Steven Cress’ Top 10 2026 Stocks (undefined:MU)

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Seeking Alpha’s Head of Quantitative Strategy, Steven Cress, reviews the year that was and lays out his top 10 picks for 2026. This is an excerpt from our live event, Top 10 Stocks For 2026!

Transcript

Daniel Snyder: Thank you so much for tuning in. This is our fourth annual top stocks event here at Seeking Alpha. And I know many of you are coming back for the fourth year, so thank you so much for being with us from the very start.

This has been a blast to put on every year, and it’s a great way to just start the year with fresh ideas from none other than Seeking Alpha’s VP of Quantitative Strategy, Steven Cress.

Now, before we jump into conversation with Steve today and go through these 10 picks, we do have to get a quick legal disclaimer out of the way, so stick with me for just a second.

We are not advising you personally concerning the nature, potential, value, or suitability of any particular security. You alone are solely responsible for determining whether any investment, security, strategy, or any product or service is appropriate or suitable for you based on your investment objectives and personal and financial situation.

This presentation is for information purposes only. Content is presented as of the date published or indicated and may be superseded by future events. It represents my opinions and Steven Cress’ opinions, which may not reflect the views of Seeking Alpha as a whole.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results, and Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker, US investment adviser, or investment bank.

And now with that out of the way, some of you may know who he is, but for those of you that do not know who Steven Cress is, he is a good friend of mine that I can say. We’ve been working together for years on years here now. We do webinars all the time here on Seeking Alpha. If you caught any of those, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Steven Cress has a long history in the financial industry from spending a stint at Morgan Stanley, running a prop trading firm, as well as building fintech, his own fintech empire, really, which Seeking Alpha later acquired and integrated his Quant system here into Seeking Alpha’s platform, which I’m sure all of you are very familiar with. And if you’re not, we’re going to dive a little bit deeper into that today.

Steve Cress, I want to say, first off, Happy New Year. Thank you for taking the time to do this once again. I know there’s a lot of people here that are giving you your flowers for last year’s returns.

I mean, 2025 turned out to be an incredible year for your 10 picks. I mean, from all across the board, I know we’re very, very excited to hear what’s going on with this year. You’re going to walk us through the macro environment and everything else, but before we dive into that, give a little quick disclaimer. Steve is a little bit under the weather, everybody, but we’re going to push through today. So, we really do appreciate you coming and bringing the energy today, Steve. So, Steve, how are doing? How’s the New Year starting off?

Steven Cress: Daniel, I’m doing well. And as always, thank you for organizing this and the many other individuals at Seeking Alpha and the financial content team, the Quant team, the marketing team, the product team. A lot of hands go behind this webinar and truly appreciate everyone’s effort. I do have a little bit of a winter cold, the back of taking some holiday where I was skiing in New York, had a great time, so well worth the cold.

DS: Sounds a rough life, Steve.

SC: It was a rough two-week period. We work hard and we party hard, but we achieved good results. As you well know from our track record, this is one of my favorite presentations of the year doing the Top 10 Stocks. We’ve had incredible performance for 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and hopefully, we’re going to pick some great stocks this year as well.

So, a little bit about what we’re going to do today, Daniel. We’re going to cover the state of the financial markets from 2025 to add a little context and how that impacted our pick from 2025. And in order to segue into this year, we want to have a good understanding of where we were.

We’re going to go over why Quant, and obviously, we’re going to get into the Top 10 stocks for 2026. We’re going to launch into our 2025 market recap, and it was a very volatile year.

We finished strongly. It seemed when we went back to January 2025, it was going to be a pretty good year, but that weekly turn, at the end of the day, though, when we look at it and we close the performance, our risk on sectors did well.

Technology stocks were up 25%. Communication services were up 22%. And then on the other end of the spectrum, consumer staples, which is the go to defensive sector and safe haven sector, actually finished in the red. Real estate and energy, fairly flat. Energy being up about almost 5%, but not too bad, but not nearly as good as some of the top performing sectors, but it was a volatile year.

