Top 10 Cloud Stocks to Buy on the Next Dip — Part II – The Motley Fool

Last time, I covered stocks six through 10 in my top 10 cloud stocks. Today, I will finish the series with my top five high-conviction cloud stocks to buy on the next dip. These are high-growth software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud stocks that I currently hold in my $1.6 million long-term investing portfolio.

In case you missed the last article, I'll provide some background. If you aren't familiar with the terminology, SaaS is simply a component of cloud computing. SaaS refers to software hosted outside of your organization and offered as a subscription-based service. SaaS generally offers businesses lower total cost of ownership. The latest software updates and enhancements are generally done for the client, allowing businesses to have the latest and greatest without additional effort or overhead. Additionally, SaaS enables businesses to shift capital expenses to operating expenses, allowing them to stretch budgets from an accounting perspective.

Cloud computing refers to servers that are connected through the internet, as well as the software, data centers, and databases that create an online network. Leveraging "the cloud" allows users and businesses to consume and analyze data without having to manage databases or software on their own physical, on-premises servers and machines.

Digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, machine learning, centralized analytics, customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning (ERP), connected TV (CTV), streaming, work from anywhere, the gig economy, and other secular growth trends fuel SaaS and cloud infrastructure. But what are the best stocks to buy in order to ride these waves and boost your portfolio?

Here are my top five cloud growth stocks. Please make sure to watch the below video for additional information as well as several bonus picks!

#5. Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) offers customers a security stack as a cloud service, which offers lower cost and complexity than "old-school" traditional gateway methods. Zscaler's global infrastructure brings internet gateways closer to users all around the world, creating a faster and more streamlined experience. The company enables work-from-anywhere cloud security in a highly scalable fashion.

#4. Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG) provides monitoring and analytics tools that give IT teams insights from anywhere and at any time. Datadog, like Zscaler, is very scalable. In fact, most cloud-native providers are highly scalable, which is part of the reason they rank high on the list. Datadog brings information together from across an entire organization into a simple dashboard. Companies that leverage Datadog enjoy benefits such as improved user experience, faster resolutions to interruptions, and overall better business decisions.

Datadog has continuously improved its product suite as well as its partnership network. In fact, Datadog recently announced a new partnership with Microsoft (NASDAQ:DDOG) Azure, which allows streamlined experiences for configuration, purchasing, and even managing Datadog inside the Azure portal. Additionally, on July 1 Datadog announced a partnership with Salesforce to provide real-time monitoring and threat detection across the Salesforce (NASDAQ:DDOG)platform.

From a product perspective, here are the highlights:

#3. Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) offers what it calls a "data warehouse-as-a-service" (DaaS), a cloud-based data storage and analytics solution. Interestingly, Snowflake is not a SaaS company since its revenues are over 90% consumption based. Snowflake reduces cost and improves agility. Its data platform is unique in that it is not built on an existing big data platform.

As you may have heard around the time of the IPO, Snowflake is backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A). Snowflake's clients include Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Nike (NYSE:NKE), Mastercard (NYSE:MA), and many others. Snowflake is all about big data, and it deserves a top spot on the list.

#2. Cloudflare's (NYSE:NET) mission is to help "build a better internet." Cloudflare is actually a network. In fact, it's one of the larger networks on the planet. Cloudflare enables a faster and more secure internet for anyone with an internet presence. Cloudflare has data centers across the globe, and it boasts an astonishing 25 million internet properties, a number that grows daily. To date, Cloudflare handles over 17 percent of the Fortune 1000 internet requests, and the company handles 25 million HTTP requests every second on average. Cloudflare is all about the future of the internet, and it belongs in my portfolio as a long-term investment.

#1 Crowdstrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) is the leader in endpoint security. Crowdstrike's Falcon platform stops breaches through both prevention and response, a process known as endpoint detection and response (EDR). It uses agent-based sensors that can be installed on Mac, Linux, and Windows. Crowdstrike relies on a cloud-hosted SaaS platform that manages data and prevents, detects, and responds to threats. Both malware and non-malware attacks are covered via Crowdstrike's cloud-delivered technologies in a lightweight solution.

Cyberattacks continue to be a major threat, and the total addressable market for cybersecurity is enormous. Crowdstrike has been a monster since its IPO in 2019, growing into a $60 billion market cap company. But I think Crowdstrike is just getting started, and it stands tall as my top high-conviction cloud/SaaS stock for the next decade.

If you want deeper-dive analysis on these stocks, please watch the video below, where I cover these and many others in the cloud space. These growth stocks can boost your long-term investing portfolio, so please check out the below video and subscribe to make sure you stay on top of this sector.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

Read the original:

Top 10 Cloud Stocks to Buy on the Next Dip -- Part II - The Motley Fool