Best stocks for beginners of March 2024 (2024)

Broadcom is a diversified semiconductor company that designs, develops and supplies a range of analog semiconductor devices. Broadcom supplies chips for data centers, broadband, wireless, networking, storage and industrial markets.

Broadcom is highly exposed to the smartphone market, and Apple accounts for about 20% of the company’s total sales. However, Broadcom has been investing in diversifying its business in recent years, including acquiring network gear maker Brocade in 2017, software company CA Technologies in 2018 and the enterprise security business of Symantec in 2019. In November 2023, Broadcom finally closed its $69 billion acquisition of cloud software company VMware after more than a year of intense regulatory scrutiny.

Broadcom reported 5% revenue growth in the third quarter of 2023. The analysts covering AVGO stock have a median price target of $1,100.

JPMorgan Chase is one of the largest global financial services companies, with nearly $4 trillion in assets under management.

In early May, JPMorgan won an auction to acquire $92 billion in deposits, $173 billion in loans and $30 billion in securities from First Republic, which had been seized by regulators following a massive wave of customer withdrawals. JPMorgan paid the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. about $10.6 billion for the assets.

Not only does the First Republic deal provide opportunities for earnings and revenue growth, but it is also a clear sign to investors that JPMorgan’s management wasn’t concerned about the bank’s liquidity or balance sheet during the height of the 2023 banking crisis. JPMorgan’s scale, diversified banking business, attractive valuation and track record of sound risk management make it a top-tier investment option for beginners.

UnitedHealth is the largest U.S.-managed health care firm. The company provides health insurance via its UnitedHealthcare business, and it also serves as a pharmacy benefit manager via its Optum Rx business, a health care provider via its Optum Health segment and a health analytics firm via its Optum Insight subsidiary.

UnitedHealth is one of the biggest blue-chip health care companies, and it has previously targeted long-term annual earnings growth of between 13% and 16%. The health care sector is considered a defensive market sector, meaning investors can sleep easy at night knowing demand and earnings are relatively insulated from economic downturns.

Comcast is a diversified media conglomerate and is the largest U.S. cable provider with more than 32.3 million domestic broadband subscribers. Comcast’s subsidiaries include NBCUniversal, the Peaco*ck video streaming service, Universal Pictures and Universal Studios Theme Parks.

Comcast has been successfully pivoting from its legacy cable TV business. In the third quarter, Comcast reported 294,000 domestic wireless customer net line additions and 80% year-over-year growth in its Peaco*ck paid subscriber base, which now exceeds 28 million users. The company’s theme parks reported record adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $983 million in the quarter, which helped fund Comcast’s $4.7 billion in capital returns. Comcast has also raised its dividend in its last quarter; the communications giant has been raising its dividend since 2008.

Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global biopharmaceutical company that specializes in oncology, immunology and cardiovascular therapeutics. The company’s top-selling drugs include cancer therapies Revlimid and Opdivo and anticoagulant Eliquis.

Bristol-Myers shares underperformed in 2023, and the company recently cut expectations for new product launches and increased its spending guidance through 2025. Revenue was down 2% in the third quarter and generic competition for Revlimid continues to weigh on overall growth. However, sales of Reblozyl were up 29% to $248 million, and Opdivo revenue grew 11% year over year, excluding foreign exchange impacts. The nine drugs in the company’s new products portfolio generated $928 million in revenue for the quarter.