Zacks Investment Research·2025-10-21 19:30Market Overview & Strategy - The analysis focuses on the "MAG7" stocks (excluding Nvidia due to prior reporting) as market leaders, questioning their defensive nature [1][2] - Analyst owns Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon in personal portfolio as long-term picks [24] - The analysis suggests that most MAG7 stocks are breaking out and, while some are expensive, earnings growth remains strong, except for Tesla [25] Individual Stock Analysis - Tesla (TSLA): Earnings are volatile with inconsistent beats and misses; earnings are expected to fall 32% this year but rebound 48.5% in 2026; focus is on robo-taxi rollout and new stripped-down car sales [3][4][5] - Microsoft (MSFT): Consistent earnings growth with fiscal 2026 expected to be up 12.9% and fiscal 2027 up 16%; shares are up 23.5% year-to-date [8][9] - Alphabet (GOOGL): Good earnings growth expected for 2025 at 23.6%, but slower growth of 7.2% in 2026; year-to-date, up 35.5% and relatively cheaper with a price-to-sales ratio of 8.3% and PE of 25 [11][12] - Meta (META): Strong earning surprise track record; earnings expected to be up 18% this year, but only 5.5% next year; year-to-date up 21.7%, PE of 25, and price-to-sales of 10 [13][14][15] - Apple (AAPL): Shares hitting new all-time highs, but only up 8.3% year-to-date; slower growth expected for next year; PE of 32, price-to-sales of 9.1% [16][17][19] - Amazon (AMZN): Shares are down 2.4% year-to-date and underperforming the S&P 500 over five years; cheapest of the MAG7s with a price-to-sales of 3.4%; earnings growth of 23.5% this year and 12.2% next year [20][21] Valuation Metrics - Price-to-sales ratios are stretched for many MAG7 stocks, with some above 10 [9][12] - Amazon is the cheapest of the MAG7s with a price-to-sales ratio of 3.4 [20] Key Dates - Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta are all reporting on October 29th [7][13] - Apple and Amazon are reporting on October 30th [23] - Tesla will be reporting this week [23]