5 Large-Cap Stocks to Buy on Nasdaq's Northbound Trajectory

The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.44% to close at all-time high of 10,492.50 on Jul 8. Continuing momentum in technology stocks coupled with improving optimism over steady economic revival pumped up the index, which is up 16.9% year to date.

Despite the rising number of coronavirus infections in the United States, the momentum in Nasdaq is expected to continue on changing consumer preference and behavior.

Stay-at-home is now the new normal as we are learning to live with the virus for a significant stretch. This is boosting demand for web-based services like e-commerce, contactless payment and delivery.

In fact, the spike in coronavirus cases in the United States bodes well for the index. The company’s offering remote-working tech, cloud services and cybersecurity solutions, which support work-from-home, online learning and remote health diagnosis, are expected to benefit the most.

Further, improving consumer confidence and declining unemployment rate are significant positives.

Moreover, improvement in global semiconductor sales is a major positive. Notably, Micron MU reported better-than-expected results for third-quarter fiscal 2020 driven by chip demand from data-center operators. Samsung’s latest announcement also supported the trend.

Additionally, the improving China economy bodes well for Nasdaq-listed stocks. U.S.-based tech giants like Apple AAPL and NVIDIA are significantly dependent on the country’s supply-chain and manufacturing prowess.

Here we pick five Nasdaq-listed large caps that are well-poised to grow in the rest of 2020. Large caps have strong fundamentals that help them stay afloat in a turbulent economic and business environment. Each of the five stocks has a market cap of more than $10 billion.

Moreover, they a favorable combination of a Growth Score of A or B and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Per the Zacks proprietary methodology, stocks with such a perfect mix of elements offer solid investment opportunities.

Notably, each of these stocks has outperformed the S&P 500 composite on a year-to-date basis.

Year-to-Date Performance

Top Bets

Zoom Video Communications ZM is riding on the coronavirus-induced work-from-home and online-learning trend. Moreover, this $73.94-billion company’s efforts to eliminate the security and privacy loopholes like “zoombombing” are expected to help maintain its existing enterprise user base as well as attract more customers.

Zoom Video currently flaunts a Zacks Rank of 1 and a Growth Score of A. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its fiscal 2021 earnings is pegged at $1.19 per share, having been raised 6.3% up in the past 30 days.

Fortinet FTNT is benefiting from dominance in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) space, which is one of the fastest-evolving segments in the network security space. Moreover, this Zacks Rank #1 company is gaining from rising cyber-attack risks that are propelling demand for its FortiMail platform.

The $22.30-billion company has a Growth Score of A. The consensus mark for its 2020 earnings stands at $2.81 per share, having moved 1.4% north over the past 30 days.

Fastenal’s FAST aggressive investment to increase Onsite locations, vending machines count and ecommerce business are expected to boost sales in the near future. This Zacks Rank #1 company reported solid May sales report, led by notable gains in safety products.

This $25.24-billion company has a Growth Score of B. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its 2020 earnings is pegged at $1.35 per share, having been revised 1.5% upward in the past 30 days.

T-Mobile US’ TMUS 600 MHz 5G now serves more than 215 million people, including inhabitants of Detroit and Columbus, while 50 million new T-Mobile devices have access to the 600 MHz LTE network. This Zacks Rank #1 company has deployed 5G sites in Philadelphia and New York City using Sprint’s 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum on its 5G network.

The Sprint acquisition enables this $147.21-billion company to deploy nationwide 5G at a much faster rate. Within six years, T-Mobile is expected to provide 5G to 99% of the U.S. population and average 5G speeds of above 100 Mbps to 90% of the population.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for T-Mobile’s 2020 earnings has jumped 24.8% to $1.71 per share in the past 30 days.

MarketAxess Holdings MKTX benefits from steady rise in trading volumes that in turn drive commission. Growing adoption of this $20.21-billion company’s automated trading tools for both liquidity providers and liquidity takers are a key catalyst. Moreover, this Zacks #2 Ranked stock with a Growth Score of A enjoys strong liquidity position and has witnessed continuous growth in free cash flow.

The consensus mark for 2020 earnings is pegged at $7.22 per share, having been revised 3% upward in the past 30 days.

Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2020

In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-hold tickers for the entirety of 2020?

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Micron Technology, Inc. (MU) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Apple Inc. (AAPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Fastenal Company (FAST) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Fortinet, Inc. (FTNT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (MKTX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
TMobile US, Inc. (TMUS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (ZM) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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