In this article, we will take a detailed look at These 10 Stocks are Buzzing After Important Analyst Calls.
Investors are continuing to pour money into AI companies as all indicators point to continued momentum and the strong impact of AI technologies on major aspects of human civilization. Valuations of the Magnificent Seven companies of private markets, including giants like OpenAI, SpaceX, Anthropic, xAI and Databricks, have nearly doubled over the past year to reach a whopping $1.2 trillion, CNBC reported, citing data from Forge Global. This figure is triple the gains of their public market counterparts.
“OpenAI and Anthropic have leapfrogged Stripe and Databricks to rank just behind SpaceX, underscoring AI’s gravitational pull on private capital,” CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos reported based on Forge Global’s data. “These seven names are proving that smaller, leaner players can deliver outsized growth without Wall Street’s scrutiny, as abundant private funding increasingly makes public listings optional for the world’s most valuable startups. Since late 2022, their combined value has quadrupled from 264 billion dollars, cementing AI as the defining force behind private market performance.”
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 latest Wall Street analyst calls. With each stock, 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. Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd (NYSE:AEM)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 52
Kevin Simpson, Capital Wealth Planning founder and CIO, said in a latest program on CNBC that Agnico Eagle Mines is one of the top gold stocks to buy. The analyst believes the stock has more room to run and highlighted its dividend.
“We look back and we say this is the best year we’ve had since 1979. Gold is up 40% on the year. And I was trying to remember back to 1979. Inflation was running at like 13% back then. Now, it’s less than three. So, where that similarity stops and starts, I’m not exactly sure. Like, Agnico Eagle Mines is an amazing stock. It’s up over a 100% year to date. I think it can continue. Pays only about a 1% dividend, but Frank, for the past 5 years, they’ve been increasing that dividend on an average of 25% per year. Profitable business. Really neat space, and I like the name a lot.”
Rewey Asset Management stated the following regarding Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM) was our strongest percentage gainer in the quarter, although we sold the position to zero, half in late January and the balance in mid-March. AEM is a good example of our philosophy of not selling a stock just because its market cap grows out of our Smid range, as it ended 1Q25 at a $53 bil. market cap. Initially, we acquired Kirkland Lake, which was subsequently acquired by AEM for stock. We held the position, and the combined entity posted strong returns for RAM. We sold our position as it rose to our price target on strong gold pricing, and on our view that the medium-term production plateau forecast by the company would likely leave the company as a just a pure play on gold prices. We continue to own Wesdome Gold Mines (WDOFF) which is forecast to post strong production growth and cost reductions and is located in the same Abitibi gold belt sweet spot as AEM’s core operations.”
9. Axon Enterprise Inc (NASDAQ:AXON)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 62
Michael Landsberg, Landsberg Bennett Private Wealth Management CIO, recently pitched Axon Enterprise during a program on CNBC as one of the top non-tech stocks to own. Here is why Landsberg is bullish on the company:
“Again, clients have cash today and a lot of times they’ve got overexposure to the Mag 7, which we’re going to probably assume is the case, right? And we find things that are going to grow. There’s about 25 or 30 names in the last six or seven quarters that have outperformed the Mag 7 that aren’t Mag 7 names. So, one of the names I like is Axon Enterprise Inc (NASDAQ:AXON). They make body cams, they make tasers. Those are businesses that aren’t going to go away anytime soon. We sell them everywhere. Anytime you see anybody now that’s arrested, you’ll notice the top right hand corner of the video is Axon Enterprise Inc (NASDAQ:AXON). They have a huge market there. They’re growing, you know, 30% type growth. I think that’s a good name people can own.”
ClearBridge Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Axon Enterprise, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXON) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“The purchases of Howmet Aerospace and Axon Enterprise, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXON) complement existing defense holding L3Harris Technologies, adding exposure to original equipment and aftermarket aerospace and public safety end markets. Both are dominant players in their respective industries with significant runway for growth and margin expansion ahead.”
8. American Express Co (NYSE:AXP)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 70
Kevin Simpson, Capital Wealth Planning founder and CIO, said in a recent program on CNBC that American Express can go higher.
“American Express. We think that the millennials and the Gen Z are in this ecosystem. Stocks that make new highs can go higher,” Simpson said.
GreensKeeper Asset Management stated the following regarding American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“The top contributor to the portfolio in the second quarter was American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) +18.6%. AXP’s affluent customer base continued to spend in Q1, with revenues up 8% at constant currency, causing the stock to end the quarter just shy of its all-time high. During Q2, AXP announced upgrades to its US Consumer and Business Platinum cards, which will be released later this year. AXP continues to tailor its products to capture the spending of younger consumers, with Millennials and Gen Z now accounting for 35% of total US consumer spending. We believe these investments will strengthen the company’s network effect and further lock young consumers into AXP’s ecosystem as their incomes and card spending continue to rise. Additionally, AXP is widening its use cases on the commercial side of the business with recent product launches tailored towards working capital and expense management. This should expand the number of transactions that AXP can participate in and increase switching costs with commercial card users.”
7. Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 124
Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern School of Business professor of finance, said in a recent program on CNBC that in every big “boom” over the past few decades, “architecture companies” initially thrive. However, the “biggest” winners in major booms are product and service companies. The professor predicted that in the coming months and years, companies from the product and services space will “elbow” their way to the front. He mentioned Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) among the few possible winners in this race:
“My guess is in the coming months and years you’re going to see more companies from the product and service space not the architecture space elbow their way to the front because if you look at every big boom going back four decades initially the architecture companies are the beneficiaries Cisco during the dotcom boom eventually though the biggest winner is not one of the architecture companies it’s one of the product and service companies and Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) Palantir Microsoft meta they all want to be there and I think it’d be interesting interesting to see which of those companies ends up being the winner if any of them it could be a company that’s not listed there yet.”
