What Are FANG Stocks?

In finance, the acronym "FANG" refers to the stocks of four prominent American technology companies: Meta (META) (formerly Facebook), Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX), and Alphabet/Google (GOOG). FANG stocks are famous for the impressive growth they have shown in recent years, with each member more than doubling over the past five years.

In 2017, the company Apple (AAPL) was also added by some analysts, resulting in the new acronym "FAANG."
Understanding FANG Stocks

The term "FANG stocks" was originally coined by The Street's Bob Lang and later popularized by Jim Cramer on his CNBC TV show Mad Money.1 It is now widely used by market commentators and analysts. The stocks referred to by the acronym are all well-known and richly-valued technology companies that trade on the NASDAQ exchange, a collection of approximately 3,300 American technology companies.2 Many other companies included in the NASDAQ exchange are also viewed as growth investments, although very few have matched the impressive growth of the FANG stocks in recent years.

Despite their common reputation as successful growth companies, the business models of the FANG stocks are distinct.

Facebook (Meta)

Facebook, for example, is the world’s preeminent social networking platform. With a monthly user-base of more than 2.85 billion people as of April. 2021, Meta can claim over 35% of the world's population as its customers.3 To monetize this extraordinary user base, Facebook sells ads that are targeted based on users’ personal preferences and usage patterns.