Here's Our New Best Stocks to Buy List

Our new list of best stocks to buy now includes smart plays on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, precious metals, and banks. Each company is tapped into major growth trends that we see as the best for making money this year.

Here's a preview of what we're giving you this week:

• Mining Bitcoin has become out of reach for most of us, but that doesn't mean we can't profit from the hardware that miners use. We'll show you how.
• We zero in on a company that's actually using blockchain technology to generate profits, not just hype.
• Multiple indicators are pointing to a bull market for silver, and we've picked one of the best mining companies to profit from it.
• Tax cuts and higher interest rates combine to deliver big opportunities for one of the most dependable regional banks in the country.
• You'll need to act quickly to take advantage of a major biotech firm raising its dividend by 35% this quarter - and that's just the first reason we like it.

Now, for our five latest best stocks to buy now...

Best Stocks to Buy Now, No. 1: This Hardware Manufacturer Is the Perfect "Pick-and-Shovel" Play on the Bitcoin Craze

It was only a few years ago that mining Bitcoin was easy enough to do on your computer at home as long as you had a high-end graphics card installed.

A lot of us are kicking ourselves for missing that opportunity. Bitcoin's protocol was designed to mimic natural resources like gold and silver, meaning mining would become more resource-intensive as more and more Bitcoin was "unearthed."

Due to the cryptocurrency boom of the last several years, mining Bitcoin today is now incredibly complicated - and far beyond most people's reach.

But for anyone who can't afford the setup to mine Bitcoin, you can still buy stock in one of the top suppliers to the mining community.

That would be Xilinx Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX).

Xilinx manufactures the highly sophisticated field programmable gate arrays (FGPAs) that have become must-have hardware for Bitcoin miners.

In addition to the cryptocurrency market, about half of Xilinx's sales come from aerospace and defense, and another big chunk comes from the communications and data center sector. It's also a major leader in the development of machine learning - the ability of robots to master tasks without needing humans to program them.

In other words, for its $75 share price, Xilinx lets you benefit from Bitcoin, while also not exposing you to the risk of getting wiped out if the crypto boom turns into a bust. Xilinx has a diversified portfolio in several of the most surefire growth sectors in the tech industry.

XLNX's earnings per share (EPS) in the most recent quarter was up 30.8% from a year earlier, and that figure is projected to grow 57.7% over the next two years.

"Xilinx is sweating it to be sure it plays a major role in as many emerging technologies as possible," says Money Morning Director of Technology & Venture Capital Research Michael Robinson. "And all of them will lead to a steadily higher share price for you."

Best Stocks to Buy Now, No. 2: Blockchain Is More Than Just a Buzzword for This Company - It's a Life-Saving and Productivity-Boosting Technology

By now, pretty much everyone has heard of blockchain technology. But not many people know what it is - other than that it has something to do with cryptocurrencies.

That has led to all kinds of companies using and abusing the word "blockchain" in order to stir up hype. Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: KODK) and Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX) both recently announced they'd be incorporating blockchain technology into their businesses, while offering little substance in terms of its actual applications.

But even that's not as brazen as Long Island Iced Tea Corp., or rather, Long Blockchain Corp. (Nasdaq: LBCC), as it's now known. That company announced in December that it would be changing its focus from beverages to blockchain technology and changed its name accordingly.

The stock surged 200% in one day - though it had lost most of those gains by the end of January.

Critical: A tiny company's revolutionary device has just been approved by the FCC - and even a small stake could reward you with astronomical gains. Find out how to take advantage of this ground-floor profit opportunity...

It's tough to separate the wheat from the chaff in a saturated market. But it's worth the effort in this case, because blockchain is, in fact, big business.

According to research firm Gartner, blockchain technology created $4 billion in business value in 2017, and that number is expected to hit $3.1 trillion by 2030.

When we look for businesses in the blockchain game, we want to target those that are using the technology to create value in a specific business application.

Stephen Mack

About the Author

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Stephen Mack has been writing about economics and finance since 2011. He contributed material for the best-selling books Aftershock and The Aftershock Investor. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

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