These are the dog days of summer. Baseball pennant races are heating up, football training camps are open and temperatures are scorching across the country. But whether you’re headed on vacation or staying home and cranking up the air conditioning, don’t forget to check your portfolio for A-rated stocks.
August is shaping up to be an excellent month for the stock market. Inflation is down, and the U.S. economy is showing its strength.
It’s shaking off fears of a recession and recording solid GDP growth, reaching 2.4% in the second quarter. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 5% in the last four weeks.
A-rated stocks are those that are considered the best of the best in our Portfolio Grader analysis. We ran every stock in the market through our free tool to evaluate them based on earnings history, stock performance, momentum, growth, analyst sentiment and other factors.
Some names on this list of A-rated stocks are repeat performers, and others are making their first appearance. But you know all of them are great picks. Let’s take a closer look.
Nvidia (NVDA)
One of the A-rated stocks I remain bullish on is Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and with good reason. The semiconductor stock is up nearly 220% this year, and there’s no sign that the run is close to being over.
The most significant tailwind is Nvidia’s role in the growth of generative artificial intelligence. Nvidia owns a commanding market share of 80% to 95% in the AI computing market. Nothing is hotter than generative AI on Wall Street today.
OpenAI ignited a firestorm when it rolled out ChatGPT late last year, but now any computing company worth its salt is working on building out generative AI applications.
Even though other semiconductor companies are working to close the gap, analysts believe Nvidia will continue dominating the market through at least 2027.
Earnings for the fiscal first quarter of 2024 included revenue of $7.19 billion and earnings of 82 cents per share. NVDA stock has an “A” rating in the Portfolio Grader, making it one of the A-rated stocks you don’t want to take a pass on.
Mondelez International (MDLZ)
Even if you don’t know Mondelez International (NASDAQ:MDLZ), chances are you know some of the snack food company’s products, such as Cadbury candy, Toblerone chocolate, Philadelphia cream cheese and Oreo cookies.
If you’ve got a sweet tooth, you know it’s tough to lay off those foods, even when inflation’s rampant.
That’s why Mondelez raised prices to counteract higher energy, transportation and labor costs, leading to a great second quarter. Revenue came in at $8.51 billion, beating analysts’ expectations for $8.19 billion. Earnings were $944 million, or 76 cents per share, better than the 69-cent EPS experts predicted.
MDLZ stock is up 11% this year and threatens to set a new all-time high. It gets an “A” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
Broadcom (AVGO)
Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) is another semiconductor company doing historically well thanks to its work with AI.
The stock is up 94% this year, with much of the gains coming since mid-May.
Broadcom designs, manufactures, and supplies semiconductors and software products for broadband and wireless communications systems. Its AI business accounts for about 15% of the company’s semiconductor revenue, but that’s expected to grow to 25% by the middle of next year.
Broadcom also has a $69 billion deal to acquire cloud computing company VMware (NYSE:VMW). VMWare’s work involves integrating multi-cloud systems, and its acquisition should facilitate AI workloads to run across different clouds.
Broadcom also rewards investors with a 2% dividend yield. It gets an “A” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
Novo Nordisk (NVO)
Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) is a healthcare company based in Denmark. It’s made its mark by treating diabetes, producing 50% of the world’s insulin and more than 600 million insulin pens.
Insulin is a life-saving drug for people who have diabetes. Globally, about 422 million people have either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes and more than 1.5 million die annually.
Novo Nordisk has clinical trials in more than 50 countries for advancements in drugs to treat diabetes, obesity, hemophilia and growth disorders.
As weight loss drugs are popular now, investors have high hopes for its top weight loss medications, Ozempic and Wegovy.
First-quarter earnings announced in May included revenue of $53.37 billion, up nearly 27% from a year ago. Earnings were $19.81 billion, or $8.78 per share.
NVO stock is up 19% this year and gets an “A” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
Posco Holdings (PKX)
Posco Holdings (NYSE:PKX) is a steelmaker based in South Korea. The company provides hot-rolled and cold-rolled products, wire rods, plates, silicon steel sheets and stainless steel products.
Posco’s steel is used in the manufacturing of vehicles, ships, home appliances and more.
Posco is also developing an electric vehicle battery production business. It plans to manufacture 423,000 tons of lithium annually by 2023, a 41% increase from its previous production target.
Lithium demand will only continue to grow with the development of EVs. Electric vehicle sales tripled in the last three years, reaching 10 million units in 2022, or 14% of all vehicle sales.
On a year-over-year basis, sales in the first quarter of 2023 were up 25%, reaching 2.3 million, and are expected to reach 14 million by the end of the year, according to the International Energy Agency.
That bodes well for Posco. The stock is up 109% this year and gets an “A” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
BridgeBio Pharma (BBIO)
BridgeBio Pharma (NASDAQ:BBIO) is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company based in California.
It works to create, test and deliver treatments for genetic diseases and cancer with genetic drivers.
It has two drugs approved for commercial use – fosdnopterin, marketed under the name Nulibry in the U.S., treats mendelian diseases that develop from a single gene. And infigratinib, which is sold under the name Trusteltiq, is an orally administered cancer treatment.
Several other drugs are in various stages of testing.
The stock took a massive 90% jump in July after reporting positive Phase 3 trial data for a drug, acoramidis, that treats transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), a heart muscle disease that can lead to heart failure.
BBIO stock is flying high, now up more than 330% on the year. It gets an “A” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
United Airlines (UAL)
United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) is a picture of resiliency.
Despite an unfortunate pullback earlier this year as the airline industry battled flight delays, some bad press and fears of a recession, UAL stock is up more than 40% this year.
It’s been on a consistent upward trajectory since April.
And that trend will continue, particularly as Covid-19 fears end and U.S. travelers are again looking for international flights. Helane Baker of TD Cowen says that global travel demand is up, and United has broad exposure to that space in particular.
UAL serves more than 120 international destinations and 210 locations in the U.S. The company says it provides about 4,500 flights per day.
Earnings for the second quarter included $14.18 billion in revenue, up 17% from a year ago, and income of $1.08 million or $5.03 per share.
UAL stock has an “A” rating in the Portfolio Grader.
On the date of publication, Louis Navellier had long positions in NVDA and NVO. Louis Navellier did not have (either directly or indirectly) any other positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
The InvestorPlace Research Staff member primarily responsible for this article did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
Consumer Discretionary, Travel, Airline, Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Consumer Staples, Industrial, Energy, Renewable Energy, Battery, Lithium, Semiconductor