With the broader market pulling back in recent weeks, it has created some better entry points for investors interested in owning some of the top technology stocks out there.
Let's look at four tech stocks investors might want to consider buying right now.
1. Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms (META +0.14%) is one of the world's largest digital advertising platforms through its social media and messaging apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The company has leaned into artificial intelligence (AI) through its Llama AI model, which is helping to increase user engagement and help advertisers create better campaigns. This could be seen in last quarter's results, where ad impressions increased by 6%, and the average price per ad jumped by 14%.
NASDAQ: META
Key Data Points
The company is looking to eventually turn Llama into a leading AI assistant with agentic AI capabilities. It also still has big visions for creating a metaverse for its users. However, what the company does better than any other social media company is monetize its user base. The company's global average revenue per user (ARPU) was $14.25 in Q4, which was much higher than its competitors.
Meanwhile, Meta has a huge opportunity ahead of it with its newest social media platform, Threads. Meta has always done a good job building out a social media user base and then later monetizing the platform. Threads is already growing rapidly, adding about 1 million users a day and ending 2024 with 320 million monthly active users.
Image source: Getty Images
2. Pinterest
Another strong option in the social media space is Pinterest (PINS +0.05%), which operates an online vision board. The platform has over 550 million monthly active users (MAU) who predominately skew female. The platform is particularly popular outside the U.S. It has 101 million domestic MAUs, 145 million in Europe, and 307 million in the rest of the world.
NYSE: PINS
Key Data Points
The company has been investing aggressively over the past few years to make its site more shoppable. It introduced new features like in-app checkout and AI recommendations, and it partnered with Amazon and others to bring merchandise catalogs to its sites.
Its biggest opportunity, meanwhile, is closing the ARPU gap between it and its competitors. This is especially true in its rest-of-world market, which makes up 56% of its MAUs but had just a $0.19 ARPU last quarter. It has teamed up with Alphabet's Google and local resellers to better monetize this large percentage of its user base moving forward.
3. Netflix
While there are numerous streaming media subscription services to choose from today, Netflix (NFLX 2.09%) is still the clear leader, not just in the U.S. but around the world. The company continues to grow subscribers while also strategically phasing out lower-tier subscription plans.
With the help of its strong content lineup, the company has managed to maintain solid pricing power throughout the years. Meanwhile, several price hikes are planned for this year as well.
NASDAQ: NFLX
Key Data Points
The biggest opportunity for the company moving forward, though, is with ads. Lower-priced, ad-supported subscription tiers currently help drive membership growth. Last quarter, in countries that have ad-supported subscription tiers, 55% of new signups chose this option.
Over time, look for ads to become a bigger part of the Netflix story as it grows out its ad-supported tier user base. It just needs to keep building up that user base. At the same time, it has introduced ads for live events, even on ad-free plans, for programs such as WWE's Monday Night Raw broadcasts.
4. Adobe
Adobe (ADBE 0.52%) is a clear-cut leader in software for creative professionals with its programs such as Photoshop, Indesign, and Lightroom. It is also the leading PDF solution company through its Acrobat programs, and it has a digital marketing, analytics, and customer experience solution called the Adobe Experience Cloud.
The company has been a solid low double-digit revenue growing business, including seeing 10% revenue growth last quarter. Meanwhile, it has been at the forefront of AI with its Adobe Firefly generative AI models that help do such things as text-to-image creation and generative fill, which is adding, moving, or replacing objects within an image. It also has developed an AI assistant for use in its Acrobat products.
The biggest opportunity for Adobe in the future is finding better ways to monetize its AI solutions. The company has been using a credit-based system where users consume credits when they use AI features. However, not everything always comes out as expected, which frustrates some users who have to use more credits.
More recently, the company is turning more toward offering multiple subscription tiers. This includes the launch of a new stand-alone subscription service for Firefly in February. However, these plans still include a credit system. I think once the company can move past the credit system and move more to a pure subscription, the growth should increase, and the stock will rally.
