Internet stocks may be on a losing streak, but it's not yet time to give up on them as a whole, a tech analyst said.
Of the 13 large-cap internet names, just four have outperformed the market since their fourth-quarter earnings releases, Mark Mahaney, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note published this week.
Mahaney, however, still sees opportunity in the sector. His top picks, in order of desirability: Amazon, Google parent Alphabet, Priceline, Netflix, and Facebook.
His bullishness on Amazon may surprise some, given the online retailer's shares are still recovering from a plunge they took in January, when the company reported quarterly earnings that missed Wall Street's expectations.
Yet Mahaney believes Amazon's "long thesis [is] well intact."
In the cloud computing market, "there's still one clear winner in this space," Mahaney said on "Squawk Alley" on Thursday.
"That's AWS — that's Amazon," he said. "That's one of the major reasons you want to own the stock."
Alphabet, another tech giant that has underperformed broader sectors this year, is also a favorite for Mahaney. The analyst set a $1,000 price target for the stock, which closed Wednesday at $751.72. The shares were up modestly midday Thursday.
"Alphabet's segment disclosure highlights core Google's profitability and created the opportunity for more investment efficiencies with other bets," Mahaney said.
"Core Google is generating consistent revenue growth and acceleration and margin stabilization and expansion."
Disclosure: RBC makes a market in Amazon.