As the Nasdaq Composite Index nears 15,000, analysts see upside for Activision Blizzard, Netflix and Baidu, among others
All three of the major U.S. stock indexes hit records Friday, and the Nasdaq Composite Index might reach its next milestone -- 15,000 -- next week.
Below is a list of stocks whose gains have powered the Nasdaq Composite Index's gains this year, along with another list of analysts' favorite stocks among the Nasdaq-100 Index .
Here's a summary of Friday's action:
(Note: All price changes in this article exclude dividends.)
Nasdaq-100 winners for 2021
The Nasdaq-100 Index is made up of the 100 largest non-financial companies by market capitalization in the full Nasdaq Composite Index. It is reconstituted each year in December. Both indexes are weighted by market cap, and the Nasdaq-100's market cap of $17.21 trillion is about 73% of the full index. So most of the full Nasdaq's performance is represented by the Nasdaq-100, which is tracked by the Invesco QQQ Trust $(QQQ)$.
Here are the 10 stocks among the Nasdaq-100 that have risen the most during 2021 through July 23:
| Company | Price change -- 2021 | Price change -- July 23 | 52-week high | Date of 52-week high | Decline from 52-week high |
| Moderna Inc. MRNA | 233.9% | 7.8% | $349.45 | 07/23/2021 | -0.2% |
| Applied Materials Inc. AMAT | 60.4% | 0.9% | $146.00 | 04/05/2021 | -5.2% |
| Alphabet Inc. Class C GOOG | 57.3% | 3.4% | $2,776.17 | 07/23/2021 | -0.7% |
| ASML Holding NV ADR ASML | 53.4% | 2.5% | $756.78 | 07/23/2021 | -1.1% |
| Alphabet Inc. Class A GOOGL | 51.8% | 3.6% | $2,667.98 | 07/23/2021 | -0.3% |
| Nvidia Corp. | 49.8% | -0.2% | $208.75 | 07/07/2021 | -6.3% |
| EBay Inc. EBAY | 46.3% | 2.1% | $73.77 | 07/23/2021 | -0.3% |
| Intuit Inc. INTU | 39.1% | 1.4% | $532.33 | 07/23/2021 | -0.7% |
| Idexx Laboratories Inc. IDXX | 38.8% | 1.6% | $696.35 | 07/23/2021 | -0.4% |
| DocuSign Inc. DOCU | 38.8% | 0.2% | $310.51 | 07/22/2021 | -0.6% |
| CDW Corp. CDW | 37.3% | 2.0% | $184.58 | 04/16/2021 | -2.0% |
| Source: FactSet |
Actually, there are 11 stocks on the list because the index includes Alphabet Inc.'s Class C $(GOOGL)$ and Class A (GOOGL) shares.
Seven of those stocks hit 52-week highs July 23.
Wall Street's favorite stocks in the Nasdaq-100
Here are the 10 stocks in the Nasdaq-100 with "buy" or equivalent ratings among at least 75% of analysts polled by FactSet, with the most 12-month upside potential implied by consensus price targets:
| Company | Share "buy" ratings | Closing price -- July 23 | Consensus price target | Implied 12-month upside potential | Price change -- July 23 | Price change -- 2021 |
| Baidu Inc. ADR Class A BIDU | 86% | $172.66 | $311.92 | 81% | -3.3% | -20.2% |
| Micron Technology Inc. MU | 88% | $75.94 | $121.25 | 60% | 0.5% | 1.0% |
| JD.com Inc. ADR Class A JD | 91% | $72.29 | $98.15 | 36% | -4.8% | -17.8% |
| NetEase Inc. ADR | 86% | $103.53 | $134.54 | 30% | -8.0% | 8.1% |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. VRTX | 78% | $200.50 | $259.71 | 30% | 2.3% | -15.2% |
| Microchip Technology Inc. MCHP | 76% | $139.22 | $177.14 | 27% | 0.6% | 0.8% |
| Activision Blizzard Inc. ATVI | 88% | $91.50 | $116.09 | 27% | 1.1% | -1.5% |
| Fiserv Inc. FISV | 85% | $111.79 | $141.27 | 26% | 1.6% | -1.8% |
| MercadoLibre Inc. MELI | 78% | $1,613.81 | $2,021.37 | 25% | 1.4% | -3.7% |
| Netflix Inc. NFLX | 78% | $515.41 | $619.67 | 20% | 0.7% | -4.7% |
| Source: FactSet |
Chinese stocks listed in the U.S. took a beating Friday, and you can see from the three on this list (Baidu Inc. (K3SD.SG), JD.com Inc. $(JD)$ and NetEase Inc. $(NTES)$) that this hasn't been a good year for the group. Therese Poletti explained why.
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