3 No-Brainer Tech Stocks to Buy Now

• A massive sell-off in tech stocks comes after weak jobs data.
• The Nasdaq briefly entered correction territory.
• Weaker earnings from technology companies left stocks with reduced gains.
• Also: Discover the next NVIDIA.

Wall Street continues to rally as U.S. stocks try to regain ground following a broader market sell-off triggered by worrisome jobs data and weaker quarterly earnings from tech giants.

Still, investors anticipate the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates higher for longer puts pressure on the broader economy, as July jobs data showed employers added fewer jobs than expected during unemployment rose to its highest level since 2021.

Having hit correction levels, investors are now more than ever focused on owning technology companies that can provide stability amid tumultuous market volatility. Despite having plenty to choose from, only a handful of tech stocks are now considered attractive enough for investors to buy and hold for the long term.

Alphabet

Internet giant Google’s parent company, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) has seen a similar bloodbath in the stock market in recent weeks, after its shares tumbled nearly 7 percent in a single day following a broader market selloff on Aug. 5.

While the stock has advanced since then, current performance is about 17% below its previous peak. However, Alphabet recently posted earnings for Q2 2024, and despite the company announcing a 14% year-over-year revenue improvement and seeing Search and Cloud revenue hit a new record and beat quarterly revenue of $10 billion, the stock’s performance was somewhat dampened by broader market volatility.

However, this does not mean that investors should look elsewhere. Alphabet stood out from its competitors by investing heavily in artificial intelligence projects. Additionally, the company is focused on providing a more efficient and sustainable cost base that could allow it to grow profits even during a broader market downturn.

Meta platforms

Facebook parent company Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) recently announced that the company is increasing its forward-looking capital expenditures, investing more resources in the development of AI products and services.

This news was not received well at first. For Q2 2024, Meta reported total capital expenditures of $8.47 billion, including principal payments and finance leases, while total cost of expenditures increased 7% year-over-year to approximately $24.22 billion dollars.

However, rising costs and expenses were not what caught the attention of investors. Instead, the company generated strong quarterly revenue of $39.07 billion, which was up 22% year-over-year. In addition, the cost per ad for its family of apps increased by 10% compared to last year.

Meta is not only improving on previous losses during the height of the 2022 tech crisis, but is making improvements in their bottom line that could see them impress investors while offering more competitive digital products and services across its family of applications.

Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is looking to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom by becoming the leading cybersecurity provider for large-scale organizations and industry-leading development companies.

Not only that, the company is leveraging its current position to move ahead of its closest competitor – Crowdstrike (NASDAQ: CRWD). This comes on the heels of a recent worldwide technology outage caused by a flawed security systems update released by Crowdstrike that affected thousands of Microsoft devices worldwide.

Following the technology outages, they left millions of passengers stuck at airports worldwide and health systems offline for several hours, CRWD stocks fell by almost 15%. At the same time, PANW managed to gain a modest 2.38%, however, the company is still trying to make up for an embarrassing 28% loss experienced in early February.

The Santa Clara-based company reported a strong third quarter, with revenue up 15 percent year-over-year to about $2 billion. Delivering GAAP net income of $278.8 million or $0.79 per diluted share was an improvement compared to $107.8 million or $0.31 per diluted share in Q3 2023.

With an adjusted free cash flow margin in the range of 38% to 39%, Palo Alto is focused on delivering strategic growth in areas that could provide the company with long-term growth potential amid the broader hype of AI.

The post 3 No-Brainer Tech Stocks to Buy Now appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.