Best Large Cap Stocks To Follow Today – August 18th

NVIDIA, Tesla, Invesco QQQ, Meta Platforms, UnitedHealth Group, Palantir Technologies, and Microsoft are the seven Large Cap stocks to watch today, according to MarketBeat’s stock screener tool. Large-cap stocks are shares of companies with a market capitalization typically exceeding $10 billion. These firms tend to be well-established and financially stable, often paying steady dividends and exhibiting lower volatility than smaller companies. While their growth rates may lag those of small- or mid-caps, large-cap stocks offer investors greater liquidity and relative resilience in turbulent markets. These companies had the highest dollar trading volume of any Large Cap stocks within the last several days.

NVIDIA (NVDA)

NVIDIA Corporation provides graphics and compute and networking solutions in the United States, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and internationally. The Graphics segment offers GeForce GPUs for gaming and PCs, the GeForce NOW game streaming service and related infrastructure, and solutions for gaming platforms; Quadro/NVIDIA RTX GPUs for enterprise workstation graphics; virtual GPU or vGPU software for cloud-based visual and virtual computing; automotive platforms for infotainment systems; and Omniverse software for building and operating metaverse and 3D internet applications.

Shares of NVIDIA stock traded up $1.75 on Monday, hitting $182.20. 106,637,441 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 241,337,297. The stock has a market cap of $4.45 trillion, a P/E ratio of 58.75, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 2.14. The company has a quick ratio of 2.96, a current ratio of 3.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $163.96 and its 200 day moving average is $135.52. NVIDIA has a 52-week low of $86.62 and a 52-week high of $184.48.

Tesla (TSLA)

Tesla, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, leases, and sells electric vehicles, and energy generation and storage systems in the United States, China, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Automotive, and Energy Generation and Storage. The Automotive segment offers electric vehicles, as well as sells automotive regulatory credits; and non-warranty after-sales vehicle, used vehicles, body shop and parts, supercharging, retail merchandise, and vehicle insurance services.

Shares of Tesla stock traded up $3.62 on Monday, hitting $334.18. 47,436,444 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 105,573,586. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $320.41 and its 200 day moving average is $304.57. Tesla has a 52-week low of $202.59 and a 52-week high of $488.54. The stock has a market cap of $1.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 193.58, a PEG ratio of 11.49 and a beta of 2.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Invesco QQQ (QQQ)

PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 is a unit investment trust that issues securities called Nasdaq-100 Index Tracking Stock. The Trust’s investment objective is to provide investment results that generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the Nasdaq-100 Index. The Trust provides investors with the opportunity to purchase units of beneficial interest in the Trust representing proportionate undivided interests in the portfolio of securities held by the Trust, which consists of substantially all of the securities, in substantially the same weighting, as the component securities of the Nasdaq-100 Index.

QQQ traded down $0.28 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $577.06. 25,563,283 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 44,712,098. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $554.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $514.06. Invesco QQQ has a 12 month low of $402.39 and a 12 month high of $583.32.

Meta Platforms (META)

Meta Platforms, Inc. engages in the development of products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and wearables worldwide. It operates in two segments, Family of Apps and Reality Labs. The Family of Apps segment offers Facebook, which enables people to share, discuss, discover, and connect with interests; Instagram, a community for sharing photos, videos, and private messages, as well as feed, stories, reels, video, live, and shops; Messenger, a messaging application for people to connect with friends, family, communities, and businesses across platforms and devices through text, audio, and video calls; and WhatsApp, a messaging application that is used by people and businesses to communicate and transact privately.

META traded down $16.87 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $768.36. 13,924,118 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,320,938. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $724.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $655.21. Meta Platforms has a 12 month low of $479.80 and a 12 month high of $796.25. The stock has a market cap of $1.93 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97.

UnitedHealth Group (UNH)

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated operates as a diversified health care company in the United States. The company operates through four segments: UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx. The UnitedHealthcare segment offers consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services for national employers, public sector employers, mid-sized employers, small businesses, and individuals; health care coverage, and health and well-being services to individuals age 50 and older addressing their needs; Medicaid plans, children's health insurance and health care programs; and health and dental benefits, and hospital and clinical services, as well as health care benefits products and services to state programs caring for the economically disadvantaged, medically underserved, and those without the benefit of employer-funded health care coverage.

NYSE UNH traded up $5.44 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $309.45. The company had a trading volume of 34,300,575 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,726,627. UnitedHealth Group has a fifty-two week low of $234.60 and a fifty-two week high of $630.73. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $288.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $395.81. The firm has a market cap of $280.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.43.

Palantir Technologies (PLTR)

Palantir Technologies, Inc. engages in the business of building and deploying software platforms that serve as the central operating systems for its customers. It operates under the Commercial and Government segments. The Commercial segment focuses on customers working in non-government industries. The Government segment is involved in providing services to customers that are the United States government and non-United States government agencies.

NASDAQ PLTR traded down $3.51 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $173.66. The company had a trading volume of 54,205,460 shares, compared to its average volume of 90,943,813. Palantir Technologies has a fifty-two week low of $29.31 and a fifty-two week high of $190.00. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $151.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $119.75. The firm has a market cap of $411.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 578.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.99 and a beta of 2.60.

Microsoft (MSFT)

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.

Shares of MSFT traded down $4.72 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $515.45. 14,708,826 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 22,232,619. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.83 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.35. Microsoft has a twelve month low of $344.79 and a twelve month high of $555.45. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $502.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $441.19.