Top Analyst Picks for 2025: Salesforce, Booking Holdings, and DraftKings
The year 2024 presented a complex investment landscape, shaped by the U.S. presidential election, the burgeoning artificial intelligence sector, and persistent high interest rates. While analysts anticipate improved macroeconomic conditions in 2025, concerns remain about a potential U.S.-China trade war and the impact of high valuations on the stock market. Despite these uncertainties, leading financial experts continue to identify stocks demonstrating resilience to short-term pressures and offering substantial growth potential, underpinned by strong performance and solid fundamentals. This article highlights three such stocks—Salesforce (CRM), Booking Holdings (BKNG), and DraftKings (DKNG)—identified by TipRanks, a platform that meticulously ranks analysts based on their historical performance, as favored by Wall Street’s top professionals.
Key Takeaways: Stocks Poised for Growth in 2025
- Salesforce (CRM): Analysts are bullish on Salesforce’s innovative AI-powered Agentforce platform, anticipating significant revenue growth and improved client productivity.
- Booking Holdings (BKNG): Strong room night growth projections, particularly in Europe and Asia, and a premium valuation relative to competitors position Booking Holdings for continued success.
- DraftKings (DKNG): DraftKings’ leading position in the U.S. online sports betting and iGaming markets, coupled with expected revenue growth, makes it an attractive investment opportunity.
Salesforce (CRM): Riding the AI Wave
Salesforce, a leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform, is among the top picks for 2025. The company recently issued solid guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, emphasizing the pivotal role of Agentforce, its suite of autonomous AI agents, in driving its transformation. The launch of Agentforce 2.0 on December 17, 2024, added another layer of excitement. This upgraded version boasts improved workflow integration with Slack, Tableau, and MuleSoft offerings; better reasoning and data retrieval capabilities; and an expanded library of pre-built skills.
Analyst Gregg Moskowitz’s Positive Outlook
Mizuho analyst Gregg Moskowitz, who holds a buy rating on CRM stock with a price target of $425, describes Agentforce 2.0 as an “impressive innovation, with a clear step-up in value.” He notes the impressive traction Agentforce has gained, with over 1,000 paid deals closed—a significant increase from the 200+ deals secured at the end of fiscal Q3. Moskowitz believes Agentforce’s ability to dramatically enhance client productivity, boosting bookings and revenue growth, makes it a “game-changing technology.” He remains highly optimistic about Salesforce’s prospects, viewing it as exceptionally positioned to assist its expansive clientele in process optimization and revenue management.
Analyst Track Record
It’s important to note that Moskowitz ranks No. 212 among over 9,200 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have proven successful 60% of the time, yielding an average return of 13.9%. This track record underscores the weight of his positive assessment of Salesforce.
Booking Holdings (BKNG): Global Travel Growth
Booking Holdings (BKNG), a prominent provider of online travel and related services, is another stock receiving enthusiastic endorsements from analysts. Mizuho analyst James Lee reaffirmed a buy rating on BKNG stock and significantly raised its price target to $6,000 from $5,400. This upward revision reflects higher growth-rate estimates and a broadly positive outlook for the company.
Robust Growth Projections
Lee’s regional analysis reveals encouraging room night growth projections for fiscal 2025. Based on estimated growth rates across Europe, Asia, the U.S., and the rest of the world, he anticipates an impressive 8.2% room night growth—exceeding the consensus estimate by over a percentage point. He forecasts mid-teens growth in BKNG’s fiscal 2025 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), outpacing his estimated revenue growth of nearly 11%. Considering share buybacks, Lee projects a remarkable 20% increase in fiscal 2025 earnings, making the stock’s valuation of 16 times FY26 EBITDA seem quite attractive at current levels.
Competitive Advantages
Lee argues that BKNG merits a premium valuation compared to rivals due to its “sizable advantage in digital marketing, expanding offerings in alternative accommodations and other new product verticals, and a higher share in hotel bookings.” This highlights the company’s strong competitive positioning within the travel industry.
Analyst Track Record
Lee’s position as No. 291 among over 9,200 TipRanks-tracked analysts, with a 61% success rate and an average return of 13.4% from his ratings, further bolsters the confidence in his prediction.
DraftKings (DKNG): Dominating the Sports Betting Arena
DraftKings (DKNG), a major player in the sports betting sector, is the third stock garnering significant attention. Operating mobile sports betting in 25 states and Washington, D.C., and iGaming in five U.S. states and Ontario, Canada, DraftKings is well-positioned within a rapidly evolving market. JPMorgan analyst Joseph Greff, in a research note on the 2025 Gaming and Lodging outlook, singled out DraftKings as a top pick. He maintained a buy rating and increased the price target to $53 from $47.
Attractive Growth Market
Greff views DraftKings as “the pure-play in the most attractive growth market in Gaming.” He anticipates the company will benefit from favorable industry trends, including solid same-store sales and emerging growth opportunities. Greff points out DraftKings’ capacity to leverage its scale and leading position in U.S. online sports betting and iGaming to improve margins, EBITDA, and free cash flow. These improvements are fueled by a commitment to controlling operating expenses.
Growth Projections and Competitive Advantage
Greff’s forecast includes a robust 31% revenue growth for DraftKings in 2025 and a still-healthy 13% growth in 2026. He considers Wall Street’s 2026 revenue growth estimate of 17%+ achievable, with the potential for even higher margins. He further emphasizes DraftKings’ “superior product capabilities, customer acquisition competencies, and scale that have allowed it to compete against new entrants like ESPN BET and Fanatics, much like it has successfully competed in the past with newer entrants.“
Analyst Track Record
Greff’s ranking of No. 987 among over 9,200 analysts tracked by TipRanks, with a 51% profitability rate and an average return of 7.6%, adds context to his optimistic view of DraftKings.
In conclusion, while the 2025 investment landscape presents certain uncertainties, Salesforce, Booking Holdings, and DraftKings emerge as compelling investment opportunities based on the assessments of leading analysts. Their strong fundamentals, innovative strategies, and expansive market positions suggest significant growth potential. However, investors should always conduct their own thorough due diligence before making any investment decisions.
