The “Magnificent Seven” stocks have been incredibly successful stock picks, but most have sold off so far in 2025, some heavily. Their lower prices are intriguing, but I don’t think all of them make great buys right now. While five look great, I’m avoiding two.Â
The two that I’m avoiding
I wouldn’t buy any Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) or Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock right now. These two companies have problems.
Apple hasn’t realized a game-changing or innovative product in some time, and has failed to grow its revenue meaningfully over the past three years. It finally surpassed the trailing-12-month total set in the fall of 2022 this past quarter, and Wall Street analysts project only 4.6% and 8% growth in FY 2025 and FY 2026, respectively. On top of that, Apple has a premium valuation compared to the other stocks (only Amazon and Tesla trade at a higher forward price-to-earnings ratio, and Microsoft’s is equal). As a result, I want to avoid Apple.
Tesla is having some brand issues, which can be directly tied to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement in President Donald Trump’s administration. Whether you agree with his actions or not, it’s indisputable that some Tesla owners and potential buyers are angry. Until Tesla gets its brand image straightened out, I’ll probably avoid the stock.
The remaining five stocks on this list are Nvidia (NVDA -0.66%), Microsoft (MSFT 0.45%), Alphabet (GOOG 1.61%) (GOOGL 1.66%), Meta Platforms (META 1.17%), and Amazon (AMZN 1.18%), and each looks intriguing at its current price tag.
AI has been a huge boom for several of these businesses
Following the recent sell-off, these five stocks are down 15%-20% from their highs. Alongside that, each is trading near relative valuation lows from the past three years.
GOOGL PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts
Alphabet is by far the cheapest at 19 times forward earnings — a metric that uses analyst estimates — which prices it well below the S&P 500‘s (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) 20.5 forward P/E. I believe growth rates that are projected to be above market pace for the next few years make Alphabet a no-brainer buy.
The other four stocks trade at a premium to the S&P 500, so they need convincing growth estimates to justify that premium to me.
While Nvidia is one of the more expensive stocks of the five, it’s also projected to grow the fastest. Wall Street analysts project that Nvidia will grow its revenue by 57% in FY 2026 (the current year) and 23% in the next fiscal year, far outpacing the 10% the S&P 500 averages.
On top of that, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sees a path to $1 trillion in data center revenue by 2028, a potentially magnificent boon for his company, making today’s stock price look like an absolute steal.
Microsoft and Amazon also make for great buys (and Alphabet as well) because of their exposure to cloud computing. Cloud computing is a key beneficiary of the AI arms race, as many companies don’t have the computing power necessary to run AI models, so they rent that power from a cloud computing provider.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure (Microsoft’s platform), and Google Cloud (Alphabet’s platform) are the largest cloud computing providers by market share and will benefit from a huge spending wave that’s expected to expand the cloud computing market opportunity from $752 billion in 2024 to $2.4 trillion in 2030. This is monstrous growth and could easily propel these stocks into market-beating territory.
Last on this list is Meta, which has been a huge spender in the AI arms race. Meta uses AI to maintain its dominance in the social media space, where it generates nearly all of its revenue from ads on those platforms. Meta also has several exciting projects that it’s working on in its Reality Labs division. Meta’s revenue could take off if a new sales stream emerges should any of these become a hit product. Even without that, its revenue is expected to increase by 15% in 2025 and 14% in 2026, which makes it a great stock to own if you’re trying to beat the market.
The “Magnificent Seven” stocks are still relevant in today’s market, but you need to be selective about which ones you buy. The latest market sell-off is a great chance to scoop up some of them on sale, and I’m willing to bet that at least some them will beat the market over the next three to five years.
John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
