Millennial investors are on a roll. And Nvidia isn't their only runaway S&P 500 stock winner.
Ten of the 100 most popular stocks with millennials — including S&P 500 rocket-powered Nvidia plus Marathon Digital Holdings and C3.ai — doubled or much more in value already this year, says an Investor's Business Daily analysis of data from Apex Fintech Solutions, S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketSmith.
That makes these standout picks for millennials — even in what's shaping up to be an outstanding year for the S&P 500. The S&P 500 itself is up 17% this year.
Millennials, though, found ways to pull ahead of the S&P 500 even more. "Better understanding the changing needs and behaviors of retail investors is going to continue to be critical for advisors and fintechs," said Connor Coughlin, chief commercial officer of fintech at Apex Fintech Solutions.
Millennial investors are now age 28 to 42. And this analysis looks at their top holdings across millions of online accounts as of June 30.
Millennials' Hot Hand Beats S&P 500
Millennials aren't wasting any time picking through the red-hot S&P 500 and beyond to find the winners. It might be time to pay attention to their moves.
So far this year, millennials' top 100 most widely held stocks are up an average of more than 30%. That tops the average gain of S&P 500 stocks this year of just 8.2%.
And millennials have a pretty good batting average, too. They're in the green on 70% of their top 100 holdings, vs. just 60% of S&P 500 stocks up this year. Granted, millennials are betting big on Nvidia, as are investors from all generations. The AI-driven stock, up 190% this year, is the No. 4 most popular stock with millennials.
But they've found other stock winners that are just as good as Nvidia or better.
Two Millennial Stocks Better Than Nvidia
To be exact, two of millennials' top 100 stocks are outperforming Nvidia. Those are blockchain firm Marathon Digital and artificial intelligence play C3.ai.
Marathon Digital continues to be one of those obscure plays that keeps on delivering. The stock, up 324% this year, is up more than any of millennials' other top stocks.
And it's one of the defining stocks of younger investors. It's the millennial generation's No. 65 most popular position. And it's the No. 64 most popular stock with Gen Z, who are even younger than millennials. The stock doesn't even crack baby boomers' top 100.
But Marathon Digital is definitely a speculative play. The company is expected to lose 26 cents a share in 2023 on an adjusted basis. Young investors, though, are playing the long game. The company is seen making 42 cents a share in 2024.
Millennials are also scoring on the AI gold rush. Their popular position (No. 83) in C3.ai is up nearly 200% this year as investors see great promise in the technology. To be fair, millennials didn't catch that entire run. It wasn't a top 100 position at the end of the first quarter. But millennials added it in force in the second quarter.
Like Marathon, C3.ai is very speculative. It lost money on an adjusted basis in fiscal 2023 (ended in August). And it's seen losing another 30 cents a share in fiscal 2024.
Millennials might get a bad rap at times, but this year they're showing some skill finding S&P 500-beating stocks.
Millennials' Winning Stocks
Among most widely held 100 stocks by the generation in the second quarter
| Company | Symbol | Up YTD | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marathon Digital | 325.4% | Information Technology | |
| C3.ai | 196.0 | Information Technology | |
| Nvidia | 190.1 | Information Technology | |
| Meta Platforms | 154.1 | Communication Services | |
| DraftKings | 143.6 | Consumer Discretionary | |
| Grayscale Bitcoin Trust | 139.6 | Financials | |
| Palantir Technologies | 140.0 | Information Technology | |
| Coinbase Global | 135.6 | Financials | |
| Carnival | 115.4 | Consumer Discretionary | |
| Royal Caribbean Cruises | 109.5 | Consumer Discretionary |
