4 controversial Nasdaq stocks that got us to 5K and will take us beyond: Najarian

There is a reason it took fifteen years for the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) to reclaim the 5000 mark and that’s mainly because it wasn’t always smooth sailing for some of the world’s best known tech companies.

Jon Najarian, co-founder of OptionMonster and Yahoo Finance Contributor, talked to us about why he still admires some of these names and why it pays to be patient when dealing with some of the brightest entrepreneurs in the world. Here’s an excerpt of his interview.

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#1 Amazon (AMZN)

“Turns out that Bezos wasn’t a complete idiot,” says Najarian as he marveled at the 460% increase in Amazon (AMZN) shares since March of 2000. “You’d loved to have had a chunk of your wealth in that stock,” he told Yahoo Finance. And despite a rocky 2014, there are still not enough reasons to bet against the Amazon founder over the long-term. “Look at what he is doing now as far as expanding that brand,” notes Najarian. Amazon may have started as a bookseller but its now a dominate force in the technology industry with its own products, phones and tablets, that go head-to-head with Apple (AAPL).


#2 eBay (EBAY)

Activist investor Carl Icahn gave the online auction site a run for its money and it paid off. eBay (EBAY) is set to spin off its PayPal unit later this year, which Najarian thinks makes the stock more attractive. “As a sum of the parts story” he likes the valuation. “I think rough market cap of it is probably about $ 70 billion,” which he predicts will move higher. Investors who have held on to eBay through several CEOs, including Meg Whitman are enjoying a return of 134% since March 2000.

#3 Priceline (PCLN)

Shares of online travel company Priceline (PCLN) are among the few high-priced stocks weighing in at $ 1,249.40 a share as of Monday. This after increasing 122% since March of 2000. Najarian points out the business model is simply hard core. “These guys are the closest thing to a loan shark out there,” he says which is translating well overseas. “The international growth is certainly there for Priceline.”

Related: Why Nasdaq 5000 will keep climbing: Najarian

#4 SalesForce.com (CRM)

After 13 years at Oracle (ORCL) CEO Marc Benioff started SalesForce.com (CRM) and became known as one the pioneers of cloud computing. But as Najarian reminds us, his bio was not always so glowing. “People have said forever that they [SalesForce] are dead.” That’s because they began roughly around the time when the Nasdaq took its well documented retreat from 5,000.” Now a force to be reckoned with, Benioff has frequently feuded with his old boss, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. In June of 2004, the company came public at $ 11 a share, it closed at $ 68 and change Monday. Even so, Najarian still likes trading the stock. “I would take profits in there, I’d get right back in on any pullbacks.”

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