In this article, we discuss the 5 set-it-and-forget-it stocks to buy according to financial media. To read the overview of set-it-and-forget-it stocks and portfolios, go directly to the 11 Set-It-and-Forget-It Stocks to Buy According to Financial Media.

5. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 180

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is one of the most successful manufacturers of computer graphics processors, chipsets, and more. It operates through two segments, the Graphics Processing Unit segment and the Tegra Processor segment.

According to Insider Monkey’s database, hedge fund sentiment was positive toward NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)’s stock. In Q3, 180 hedge funds were bullish on the stock, up from 175 in Q2. With 14.04 million shares worth $6.1 billion, Rajiv Jain’s GQG Partners was the most significant stakeholder in the company.

Over the last three months, 34 Wall Street analysts covered NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), and 31 maintained a Buy rating on the stock. The average price target of $661.35 had an upside of 35.44% as of the December 22 market close.

Blue Tower Asset Management mentioned NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) in its third quarter 2023 investor letter. Here is what it said:

“In addition to the use of larger datasets, the training speed of AI models has increased dramatically. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)’s stock almost tripled in the first 3 quarters of this year with a 197% gain, and a large reason for this is the huge role they have played in recent AI improvements. Nvidia’s single GPU AI training speed performance has increased by a dramatic 1000x in 10 years with only 2.5x coming from Moore’s Law3 driven increases in chip density. Besides better chip manufacturing, there were three other improvement factors at play: simplifications in number representation for the weights of the neural networks, more complex mathematical instructions for reducing the computational overhead involved in mathematical calculations, and increased neuron sparsity (in neural networks, some neurons are useless and can be pruned from the network without reducing performance significantly). In addition to these single GPU improvements, Nvidia also made improvements in data center scale architecture that allows groups of GPUs to work more efficiently together.

It is noteworthy that the vast majority of the improvement came from hardware architectural and software data improvements, rather than transition density. These improvements were likely the low-hanging fruit of training speed improvements as researchers will eventually converge on an ideal architecture. The simplification of going from 32-bit to 8-bit floating point numbers for measuring weights is a one-time gain that can’t be repeated again. I expect the rate of improvement to slow down over the next ten years and eventually approach the levels of Moore’s Law improvements in chip efficiency. The historical trend for computer hardware is for it to eventually be commoditized, and I believe this will eventually occur for Nvidia’s GPUs as well.”

4. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 221

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is a California-based holding company that operates through its subsidiaries, including Google LLC, Waymo LLC, X Development LLC, and more.

On December 15, it was reported that Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s Google will integrate Gemini, an AI assistant, into its entire line of products and Pixie.

Diamond Hill Capital commented on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in its third-quarter 2023 investor letter. Here is what it said:

“On an individual holdings’ basis, top contributors to return in Q3 included long positions in KKR, Ciena Corporation and Alphabet. Shares of media and technology company Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) rose in the quarter as its advertising and cloud businesses remain robust and the company delivered results ahead of market expectations. From a sector perspective, communication services also managed a positive Q3 (2%), riding the ongoing wave of positive mega-cap stocks’ performance, like Alphabet.”

3. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 234

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is headquartered in California and owns and runs multiple social networking platforms and apps, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and more.

Of the 38 Wall Street analysts that covered Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), 37 maintained a Buy rating on the stock. As of the December 22 market close, the average price target of $389.57 had an upside of 10.24%.

On December 20, Raymond James initiated coverage of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s stock with a Strong Buy rating and a $425 price target.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) was mentioned in Blue Tower Asset Management’s third-quarter 2023 investor letter. Here is what it said:

“On February 24, 2023, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) released Llama, their LLM project, with the code being open-source but the training weights being kept proprietary. Nonetheless, within a week the training weights were leaked for the project. This release of the weights for 65 billion parameter model was a huge gift for open-source programmers to begin experimenting upon. Within weeks, other developers were creating innovations building on the model. There has been a race towards developing low-budget fine-tuning projects that can be trained for specific applications at the cost of a few hundred dollars in some cases. Some of these LLM projects can even be run on individual computers rather than data centers.

After the voluntary release of Llama’s architecture as open-source, the leak of the model weights ended up being a blessing in disguise for Meta. The innovation and improvements that followed were all built on Meta’s AI codebase. They were able to get these innovations without needing to pay any of the open-source developers for their efforts. This also demonstrates that the business advantage of the large tech companies is not in their models or AI codebase. Any innovations that the companies develop are unlikely to stay within the walls of the companies due to the mobility of researchers being poached between companies by recruiters. However, as these new model improvement technologies are made, the big tech companies have a scale advantage. They will be able to employ it into models that have more data, more compute budget, more parameters and therefore more intelligence in the resulting neural net.”

2. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 286

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is an online retailer that provides services related to or focused on cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence.

On December 18, it was reported that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s Amazon Content Services entered into an agreement with Games Workshop for the possible development of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe into films and television series. The company will hold exclusive rights to the films and television series.

On December 20, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced its second AWS infrastructure region in Canada. Including the AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region, AWS now has 105 availability zones across 33 geographic locations.

White Brook Capital Partners mentioned Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in its third quarter 2023 investor letter. Here is what it said:

“The magnificent seven, that underpin the S&P 500 performance, which includes Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), now comprise almost 30% of the market capitalization of the S&P500. At least three of the seven stocks have heightened downside risk and suffer from already high penetration, weakening end markets, competitive risk, and lofty valuation. They have been remarkably resilient to increased interest rates and the potential for slowing growth.”

1. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 306

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the biggest tech companies in the world and develops and manufactures personal computer software systems and applications.

On December 12, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) launched a new artificial intelligence model, Phi-2. The company praised the new small language model as it has only 2.7 billion parameters.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was covered by 37 Wall Street analysts, and 36 kept a Buy rating on the stock. The average price target of $422.91 represented an upside of 12.90% as of the December 22 market close.

White Brook Capital Partners commented on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its third quarter 2023 investor letter. Here is what it said:

“The magnificent seven, that underpin the S&P 500 performance, which includes Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), now comprise almost 30% of the market capitalization of the S&P500. At least three of the seven stocks have heightened downside risk and suffer from already high penetration, weakening end markets, competitive risk, and lofty valuation. They have been remarkably resilient to increased interest rates and the potential for slowing growth. Small and midcap stocks, on the other hand, have been systemically penalized by fears of recession and continue to price that eventuality even as significantly better outcomes have become more probable. Today, it’s relatively easy to find attractive investments in this segment.”

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