In this article, we will take a look at Ken Fisher’s top 5 stock picks. To see more such companies, go directly to Ken Fisher’s Top 15 Stock Picks.
5. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Ken Fisher’s Stake: $3.6 billion
Wall Street continues to remain bullish on NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) despite the stock’s huge bull run this year on the back of the generative AI boom. Raymond James analyst Srini Pajjuri recently reiterated his bullish take on NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) as he believes demand for GPUs is “significantly” outpacing supply amid a huge spending boom in AI.
Ken Fisher has been enjoying huge gains from NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) this year since he has a $3.6 billion stake in the company.
Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund made the following comment about NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) in its second quarter 2023 investor letter:
“NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company focused on designing chips and software for gaming and accelerated computing. Shares continued their torrid first quarter rise, increasing 52.3% in the second quarter (now up 190% year-to-date), after the company reported a meaningful acceleration in demand for its data center GPUs, which drove a material guidance beat with revenues expected to increase from $7.2 billion to approximately $11 billion sequentially. This unprecedented acceleration is driven by growing demand for GenAI. We are at the tipping point of a new era of computing with NVIDIA at its epicenter. While the opportunity within the datacenter installed base is already large at approximately $1 trillion, the pace of innovation in AI in general, and GenAI in particular, should drive a significant expansion in the addressable market, as AI creates a new way for human-computer interaction through language, and as companies are better able to utilize their data for decision-making. We remain shareholders as we believe NVIDIA’s end-to-end AI platform and the ecosystem it has cultivated over the last 15 years will benefit the company for years to come.”
4. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Ken Fisher’s Stake: $5.11 billion
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) ranks 4th in our list of the top stock picks of Ken Fisher. The billionaire’s hedge fund owns a $5.11 billion stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL). In July, data showed that smartphones made by Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) saw a rise in sales during the second quarter in the US. A report by Counterpoint Research said that shipments of Google Pixel phones jumped 48% year over year in the second quarter.
As of the end of the second quarter of 2023, 204 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey had stakes in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL). The biggest stakeholder of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was Harris Associates.
Weitz Partners III Opportunity Fund made the following comment about Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its second quarter 2023 investor letter:
“The year-to-date’s top contributors Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Google parent Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (also a top quarterly contributor) have generated an enormous volume of AI-centric headlines. Both are at the vanguard of introducing AI-powered technologies into consumer-facing products, most notably their respective search engine. We trimmed several of the year’s winners on strength, including Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet, CoStar Group, Inc. (CSGP), and CarMax.”
3. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Ken Fisher’s Stake: $5.3 billion
Ken Fisher has a $5.3 billion stake in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in early August beat Q2 earnings results and gave a strong guidance after which the stock jumped and the company received praise from Wall Street analysts. Needham analysts Laura Martin and Dan Medina upped their price target for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) to $160 from $150. The analysts praised Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s focus on profits and margins, high margins in advertising and cost cutting.
Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund made the following comment about Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in its second quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is the world’s largest retailer and cloud services provider. During the quarter, Amazon’s shares increased 26.2% as a result of improving investor perception regarding the company’s advancements in AI, as well as an anticipated slowdown in customer cloud optimization initiatives, which is expected to pave the way for the reacceleration of growth in Amazon Web Services in the latter part of 2023. We are also optimistic about Amazon’s ability to significantly enhance the profitability of its core North American retail segment in the short to medium term. This optimism stems from the company’s transition to a new regionalized fulfillment network, the rightsizing of its infrastructure from the increased spending levels during the early stages of the pandemic, and its rapidly growing advertising business, which is margin accretive. Looking further ahead, Amazon’s potential for growth in e-commerce remains substantial, considering it currently captures less than 15% of its total addressable market. Amazon also remains the clear leader in the vast and growing cloud infrastructure market, with large opportunities in application software, including enabling GenAI workloads.”
2. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Ken Fisher’s Stake: $8.32 billion
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) remains the most popular stock among the over 900 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey. Based on latest filings, 300 hedge funds out of the 910 funds in Insider Monkey’s database had stakes in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) beats the second most popular stock among hedge funds (Amazon) by a wide margin of 22 hedge funds. Ken Fisher’s hedge fund had an $8.32 billion stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) as of the end of June.
Baron Opportunity Fund made the following comment about Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its second quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a software company traditionally known for its Windows and Office products. Over the last five years, it has built a $60-plus billion cloud business, including its infrastructure-as-a-service Azure business, Office 365, and Dynamics 365 (Microsoft’s customer relationship management offering). Shares increased on financial results that exceeded consensus with Azure beating guidance for the second time in four quarters, coming in one point ahead of forecasts at 31% constant-currency growth. Forward quarterly guidance for Azure landed a full two points ahead of expectations (26% to 27% constant-currency growth), with the company highlighting “stable trends” from January persisting through April. In the Q&A section of the call, the CEO noted that the company was seeing a good balance of new workloads and ongoing optimizations, with the CFO following up that “at some point, workloads just can’t be optimized much further, and when you start to anniversary that, you do see that it gets a little bit easier in terms of comps year-over-year. And so, you even see that a little bit in our guidance, some of that impact.” Microsoft is executing at a high level, navigating a challenging macro backdrop while aggressively investing in long-term growth. The company’s proven ability to innovate is only getting stronger with continued enhancements across the portfolio including business analytics, cybersecurity, and, more recently, AI, with the launch of Azure OpenAI services and Copilots across its application portfolio.”
1. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Ken Fisher’s Stake: $10.24 billion
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is the biggest stockholding of Ken Fisher. Ken Fisher’s hedge fund owns a $10.24 billion stake in Apple as of the end of the second quarter of 2023. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s new iPhone launch date is coming closer and some analysts believe the company will crush it with the new iPhone 15. Citi analyst Atif Malik recently maintained his Buy rating and said the upcoming iPhone launch could be a catalyst for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares.
As of the end of the second quarter of 2023, 135 hedge funds in Insider Monkey’s database reported owning stakes in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).
Choice Equities Capital Management made the following comment about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its second quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Dramatic valuation differences across market cap sizes continue. This has been the case for some time now. Perhaps I have spent too much time discussing these dichotomies, as generally, I feel like if we pick the right stocks and manage market exposures thoughtfully, our equities- oriented portfolio will prosper across various market cycles. However, when markets become as lopsided as they have lately, I feel additional discussion on the market environment is worthwhile, if only to help highlight the opportunities that are available and the likely path forward. I expect future discussions to soon be focused again on our moderately concentrated portfolio. But for now, let’s take one last in-depth look at how far reaching these valuation dichotomies have again become.(Please note: charts that accompany the following can be found in the Appendix.)
Take Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) for example. It is the largest stock by market cap, and fairly considered one of the best companies in the world. The company has been extraordinarily successful and improved standards of living everywhere in the process with their ubiquitous products. Along the way, shareholders have been richly rewarded, with shares increasing nearly fourteen-fold over the last ten years while generating an annualized total shareholder return of 31%, including dividends.
On the back of another big quarter for large cap tech, it is now the first stock to surpass the $3T market cap threshold. This makes its weighting in the ~$37T market cap of the S&P 500, ~8%. It also means this one stock’s market cap is larger than that of the entire ~$2.98T market cap of the Russell 2000 index, the first time in history a single stock has outweighed the Russell 2000 – aside from two brief days in September 2020 when Apple’s market cap then accomplished the same…” (Click here to read the full text)
You can also take a peek at 10 Best Consumer Staples ETFs and 10 Korean Stocks Listed in the U.S.
