We recently published a list of the 12 Best Stocks to Buy in 2025 for Beginners. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) stands against other best beginner stocks to buy in 2025.

Stock Market Outlook for 2025

On December 12, Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors managing partner and head of research, appeared on CNBC to talk about his 2025 playbook. After two years of significant market gains, Lee’s playbook painted an optimistic yet cautious outlook for the stock market in 2025. He anticipated that the S&P 500 would rise to approximately 7,000 by mid-2025 before retreating to around 6,600 by the end of the year. This highlights an overall expected increase of about 8% for the year, consistent with historical averages for stock market returns.

Furthermore, Lee estimated the Earnings Per Share (EPS) for the S&P 500 to be around $260 in 2025, going up to $300 in 2026. These numbers are slightly below the Wall Street consensus estimates, which show an average of around $268 for 2025. Talking about his investment thesis, Lee believed several themes could bring a positive trajectory in the market in 2025. In his own Dickensian version, he predicted a “tale of two halves,” where the first half of 2025 is expected to see strong market performance, with a potential pullback in the second half. The positive first-half performance is attributed to factors such as market-friendly initiatives under President Trump’s administration and Federal Reserve policies. The pullback in the second half of 2025 reflects historical trends after strong consecutive years.

READ ALSO: 12 Undervalued Defensive Stocks for 2025 and 10 Best Soaps and Cleaning Materials Stocks to Invest In.

Mega Cap Companies: Is There Potential?

Lee was of the opinion that the small-cap sector may have potential even though it has historically underperformed relative to large-cap stocks. He also talked about mega-cap companies and how they’re leading, mentioning that investors typically reach for these companies when there is even a possibility of risk in the market. In addition, mega-cap stocks are highly sensitive to falling interest rates. Since the tech market is bullish after the December rate cut is in effect, the investment case for megacaps is further strengthening.

However, despite an overall positive outlook, Lee acknowledged that several risks may impact market performance. For instance, he was of the view that the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could potentially lead to reduced government spending and slower economic growth if it is too effective in cutting costs. Furthermore, the implementation of tariffs poses another concern, as tariffs can adversely affect corporate profits and financial conditions. Lee’s pointing out of historical patterns showed that after two years of considerable gains, markets are prone to decline in the latter half of the third year.

Our Methodology

We sifted through stock screeners, online rankings, and ETFs to compile a list of 40 blue chip companies with a 10-year revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 7%-15%. We then selected the top 12 stocks most popular among elite hedge funds. We sourced hedge fund data from Insider Monkey’s database. The stocks are sorted in ascending order of the number of hedge fund holders that have stakes in them, as of Q3 2024.

Why do we care about what hedge funds do? 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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

10-year Revenue CAGR: 11.51%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 131

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) is a technology company that provides payment solutions for developing and implementing debit, credit, prepaid, commercial, and payment programs via its brands. Its portfolio includes Mastercard, Cirrus, and Maestro. The company also offers intelligence and cyber solutions.

In fiscal Q3 2024, it grew net revenue by 14% and adjusted net income by 13% compared to a year ago. This growth was attributed to healthy consumer spending, including strong cross-border volume growth of 15% year over year (on a local currency basis). Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) is benefiting from a supportive macroeconomic environment, supported by strength in consumer spending.

The company is focusing on executing its growth algorithm and is optimistic about its growth outlook. It plans to tap into the sizeable secular shift to electronic payments, penetrate the addressable market in new payment and commercial flows, and gain market share by growing its value-added services and solutions. Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) takes the fourth spot on our list of the 12 best stocks for beginners in 2025.

Montaka Global Investments stated the following regarding Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

“Montaka owns several duopolists in the financial services industry, including Visa and Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) in payments; and S&P Global in credit ratings and financial data services. These businesses have competitively protected and reliably growing core businesses. But they also have newer, high-probability adjacent opportunities. The market, however, is underappreciating this powerful combination, in our view.

For Visa and Mastercard, their core businesses in global payment processing are being complemented by significant growth in two areas:

• New processing opportunities in peer-to-peer, business-to-business, business-to-consumer, and government-to-consumer payments; and

• Value-added services, including risk, fraud-detection, issuance, acceptance, and open banking.”

Overall, MA ranks 4th on our list of the 12 best stocks to buy in 2025 for beginners. While we acknowledge the potential of MA, our conviction lies in the belief that 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 MA 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 Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.