December was a choppy month for trading. While November’s positive inflation data kept sentiments uplifted in the first half of the month, the fear of a recession in 2023 kept the latter half under pressure. All three major stock market indexes suffered losses, ending the month lower than they began.
In unusually challenging times like these, understanding the trading patterns of investors and traders helps us gauge their sentiments and expectations better. This, in turn, is key to building a framework for market predictions.
To achieve that, we looked into December’s Buy and Sell transactions of the 579,351 investors that hold a TipRanks Smart Portfolio.
Most Bought Stocks
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) continued to be the most-bought stock in December. Meanwhile, Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) dropped off November’s list of the top 10 most-bought stocks. Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) came in to fill in Disney’s shoes in December.
Production challenges from China, supply-chain issues, and overall weakening demand for its high-priced devices did not seem to deter investors from accumulating the stock in the last month of 2022. Apart from that, the commitment to return cash to shareholders via dividends and repurchases also maintains a healthy flow of investors.
Interestingly, Apple was also the most-bought stock in the entire year of 2022.
Is Apple a Buy, Hold, or Sell?
Despite the headwinds, analysts are bullish on the company’s longer-term opportunities. Wall Street analyst consensus has a Strong Buy rating on the AAPL stock based on 22 Buys and five Holds. Moreover, the average price target for Apple stock is $176.70, implying an upside potential of about 41.3% from current price levels.
Coming back to the list, here are December’s top 10 most-bought stocks:
1. Apple, unchanged
2. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), previously 3rd, replaced Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)
3. Amazon, previously 2nd, replaced Tesla
4. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), unchanged
5. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), previously 7th, replaced Alphabet Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
6. Alphabet Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG), previously 9th, replaced Meta (NASDAQ:META)
7. Nio (NYSE:NIO), previously 8th, replaced Nvidia
8. Alphabet Class A, previously 5th, replaced Nio
9. Alibaba, previously 11th, replaced Alphabet Class C
10. Meta, previously 6th, replaced Walt Disney
Most Sold Stocks
Interestingly, Apple continued to top the most-sold list in December too.
Nio replaced Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), which fortunately slid out of the top 10 list.
The selling trends show that all but one of the top 10 most-sold stocks were technology stocks.
Interestingly, Disney moved up eight places on the list, possibly as investing in its streaming business gets expensive. The stock is still under pressure due to additional worries, including fierce competition and a highly leveraged balance sheet.
Is DIS a Sell or Buy?
Despite the trends that indicate otherwise, Wall Street remains bullish, with a Strong Buy consensus on DIS stock based on 17 Buys and four Holds. Moreover, the average price target for Shopify stock is $119, which indicates a 29.5% upside.
Here are the top 10 most-sold stocks for December:
1. Apple, unchanged
2. Disney, previously 10th, replaced Meta
3. Tesla, previously 4th, replaced Amazon
4. Amazon, previously 3rd, replaced Tesla
5. Nio, previously 11th, replaced Nvidia
6. Nvidia, previously 5th, replaced Microsoft
7. Meta, previously 2nd, replaced Alphabet Class A
8. Microsoft, previously 6th, replaced AMD
9. Alphabet Class A, previously 7th, replaced Shopify
10. Shopify, previously 9th, replaced Walt Disney
We will come back soon with the most traded stocks of January 2023. Until then, stay ahead of the market by tracking your own portfolio’s performance easily with a Smart Portfolio on TipRanks.