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.
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)
6. Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 113
Ray Wang, Constellation Research founder and chairman, said in a latest program on CNBC that Nvidia’s latest $5 billion investment in Intel means the company is “getting into” AMD’s business.
“I mean, interesting move here by Nvidia and Intel. And if you’re looking at this, you’re wondering, is this good for Intel? Is it good for Nvidia, what does it mean for Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) overall? And if you break it down, it really means Nvidia’s getting into Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) business, using Intel as the way to get system on chips. That means taking a GPU, connecting it with NVLink, which is Nvidia’s connection platform, and getting the ability to bring Intel. So GPUs and CPUs come together, and of course that allows for better gaming desktops, amazing AI laptop processors, accelerated process units. The question really is what does that mean for Intel’s foundry business?” Wang said.
Macquarie Core Equity Fund stated the following regarding Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) designs and manufactures semiconductors, including central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), and other high-performance computing solutions for various markets like gaming, data centers, and AI. The company currently maintains a small market share for GPUs used for AI applications though by 2027, we believe the company will have product on par with the market leader, NVIDIA. Hyperscale customers with deep programming expertise may increasingly decide to dual-source high-end chips leading to much larger revenue and profit gains in coming years for AMD than investors currently expect.”
5. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 115
Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern School of Business professor of finance, recently explained in a program on CNBC why he trimmed his stake in Tesla.
“It’s not because I don’t like the company. I like the company. If there’s any company where a CEO can reframe an electric car company into a robotics company, well, Elon Musk is that. I think my concern at with Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has become a political stock and I’m terrible at politics. I don’t want to have investments or I’m trying to figure out what the politics of the model will look like. So my reason for selling Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) was not because I don’t like the company but because I don’t want my investments and politics to mix together.”
Tesla recently rallied after Musk bought back $1 billion worth of TSLA shares. 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.
4. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 156
Kevin Simpson from Capital Wealth Planning recently said on CNBC that he is bullish on Apple and explained the reasons behind his positive outlook on the iPhone maker. Here is what he said:
“We love Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL). I think that this and and probably for the next two launches are really a refresh. The good news on the Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) Pros and the margins there are impressive. The fact that the price increase has absolutely nothing to do with tariffs, wink wink, is great. We looked at this and said, “Okay, the stock has really rallied into the release. The earnings report was fantastic.”
Early indicators point to a strong consumer response to the latest iPhone 17. However, can this enthusiasm lift the stock in the long term, especially when the company is falling behind in the AI race?
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.”
3. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 178
Dan Niles, Niles Investment Management founder and portfolio manager, said in a latest program on CNBC that he believes Alphabet will have the “best app” in terms of AI. Niles said Alphabet’s biggest edge is the user data it has because of YouTube.
“I look at Google for the long term and I go, I think they’re going to have the best app in terms of AI,” Niles said, “Because if you think about it, what makes an AI app smart? It’s data. Well, they’ve got the most free data in the world because of YouTube. And so if you think about what’s the most expensive thing to create, it’s video. You combine that with the fact that it’s trading at a market multiple at 25 times. You’ve got Meta at 27 times PE and then you’ve got the AI names in the 30s, and the stock has a long way to go, especially given that antitrust remedy was way better than any of us ever imagined. They can pay to be the default search engine. They don’t have to go ahead and spin off any of their divisions. I mean they’re in great shape when you look out over the next 5 to 10 years I think.”
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) bulls believe concerns around AI-related threats to Google search are overstated. Google has an edge over competitors because it’s easier for the billions of users of its search engine to switch to Gemini instead of opting for a completely new model. As of April, Google had over 1.5 billion monthly users interacting with its AI-powered Search overviews.
Google’s competitor OpenAI failed to impress the market with its GPT-5 model, while Gemini is gaining traction with new features. Analysts believe the company is strongly positioned to start placing ads in AI search results, which means its core ads business will not be impacted despite the decline in traditional search.
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)
2. NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 235
Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern School of Business professor of finance, often known as the “deal of valuation,” recently said in a program on CNBC that he’s still owning a stake in Nvidia, but called the stock “richly priced.” Damodaran said his Intel investment has done better than his Nvidia position.
“I own half of the NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) that I owned a year ago. And I’m okay with that even though it’s gone up because I think it is so richly priced that I’d rather have my money in Intel than in NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA). And actually my Intel investment’s done better since September of last year than my NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) investment. Yeah, Intel Intel’s caught a nice wave here.”
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.
Analysts believe the deal would allow Nvidia to take market share from AMD in the data center and PC business and diversify away from Arm-based designs.
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.”
1. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 294
Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern School of Business professor of finance, said in a recent program on CNBC that hyperscalers cannot “survive” without products and services giving back return on their investments. He was referring to major AI companies investing billions into the future. As an example, the professor talked about Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT).
“I’ll tell you without the product and services the the hyperscalers the architecture companies cannot survive right I mean you need the revenues the earnings and the cash flows coming from the products you produce I mean you’re just off that flip on Microsoft. Microsoft spends a hundred billion in AI architecture. It needs about $300 billion in revenues from AI products and services to cover that cost. So if you extend that across the across the market, you’re talking about a market that’s building in an expectation of three to four trillion in revenues from AI products and services. Right now, I don’t see the numbers there, but that’s what I’m watching for. which of these companies is going to be able to elbow its way to the front and be able to get that kind of revenue from its products and services.”
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.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. Insider Monkey focuses on uncovering the best investment ideas of hedge funds and insiders. Please subscribe to our free daily e-newsletter to get the latest investment ideas from hedge funds’ investor letters by entering your email address below.
