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The Best Stocks to Buy With $1,000 Right Now

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If you've got $1,000 waiting to be invested, I can think of few better stocks to buy than Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Both of these are massive companies that are well positioned to take advantage of the artificial intelligence (AI) build-out.

Each of them is also trading for an attractive valuation, making them the best stocks to buy with $1,000 right now.

Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »

Investor researching Nvidia and Microsoft stocks with laptop and papers on a clipboard.
Image source: Getty Images.

Both stocks are trading at historically cheap levels

Nvidia and Microsoft hardly need an introduction. Nvidia is the world's largest company and makes graphics processing units (GPUs) and other products that give Nvidia the best accelerated computing ecosystem available. This popularity has been prevalent throughout the AI buildup, as its products are incredibly popular.

Microsoft's business may seem ho-hum with its Office product suite, but there's so much more to Microsoft than that. Its fastest-growing segment, Azure, is its cloud computing wing, and it's handling huge demand for its computing resources from several AI hyperscalers like OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT. While Azure is Microsoft's most prominent segment, Microsoft is also seeing strength all around its business.

Despite both companies being at their best, neither of them trades where they normally do. Nvidia trades for a mere 22 times forward earnings, about the lowest it has been over the past few years.

NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) Chart
NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) Chart

NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.

That's about the same price as the S&P 500, which trades for 21.7 times forward earnings. This valuation basically projects that Nvidia is going to grow for this year, then deliver market-matching growth after that. However, from all of the AI build-out projections, it's clear that this isn't true, as elevated AI spending is expected to persist throughout 2030. This makes Nvidia a no-brainer buy right now.

Microsoft may not be as cheap as Nvidia, but it is attractively priced compared to where it has been in the past. For Microsoft, I'm using the operating price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, as it isn't as skewed as when you use net income due to fluctuations in investments. From this standpoint, Microsoft stock has seldom been this cheap over the past decade.

MSFT Operating PE Ratio Chart
MSFT Operating PE Ratio Chart

MSFT Operating PE Ratio data by YCharts.

It's not often you get the chance to turn back the clock and invest in one of the biggest winners of the past decade, but that's exactly what the market is giving you in Microsoft's stock right now.