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Tech stocks got clobbered this week, with the Nasdaq Composite tumbling more than 3% Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve hikes rates by another 0.75 percentage point . Analysts are divided over whether growth stocks such as tech are set to make a comeback, with much depending the Fed’s future rate hikes. Tech stocks have been underperforming all year, with the Nasdaq down more than 30% year-to-date. But Josh Brown , co-founder and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, says one mega-cap tech stock is a “screaming buy.” It’s Alphabet , a stock he says is an “advertising pure play.” “If you think we’re going into a 2008-style global recession, you probably don’t want to own anything exposed to the advertising market, because it could be a horrible year. I don’t think that’s going to be the case,” Brown told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia.” “And so I think Alphabet right now is a screaming buy.” Still, he said that it’s a tough environment for advertisers. “Don’t expect this to be a hot stock right now. But I think it’s insanely cheap, both in absolute terms and relative to its own history,” Brown added. Alphabet is down around 40% this year. The vast majority of analysts covering the stock – 92% — give it a buy rating, and it has an average upside of around 47%, according to FactSet. The stock’s price-to-earnings ratio is around 16 – a similar level to the S & P 500 . “They’ve got a CFO who originally was from Morgan Stanley on Wall Street, they’ve got discipline, they know how to speak to shareholders,” Brown said. He added that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg should “emulate the way that Alphabet has been able to ring fence some of those big moonshot bets they’re making.” This includes Waymo (formerly Alphabet’s self-driving car project) and Sandbox (its spun-off quantum technology group) and “all kinds of other things that they’re lighting dollars on fire to create,” Brown said. Ritholtz Wealth Management manages over $2 billion for high-net-worth investors, corporate retirement plans and foundations.
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