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Successful investor Mario Gabelli attained billionaire status primarily by investing his and his client’s money. He became well-known in the 1980s for making successful picks in media and telecom sectors, and was named Morningstar’s “Portfolio Manager of the Year” in 1997 and received the “Money Manager of the Year” award from Institutional Investor in 2011. Also noteworthy is that Barron’s added him to its “All Star Century Team.” Given Gabelli’s great track record, monitoring his top stocks makes sense. Moreover, institutional investors often have more detailed and varied information than retail investors. I’m sure that Gabelli’s considerable funds enable him to obtain a great deal of data. In light of all of these points, emulating some of Gabelli’s stock picks could be very profitable for investors. Here are three top Mario Gabelli stocks.
Meta (META)
Meta (NASDAQ:META), the owner of Facebook and Instagram, is one of three very hot Mario Gabelli stocks. As of the end of last quarter, he owned over 54,000 shares of the stock, and he bought nearly 8,000 additional shares in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, Wells Fargo recently named Meta as one of 20 high-momentum stocks with “overweight” ratings. The bank advised investors to add high-momentum names at this point. Meta certainly qualifies as a “high-momentum” stock, since its shares have surged 52% in the last three months and 173% over the last year.
Meta appears to be benefiting greatly from the renaissance of ad spending in the U.S. as fears of a recession fade, and that trend should continue for the foreseeable future. High spending on political ads is also likely to help the firm’s financial results this year.
Given all of these points, I view Meta as one of the top Mario Gabelli stocks.
Eli Lilly (LLY)
Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) is the second hot stock in which Gabelli has a large stake. Specifically, he owned over 36, 600 shares of the name as of the end of last year. Since the name closed at $779.77 on March 6, Gabelli’s shares of the company are worth a great deal of money. In fact, last quarter he added over 6,054 shares of the stock, increasing his shares by 20%.
LLY stock has soared thanks to the approval of its weight loss drug, Zepbound, by the FDA last November. Zepbound just became available at pharmacies in December, so the treatment could start providing big boosts to Lilly’s top and bottom lines starting this quarter.
Soon, many insurers are expected to begin covering weight-loss drugs. As that process unfolds, Lilly should be able to sell many more doses of Zepbound.
But on the other hand, LLY is changing hands at a forward price-earnings ratio of 62, which is an extremely high valuation for a drug maker. As a result, at least some of Zepbound’s success is already reflected in the shares.
Nvidia (NVDA)
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) is the third hot stock owned by Gabelli on a large scale. Last quarter, he increased his ownership of NVDA stock by 16%, bringing his total holding of the stock to 40,759 shares.
Nvidia is currently selling about 80% of the chips used to generate AI. Of the 55 Wall Street analysts covering the name, 50 have “buy” or “strong buy” ratings on it. The Street is clearly in love with NVDA.
One of the most recent converts to Nvidia’s cause is Chinese investment bank CICC. On March 6, the bank started coverage of NVDA stock with an “outperform” rating, citing what it sees as the firm’s “advantages in artificial intelligence technologies and ecosystem.” CICC expects Nvidia to continue to benefit from the proliferation of AI going forward.
On the date of publication, Larry Ramer did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.