5 of the Best Stocks to Buy for July

The first half of 2017 has been great for the stock market; the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 9.1 percent in the first six months of the year, putting Wall Street on pace for an annualized gain of 19 percent. Given stocks are now in the ninth year of a bull market, investors might be wondering: What are the best stocks to buy in July?

As the third quarter gets under way, here are five to consider.

[Read: What's Next for Facebook Stock?]

Facebook (ticker: FB). Facebook just announced something pretty remarkable: It's passed 2 billion monthly active users (MAUs), making it by far the largest social network in the world. Despite Facebook's size, MAUs still managed to increase 17 percent last quarter, a testament to the power of the social media giant's platform and therefore its continued growth potential.

Analysts expect revenue to grow 39 percent this year and nearly 30 percent next year. Revenue growth in the S&P 500 was a mere 2 percent in 2016. Despite its growing revenue, FB's forward price-to-earnings ratio of 25.5 is only 36 percent higher than the S&P 500's.

"Facebook's future revenue growth rate will be jointly determined by MAU growth and ARPU growth," says K C Ma, professor of finance at Stetson University, referring to average revenue per user. "ARPU has been increasing at a 30 percent annual rate and is expected to stabilize at a low teen level in the coming years."

Projecting Facebook's numbers out, Ma expects earnings per share to hit $9.70 by 2020. If Facebook trades at 25 times earnings then -- roughly the trailing P/E of the S&P 500 today -- shares will be worth $242.50 by 2021, an increase of roughly 60 percent.

In hindsight, Facebook has been one of the best stocks to buy for some time, and that shows no sign of changing.

Intel Corp. (INTC). One of the largest chipmakers in the world, Intel certainly doesn't enjoy Facebook's growth rate, but INTC is attractive for a different reason: It's a value stock.

Value stocks are scarce in today's market, and whenever there are random market pullbacks, solid blue-chip dividend stocks with reliable businesses tend to fare better than momentum stocks with valuations built on speculation and excitement.

Enter Intel, which trades at 11 times forward earnings, pays a 3.2 percent dividend and has low levels of long-term debt.

"I think Intel is probably a little undervalued at this point, based on where I think it could run," says Ron Heinz, founder and managing partner of Signal Peak Ventures, a venture capital firm.

[See: 7 of the Best Cheap Stocks to Buy Under $10.]

"They've had a choppy couple of years just based on the ups and downs of the PC market," but of the blue-chip technology stocks, Intel "looks to me to be one of the most undervalued," Heinz says.

Symantec Corp. (SYMC). The two stocks above are both corporate giants, worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Not Symantec, though, which at a market cap of $17 billion almost seems small.

Don't be fooled.

Symantec is a best-in-class cybersecurity company at a time when its services are very much in demand.

"I think Symantec has some real upside, some real legs. They've got a new CEO, they've made some acquisitions; I think they'll continue to make acquisitions. I think they're getting their act together," Heinz says.

"The space has gotten crowded, and there's a lot happening, but I think Symantec is a standout and one that's got some ability to run," Heinz says.

Driven by acquisitions, revenue growth is expected to kick into high gear this fiscal year, with analysts expecting 23.6 percent growth versus just 6.6 percent growth the year before. SYMC also pays a 1 percent dividend.

Amazon.com (AMZN). Much like Facebook, Amazon has been a darling of the markets for years now, and for good reason: It absolutely dominates its industry.

Is Amazon one of the best stocks to buy because its valuation screams "deal"? No. But it never has been. AMZN, for almost its entire life as a public company, has been valued at high multiples by Wall Street because of the online retailer's aggressive growth philosophy, innovation and ruthlessness as a competitor.

Historically, CEO Jeff Bezos has shown his willingness to sacrifice margins for revenue growth, betting that the company will be able to turn consistently profitable at scale, and with the benefit of its lower-cost online business model.

Now, Amazon wants to get into brick-and-mortar and target another big market.

"Amazon's planned $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods ( WFM) signals a bet that people will opt more for the convenience and low cost of online orders and delivery," Ma says.

"Amazon has fired the first shot, signaling the beginning of the end for the traditional grocery business," Ma says.

Q2 Holdings (QTWO). Last but not least, Q2 Holdings, which offers cloud-based digital banking solutions to U.S. banks, has impressive prospects. Of these five stocks to buy for July, Q2 is the smallest by far, clocking in as a small cap at $1.5 billion.

"Q2 Holdings has been flying under the radar and is an attractive risk-to-reward opportunity for investors. It's playing in a high-growth space and placing huge technology bets on big data and analytics," says John Price, CEO of Vast, a data and analytics company that helps consumers make large purchases like cars and houses.

"By helping small banks and credit unions stay competitive in a banking industry that's rapidly shifting toward a 'mobile-first' standard, Q2 Holdings is parlaying its cloud-based software to significantly tap into the fintech market. I believe there is significant upside potential."

[Read: Why Amazon, Whole Foods Is a Natural Marriage.]

Q2 isn't currently profitable, but it's expected to be in the black next year. Thanks to its smaller size, it's likely to be one of the more volatile stocks on this list, but if you can stomach the risk, Q2 Holdings deserves to be at least a small slice of your portfolio.

John Divine is an investing reporter for U.S. News & World Report, where he covers financial markets and the economy, with a focus on individual stock analysis. He has been an investor himself for over 10 years, and has been writing professionally about stocks and investing for the last five years. He previously wrote about the stock market for The Motley Fool and InvestorPlace, and his work has appeared on Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, and AOL DailyFinance. He graduated from Appalachian State University in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in finance and banking. At Appalachian, he was a member of the Bowden Investment Group, a team of students that ran a real-money portfolio worth over $100,000. You can follow him on Twitter or give him the Tip of the Century at jdivine@usnews.com.