5 Best Stocks to Buy to Beat the S&P 500

In this article, we will take a look at the 5 Best Stocks to Buy to Beat the S&P 500. For deeper discussion and analysis, read 10 Best Stocks to Buy to Beat the S&P 500.

A stock market graph. Photo by energepic.com

5. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

YTD Return as of May 7: 24.2%

On May 7, Mizuho raised its price recommendation on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) to $460 from $420 and maintained an Outperform rating on the shares. The firm said Wall Street estimates still significantly understate Google Cloud’s revenue and operating income potential over the next two years.

During the Q1 2026 earnings call, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc., said the quarter reflected strong AI-driven momentum across the company’s businesses. He noted that Alphabet’s investments in AI and its full-stack strategy continued to support performance across the portfolio. Pichai also said AI remained a major driver of Search growth, with both search usage and query volumes reaching record highs during the quarter.

Discussing cloud performance, Pichai said growing demand for the company’s AI products and infrastructure helped accelerate Google Cloud growth. Cloud revenue increased 63% and surpassed $20 billion for the first time. He also noted that the company’s backlog nearly doubled from the prior quarter to more than $460 billion.

Pichai highlighted continued expansion across products and models, saying total paid subscriptions reached 350 million. He added that Alphabet’s first-party models were processing more than 16 billion tokens per minute through direct API usage by customers, up from 10 billion in the previous quarter.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is a holding company with segments that include Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets. Google Services includes products and platforms such as Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play, devices, and advertising services.