The past twelve months have been straight up for the story books Dow Jones Industrial Moderate, S&P 500and Nasdaq Composite each reached unusual story climaxes in several aspects at some level of the twelve months. In addition, the bull market continued to strengthen as it celebrated its 2nd anniversary in October, despite the fact that it will take a much-deserved break as we head into 2025.
Closing the door on the old and ringing in the odd twelve months is a huge time for reflection, and as an avid investor, my first break in the entire portfolio. One downside I want to assess is which stocks have become my biggest holdings and how they have dominated my portfolio, as this would provide interesting insight over the long term.
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Here’s an exploration of my top 5 holdings heading into 2025 (as of the market close on January 13th) and a summary of each of them to invest.
Image credit: Getty Photos.
Nvidia
Fishing, enjoy investing, is full of stories about “the one who bought.” Despite the intentions of buying an interesting stock, lifestyles come into play and some trends cause the stock to rise sharply, with positive factors of 100%, 500% or even 1000%. for me Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) was as soon as the giant who bought the site.
I owned shares of the graphics processing unit (GPU) pioneer early in my investing career, but in 2010 I outfitted them for tax loss harvesting. At any given time I should have bought the help of the company, but the stock was immediately underwater for some time in the next 5 years, so I had time. Then in 2016 the stock tripled and took the wind out of my sails.
Nevertheless, by the beginning of 2018, I started to get interested again. Nvidia commanded a 70% share of the discrete desktop GPU market, experienced solid demand for cryptocurrency mining, and immediately made inroads into the self-driving car market. It was immediately apparent that CEO Jensen Huang had the sense to wait for the next big thing and was immediately adept at positioning Nvidia for success.
After a decent valuation and a lot of soul-searching – and despite positive factors of over 600% exactly in two years and an expensive valuation – I decided to buy Nvidia. I have also added a multitude of specimens to my site over the following years. Nvidia mercurial grew into long established gold when generative human intelligence (AI) went viral in early 2023, and my assessment – and belief – paid off.
Since that rally back in March 2018, Nvidia has jumped 2,200% and the stock is now my largest holding at about 12% of my portfolio. Simply put, never be too lax to buy an industry-leading company with a long history of innovation—even if the inventory has gotten a little away from you.
Netflix
When I first started investing in slack in 2007, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) was as soon as I equipped the first inventory. I’m wide awake as I cut up my Blockbuster membership card after receiving a late payment that again exceeded the cost of the movie. Netflix made it very easy to get DVDs delivered by mail without the high cost. I used to be an instantly tickled customer, so trying to search through the inventory made a lot of sense.
At the time, streaming was in its infancy and Netflix was dominating DVD-by-mail, and I used to be intrigued by its early, consistent market penetration and accelerated growth. Since then, Netflix has been the undisputed king of streaming with 283 million subscribers worldwide. The initial stock I bought in 2007 has grown 34,540% and Netflix is my second largest holding at 12% of my portfolio.
Gains of this magnitude have most simply achieved a location attributable to I relentlessly held inventory, which is no longer as easy as it sounds. Some shareholders bailed out after the “Qwikster” fiasco in 2011, others lost confidence when Netflix lost 1.2 million subscribers in mid-2022, and others gave up on Netflix’s promotion push. I had the inventory through all of these challenges and more.
The company has consistently tested investors’ persistence over time, but when you realize that the investment thesis hasn’t changed and stayed the course, the rewards come with a lifestyle change.
MercadoLibre
You’ll be forgiven if you haven’t heard of it MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI)because it is no longer a surname in the US. Nevertheless, from humble beginnings as an online public sale platform, it has been the leading skills company in Latin America, providing digital retail and cost products and businesses in 18 international locations within negatives. MercadoLibre offers logistics and transportation products and companies, spoil landing and warehousing, online assets, digital wallets, person and service provider financing, and more.
Some investors shy away from inventory as a result of the inherent dangers within the downside, which consist of political instability, economic upheaval and hyperinflation, among others. To illustrate, Argentina, MercadoLibre’s home country and actually one of its biggest markets, had inflation that rose 166% twelve months in the twelve months to November, and that’s really one of the many challenges.
