The Best Nasdaq Stock to Buy as Index Hits Record Highs

It's a great time to buy a top Nasdaq stock, and we have two that look especially outstanding...

Nasdaq stockThe Nasdaq is up 5.3% in 2015. This year the tech-centric index hit highs not seen since the dot-com heyday of 2000, ending Q2 2015 up 1.8%. That marked the Nasdaq's 10th straight quarterly rise.

Meanwhile, the Dow and S&P 500 Index finished the second quarter of 2015 with ho-hum results. The 30-stock benchmark ended Q2 with a 0.9% loss. The broad-based S&P ended with a 0.2% decline.

Even with the Nasdaq hitting an all-time high, there are still some lucrative opportunities and quality stocks to buy.

Here are two Nasdaq stocks to buy now that stand out among the roughly 3,100 stocks trading on the Nasdaq today. One is a well-known tech titan. The other is an instrumental biotech player.

A Nasdaq Stock to Buy Now

Best Nasdaq Stock to Buy Now, No. 1: Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) shares are up 14.2% in 2015.

Shares of the iPhone maker got an upward push recently after the company reversed an earlier decision and will now pay artists during its three-month free trial period of Apple Music. Widely popular pop star Taylor Swift had called Apple's decision not to pay musicians any royalties during the trial "shocking, disappointing, completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company."

Progressive, indeed.

Money Morning Defense & Tech Specialist Michael A. Robinson is excited about the new Apple Watch. He says the high-tech timepiece will be one of the catalysts that drives Apple to a $1 trillion market cap company.

"Wearable tech is just getting started and growing at 75% a year - the Apple Watch will send that number into overdrive," Robinson said in April.

Robinson is particularly enthusiastic about Apple Watch's impact on the healthcare industry. The watch's health sensor capabilities hook up with Apple's HealthKit and ResearchKit open-source software frameworks and deliver data to physicians and medical researchers.

"It all makes a compelling case for why Apple will become the first U.S. firm with a $1 trillion market cap," Robinson said.

Money Morning Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald is also an Apple stock fan. He forecasts the Apple stock price will hit $200 within two years.

"Apple has a huge addressable market that's not yet been tapped and not yet been recognized by the broader stock market," Fitzgerald said in late April. "That's what investors ought to be keying in on."

At $127.17, Apple shares are up 15.18% year to date.

Here's another top Nasdaq stock to buy now, a biotech that's a blockbuster in the making...

Best Nasdaq Stock to Buy Now, No. 2: Repligen Corp. (Nasdaq: RGEN) is a small-cap biotech company that supplies ingredients that dozens of Big Pharma firms need to produce their blockbuster drugs.

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Founded in 1981, the Massachusetts-based company delivers high-value ingredients to the rest of the drug development industry so they can bring new drugs to market faster and with less overhead.

Repligen is a leading provider of a substance known as Protein A, used to produce many leading drugs. Protein A helps separate and purify cancer fighters known as monoclonal antibodies.

Drugs of this type are part of the promising area known as biologics. In short, biologics are made from cells and tissues instead of chemicals. Like drugs, some biologics are intended to treat diseases and medical conditions. Other biologics are used to prevent or diagnose diseases.

Because of its business strategy, Repligen gets to work on some of the world's biggest drug-development programs.

Robinson first recommended RGEN on May 11, 2013. At the time, shares were trading at $9 each and sported a market cap of $275 million.

Fast forward to the present and RGEN is changing hands at $40.56 a share. It currently boasts a market cap of $1.36 billion. Year to date, RGEN is up a blistering 105.15%.

Robinson reckons RGEN has at least a 50% upside from here - more if some savvy big pharmaceutical company bags it.

"We've already seen a lot of mergers and acquisitions in the biotech sector this year," Robinson explained. "And we could see gains of 60% to 75% if Repligen goes on the block."

Even if it remains independent, Repligen has a bright future. Indeed, it's an integral player in the pharma space.

"That means, at a minimum, you can think of Repligen as a classic growth firm that should continue beating the market over the next three years," Robinson said.

And should it become takeover bait, more outside gains are likely.

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