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At the end of 2024, I asked ChatGPT to list five top UK stocks for 2025. I wanted to see if the generative AI app was any good at stock picking.
The stocks it selected were Diageo, AstraZeneca, Unilever, Tesco, and Shell. Let’s see how these shares are performing now that we’re halfway through the year.
Is ChatGPT any good for stocks?
In the table below, I’ve listed the five stocks and their returns for the first half of 2025. Note that I’ve only focused on share price returns and ignored any returns from dividends.
| Stock | H1 share price return (%) |
| Tesco | 9% |
| Shell | 3% |
| Unilever | -3% |
| AstraZeneca | -3% |
| Diageo | -28% |
As you can see, the results, as a whole, are a little underwhelming so far. Tesco and Shell have produced gains but the other three stocks have posted negative returns and the average return is about -4.4%.
Of course, in the stock market, six months is a very short timeframe. That’s nowhere near long enough for a company to generate growth and reward investors (at The Motley Fool we generally like to hold stocks for at least five years).
But compared to the returns generated by some other UK stocks in H1, these returns aren’t great. In fact, they’re terrible!
Seven top performers that have smashed ChatGPT’s picks
In the table below, I’ve put the seven best-performing FTSE 100 stocks in H1 (again focusing on share price only). As you can see, these stocks all produced phenomenal returns in the first six months of the year.
| Stock | H1 share price return (%) |
| Fresnillo | 139% |
| Babcock International | 129% |
| Rolls-Royce | 70% |
| BAE Systems | 64% |
| Airtel Africa | 59% |
| Endeavour Mining | 56% |
| Prudential | 43% |
A clear theme here is defence, with three of the seven stocks involved in that industry. That’s an investment theme I highlighted myself late last year (when Donald Trump won the US election). I went and bought a defence ETF for my portfolio in November (which is up about 40% this year). It seems ChatGPT didn’t get the memo.
I think this shows the danger of using a generative AI app like ChatGPT for stock picking. While it can provide basic information, it can have some issues when it comes to analysis.
I like this UK stock
Analysing those seven top performers, one that stands out to me is insurer Prudential (LSE: PRU). It’s still very cheap. Currently, it trades on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 12. That’s below the market average (roughly 14).
Looking ahead, I see plenty of long-term potential in this stock. Today, Prudential is focused on the Asian and African markets, which are largely untapped from an insurance and wealth management perspective. So, there’s plenty of room for growth in earnings. To my mind, this company is very scalable.
One other positive is that the company is buying back its own shares. This should boost earnings per share over time. That should, in turn, support the share price. The insurer also pays a solid dividend (the yield is around 2.1% today) meaning that investors are being rewarded in several ways.
Of course, an economic slowdown in Asia or Africa is a risk. This could hurt demand for its financial solutions.
Taking a long-term view, however, I think this stock will do well. I believe it’s worth considering today.
