June 26, 2021 5 min read

This story originally appeared on MarketBeat
Investing in companies listed on the NASDAQ exchange provides an opportunity to add some of the best and brightest companies in the world to your portfolio. Many of the 2,500 companies listed on the NASDAQ Composite are trendy and tech-centric businesses that have immense upside potential. However, anytime you are putting your hard-earned capital at risk, it pays to be selective.

While many of the high tech growth stocks included in the NASDAQ went through a rough patch earlier this year, the recent outperformance in the index has investors seeking out the strongest names to ride with for the long-term. That’s why we’ve put together a list of the top 3 NASDAQ stocks to buy now so that you can take advantage of this current trend.

Let’s take a more detailed look at those 3 names below.

JD.com (NASDAQ:JD)

Chinese stocks have been out of favor for a while now amidst increasing regulatory oversight in their home country and negative sentiment, but there’s a good chance investors are undervaluing companies like JD.com at this time. We know that China’s economy is coming back strong this year, as the country reported record annual growth in Q1, which bodes well for high-growth e-commerce businesses like JD. It’s a company with a massive e-commerce marketplace and a strong logistics network that is poised to take advantage of Chinese consumer and retail expansion in 2021 and beyond.

It’s also worth mentioning that JD is now the largest supermarket in China, which means that the company can easily convert grocery shoppers into buyers of many of the other items on its online marketplace. JD has some nice earnings momentum to start 2021, as the company recently reported Q1 revenue of $31 billion, up 39% year-over-year. While the stock is still down on the year, it has broken out of a short-term downtrend and could be a very savvy buy at this time.

Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ:PTON)

There are plenty of negative narratives surrounding Peloton Interactive at this time, but that shouldn’t keep you from considering adding shares of this innovative NASDAQ stock. It’s a company that has built the largest interactive fitness platform in the world, with a loyal community of over 5.4 million members. The company’s product portfolio includes the Peloton Bike, the Peloton Tread, and Connected Fitness Subscriptions that have been a big hit with people stuck at home during the pandemic. Even though people are heading back out to gyms now, investors should still be attracted to Peloton’s brand and its accelerating market penetration. There’s also a good chance the at-home fitness boom is here to stay, as consumer preferences have likely shifted in a big way over the last year.

The company is experiencing seriously strong top-line growth, as in Q3 it reported $1.2 billion in revenue, up 141% year-over-year. The company’s connected fitness subscriptions also grew 135% in Q3, which is great to see as it means more recurring revenue going forward. Peloton does face some near-term risk as its Tread+ treadmills have presented some safety issues that will likely result in lawsuits. However, this is likely only going to be a near-term issue that shouldn’t impact the company’s long-term growth prospects dramatically. Finally, the fact that Peloton recently announced it is introducing a corporate wellness program could be a huge growth driver for the company given the popularity of its interactive fitness content.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

If you are looking for the best mega-cap tech stock to own for the long-term, it’s hard to find a better option than Alphabet. The tech titan has seen its advertising business recover much quicker than many analysts were anticipating in 2021 and could be on its way towards joining the $2 trillion market capitalization club in the very near future. We know how successful Alphabet’s Google Search engine is and how it continuously attracts digital advertisers and marketers from all over the world, but investors should also be focused on Alphabet’s growing Google Cloud business. Google Cloud provides enterprise-ready cloud services and enables developers to build, test, and deploy applications on its infrastructure, which is invaluable for companies looking to upgrade their operations.

While some investors might be put off by recent antitrust complaints against the company, the fact that Alphabet has shrugged off countless negative news headlines this year and continues to reach new all-time highs confirms just how strong the stock is. Alphabet reported stellar Q1 earnings results, which saw the company deliver 166% EPS growth and total revenues of $55.3 billion, up 34% year-over-year. It will be interesting to see what the stock does heading into the Q2 report in July, and it’s certainly one of the highest-quality NASDAQ stocks to buy now.

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