5 Best Stocks To Buy Now

Looking for the Best Stocks To Buy Now? Of course you are, who isn’t? Maybe the better question is, why am I asking you rhetorical questions that I already know the answer to? And the answer to that is, I was trying to set up a dramatic opening, which has most definitely flopped. Ahem, with that out of the way, let’s try to get back on track here and point you in the direction of what you’re looking for.

To that end, we’ve scoured the recent top stocks lists of several major investment banks, as well as respected investment magazine Barron’s. Included in our analysis were Barron’s top 10 stock picks for 2017, Bank of America’s mid-November list of its 24 best investment ideas, Barclays’ 13 top picks for 2017, Credit Suisse’s mid-October list of 51 top stocks, and Citigroup’s 20 favorite stocks for 2017. We also considered a handful of top stock picks offered by analysts at T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, and Goldman Sachs, as polled by USA Today.

After scouring those lists, we uncovered five of the best stocks to buy now according to the collective opinion of investment gurus, being found on at least two of those lists. Those stocks were Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST), Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOXA), Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST), and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).

We’ll see what those analysts like about these stocks in this article, beginning on the next page. For further reading on companies that could make for good investments, don’t miss the list of the 11 Most Profitable Companies in the World.

Let’s start with Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which was the only stock to be listed by 3 different firms. Barron’s, Fidelity, and Goldman Sachs all like the stock, with Goldman chief U.S. equity strategist David Kostin pointing out that the company’s ad revenue growth remains robust, clocking in at 18% annually as mobile ad searches continue to grow. Barron’s also likes the stock’s valuation coming off a lackluster 2016 in which it gained less than 2%, greatly underperforming the market. Alphabet also happens to be the most popular stock among the hedge funds that we track, with 200 of them owning one or both classes of the company’s shares on September 30.

Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) was recently chosen by both Credit Suisse and Citigroup as a top stock pick. Citi believes the stock to be a long-term growth story and liked the company’s improving market share and cash flow generation. On the other hand, Susquehanna analyst Pablo Zuanic is not as bullish on Monster Beverage near-term, predicting just 6% sales growth in 2017, while the Street is predicting 13% growth. Susquehanna has a ‘Neutral’ rating on Monster Beverage. Despite a brief rally following its January 12 investor meeting, shares of the company have slid by 4.5% early in 2017. 39 hedge funds in our database were long Monster Beverage on September 30, an 18% increase from a quarter earlier.

Unlike Monster Beverage, Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOXA) is off to a great start in 2017, having gained over 11%. It also made two lists, being pegged for big things by both Credit Suisse and Bank of America, the latter of which added Fox to its US 1 list on June 1, 2016. While the Credit Suisse list is now a few months old, analyst Omar Sheikh recently reiterated the firm’s bullishness, raising his price target on the stock to $37 from $34 on expectations that the company’s valuation discount to its peers will begin to unwind in 2017. Hidden Figures has been a surprise success at the box office for Fox, pulling in over $85 million in the U.S on a budget of just $25 million. Jonathan Lourie and Stuart Fiertz’s Cheyne Capital initiated a position in Fox during the fourth quarter, buying 563,748 shares of the company.

Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) made the top stocks list of Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs. Goldman analyst Matthew Fassler recently added the stock to Goldman’s vaunted Conviction Buy list, citing Costco’s much-publicized switch from American Express to Visa as having the potential to spur earnings growth. Costco’s new co-branded Visa card has favorable terms compared to its old co-branded AmEx card, offering 1 percentage point cash back increases on gas purchases, travel and dining purchases, and of course, Costco purchases. Stifel is also predicting a good year for the stock, partly thanks to favorable comps. It initiated coverage of Costco with a ‘Buy’ rating and $185 price target on Friday. Costco was a popular stock among hedge funds in Q3, with a net total of 11 funds adding the stock to their portfolios, pushing the total number to 50 as of September 30.

Lastly is Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which was being bullishly eyeballed by Barron’s and Credit Suisse towards the end of 2016. Barron’s believes the market is undervaluing Apple’s ecosystem, while Barclays also thinks its “sticky” ecosystem provides a lot of downside protection. However, Barclays downgraded Apple to ‘Equal Weight’ this week despite that, as it doesn’t see much room for positive earnings surprises against current estimates for the year. It also doesn’t expect that the iPhone 8 cycle will result in a growth rebound for Apple. While Barclays does see some interesting future possibilities for Apple in areas like A.I, those are not expected to materially impact the company in the near-term. Apple was one of the most popular stocks among hedge funds in Q3, as the number of funds long the stock rose to 145 on September 30 from just 116 three months earlier.

There they are, the 5 best stocks to buy now according to a consensus of leading voices in the investing world. What do you think of their choices? Will you invest in any of these stocks in 2017? What are your own top stock picks? Let us know in the comments.

Disclosure: None