advances in AI, providing 130 generative AI use cases by 2024. The company’s free cash flow also increased 19% to €4.1 billion, beating the previous forecast of €3.5-4 billion.
10. ExlService Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS)
Analysts’ Upside: 16.08%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 27
ExlService Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS) is a global analytics and digital solutions company that helps organizations leverage data, technology, and automation to improve efficiency. The company’s services include data analysis, artificial intelligence, and cloud-based solutions. The company also assists other businesses in digitizing their operations, enabling its clients to increase performance.
On February 25, ExlService Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS) announced EXLerate.AI, an agentic AI platform designed to assist organizations in incorporating AI solutions into their business processes. The platform includes ten industry-specific AI agents meant to improve productivity and scalability across corporate processes in areas ranging from insurance, healthcare, and financial services.
ExlService Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS) reported $481.4 million in revenues for the fourth quarter of 2024, a 16.3% increase over the same period last year. On a GAAP basis, diluted earnings per share increased to $0.31 from $0.24 in the same quarter of the preceding year. The company’s revenues for 2024 came in at $1.84 billion, up 12.7% from 2023. The Analytics division, in particular, had tremendous growth, with revenues of $207.7 million in Q4 2024 compared to $182.0 million in the same period the previous year.
Polen Global SMID Company Growth stated the following regarding ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“We initiated a position in ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS), a business process outsourcing company that we think has become a leader in data services over time. Exlservice is a diversified business with 95% customer renewal rates and four-to-five-year contracts. While the work is not glamorous, the company is experiencing strong demand from customers attempting to determine how to best clean up and structure data to participate in the next stages of digital transformation, including generative Al (“GenAl”). We expect this strong customer demand to continue. Many companies are faced with significant basic blocking to benefit from GenAl successfully. Simultaneously, the company invests heavily in developing GenAl-enabled tools and recently announced partnerships with Microsoft and AWS (Amazon Web Services is’ Amazon’s comprehensive cloud computing platform) to co develop Al solutions and accelerate go-to-market plans.”
9. Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)
Analysts’ Upside: 16.93%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 79
Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN), based in Dublin, Ireland, is a multinational professional services firm specializing in IT consulting, digital transformation, and management solutions. The company began developing predictive analytics capabilities over a decade ago and is now on track to become a premier AI and data company. On that front, Accenture recently announced a strategic investment in Aaru, a company specializing in AI-powered prediction technology. It intends to incorporate Aaru’s flagship model, Lumen, into its AI product and service portfolio.
On March 6, Goldman Sachs restated its Buy rating and $430 price target on Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN). According to Goldman Sachs, despite worries about macro demand risks, prospective government expenditure cuts, and foreign exchange implications, the IT Services industry is likely to recover in 2025 after reaching a cyclical low. This view is consistent with Accenture’s position as a leading player in the IT Services market.
Furthermore, on March 4th, Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) announced the acquisition of Halfspace, a Denmark-based company that uses AI, data science, and analytics solutions to expedite business operations among companies.
Diamond Hill Large Cap Strategy stated the following regarding Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“We continue finding compelling new ideas, even as the bull market proceeds. In Q3, we initiated three new positions in Aon, Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) and Builders FirstSource. Accenture is a leading global IT services and consultancy business. We think the services it provides — which are differentiated and in specialty areas relative to many of its peers — are critical and will be in high demand in the technology ecosystem for years to come. This should contribute to stable prices and margins. We believe the market is undervaluing Accenture relative to the opportunity ahead of it and, consequently, were able to initiate a position in the quarter at a discounted share price.”
8. Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)
Analysts’ Upside: 20.41%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 105
Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), a leading data analytics firm, provides a wide range of products, including software, apps, and cloud infrastructure. Oracle Analytics provides four types of solutions and works well with its Autonomous Database platform. Furthermore, the company offers the Fusion Data Intelligence Platform, which delivers business outcomes via automated pipelines, interactive analytics, and intelligent apps, allowing clients to make educated decisions and take intelligent actions.
