The three largest S&P 500 companies by market cap — Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet — have led the markets higher this month. All have rallied more than 5% in July, at least doubling the gains for the benchmark index.
Those three reported impressive earnings and revenue beats earlier this week with management also providing an upbeat outlook.
That inspired CNBC’s “Trading Nation” to ask its traders which they would name the GOAT — greatest of all time — of the megacap tech trade.
“I think we have to go with Alphabet,” Joule Financial President Quint Tatro said Wednesday. “That report was absolutely outstanding, top and bottom line. Most importantly I think, it was just how far ahead the company was of analysts’ expectations.”
Tatro added that the company’s future growth estimates look to be underestimated, and he pointed to a “stellar” balance sheet as reasons to be bullish.
But after Alphabet’s 55% gain this year, Tatro said investors looking to get into the stock and other megacap names should wait for weakness.
“Maybe these [stocks] pull back a little bit. That’s when you step in and buy and you look to add these to your portfolio, but chasing is not a thing to do ever,” he said.
Alphabet and Microsoft hit record highs on Wednesday. Apple reached its own two weeks ago, though it has since fallen 3%.
Todd Gordon, managing director of TradingAnalysis.com, used a unique rotation model to determine which is best positioned right now. Tracking the three names against the S&P 500, Gordon found that Alphabet looks to be “showing better momentum and relative strength to that benchmark S&P.”
Alphabet has well outperformed the S&P 500’s 17% gain in 2021, while Apple has lagged with a 9% increase. Gordon’s modeling has pushed him to consider trimming his Apple position while adding to Alphabet.
Disclosure: Joule Financial and TradingAnalysis.com hold MSFT, AAPL and GOOGL.
