The AI revolution, which began with the launch of ChatGPT, is now having a significant impact on multiple industries. Amjad Masad, the CEO of programming software company Replit, said in a recent program on Bloomberg that AI is now able to write code based on simple English commands and people have begun to trust the code generated by AI tools. Masad, whose company Replit recently raised $250 million on $3 billion valuation, explained the roots of vibe coding.
“Andrej Karpathy (Slovak-Canadian computer scientist) last year in his experience coding said I’m starting to trust AI more. And as I’m coding, the AI is presenting the code. I’m just typing natural language and I just accept it. So that was the sort of the coinage of the term.”
Photo by Robb Miller on Unsplash
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 making moves following bullish analyst comments. With each company we have mentioned its hedge fund sentiment. 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).
10. T-Mobile Us Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 76
Jessica Inskip from StockBrokers said in a recent program on Schwab Network that she likes T-Mobile Us Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS) because of the company’s strong postpaid performance and monetization capabilities.
“What really caught my attention is the monetization. Their revenue growth for the second quarter came in very large from strong post-paid performance. And it’s really about pricing power. So their average revenue per account was up 5% year-over-year. That’s the best for them in eight years. So that’s definitely a signal that this could be a growth story. And in addition to this, this also came up on that growth scan that I was scanning for stocks this morning to bring of course to the show. So I see there’s competitive positioning for them even outside of Verizon and AT&T. It’s helped them capture more market share. We’re talking more about T-Mobile Us Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS) and they’ve got additional revenue growth drivers with analysts forecasting about 6 and a half% growth through 2025. It’s going to slow down a little bit, 5.3% in 2026. So, there are definitely some headwinds for this. We want to see continued pricing power. If there is more strain on the consumer, that could be of concern. But due to its underperformance and that average revenue per account increase is what really caught my eye. I think it’s something we can add to the portfolio that’s not so concentrated in technology in those big mega cap stocks.”
Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund stated the following regarding T-Mobile US, Inc. (NASDAQ:TMUS) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“T-Mobile US, Inc. (NASDAQ:TMUS) US traded lower on uncertainty regarding succession planning. The company has denied a report alleging that its well respected CEO was looking to get out of his contract early. The company remains a leading operator in the space.”
9. Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 102
Jessica Inskip from StockBrokers explained in a recent program on Schwab Network why she likes Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C). The analyst highlighted the company’s dividend and expansion as some of the reasons for being bullish on the stock:
“City is this turnaround story. So, this is a longerterm investment play that’s certainly playing out as we can see from the overperformance up 42% versus 12 and a half% for the S&P 500. Now as far as why I want to add it to my portfolio, it really came down to that high quality dividend scanned. They have a 2.41% dividend yield. I always look for free cash flow per share that’s greater than that annual dividend amount. They check that box. They have a payout ratio of about 33% which means there’s still room for growth opportunity and they have a history of a dividend growth rate. The most recent actually increasing that dividend was after the bank stress test which could be another potential catalyst for them as we get more deregulation within the banking sector.”
Hotchkis & Wiley Large Cap Disciplined Value Fund stated the following regarding Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) is one of the largest US banks by total assets. Investment in its IT, compliance and risk capabilities have pressured margins and returns over recent years, obscuring the banks strong core franchise. With these investments now largely complete we expect Citi’s expense to decline and its margins and returns to be more consistent with peers. Citigroup performed well in the quarter on improved profitability and positive operating leverage. We think that C is very undervalued on our normal expectations and would still be attractive even if they do not fully achieve their goals.”
8. Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 105
Retail expert Jan Rogers Kniffen said in a recent program on Schwab Network that Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) is the best retailer in America and shared the reasons why he likes the stock:
“NRF just told us that last month sales were up 6% in the industry almost 7% actually well over 6%. And the prior month they were up almost 6%. We are seeing a strong consumer at this moment and whatever tariffs are getting passed through are getting absorbed right now by the consumer but it looks like only 40 to 60% are getting passed through anyway. So, stepping back and looking at Walmart, they’re the best retailer in America. They’re handling the tariffs extraordinarily well. They’ve been very careful on their pricing. Their customer service is basically perfect. Their stores look fabulous. Nobody’s even close. And I don’t see how anybody competes with them.”
7. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 115
CNBC ‘Fast Money’ trader Dan Nathan said in a recent program that he’s turned bullish on Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) despite overall weak sentiment and the company’s auto business showing soft trends. Here is why he thinks the stock can rally:
“The bulls and the bears agree that the EV business is bad. I think the consensus for Q3 deliveries is probably low. I think there’s probably been a pull forward. If you think about that $7,500 tax credit that’s going away at the end of the month and look at how this stock, we just want to pull the chart up here. It looks like it’s a beneficiary of this rotation. You know, look at all of the MAG7 names. The rotation in the MAG7. They basically all other than Apple today underperformed the NASDAQ. So, if you look at this thing, it’s built this base a series of higher lows here. It’s right up against that resistance level from a few months ago. It’s held its 200 day moving average. might you see this thing rally into quarter end? October 1st, 2nd, I think is when they’re going to report Q3 delivery. So, I think from a trading perspective, it looks very interesting.”
Tesla’s EV sales are falling all over the world as the company faces challenges from competitors. Tesla’s global sales in the second quarter fell 14% year over year. Even if Elon Musk increases his focus to fix the company’s problems, it would take a lot of effort to come out of the demand crisis. For example, in California, the largest U.S. market for electric vehicle adoption and sales, Tesla sales fell about 12% year over year in 2024, causing its market share to drop from 60.1% in 2023 to 52.5% in 2024. Was it because Californians are buying fewer EVs? No. Californians purchased more than 2 million electric cars during the year, almost double when compared to the past two years.
Baron Focused Growth Fund stated the following regarding Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) designs, manufactures, and sells electric vehicles (EVs), solar products, and energy storage solutions, while also developing advanced real-world AI technologies. Despite ongoing macroeconomic challenges and regulatory complexities, shares climbed after Tesla completed a limited commercial rollout of its highly anticipated robotaxi business in Austin—following more than a decade of development and billions of dollars in investment. This milestone signals a potentially transformative shift in the automotive industry and opens up a sizable new market beyond the company’s core operations. Investor sentiment also improved after Elon Musk stepped back from government-related engagements, boosting confidence in Tesla’s near-term execution. Tesla introduced a refreshed Model Y globally, featuring design and performance upgrades, and outlined plans to unveil new mass-market models starting next quarter. Meanwhile, the company is progressing toward scaling production of its humanoid robot, adding another dimension to its long-term growth story.”
6. Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 124
Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge was recently asked about Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) stock gains following its earnings report and forecasts. Here is what the analyst said:
“There was an article on the Information about OpenAI spending about $450 billion over the next five years on compute. Remember that was the huge part of the RPO boost at Oracle. A lot of that was driven by OpenAI. So that’s another positive suggesting that the biggest, most prominent player in the industry continues to spend a lot of money. XAI, there were a lot of articles about them raising money at a $200 billion valuation. And then right before the close, there was a report on Bloomberg about how Oracle could be striking a deal with Meta for a $20 billion AI compute contract. So the headline and news flow around AI just remains extremely bullish and Oracle really has risen to become one of the most prominent names in the industry and that continues to drive the shares higher.”
Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) shares skyrocketed after the company’s latest quarterly results. The company said it expects booked revenue to exceed $0.5 trillion. Oracle’s moat is its strong roots in enterprise databases and ERP software that are in high demand with large clients like banks and hospitals. Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) differentiates itself by offering cheaper cloud services while integrating SaaS, ERP, and HCM, creating high switching costs and a durable moat.
However, many analysts have started to question the stock’s valuation following its latest surge on the back of reports that the company signed a deal with OpenAI for the AI company to purchase $300 billion worth of compute power. Analyst concerns stem from the company’s reliance on OpenAI.
Loomis Sayles Growth Fund stated the following regarding Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is a leader in the enterprise software market with a strong market position in database, infrastructure and application software, and cloud-based software and services. We believe the company’s competitive advantages include its large and experienced direct sales force, a founder-driven management team that reinvests relentlessly to maintain a leading intellectual property (IP) portfolio and differentiated product suite, and a large installed base of clients with high switching costs where it consistently achieves renewal and retention rates in the mid-90% range. We believe Oracle is well positioned to benefit from the continuing growth in data storage and enterprise application software, as well as the shift to cloud-based solutions.