Last year, Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) announced Oracle Analytics Intelligence for Life Sciences. The AI-powered, cloud-scale data and analytics platform streamlines and speeds up insight generation by combining disparate data sets into a single, intelligent workbench, which allows users to generate insights and integrate them back into their existing Oracle Health and Life Sciences applications.
On March 7th, TD Cowen reiterated its buy rating for Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), with a price objective of $210. This was supported by the company’s ambitions for its new Stargate alliance, which seeks to invest over $500 billion over four years in AI infrastructure across the United States.
Moreover, Oracle’s management has indicated optimism around overcoming existing supply restrictions, raising its fiscal year 2027 sales projection to more than 20%, led by growth in OCI and artificial intelligence integration. The company has also increased its dividend by 25%, demonstrating confidence in its cash-producing potential.
Parnassus Core Equity Fund stated the following regarding Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) stock posted its best annual performance since 1999 as the software giant gained market share in cloud-based training of generative AI models. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is helping to reaccelerate growth as the company continues to execute well in capturing new deals.”
7. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Analysts’ Upside: 23.98%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 234
A key player in the technology sector, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is led by Google, a search engine that handles billions of search queries every day. The company owns a number of applications and productivity platforms, the most notable of which being YouTube. The company is a data analytics pioneer, having used predictive metrics in Google Analytics for many years. Furthermore, its marketing analytics solution enables businesses to drastically improve customer experience by leveraging valuable insights from data.
On February 5, Needham analyst Laura Martin reiterated a Buy rating and a $225 price target for GOOGL shares. Martin mentioned the company’s outstanding 12% year-over-year revenue growth in Q4 2024, attributed mostly to strong success in Google Search and Cloud. The company’s cloud sector also reported a 30% boost in sales, owing to high demand for AI-powered products and significant acquisitions totaling more than $1 billion.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is doubling down on its AI-driven development strategy, with a $75 billion capital expenditure plan for 2025 that prioritizes investments in technical infrastructure such as servers and data centers. This investment demonstrates the company’s commitment to expanding its AI capabilities and satisfying rising demand for AI-powered services.
Qualivian Investment Partners stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL): Q2 2024 revenues and EPS beat expectations, with total revenues growing 14%, Search ad revenues growing 14%, YouTube ads growing 13%, and Google Cloud revenues growing 29%. Revenue growth in the quarter constituted a continued sequential improvement from earlier quarters in the year, suggesting a continued rebound in Alphabet’s core business except for YouTube ad revenues, which missed expectations and showed deceleration in the growth rate as compared to Q1 when it grew 21%. Operating margins improved by 310 bps vs. the same quarter last year.
Management continued to highlight developments with their generative AI program, which is seen as a foundational platform with opportunities across their businesses but particularly in search and cloud. However, this comes with material capex investment well ahead of the expected economic benefits from Gen AI, and the level of spending is leading investors to worry about the ROI on that spend for Alphabet, as well as the other hyperscalers (Microsoft and Amazon). We continue to have confidence in Alphabet’s ability to generate strong revenue, earnings, and cash flow growth well above the S&P 500’s in the years to come and view it as a core holding for the long term.”
6. Cloudflare Inc. (NYSE:NET)
Analysts’ Upside: 27.35%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 55
Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) is a cloud-based cybersecurity and website management company that also provides routing and developer security services. According to the company, its data pipeline has reached exceptional scalability, processing up to 706 million events per second by December 2024, indicating a 100x increase over 2018. This massive data flow feeds the company’s key services, such as logs, analytics, billing, and machine learning models for bot identification.
On February 7, TD Cowen analyst Shaul Eyal raised the price target for Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) shares to $162 from $130, keeping a Buy rating on the stock. The adjustment followed Cloudflare’s strong performance in the fourth quarter of 2024, which saw a 27% growth in revenue and a 47% increase in clients with an annual spending of more than $1 million. The company also had a higher deal closure rate, experienced shorter sales cycles, and raked in its fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit year-over-year improvement in sales productivity. Eyal also stated that Cloudflare’s improved sales productivity and increase in quota-carrying account executives is projected to generate faster growth.
Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund stated the following regarding Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“We took advantage of recent inflows to add to several of our existing holdings, in which our relative conviction level and attractive valuations warranted an increase in position sizes. Our largest addition was Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET), which offers enhanced security and performance for websites, apps, and software as a service. The company continues reporting solid quarterly results with 28% year-on-year revenue growth and 14.8% non-GAAP operating margins, which increased 210bps year-on-year. A double-digit year-on-year increase in sales productivity has started to benefit EMEA and APAC growth rates. Customer additions were also robust and remaining performance obligations were well ahead of expectations, up 39%. In addition, the company announced the hiring of CJ Desai as President of Product & Engineering, a well-regarded executive that helped build ServiceNow into one of the best software businesses of all time – and a large position in the portfolio. Our relative conviction in Cloudflare warranted adding to our position, given the company’s visionary management team, and stacking S curves or markets that it can address with its platform as it helps companies modernize their networking infrastructure.”
5. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Analysts’ Upside: 29.04%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 317
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. It is best known for its software products, which include the Windows operating system, the Microsoft 365 suite of office apps, and the Edge web browser. The company is heavily involved in Big Data analytics with Azure Synapse Analytics, which provides a cloud data warehouse designed for enterprise business intelligence (BI) and analytics on large datasets.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) reported notable Q2 FY25 earnings on account of ongoing growth in cloud and AI services. The company’s revenue came in at $69.6 billion, up 12% year-over-year, while operating income increased 17% to $31.7 billion. Microsoft’s net income also grew 10% to $24.1 billion, with diluted EPS reaching $3.23.
On January 30, RBC Capital Markets reiterated its Outperform rating for the MSFT stock, with a $500 price target. The firm recently announced its software industry estimate for 2025, and chose Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) for its broad market exposure and ability to profit from generative AI.
Bretton Fund stated the following regarding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has become the go-to provider of computing services for many emerging AI companies, and its franchise is much more diversified than Alphabet’s, making it a net beneficiary of the AI arms race. Demand for its cloud computing services continued to grow, and the rest of its business (Orce, Windows, Xbox, GitHub, LinkedIn) are also thriving, sending earnings per share up 22% while the stock returned 13%.”
4. Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW)
Analysts’ Upside: 34.08%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 85
Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) is an American cloud-based data storage company that operates a platform that allows for data analysis and simultaneous access to big datasets with minimal latency. The platform is built on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Snowflake Inc.’s (NYSE:SNOW) predictive analytics features use data from diagnostic and descriptive analytics to identify patterns that allow for predictive data modeling of future trends. On that front, the company collaborated with Neo4j last year, a market leader in graph databases and analytics. The combination allows users to conduct over 65 graph algorithms instantaneously, eliminating the need to transport data out of their Snowflake environment.
On February 27, Deutsche Bank analysts raised the price target on Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) shares to $220 from $210 while maintaining a Buy rating. The revision followed Snowflake’s fourth-quarter results report, which met all expectations and presented a positive forecast for fiscal year 2026. With a strong revenue growth rate of 30.3% and a healthy gross profit margin of 67.3%, analysts attribute the company’s success to its quick product development, which they say is a primary driver of the favorable results. The company’s Net Revenue Retention percentages have also reportedly remained in the mid-120% area, indicating high customer satisfaction and the possibility for revenue growth from current clients.
3. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Analysts’ Upside: 35.55%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 339
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is a major American multinational technology company that engages in a variety of industries, including e-commerce, cloud computing through Amazon Web Services (AWS), online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. The company has been a pioneer in harnessing data analytics and recommendations for e-commerce, using technologies like DynamoDB, Redshift, and EMR.
