With the fourth quarter and 2020 winding down, many of the top companies we follow on Wall Street are making some changes to the lists of their high-conviction stock picks for clients. With the market hitting all-time highs recently on all the major indexes, it makes sense to examine the lists as the rest of the year and especially January of 2021 could have additional volatility, as the political and geopolitical cycle could still prove to be very explosive components.

In what can only be described as either the most courageous call or the biggest sign of a market top ever, the analysts at BofA Securities have added Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO) to the firm’s US 1 list of top stocks to Buy after a massive run off the September lows. The company has an extensive semiconductor product portfolio that addresses applications within the wired infrastructure, wireless communications, enterprise storage and industrial end markets.
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Applications for Broadcom’s products in its end markets include data center networking, home connectivity, broadband access, telecommunications equipment, smartphones and base stations, data center servers and storage, factory automation, power generation and alternative energy systems and displays.

The analysts at BofA Securities have remained positive on the shares for some time, but in the past they have discussed the company’s large double-digit exposure to iPhones, and it should be noted that Broadcom is slated to report quarterly earnings on Thursday of this week.

Broadcom stock investors receive a very reasonable 3.09% dividend. The BofA Securities analysts have a massive $450 price target on the shares, while the Wall Street consensus target is just $402. Shares closed trading on Monday at $420.89, up over 2% on the day.

BofA Securities removed Invitation Homes Inc. (NYSE: INVH) from the list. It is a leading owner and operator of single-family rental properties in the United States. As of the third quarter, the company’s total portfolio consists of over 79,000 homes across 17 markets. The homes are located in attractive in-fill submarkets with relatively high barriers to entry, near employment centers, desirable schools and transportation hubs.

Despite the removal from the US 1 list, the analysts kept a Buy rating on the shares, with a $37 price target, which compares with a $33.75 consensus target and Monday’s closing price of $29.64 a share.

We screened the US 1 list and found three other technology leaders that also could be good ideas for long-term aggressive growth investors.

Amazon

This remains the absolute leader in online shopping, and it is the technology anchor on the US 1 list. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) serves consumers through retail websites that primarily include merchandise and content purchased for resale from vendors and those offered by third-party sellers. It has one of the most valuable brands in the world.
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The company serves developers and enterprises through Amazon Web Services, which provides computing, storage, database, analytics, applications and deployment services that enable virtually various businesses. AWS is also the undisputed leader in the cloud now, and many top analysts see the company expanding and moving up the enterprise information value chain and targeting a larger total addressable market.

Like every year, online sales should continue to grow, especially during the busy Christmas shopping period, as Amazon remains the go-to portal for shoppers looking for holiday bargains and a way to stay out of brick-and-mortar stores this year if they choose to.

BofA Securities has a $3,650 price objective for the technology giant, but the consensus figure is much higher at $3,812.78. The last Amazon.com stock trade on Monday came in at $3,158 per share.

Equinix

This is one of the larger companies in the data center arena. Equinix Inc. (NASDAQ: EQIX) provides data center services to protect and connect the information assets for the enterprises, financial services companies, and content and network providers primarily in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific.
The company provides colocation services and related offerings, including operations space, storage space, cabinets and power for customers colocation needs; interconnection services, comprising physical cross connect/direct interconnections, Equinix Internet Exchange, Equinix Cloud Exchange, Equinix Metro Connect and Internet connectivity services; and managed IT infrastructure services, including installation of customer equipment and cabling, as well as equipment rebooting and power cycling, card swapping and emergency equipment replacement services.

Investors receive a 1.53% distribution. The BofA Securities target price is $865. The posted consensus price objective is $842.08, and Equinix stock closed at $697.55 a share on Monday.
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Salesforce

This company blew away Wall Street recently with the announcement of its gigantic $27.7 billion purchase of Slack Technologies. Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) offers enterprise cloud computing applications and platform services, including Sales Cloud that enables companies to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through relationship intelligence and collaborate around sales on desktop and mobile devices.

The company also provides Service Cloud, which enables companies to deliver personalized customer service and support, as well as connect their service agents with customers on various devices, and Marketing Cloud, which enables companies to plan, personalize and optimize customer interactions.

In addition, Salesforce announced last year it has completed its acquisition of Tableau Software, bringing together the world’s number one customer relationship management company with the world’s number one analytics platform. Salesforce aims to enhance its digital advertising value proposition (and its other existing product offerings) by expanding its data footprint to become the pioneer supplier of a consumer data platform for the corporate market.

The $280 BofA Securities price objective for the shares compares to the $275.33 consensus target price. Salesforce.com stock was last seen trading at $227.70 per share.

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It comes as somewhat of a surprise that the BofA Securities team is adding Broadcom after it had such a massive run, but they are not the only ones on Wall Street reiterating Buy ratings and raising price targets in front of the upcoming earnings. It may make sense to just nibble at the shares come and buy partial positions now and see how the report comes in.

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