A long-term fund holding, Oracle reported strong quarterly financial results that were above management guidance and consensus expectations on most measures, including remaining performance obligation (RPO) bookings, a forward-looking measure of revenue. As a result, the company expects revenue growth to accelerate and raised its guidance to at least 16% revenue growth in its 2026 fiscal year, driven by cloud growth in excess of 40%. Oracle is the world leader in its largest business segment, enterprise database software used in customer on-premise IT environments. However, the company continues to focus on transitioning its business from a traditional on-premise, up-front software licensing and maintenance revenue model to a cloud computing subscription-based model where software revenue is recognized over the life of the client’s contract. While there has been pressure on year-over-year overall revenue comparisons during this transition, which started over a decade ago as Oracle released cloud versions of its applications and infrastructure software, as up-front license revenue shifts to subscription revenue, we have long expected this to lead to faster growth over time due to a higher customer lifetime value as the transition progresses. We believe the cloud model also allows Oracle to monetize its services and technology more efficiently and yield savings to the customer… (Click here to read the full text)
5. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 156
Alex Kantrowitz, Big Technology Founder, said in a latest program on CNBC that Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) has finally shifted the market focus from AI to its core business of iPhones with the latest model launch of its flagship device. The analyst thinks Apple’s lack of progress on AI is “still a problem,” but the company has “shifted the story” for now.
“Well, the first thing I would say is it’s great news for Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) that there’s a story about the company that is not involving Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) intelligence or AI. We are going back now to the roots of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) which is that they are an excellent phone maker and the improvements that they showed for this model are coming out. People want these models because they’re more durable because they have better battery life and they are going back to their bread and butter and we’re hearing about the product itself and people are responding. So, I think the narrative that’s been around Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) not being able to do artificial intelligence over the last few years, that’s still a problem, but they’ve shifted their story. People are responding. They’re going out lining up to buy the phones both in New York, but also in China, which is really important.”
Apple can only do so much in innovation to revolutionize its iPhone each year. A UBS survey shows that the iPhone upgrade cycle has reached 35 months in the US. A separate report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners says about 63% of iPhone users keep their smartphones for more than two years. Apple is losing its pricing edge as it has to put a cap on its price tags to compete in key markets like China. Samsung, Xiaomi and other companies can launch advanced hardware and software features to compete with Apple and keep the company under pressure in Asia.
Macquarie Core Equity Fund stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) declined in the quarter and meaningfully underperformed the S&P 500. The security contributed to relative performance due to our underweighting, approximately 50% lower than the benchmark weight. While Apple continues to have laudable attributes and strong repurchase intent, the company is failing to grow at historical rates given the maturation of many key products.”
4. Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 178
Mark Mahaney, Evercore ISI head of internet research, said in a recent program on CNBC that Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is positioned well to gain following the recent court ruling that the company will not need to sell its Chrome business. The analyst explained why he believes the stock is undervalued:
“First the core catalyst has got to be they got to maintain that double digit search revenue growth they’ve been at 11%, 12%, 13% for about two years now we think that we think that will continue because what’s underappreciated by the market is the quality of Google leads is actually rising and it’s kind of the law of unintended consequences you show people fewer paid clicks so that when they click on them, they’re less casual. They’re more they’re more conscious, determined, whatever it is. But the marketers we talk with, the advertisers are seeing higher quality leads coming from Google. That’s causing pricing to go up. That’s a good thing for Google. And then secondly, just like Meta, Google has been able to use Gen AI to improve its ad targeting, its ad selection. So, you’ve got a a search marketplace that’s getting better. That’s your core catalyst that that continues. Then you got what I call the amplification catalyst. That’s YouTube revenue that’s accelerating. That’s Google cloud revenue that’s accelerating. And then Whimo is coming to a town near you. And you put all that together, I think the stock’s worth more. You put a 25 multiple on this next year’s numbers. You get to like 275 on 2027 earnings numbers. You get to 325. So somewhere in between there is probably where the stock can go called 300 bucks.”
Pershing Square Holdings stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), the parent company of Google, is successfully executing on its vast AI potential. The company’s key advantages – stemming from industry-leading models, a full-stack approach to technical infrastructure (including proprietary chips), access to high-quality data, rapidly improving product launch velocity and a robust distribution ecosystem of seven different apps with over two billion users each – are beginning to meaningfully widen Google’s moat and competitive differentiation in AI.
In its core Search product, the company’s AI leadership is most evident in its broad roll-out of AI-powered summary responses, called “AI Overviews”. AI Overviews are now being served to more than two billion users across 200 countries, making it the most widely used consumer AI product. AI Overviews are resulting in users asking more detailed questions, clicking through at higher rates and searching with greater frequency. On the back of AI Overviews’ success, the company has also introduced “AI Mode”, which more closely resembles a chat-like user experience, directly onto the Search page…” (Click here to read the full text)
3. NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 235
In December last year, Joseph Moore, Morgan Stanley semiconductor analyst, commented on the volatility NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) was going through at the time and said the stock would have a strong second half of 2025. The analyst’s call turned out to be correct. Here is what he said at the time:
“I still think when you think about 2025 and AI the story is Blackwell, the product cycle that Nvidia has. I think they’re going to have a huge second half of the year and I think we do have these transitional issues as we’re moving there but I think the stock is very attractive this level. I’m not going to say absolute bottom because it’s volatile but you know it’s very attractive at this level. I think you’re trading at a much lower multiple than some of the AI peers and I really believe that they actually gain share versus custom silicon in 2025. I’m very excited for this custom silicon trend but I still think Nvidia can gain share relative to that in 2025.”
NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares are up 28% so far this year.
Nvidia’s latest deal with OpenAI and Intel, along with Oracle’s partnership with OpenAI are showing signs that companies are continuing to spend a fortune on compute, and AI demand won’t slow down anytime soon. But can NVDA shares keep gaining?
Nvidia’s Hopper Infrastructure and now Blackwell form the core of AI infrastructure for LLM training and inference. But Nvidia’s growth is slowing compared to previous quarters amid competition and capex spending limitations from major companies. In the recently reported quarter, Nvidia’s annual revenue growth came in at 56%, compared with nearly 100% YoY growth in the past.
With its strong position in the data center market and rising demand, Nvidia is likely to keep growing, though not at the same pace it has in the past. Increasing competition from major companies like Broadcom is also expected to impact Nvidia’s margins in the long term.
Nvidia recently impressed the market by signing an AI infrastructure deal with Intel. Nvidia will invest $5 billion in Intel. Jensen Huang said the deal would open up $50B in TAM for both companies in the data center and PC business.
Macquarie Core Equity Fund stated the following regarding NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) performed strongly in the quarter on renewed AI optimism and reduced concern that an individual customer or two will moderate capital expenditures. Though the Fund’s weight was among our largest positions at over 4.5% during the quarter, the relative underweight (the benchmark weight averaged 6.3%) negatively affected relative returns.”
2. Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 260
Cleo Capital’s Sarah Kunst said in a program on CNBC last month that Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s huge investments to attract top AI talent might not result in significantly positive results for the company. The analyst said Zuckerberg’s investments might end up looking like “Metaverse days.” She was talking about Zuckerberg’s plan to pivot Facebook to the Metaverse, which failed, according to many analysts.
“I think that there is a huge chance that what they’re going to have is a phenomena you’re talking about, which is you get the three best players in the league and it turns out that there’s a lot of ego there. There’s a lot of salary cap that went into them and it’s really hard to win championships because maybe they’re not as motivated. So, you know, Zuck has pulled crazy things off before, but I think this might look a little bit more like the metaverse days than the early days of Facebook in terms of the output here.”
First Eagle Global Fund stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)—the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, among other social-media platforms—reported strong revenue and earnings growth during the quarter, driven by increases in both ad impressions and price per ad. The company continued to aggressively invest and hire in AI, even as it develops its core advertising businesses. We believe these results demonstrate Meta’s ability to focus on both profitability and efficiency in conjunction with ongoing investments in the core ad business, the metaverse and other AI applications.”
1. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 294
Joseph Shaposhnik from Rainwater Equity explained in a latest program on Schwab Network that MSFT is among the best names to benefit from AI. Here is how he made the case of the software giant:
“We’ve owned Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) because it certainly is one of the most recurring revenue businesses on Earth and clearly is benefiting and is really in the catbird seat when it comes to benefiting from AI. It is using all of the technology that AI has enabled to improve its products, reduce its costs, and obviously grow substantially on the Azure side of their business. So we think Microsoft will continue to be able to add innovations and co-pilot like products to its suite, price up its product and continue to grow its unit volumes on the Microsoft 365 side. What is unbelievable is I don’t know anybody that doesn’t have Microsoft 365 or Office and yet Micr Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) osoft is growing its units and seat count at 6 to 8% a year despite the fact that almost everybody on Earth has access to it, but clearly there’s still opportunity to access individuals that are not subscribers yet. So Microsoft is growing its customer base. It’s growing its prices. It’s increasing prices over the years as it adds innovation and it is obviously clearly a huge AI beneficiary.”
Brown Advisory Large-Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), a global leader in software and cloud services, saw its shares trade higher in the second quarter following an earnings report and guidance update that exceeded consensus expectations. The company delivered strong performance across all business segments, with particularly robust growth in both core and AI-related Azure services. Management’s outlook for Azure remains especially positive, citing rising customer demand for AI solutions.”
While we acknowledge the potential of MSFT to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MSFT and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
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