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Widely followed investor Dan Niles on Tuesday revealed his top stock picks for 2024, including one of 2023’s top performers. The founder and senior portfolio manager of the Satori Fund selected two names from the so-called Magnificent Seven megacap tech stocks as his favored shares for the new year — Amazon and Meta Platforms . Amazon tends to gain market share during a recession, and the e-commerce giant has potential to grow profit margin into 2024 based on the capacity it built during the pandemic, Niles said on CNBC’s ” Squawk Box .” Meta bull Meta, which was Niles’ top pick last year and the second-best performer in the S & P 500, is still cheap compared to other popular technology darlings like Apple , he said, noting that Meta trades at 25 times forward earnings. “Apple had negative 1% growth this past year and you can buy that at 30 times. So I think Meta is a good defensive play,” Niles said. Apple fell more than 3% Tuesday after Barclays downgraded the stock and trimmed its price target, saying weakening iPhone 15 sales were likely a warning sign for iPhone 16 sales and broader hardware projections. Niles shorted Apple in 2023. The hedge fund manager said that, on top of Meta’s artificial intelligence efforts, the tech firm could benefit from increased ad spending during the election year. “They’re using AI really well to increase the monetization of their ads, and they’re also using it to increase recommendation other videos but don’t forget, we’ve got an election coming up and this is probably going to be one of the most hotly contested elections we’ve ever seen. So a lot of money’s gonna pour into the online ad market,” he said. Shares of Meta rallied a whopping 194% last year. META 1Y mountain Meta shares 1-year chart ETFs The hedge fund investor is also bullish on SPDR S & P Biotech ETF (XBI), which tracks more than 120 biotech companies. Niles said the fund should start to outperform after lagging the market for three years. Niles is also favoring KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB), which has been in the red since 2021 due to Beijing’s crackdown on Chinese internet and tech companies. The investor said the top holdings in KWEB — Baidu , Alibaba and Tencent — are so much cheaper than megacap names in the Magnificent Seven. “You can buy them at 13 times PE off 24 numbers for comparison, The Magnificent Seven, you’re paying 34 times,” he said.
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