A screen showing Wall Street’s favorite stocks in the S&P 500 includes familiar names, but a deeper look at the valuations shows they’re not all loved for the same reasons.
The next screen shows the stocks in the S&P 500 SPX that have the highest percentage of Buy or equivalent ratings among analysts surveyed by FactSet. The data is presented in two tables, which include valuations versus 2025 consensus estimates for earnings and revenue per share, as well as projected growth rates for these components.
We started by narrowing down the constituents of the U.S. large-cap benchmark index to 492 companies, tracked by at least nine analysts surveyed by FactSet. These are “sell-side” analysts – those who work for brokerage firms or for researchers who provide reports that brokers can share with their clients.
Of the 492 companies, these 10 have the highest percentage of Buy or Equivalent ratings among analysts surveyed by FactSet:
|
Company |
Ticker |
Buy Ratings for Stocks |
Price from December 10 |
Consensus price target |
Implied upside potential over twelve months |
Total return for 2024 through December 10 |
|
Axon Enterprise Inc. |
AXON |
100% |
$637.45 |
$606.92 |
-5% |
147% |
|
Delta Air Lines Inc. |
VALLEY |
96% |
$62.77 |
$78.22 |
25% |
58% |
|
Microsoft Corp. |
MSFT |
95% |
$443.33 |
$504.71 |
14% |
19% |
|
Amazon.com Inc. |
AMZN |
94% |
$225.04 |
$237.63 |
6% |
48% |
|
Nvidia Corp. |
NVDA |
92% |
$135.07 |
$172.97 |
28% |
173% |
|
Schlumberger Ltd. |
SLB |
91% |
$40.87 |
$57.04 |
40% |
-19% |
|
Micron Technology Inc. |
MU |
91% |
$98.10 |
$147.25 |
50% |
15% |
|
Walmart Inc. |
WMT |
90% |
$94.55 |
$98.88 |
5% |
82% |
|
GE Aviation |
GE |
90% |
$171.27 |
$212.93 |
24% |
69% |
|
Becton Dickinson & Co. |
BDX |
89% |
$221.44 |
$276.54 |
25% |
-8% |
|
Source: FactSet |
||||||
You may have to scroll through the table to see all the data. Total returns for 2025 are in the right column and include reinvested dividends. Six out of 10 companies have had total returns this year that are higher than the 28.2% return for the entire S&P 500.
Let’s leave the companies in the same order, but with the S&P 500 added at the bottom of the table for comparison, and let’s take a look at the valuation ratios and projected earnings and revenue growth rates through 2025. The consensus estimates driving these numbers have been adjusted for the calendar. year for companies (such as Microsoft MSFT and Nvidia NVDA) whose financial years do not correspond to the calendar.
|
Company |
Ticker |
Price/estimate 2025 EPS |
Price/estimated revenue per share in 2025 |
Expected increase in earnings per share in 2025 |
Expected turnover increase in 2025 |
|
Axon Enterprise Inc. |
AXON |
101.6 |
19.0 |
22.3% |
23.3% |
|
Delta Air Lines Inc. |
VALLEY |
8.5 |
0.7 |
21.3% |
5.9% |
|
Microsoft Corp. |
MSFT |
31.4 |
11.0 |
13.2% |
13.9% |
|
Amazon.com Inc. |
AMZN |
36.2 |
3.3 |
21.2% |
10.9% |
|
Nvidia Corp. |
NVDA |
31.4 |
17.3 |
52.7% |
55.1% |
|
Schlumberger Ltd. |
SLB |
11.2 |
1.5 |
7.1% |
5.0% |
|
Micron Technology Inc. |
MU |
9.5 |
2.7 |
166.1% |
38.6% |
|
Walmart Inc. |
WMT |
34.5 |
1.1 |
11.4% |
4.2% |
|
GE Aviation |
GE |
32.6 |
4.7 |
21.6% |
12.5% |
|
Becton Dickinson & Co. |
BDX |
15.0 |
2.9 |
9.5% |
7.9% |
|
S&P500 |
SPX |
22.1 |
3.0 |
14.8% |
5.6% |
|
Source: FactSet |
|||||
Axon Enterprise AXON tops the list as the only stock with a 100% buy or equivalent rating. Its 147% return so far this year is the second highest on the list, behind only Nvidia’s 173% return.
Axon makes tasers used by law enforcement, along with other equipment and cloud and artificial intelligence systems for use in law enforcement operations and investigations. In a letter to clients in November, Jefferies analyst George Notter called Axon’s new “AI Era” bundle of products and services a “blockbuster.”
The new bundle includes Axon’s Draft One, which uses body camera data to provide transcripts to police officers, reducing the amount of time it takes to write reports. During the company’s most recent earnings call, Axon President Joshua Isner said the current price for Draft One alone was $65 per month per officer, plus another $20 for the transcription service. He added that the company was “looking at the AI Era bundle price of $199, and the sum of the parts of that bundle is expected to be somewhere between $250 and $350 in terms of everything in it,” according to a transcript provided by FactSet.
So Axon has the highest price-to-earnings ratio and the highest price-to-sales ratio among publicly traded companies, based on Tuesday’s closing prices and 2025 consensus estimates.
But there are value stocks on the list too, with Delta Air Lines DAL, Schlumberger SLB, Micron Technology MU and Becton Dickinson BDX all having price-to-earnings ratios below that of the full S&P 500. And on a price/sales basis, there are five companies trading lower than the index, including Walmart WMT.
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Having a high percentage of Buy ratings may provide some comfort, but if you’re considering individual stocks for investment, you should do your own research to form your own opinion about the company’s business strategy. One way to start that process is to click on the tickers for more information.
Read: Tomi Kilgore’s guide to the wealth of information available for free on MarketWatch’s quotes page
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