But these dangers hide a great trade-off. While the U.S. has been helping to make inroads for several years, its online retail and digital fund costs are among the fastest growing in many sectors, with a population double that of the U.S. MercadoLibre achieves within a nick price of each transaction, which it is hosted on his web plan, which protects the company from problems. Properly through the first nine months of 2024, MercadoLibre’s revenue was up 38% twelve months over twelve months, boosting ratings earnings by 55%.
After realizing the extent of the problems and the extent of the replacement, I made the educated decision to purchase this “damaging” inventory, a decision that paid off handsomely. The modest seed funding in 2009 grew by 7,900%. Mix that with several subsequent investments and MercadoLibre represents about 8% of my portfolio.
This helps illustrate how education can accompany nick problems.
Apple
Despite many challengers over the past few years, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) remains the most respected company in the field and, in fact, one of the most successful in history. When the stock topped $1 trillion in market capitalization in 2018 — and a flurry of cases since then — some investors believed the company had peaked and that growth was immediately on the way.
In addition, the iPhone accounts for more than half of Apple’s income, but as the global penetration of smartphones became greater, gross sales began to decline. Add to that a risky economic system and it’s easy to get some investor concerns.
But recent years have illustrated the resilience of Apple’s Products and Companies division, which has generated momentum in each of the previous four years despite the worst economic downturn in years. The division generated revenue of $96 billion in fiscal 2024 (ended September 30), more than 77% of Fortune 500 companies. What’s more, while iPhone gross sales have declined, Apple has continued to achieve high the global smartphone market with area three highly promoted items and 4 out of 10 types, according to the counterpoint analysis.
Selling inventory too early could accidentally be a costly investment mistake, as it would certainly cause Apple. Since becoming a member of the $1 trillion membership structure in 2018, the stock has returned 350%, more than triple the 106% return of the S&P 500. What’s more, since my first roundup in 2008, Apple’s named stock has risen sharply. 4,120% to was my fourth largest location, at about 8% of my portfolio.
I’m glad there’s probably more to come.
Replacement table
Every now and then I pull myself together and look at the inventory that has fallen and think, “That can’t be accurate.” It was so as soon as the case with Replacement table (NASDAQ: TTD) in early 2020. It has long been among my top-condemned stocks – one I’ve been in a relationship with for years. The company became a digital promotion powerhouse and continued to do marketing work, growing earlier than the industry.
Imagine my surprise when — at some level in the four-week interval between February 19 and March 18, 2020 — the stock lost 54% of its value. This was not the result of any operational failure, malfeasance or financial impropriety on the part of The Alternate Desk, but rather marked the beginning of a global pandemic. Nevertheless, I had followed the company for years and was immediately somewhat convinced that it was an overreaction by investors.
After checking that it was obvious that nothing else had changed, I set my money and attached my mouth immediately and doubled my location at The Alternate Desk. My good judgment was as light as could be. The need for promotion was nowhere to be found, and the company had a proven track record of using subtle algorithms to automate job search advertising, ensuring that accurate ads reach their target market. What’s more, the census as soon as it was advanced was half as much as it was immediately accurate the month before, however, the investment thesis has not changed.
Since then, the stock is up 717% despite the worst economic downturn in years. More since I have the first bought The Alternate Desk inventory in March 2018, the inventory increased by 2349%. What a performance, The Alternate Desk is my fifth largest holding in 2025, representing 7% of my portfolio.
The lesson here is easy. If the thesis has not changed and the giant company is promoting at a good price, don’t be afraid to buy on a whim.
Extra lesson
If there’s perhaps one most important lesson that permeates this list, it’s the composite vitality of long-term buying and investment monitoring. Each of these stocks has been a fixture in my portfolio for years. Nvidia and The Alternate Desk are the most recent additions to the many 5 tips over the past seven years, while I’ve owned Netflix stock for over 17 years. There have been many conditions where these stocks occupy misplaced positions between 25% and 50% of their value, but I resisted the standard practice of jumping in and out of stocks and trying to time the peaks and troughs of the broader market.
Nesting nothing is basically one of many biggest keys to investing success.
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Danny Vena holds positions in Apple, MercadoLibre, Netflix, Nvidia and The Altern ate Desk. The Motley Fool has positions and recommends Apple, MercadoLibre, Netflix, Nvidia and The Alternate Desk. The Motley Fool has disclosure protections.
The views and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author and the compilation does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Nasdaq, Inc.
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