The magnificent seven cohort of mega-cap growth stocks have loomed large for investors. They drove a significant portion of the impressive returns notched by broad market indexes.
Big gains by Apple, Alphabet (Google), Meta Platforms, Amazon.com, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Tesla are prompting market participants to wonder whether or not sequels are in store next. History isn’t guaranteed to repeat. And asking for a similar upside to what was notched by the magnificent seven may be too demanding. But these beloved names may continue their bullish ways in 2024.
That would benefit a variety of exchange traded funds, including the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) and the Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF (QQQM). Both ETFs follow the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX). They’re fine options for investors who want exposure to each of the magnificent seven without having to directly own those names.
Expensive, But Justifiably So
During rallies, such as the one that occurred this year, investors often that the Nasdaq-100 is richly valued. With QQQ and QQQM higher by 51.49% year-to-date, a case can be made that plenty of the stocks residing in the ETFs are expensive. But when it comes to the magnificent seven, that’s not necessarily an indictment. Why? Because these companies have the fundamentals to support elevated earnings multiples.
“The second point is that it is important to remember that large market capitalisation can be justified by large fundamentals. This might sound obvious, but these companies are some of the most profitable and cashflow generative in the world. For that reason, they command higher-than-average valuations in the stock market,” according to Schroders.
Another point to consider is that AI is far from the only reason the magnificent seven surged this year. And that’s actually good news for QQQ and QQQM. Experienced investors know as much. QQQ and QQQM notched impressive showings prior to AI becoming the focal point of growth investing this year. Still, it’s worth remembering that there’s more to the ETFs and the magnificent seven than just AI.
“While generative AI has and will be a significant tailwind for some of these businesses (as with Nvidia), their strength in 2023 cannot be attributed solely to AI. We only need to look at Meta/Google to illustrate this – both companies are likely to deploy generative AI aggressively in the coming years, but the shares have been supported by the combination of recovering end markets and cost optimisations. This has led to significant improvements in profitability and cash flow, particularly at Meta,” concluded Schroders.
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