With a cooling inflation rate and despite persistent recession fears, 2023 brought numerous opportunities for investors to make it big both on the stock and the crypto market. Multiple rather unknown small-cap companies achieved stunning results, growing by thousands of percent.
Still, the year was also marked by blue-chip firms giving significant returns.
Perhaps most prominently, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) saw a massive rise of more than 200%, largely thanks to its crucial position in the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
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Other large firms like Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Walmart (NYSE: WMT) all provided respectable returns ranging from 20% to 100% in the last 52 weeks.
This year, despite a downtick in interest rate cut optimism, already brought some major market moves with the rapid post-earnings rise of firms like Palantir (NASDAQ: PLTR) and Netflix (NYSE: NFLX) – both of which shot up between 10% and 30% after the figures were released.
In this climate of persistent danger and mounting optimism, Finbold decided to look at three companies likely to help any investor see their portfolio rise manifold in 2024.
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA)
While Nvidia saw a staggering rise throughout 2023, the semiconductor giant is well-positioned to continue strong in 2024. Much like the AI boom is unlikely to end – in fact, it is widely expected to speed up with forecasts predicting the industry will grow to hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars – Nvidia’s pivotal position within it is also unlikely to be lost.
Indeed, the company has fingers in numerous lucrative technological pies and has, despite U.S. export restrictions, retained its place in the Chinese market – albeit with some unpopular compromises.
Looking forward, experts and analysts are very bullish on the company, with their 12-month stock price targets going as high as $1,100. The company also grew by $75 billion in a day after Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) lifted its own target to $800.
By press time, NVDA shares are worth $682.23. They have been doing well in 2024 so far, having risen 41.64% year-to-date (YTD) and 11.25% in the last week. They did decline slightly – 1.60% – on Tuesday, February 7, the last full trading day at the time of publication.
Nio (NYSE: NIO)
Unlike Nvidia, the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Nio (NYSE: NIO) has had a relatively bad 2023. Indeed, the firm, barring a major surge in August, did little else than decline in the stock market throughout the year.
The lackluster performance was, for the most part, in line with the trend observable in the entire EV industry as relatively low demand and consumer pivot to hybrid vehicles caused nearly every company in the sector – Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) most prominently and Lucid (NASDAQ: LCID) most dramatically – to experience a downturn.
Despite the trend, many analysts appear to believe that Nio’s current state is less of a cause for concern and more of a value-buying opportunity. Indeed, given the wide belief that humanity will transition to green and renewable energy – as a matter of survival if nothing else – experts expect the Chinese EV maker has only growth ahead of it.
In fact, the average analyst price target for Nio is $10.86 – significantly above its press time price of $6.03 – and some believe it can go as high as $18.70 within 12 months.
Despite the optimistic outlook, Nio has spent most of 2024 in decline and is 28.38% in the red YTD. On the other hand, the company’s shares did rise by an impressive 12.08% in the last 24 hours.
MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR)
MicroStrategy’s (NASDAQ: MSTR) potential, in stark contrast to firms like Nvidia, does not lie in its quality as a company as much as in its unique strategy. Indeed, when CEO Michael Saylor pivoted the firm toward Bitcoin (BTC) ownership, he closely tied its faith to the faith of the world’s foremost cryptocurrency.
Therefore, MSTR has a real chance to surge this year given its role as a way for investors and traders to get exposed to BTC without owning the cryptocurrency itself and given that Bitcoin is due to undergo its next halving – an event that historically led to price surges ranging from tenfold to a hundredfold – in just a few months.
At press time, MicroStrategy shares are worth $498.00. While they did rise 1.51% in the last 24 hours, their 2024 performance has been less than stellar, and the firm is 27.32% in the red YTD.
This, perhaps, isn’t too surprising given that Bitcoin itself has been on a slight downtrend and is 2.51% in the red since January 1, and the two assets have been closely correlated in the last four years.
Still, while MicroStrategy retains significant potential, it is an investment filled with risk. Not only is Bitcoin merely likely – not guaranteed – to surge, but the already imperfect link between the company and the cryptocurrency has been weakened by the approval of spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) earlier in January.
The move gave MicroStrategy real competition when it comes to offering exposure to the world’s foremost cryptocurrency, and its stock has already suffered as a result. Still, the firm continues purchasing ever-more Bitcoin, and the ETFs are still new enough that their ultimate impact on Saylor’s company is hard to describe reliably.
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Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.