Once we got into February through April, we actually went into a pretty massive correction. And my Top Stocks from 2025, which started off with great performance in the first two weeks, quickly turned. And I think at one point in April, the Top Stocks for 2025 were down more than 20%. And then, of course, came roaring back to finish up close to 45%.

I think something else that was interesting about this year, even with the risk on sectors doing well, we had gold reach historic highs. And, typically, gold will do well. It’s a safe haven area. So when markets are correcting and we did have that phase, but we’ve really been building momentum over a period of years. For gold, there was the financial crisis. There was COVID. There were trade wars, and of course, central banks all over the world have been buying gold, and that’s helped to bring it to its record highs.

So, a little bit about the AI frenzy as well because that was a big part of 2024 and 2025. And we got to a point in 2025, really closer to the beginning of the fourth quarter where people thought basically all the good news was priced in. Our Mag 7 stocks, which are very AI driven now, they trade at a huge P/E Premium. The Forward P/E is about 31x versus the S&P. If you strip out the Mag 7, we refer to it as the S&P 493. The multiple is only 22x, which seems a lot more realistic than the S&P with the Mag 7 stocks.

The Mag 7 stocks continue to be top-heavy for the overall index. It’s about, those seven stocks are about 35% of the total market cap of the S&P 500. But these companies have been spending a tremendous amount of money on AI. Hyperscalers are committing enormous CapEx to AI infrastructure with more investors asking whether the current projects are actually generating enough return to justify those costs.

The CapEx share of operating cash flow for hyperscalers hitting 60%. So, if you go back to say 2012, it was below 20%. So, an absolutely huge increase, and that would be Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG) (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (META), Oracle (ORCL) as the hyperscalers that are putting so much capital into AI.

So, the big question, and the big fear, had these stocks hit their high that were within the direct or indirect AI hemisphere? And, a lot of those fears were answered as we got into earnings for the third quarter.

Nvidia (NVDA) had very strong earnings. They were one of the initial stocks to really benefit from AI. Oddly, definitely, the stock sold off on the good news, but investors really figured out many other of these companies that are directly or indirectly related to AI also had good earnings.

The market actually quickly rebounded on that. And you’re going to see a central theme from the stocks that we had from 2025 and even the stocks going to 2026. Even with the diversification in sectors, there still seems to be an AI theme running through most of these stocks.

As I mentioned, it was a really volatile year. And I think sometime around the end of January, we had what was referred to as the DeepSeek (DEEPSEEK) Shock, and that was a Chinese company claiming that they could do AI at a much more efficient rate. And many investors were thinking, okay, maybe not as much CapEx has to be going into these AI companies and the data centers even the utility companies that provide the power for the data centers.

So that kicked off the potential concept that many of the AI and technology stocks were overvalued. And on January 27, we saw Nvidia drop by about 17%. We saw the semiconductor index drop by 9.2%, and even the Nasdaq down by 3%, and the S&P 500 down by 1.5%. And we continue to see the markets take a pretty hard hit.

The S&P at one point between February and April was actually down 15%. And as I mentioned, those Top Stocks of 2025, they were down more than 20% on average. But, of course, if you look after January 28, we saw a rebound in the stocks and the sectors.

So 2025 was really defined by whipsawing where we saw extreme fear and extreme greed. Chip stocks were hit hard, as I mentioned, during the AI rout, and tariffs early in the year really roiled markets as well. There was a tremendous amount of uncertainty.

Historically, economists and market strategists know that tariffs are not good for markets, and we saw the – really, some of the highest tariffs ever announced. But, of course, the way that it was done and, really the White House was leading with a bit of jawboning and deal making as opposed to setting concrete tariff levels and keeping it there.

We saw a lot of retraction on tariffs and coming up with levels that were much lower than expected. And by the time we got to, I think, that Liberation Day, especially where there’s agreement with China on a flat tariff rate, things really started to rebound. But all-in-all, there was a lot of uncertainty from the end of January really through to the beginning of May.

