These are analysts’ favorite stocks heading into 2026
Wall Street analysts’ favorite stocks heading into the new year include Trade Desk and Netflix . Investors sometimes had a love-hate relationship with artificial intelligence-adjacent stocks in 2025, but in the end the trade accounted for much of the stock market’s gains this year. With a 20% rally, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is set to gain the most this year of the three major market averages. The S & P 500 is following with a 16% rise, while the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen 14% this year. CNBC Pro screened data from LSEG to identify Wall Street’s favorite S & P 500 stocks for 2026. To be included in the table below, companies had to meet the following criteria: Member of the S & P 500 Consensus buy rating Upside to average price target of at least 35% One stock on the list was advertising technology platform Trade Desk, down 69% this year as of Monday afternoon, and trading $100 below its 52-week high of about $136. Now, however, after that underperformance, the average analyst’s price target implies upside of 72% ahead. Last month, Benchmark upgraded the stock to a buy rating from hold. Benchmark analyst Mark Zgutowicz’s $65 price target is approximately 77% above where Trade Desk shares closed Friday. “While the stock still contends with macro uncertainties and awaits restructuring efficiencies to play out, our prior perceived relative industry growth hurdles are generally rearview,” he wrote. “And forward supply chain innovations — OpenPath, OpenAds, Deal Desk — will be critical differentiators driving significant AI efficiency gains, countering commoditization concerns.” The average analyst price target implies upside of 47% for Datadog . The software stock little chaanged in 2025. In November, KeyBanc Capital Markets upgraded shares to an overweight from sector weight. Analyst Eric Heath said that several headwinds for the stock have dissipated. “We upgrade shares of DDOG to Overweight as the two areas of concern that kept us Sector Weight materialized positively: 1) revenue ex. OpenAI accelerated, and the strength was broad based; and 2) visibility into sustained OpenAI spend for the next several quarters after renewing/expanding its commitment in 3Q,” he wrote. “We believe the positive growth inflection will continue given Datadog’s innovation leadership, platform breadth, relevance with AI-natives, increasing success with security, accelerating public cloud trends and monitoring of AI workloads as they move to inference.” Heath’s $230 price target is approximately 58% above where shares of DataDog closed on Friday. Netflix remains one of Wall Street’s favorite stocks for 2026, despite being embroiled in a bitter bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery . The streaming platform is down 22% this quarter alone as questions about the value and price of the proposed acquisition continue to pressure the stock. Still, investors such as Josh Brown remain bullish over Netflix’s long-term trajectory. Yet, even then, the CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management said on CNBC’s ” Halftime Report ” earlier this month that he had drastically cut his position in the streaming platform as this potential deal shakes out. “I think Netflix is a great value. I think it’s a great deal. I actually love the deal for them — not only for them, but I love that they’re keeping this out of the hands of somebody else — equally important in the streaming wars,” he said. “But I can’t sit here, so I kept a very small position on and we’ll see what happens.” Now, investors are waiting to see if Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders accept a rival, hostile bid from Paramount Skydance over Netflix’s offer. Other names on the list included Oracle , Coinbase and Nvidia .
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