On February 24, Truist Securities’ analyst Youssef Squali reiterated a Buy rating and a $265 price target for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Squali’s research is based on data through February 17, revealing that North American revenue is marginally outperforming consensus forecasts for the quarter to date. According to Squali, this gives Amazon an advantage over its smaller competitors while keeping its reputation as a major player in the Broadline Retail business.
Amazon.com, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) financial performance in the fourth quarter of 2024 showed notable growth, with the company beating expectations by raking in an EPS of $1.86 and revenues of $187.8 billion. Operating income also increased to $21.2 billion in Q4 2024 from $13.2 billion the previous year, while net income more than doubled to $20 billion, thanks mostly to AWS.
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Consistent with our thesis, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has continued to see operating margins expand, hitting 11% in the most recent quarter after bottoming around 2% at the end of 2022. This march higher in margins stems from a mix shift towards faster-growing, higher-margin segments like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Advertising, combined with better fulfillment efficiency in the e commerce business following significant investments in recent years. Further, speaking to its runway ahead, CEO Andy Jassy noted the company’s AI business is a “multi-billion-dollar business growing triple digits,” 3x faster than AWS did itself at the same stage in its evolution. While we trimmed our position during the quarter, Amazon remains our largest position, as we expect approximately 20% earnings growth over the next five years driven by a mix of solid organic revenue growth and continued margin expansion.
We trimmed our positions in UnitedHealth Group, Amazon, ServiceNow, and Gartner during the quarter. Amazon continues to deliver excellent results with all businesses growing robustly and profit margins expanding. When we significantly increased Amazon’s weighting in the portfolio about two years ago, its operating margins were at 2%, and we anticipated they would expand to the mid-teens over the next few years. Today, they stand at 11%, and we expect them to expand closer to the high-teen level in the next few years. The earnings growth potential from here is roughly 20% per annum based on our expectation for revenue and profit margin expansion. While this still represents excellent potential and Amazon remains our largest position, we no longer feel it merits a maximum position size.”
2. Elastic N.V. (NYSE:ESTC)
Analysts’ Upside: 43.09%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 64
Elastic N.V. (NYSE:ESTC) is a software company that offers solutions for search, logging, analytics, security, and observability needs. The company allows users to automate a variety of operations with its machine-learning capabilities, including anomaly detection and root cause investigation.
Elastic N.V. (NYSE:ESTC) delivered solid Q3 results, with revenue growth continuing at 17% and cloud acceleration to 26% from 25%. The company had healthy demand across its key categories, notably in search, landing 5 GenAI-related agreements for more than $1 million during the quarter.
Following the company’s Q3 results, Truist Securities raised its price target for Elastic N.V. (NYSE:ESTC) shares from $135 to $145 and reaffirmed a Buy rating on the stock. Truist Securities observed that management’s readiness to enhance investment in GenAI through fiscal year 2026 signals that there may be more positive developments in the fourth quarter.
1. Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG)
Analysts’ Upside: 46.87%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 83
Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG) is a software company that provides an observability solution built for cloud-scale applications, monitoring servers, databases, tools, and services via its SaaS-based data analytics platform. The company’s tools serve as information technology monitoring and analytics solutions that allow for the examination of performance indicators and event tracking for cloud services.
Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDOG) posted outstanding Q4 2024 financial results, with revenues of $738 million, up 25% year on year. The company earned $265 million in operational cash flow and $241 million in free cash flow, resulting in a strong balance sheet of $4.2 billion.
On March 4, Needham analysts reiterated their Buy rating and $160 price target for DDOG shares. The endorsement follows recent meetings with two Datadog partners, who demonstrated continued growth in the company’s commercial operations through the first quarter of 2025. Needham analysts highlighted the launch of new products, such as LLM Observability, which add value to Datadog’s portfolio and improve the appeal of its core goods.
While we acknowledge the potential of DDOG as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that certain AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than DDOG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. Insider Monkey focuses on uncovering the best investment ideas of hedge funds and insiders. Please subscribe to our free daily e-newsletter to get the latest investment ideas from hedge funds’ investor letters by entering your email address below.