I’d say something consistently that did help the market despite the tariffs, despite the extended stocks on AI, and fears surrounding the overall market, corporate earnings were pretty strong throughout the year, and a lot of innovation from AI and their strong corporate earnings helped to provide some fundamental support to the market.

So as we’re coming into 2026, I would not be surprised if we continue to see a seesaw of anxiety, but we also see strong fundamentals, and that could foster some volatility in 2026.

As I said, we had Liberation Day, which was April 2. So, key aspect of the volatility for the markets really were tariff related early in the year. The escalating trade disputes led to targeted hikes on EVs, batteries, chips, and other strategic sectors, and even went through to Q4 2025 where new tariffs injected more volatility into the market around the October and November time frame.

The Nasdaq actually briefly entered bear market territory with the S&P declining nearly 20%. And I recall it being at 15%, but in fact, it was about 20%. And as I said, those Top 10 Stocks really took it on the nose. And if you’re a member of Alpha Picks, they really took it on the nose too. That decline during that period far exceeded the market.

But of course, when the market returns to fundamentals away from sentiment and fear, stocks with strong fundamentals really rally strongly and our Top 10 proved that, and our Alpha Picks proved that as well too.

So this is something I want to highlight. Corrections do happen. Not sure if we’re going to have a correction again this year, but certainly we did have a correction last year. And this is really important to highlight.

Fear creates losses. If you panic during those corrections and you sell, you will lose money. However, conviction creates opportunity, and the conviction lies in stocks with good fundamentals. So it’s important to – you’ll hear the talking heads during market corrections. Fear will be abound in the market. Sector rotations will occur to safe haven sectors, to cash, to gold. That is fear driven.

But stocks with good fundamentals, those stocks will get clobbered during those periods, but their earnings and their revenues tend to stay stable.

And that’s a perfect opportunity to really identify stocks that have tremendous potential when you see that they’re coming through with their earnings and their revenues.

You just have to ignore what’s driving markets down.

We do have conflicting economic data at this time, and that has led to the rate cuts that we saw in the fourth quarter. We had three cuts. Really, the inflation has always been a concern. We haven’t seen inflation spike up, but it still continues to be sticky, but what the markets were really concerned about, it was labor data.

And this labor data, which continued to get weaker and weaker, really acted as the inspiration and catalyst for the Fed to start lowering rates. In May and ironically, Moody’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating during May, and that was pretty much the end of the correction. It doesn’t surprise me at all because it always seems like the rating agencies come in when the worst is over, and that confirmed it.

In a way, I feel like once Moody’s downgraded the market, it actually started to rally from that point. So it’s a contrarian indicator when these agencies tend to downgrade.

So, where does this bring us right now? Coming into January, we have on January 28, the next FOMC meeting. And at this point, interest rate traders actually feel there is a fairly good balance where rates are and the economic data.

At this point 85% of interest rate traders actually expect no cut in January 2026. They’re going to want to just see how the data plays out. They’re going to want to see how corporate earnings come out, and eyes will continue to focus on the labor market and inflation.

But right now, interest rate traders are betting that there will be no cut in January.

For 2025, our top 10 stocks were up 45% from January 9 to the end of the year. And here you could see that graph versus the S&P 500 (SP500). The S&P 500 on a market cap weighted basis was up 17.6%, and our Top 10 Stocks, as I mentioned, up 45.68% for 2025. So we had a really good year for 2025 for our Top 10.

If you looked at 2024 and you actually held the stocks, the return is even more amazing. So the return for the Top 10 Stocks for 2024, should you have held it to December 10, 2025, you were up 356% versus the Mag 7 up a 103% and the S&P 500 up 47%.

I think we’re really establishing a fairly good track record going back to 2023. If you held those stocks from January 05, 2023 to December 10, 2025, you are up 187% versus the S&P 500 up 85% for the same period. So if we’re doing our job, hopefully, we’ll have some great returns for 2026 as well.

