Fifteen years ago, just two of the Magnificent Seven stocks were among the top 10 U.S. companies by market capitalization. In addition to Microsoft and Apple, the top 10 companies included consumer firms like Walmart, Procter & Gamble, and Johnson and Johnson and financial firms like Bank of America and Wells Fargo.
Today, most of those names have been replaced by the Magnificent Seven, with Broadcom joining the top 10 and Berkshire Hathaway and Walmart remaining on the list.
At the 2025 Morningstar Investment Conference, Dan Davidowitz of Polen Capital Management, Aziz Hamzaogullari of Loomis, Sayles, & Company, and Chris Lin of Fidelity Management joined Morningstar’s Tony Thomas to talk about the Magnificent Seven.
Also our coverage of the 2025 Ben Graham Conference, 2025 Global Alts New York and the Best Alternative Investment Fund Conferences for 2025.
Thomas shared a slide of which Magnificent Seven stocks the panelists owned as of March or April. Notably, Davidowitz didn’t own Meta Platforms, NVIDIA or Tesla, while Hamzaogullari didn’t own any shares of Apple.
Why Hamzaogullari has never bought Apple
In fact, Hamzaogullari has never owned Apple. Thomas asked him how he managed around now owning Apple, and he said he doesn’t look at companies as a group but rather, as individuals. While the iPhone maker has long been a major part of the indexes, Hamzaogullari makes decisions by looking at quality, growth and evaluation.
When picking stocks, he asks what the company will look like in a decade, and when asked which test Apple failed, he said he doesn’t think time is the company’s friend. Hamzaogullari thinks Apple may have some challenges going forward and will have the lowest growth rate.
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