Are These The Best FAANG Stocks To Invest In This Week?
For investors eyeing the stock market this week, FAANG stocks could be an interesting play. After all, this group of stocks represents some of the biggest hitters in the consumer tech industry today. In essence, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google make up the acronym. Even as the press around Big Tech may be less than ideal, there is no shortage of coverage when it comes to these stocks now. This would especially be the case seeing as all the five companies have posted their latest quarterly earnings results.
To begin with, the biggest piece of news surrounding the FAANG stocks now would be about Facebook (NASDAQ: FB). The social media titan is reportedly changing its name to Meta. Accordingly, this would reflect the company’s increasing focus on building the metaverse, a virtual space for all manner of interactions. Subsequently, its stock ticker will also change from FB to MVRS on December 1. Because of all this, investor focus on metaverse stocks continues to rise and Meta appears to be leading the charge.
At the same time, we could take a look at Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). Now, the company fell short of analyst expectations in its third-quarter earnings report last week. However, the company does not have all its eggs in one basket. Aside from its industry-leading cloud computing arm, Amazon also reportedly holds a 20% stake in Rivian. For the uninitiated, Rivian is an upcoming player in the growing electric vehicle (EV) industry today. By and large, the FAANG stocks continue to make aggressive plays to further expand their long-term growth potential. With that in mind, could one of these three be top picks in the stock market today?
Top FAANG Stocks To Buy [Or Sell] Right Now
- Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)
- Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX)
- Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL)
Apple
Apple would be a key name to note among the FAANG stocks now. For starters, the company’s consumer tech empire continues to grow by the day. This is thanks to its comprehensive suite of devices working with its deeply integrated ecosystem of related services. For one thing, when it comes to consumer tech, most would agree that Apple is at the forefront. Even so, AAPL stock appears to be in an interesting position now.
To highlight, this would be due to the company’s latest quarterly earnings report. In it, Apple fell slightly short of analysts’ estimates for the quarter. The company posted an earnings per share of $1.24 on revenue of $83.36 billion. For some perspective, this is against projections of $1.24 and $84.85 billion respectively. Regardless of all this, the company did deliver solid figures overall. In detail, its iPhone revenue soared by 47% year-over-year while total revenue gained by 29% over the same time. All this alongside positive growth across the rest of its product categories suggests that Apple continues to press forward, albeit at a slower than anticipated pace.
According to CEO Tim Cook, the growing supply chain constraints remain a hindrance to Apple’s operations. Cook also noted that this would continue to be an issue in the coming quarter even as “Covid related manufacturing disruptions have improved greatly”. Nevertheless, Apple remains confident that it remains on track to have one of the largest quarters in its history, in terms of revenue. Overall, I could understand if investors are eyeing AAPL stock now as it faces short to mid-term headwinds.
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Netflix
Following that is video streaming giant Netflix. As most would know, the company offers consumers across the globe access to streaming content. Through its subscription-based model, the customers have access to Netflix’s award-winning portfolio of programming. The likes of which include a healthy mix of its homegrown content and the hottest series globally. Notably, Netflix has and continues to appeal to the masses throughout the pandemic. This is especially evident given its recent hot streak with foreign language-based series.
Among its latest hits would be Squid Game, a South Korean dystopian show. To begin with, it is now Netflix’s largest show to date in terms of viewership. Within the first four weeks since its launch, over 142-million-member households have watched Squid Game, according to Netflix. Not to mention, the series has and continues to be a subject of focus in pop culture today. So much so that there is now an independently established Squid Game cryptocurrency that goes by the ticker SQUID. All this alongside the company’s increasingly relevant services amidst cord-cutting trends continues to drive hype around Netflix across the board. Evidently, NFLX stock appears to be trading towards record heights thanks to the company’s latest quarterly results among other things.
To recap, Netflix posted a quarterly earnings per share of $3.19, smashing Wall Street’s consensus estimates of $2.56. Aside from that, the company also raked in a cool 4.4 million new subscribers in the quarter, ahead of projections of 3.84 million. All in all, Netflix continues to power through concerns of subscriber growth slowing amidst the economy reopening. Could all this make NFLX stock a top buy for you this week?
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Alphabet
Next, we will be taking a look at Alphabet. Precisely, the company’s subsidiary Google is the main focus for today. Among its FAANG stock peers, GOOGL stock continues to lead the pack in terms of year-to-date gains. Accordingly, this is thanks to its wide array of mostly software-related services. Hence, explaining why its overall results are mostly unaffected by the ongoing global supply chain bottlenecks.
Last week, the company posted stellar figures in its third-quarter earnings report. In it, Google saw an earnings per share of $27.99 on revenue of $65.12 billion. More importantly, it exceeded analyst projections of $23.48 and $63.34 billion respectively by a fair amount. In terms of year-over-year growth, Google saw its net income soar 68%.
Namely, the company cited continued strength in its core advertisement division as a core growth driver for the quarter. For a sense of scale, Google’s ad revenue for the quarter came in at a whopping $53.13 billion. This marks a solid 43% year-over-year increase. Given Google’s current momentum, will you be adding GOOGL stock to your portfolio now?