So without further ado, we’re going to get into our Top 10 Stocks for 2026. We’re going to lead off with Micron Technology, ticker symbol, (MU). This is a big company. Market cap, $355 billion. It is a Quant Strong Buy. And in the IT sector, it ranks 1 out of 536 stocks. And within the semiconductor industry, it ranks 1 out of 68.

Now, I’m going to tell you right away, this stock has definitely performed well over the last 52-weeks. It was up 254%, but as I say during all these webinars, do not pay any attention to that long-term performance.

That performance is just a great indicator that the company is doing well, it’s outperforming the sector, the product is right, but that should not be utilized as a point of fear, which many people do. They’re afraid to chase stocks.

On a valuation basis, it’s actually cheaper versus the sector as indicated by the B+ grade. But more importantly, as I mentioned, we don’t want you to be fearful of the price appreciation. So you’ll see the valuation grade six months ago, and it was actually a D+. So the valuation framework is actually better today. The stock is actually cheaper today than it was six months ago.

So despite that 254% increase over the last year, you’re actually getting a better valuation framework than you did a year ago. And six months ago, you could see the D+ grade versus B+ right now. The growth for the company has remained very strong. It’s A+ versus the information technology sector, and that has not changed. It was the same six months ago. Profitability, very strong at A+. This is almost a pure A+ report card with the exception of valuation, which is a B+.

The stock at this point up 233%. And the Quant system actually has a Strong Buy on the stock, and that has served us well. Over the last month, the stock is up 34%. So the stock, the Strong Buy, has definitely been a good indicator of buying, but it’s definitely not over.

If we click in growth, so you’re one click away, and this will tell you on a number of different metrics, and you could see this is an A+ report card for the most part from a growth perspective. The forward growth rate for Micron is 51%, hence the A+ versus the sector with a forward growth rate of 8.27%. So, you could see it’s at a 525% premium to the sector. So, we love it on revenue growth.

If we go to the bottom line and we look at EPS on a diluted basis, going forward, you could see the growth rate is 211% versus the sector at 13%. And then if we look at the long-term growth rate, and this is a very important factor, it’s the EPS forward long-term growth rate, which is a three-to-five year CAGR, analysts estimate that to be at 47% versus the sector at 15.8%.

So our Quant model, it is backward looking and forward-looking as well. Because what we do, obviously, we’re taking history. We’re bringing that into our algorithm, but we’re also bringing analyst consensus estimates into our algorithm.

This way we factor in future growth. And again, we’re looking at revenue growth. We’re looking at EBITDA growth. We’re looking at EPS growth. So, we’re taking those analyst consensus estimates and putting it into our model.

If we look at profitability, you could see it’s overall an A+ for Micron Technology. EBIT margin is an A+. EBITDA margin is an A+. Return on common equity is an A. You could see it’s at 22% versus the sector at 6.3%. So we not only can compare it to the sector, but on most of these tables, you could actually look at the five-year average. So right now you could see the return on common equity is 22%. Now, the five year average was 7%.

So, the current ROE is significantly higher than it was for the five year average, but also significantly higher than the sector. And I love that when that happens.

When I have a company that looks good compared to its five year average, but also much stronger than the sector, that’s a Buy for me. Hence, why Micron Technology is one of our top stocks.

The stock is up a tremendous amount, but look at the Forward P/E. It’s actually only 9.7x compared to the sector at 24x. So, this stock on a Forward P/E basis is at a 60% discount to the sector. And if we look at my favorite metric, PEG.

On Forward PEG, which combines both P/E and the growth rate into one metric, it’s an A+ at 0.2 versus the sector at 1.66. The stock is at an 87% discount to the sector. So despite that massive run up in the stock is still immensely cheap, compared to the sector. And obviously, as I pointed out on the growth, you could see the growth is significantly stronger than the sector. So this is why it’s one of our Top Stocks for 2026.

