My Top 10 Stocks to Buy in 2024 Are Beating the Market by 48%. Should You Buy Them for 2025?


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In Jan. 2023, I wrote about my 10 top stocks to buy for the new year. I ended up pretty proud of my list because if you’d invested $1,000 in each of the 10 stocks the day the article was published, you’d have ended 2023 with $13,301, including dividends. If you’d instead put your $10,000 into an S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index fund, you would’ve had just $11,900 at the end of the year. In other words, the total return of my stock picks beat the broad market by 74%.

And last December, I updated my list of top 10 stocks for 2024, which have again outperformed the market. With $10,000 invested equally across those 10 stocks at the beginning of the year, you’d have $14,281 as of the Dec. 5 market close. An equal investment in an S&P 500 index fund would be worth $12,890. That’s a total return difference of 48%.

That’s an encouraging result given how strong stocks have been this year. When the market is down, it’s much easier to beat. For example, when the S&P 500 lost 18% in 2022, 51% of U.S. equity managers underperformed the market. But through the first half of a bullish 2024, 57% of large-cap U.S. equity managers were underperforming the index, and 60% underperformed it last year when the index was up 24%.

Let’s take a closer look at how my picks are faring with about a month to go in 2024 and consider whether you should buy them for the coming year.

The top 10 stocks I chose for 2024 were Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST), Global-e Online (NASDAQ: GLBE), Lemonade (NYSE: LMND), Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ: LULU), MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI), Nu Holdings (NYSE: NU), SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI), and Visa (NYSE: V).

Here’s how they are performing compared to the S&P 500 as of Dec. 5:

ABNB Total Return Level Chart
Data by YCharts.

Nine of my top 10 picks are up year to date. The lone exception, Lululemon, is experiencing some major challenges right now. Let’s do a quick rundown on each of these stocks and their prospects for 2025.

After gaining 59% in 2023, Airbnb has been flat this year. Growth has slowed, but profitability has soared. It’s looking more like a value stock right now, and it’s building on its popular platform. Shares trade at only 22 times trailing-12-month free cash flow, and value investors should take a look.

Amazon has launched powerful artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that are driving tremendous growth in its cloud computing segment, Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS is the leading global cloud services provider, and AI is bringing in new clients. It’s also the largest e-commerce company in the U.S. with a wide lead. Amazon remains a top choice for almost any investor.



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