Starting in 2014, and even more notably in 2016 as Warren Buffett himself chipped in, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) became the benchmark company, and investors around the world were trying to find the ‘next Apple.’
Things have changed since and while the Macintosh maker has fallen on tough times, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) emerged late in 2022 as the new gold standard for growth and performance.
Indeed, the semiconductor giant, riding high on the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has logged returns well above 200% in the last 12 months or so, and several companies – benefiting from the same trends – have managed similarly impressive surges.
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Still, despite many firms already reaching so high that reasonable doubt can be cast on their continued performance, many remain well-positioned for massive growth in 2024.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Under Satya Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) stock took off in earnest and, by early 2024, overtook Apple in terms of market cap.
The big tech firm has undertaken several acquisitions in recent years with the purchase of Activision-Blizzard being one of the biggest in history and has made an early strategic investment in AI technology by partnering with OpenAI – the makers of ChatGPT.
Additionally, thanks to its immense size and position, Microsoft stands to benefit from multiple faucets of the emergent AI sector.
Finally, while MSFT has already done well, up 46.73% in the last 52 weeks, and 13.58% in the green year-to-date (YTD), it hasn’t risen so much that its ability to grow in the short and mid-term can plausibly cast into doubt.
Still, it is noteworthy that Microsoft shares have slowed down in the more recent timeframes and are down both on the weekly chart – 0.92% – and in the last 24 hours of trading – 0.74%. At the latest close, MSFT stood at $421.25.
Guardant Health (NASDAQ: GH)
For a relatively long time, experts have been in agreement that the 2024 stock market will be led by the technology sector and that the sector itself will be led by artificial intelligence.
Still, not all cutting-edge research is focused on large language models (LLMs) and similar platforms, and analysts have also been highly bullish on a medical company called Guardant Health (NASDAQ: GH).
Guardant is a firm that specializes in testing and diagnosis and is considered to be on the bleeding edge when it comes to cancer detection.
As a result, GH is almost universally recommended by analysts and boasts 19 “buy’ ratings of differing conviction and 4 neutral out of the 23 analysts represented on TradingView.
Guardant stock is also forecast, on average, to rise 93.20% in the coming 12 months to a price of $40.17 with some estimates going as high as $54. On the other side, even the lowest target for GH would constitute a 29.87% upside if reached.
Guardant’s performance, however, stands in stark contrast to the expert consensus and GH declined 13.59% in the last 12 months and 21.58% since the start of 2024.
Still, its relatively low press time price of $20.79, the bullish forecasts, and the recent uptrend that saw GH rise 20.73% in the last full week of trading all indicate that the medical firm may be a savvy investment.
NextEra Energy Partners (NYSE: NEE)
NextEra Energy Partners (NYSE: NEE) has recently been described as a ‘diamond in the rough’ for good reason. The energy company stands at a crossroads as the firm has been struggling in the stock market but is laying the foundations for a future boom.
NextEra has been aggressively pushing its transition from a more traditional fossil fuel-burning business model toward green energy – a move that is both massive and difficult to execute in the current economic climate.
Still, once the transition is complete and confidence returns with the end of the inflation battle and era of exceptionally high-interest rates, NextEra stock is likely to be a major beneficiary of the next stock market boom.
In the meantime, it also offers particularly enticing dividends of 3.28% to its investors and plans to continue increasing them until at least 2026.
The turmoil and promise of NextEra’s transition is well-reflected in the stock market as the company fell 17.99% in the last 52 weeks but is up 2.06% since January 1.
The more recent performance is, for the most part, fairly strong. NEE shares are in the green on the monthly chart – 14.39% – and the weekly chart – 0.42% – but have declined 0.79% during the latest full session to $62.84.
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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.