Stock number 2, Advanced Micro Devices, ticker symbol (AMD). This is another information technology company, very large as well. Market cap, $363 billion. This company ranks number 17 out of 536 in the IT sector. And within semiconductors, it ranks 5 out of 68.

The one-year return is 70%, but we still like this company as well. It had been a Hold for a good portion of the year, briefly got into a Buy territory back to Hold. And one of the reasons why is because the valuation was at a D level, but you could see now the valuation framework, it’s actually C- versus D+ six months ago.

So the valuation framework is slightly better, but the growth is still very strong. Profitability is very strong, but the momentum of the stock has picked up significantly. The momentum is a really important factor.

Indeed, you could look at empirical data going back over 200 years, and of all these factors that we look at, and even if you break it down to like P/E or ROE or price-to-book or revenue growth or earnings growth, one of the best and most predictable indicators is momentum as a factor. And importantly, the momentum grade now is an A versus six months ago where it was a C+.

So really strong factor grades from that standpoint, but the company has really good earnings growth rate as well. It has 45% EPS forward long-term growth rate for that three to five year CAGR, which as I mentioned is really important, compared to 15% to the sector.

That’s forward ROE growth rate, not the ROE itself, but the actual ROE growth rate is 28% versus the ROE growth for the sector at 1.76%. So, ROE for this company is growing much, much faster, and the PEG at 1.24x is at a 25% discount to the sector. So I really do like it from that valuation standpoint.

Our next stock is Ciena Corporation. Ticker symbol (CIEN). Market cap $34 billion, a Quant Strong Buy. Within IT, it ranks 3 out of 536 stocks. And within the communications equipment industry, it ranks 2 out of 38. The one-year return on the stock is a 166%. You could see the valuation as a D+ now versus C+. So that has dropped, but you could see growth is an A-.

So it’s still very strong. Momentum comes in at an A+ now versus six months ago where it was a B. Importantly, analysts like this company more now than they did six months ago. That revisions grade is a B+ versus the D.

And what I wanted to highlight here is the EPS revision. So this is one of the reasons why we’re highlighting the stock. You could see it’s a B+ now versus a D six months ago. So analysts actually like this company more. And as we look at the EPS revision grade, you could see it’s a B+.

What this is, it’s actually the quantity of analysts that are taking their estimates up or down. So in the last 90-days, we’ve had 15 analysts who have revised their earnings estimate up and zero have revised it down, and that is for the full-year. You’ll see for the quarter, this is the upcoming quarter, in the last 90-days, 14 analysts have revised their estimates for the upcoming quarter, and zero have taken it down.

So, increasingly, analysts are really liking the stock. Hence, it’s one of our picks along with a very strong fundamentals.

If we look at the growth for the company, you’ll see a lot of green here between As and Bs. If we look at the forward revenue growth, it’s 19%, compared to the sector at 8.27%. If we look at the EPS diluted growth going forward, it’s a 55% growth rate, compared to the sector at 13%. So I’m loving the growth.

And in terms of valuation, it’s a bit expensive. But if you look at my favorite metric, again, where you combine both growth and P/E, it’s actually at a 36% discount. So, for me, I really like it on that PEG basis. And a D+, that still puts it in a Buy territory for me.

Anything that’s in a C-, D+, even D territory, if I have a strong PEG ratio there, I still like it. The time that I pull back and most stocks will go to a Hold, or default to Hold is if it goes from a D to D-. Once the stock hits a D-, that says, you know what, this is getting rich. So the stock can be a Hold. That doesn’t mean sell it, but it does mean it’s getting expensive.

So, it’s something you just want to hold on and pay attention to. And of course if it flipped into F territory, you might likely see the stock go to a Sell or Strong Sell, which just means it’s going in the stratosphere. And the concern would be if, especially if that PEG is super expensive as well, that really means the stock is quite overvalued.

So, taking us to stock number 4, Celestica (CLS), and this is one of the only stocks that has been repicked. It has been a tremendous winner for a Top 10 Stock, as well as for Alpha Picks as well. Market cap on this company is about $34 billion. It is a Quant Strong Buy. In IT, it ranks 5 out of 536. And the industry that it’s focused in is electronic manufacturing services where it ranks 1 out of 18. Over the last 52-weeks, the stock is up a 191%.

Now, having said that, as Daniel highlighted, a lot of people are sometimes fearful when the stock has made a big run. Let’s go to valuation, and you will see the valuation grade of C- is the same where it was six months ago. So, the valuation framework hasn’t changed at all despite the stock going up. But what has changed is the company’s growth.

The growth factor grade is an A- now versus a B 6 months ago. So, growth is actually getting stronger for this company. Valuations stay the same. So, it really makes it look attractive to us. If you’re not familiar with it, they manufacture complex hardware platforms for hyperscalers.

Revenues grew about 28% year-over-year, and EPS year-over-year climbed about 52% in the third quarter. The Forward EPS diluted growth rate is 51% versus the sector at 13%. They have about $550 million in cash from operations, and the PEG is at 1.31x, which puts it at a 21% discount to the sector.

Looking at stock number 5, Coherent, ticker symbol (COHR). Market cap is currently $33 billion. Quant Strong Buy. Another IT stock, ranks 8 out of 536. This is also, an electronic components company where it ranks 1 out of 21. It’s had a wonderful return over the last year. But if we look at the valuation, we could see it’s a C- now versus a B-, so it’s still a bit rich. However, C- really puts it in-line with the sector, but the growth far outpaces the sector. So, it has an A- growth grade now.

Profitability deteriorated a little bit, but momentum is very strong, and the EPS revision grade has actually improved over the last six months, and you could see Coherent has done incredibly well. This is a vertically integrated manufacturing leader which serves high growth markets in AI data centers. And the stock has delivered 9 consecutive double beats of top and bottom line, which is very, very impressive.

Earnings grew at 56% for its three to five year CAGR, which is quite strong. It has a 50% Forward ROE growth rate. Again, not the ROE itself, but the ROE growth rate at 50%, which crushes the sector, which has a ROE growth rate of only 1.76%, and the PEG is at a 30% discount. So, we are liking Coherent.

Now, we’re going to take us out of the IT sector. Those Top 5 Stocks that we showed pretty much revolved around information technology. I like to have some diversification.

So we’re going to start with a financial. Many of you are familiar with The Allstate Corporation, ticker symbol (ALL), it has a market cap of $53 billion and a Quant Strong Buy. Within the financials sector, it ranks 15 out of 684. But within its industry of P&C insurance, it ranks 1 out of 53.

This stock has not had the same stellar return as many of the technology stocks. It is one of the largest publicly held personal line insurers in the United States, and Allstate is focused on its transformation growth strategy through AI underwriting.

Let’s take a look at some of the factor grades here. We could see that the valuation is actually more attractive now than it was six months ago. But again, the stock price not doing much over the last 52-weeks.

However, what we do see, which is really impressive is the growth for the company. In the last six months, the stock is actually up about 6%. And then we saw over the year, it’s up about 11.5%. So not a major run compared to the overall S&P 500.

The overall valuation grade is a B- but some of the conventional metrics look great. They’re in A territory. So, the Forward P/E for the company is 7x versus the sector at 11x. So, it’s putting at a 37% discount on a P/E basis.

If we look at the PEG it’s an A+. The PEG ratio is 0.37 versus the sector at 1.07. So, it’s at a 65% discount to the sector on a PEG basis. And on conventional P/E, the Forward P/E is 7.02, compared to the sector at 11.28, 37% discount to the sector.

If we look at growth, the overall revenue growth is pretty much in-line with the industry, but what looks really incredibly strong, let’s take a look at the EPS growth on a year-over-year basis and on a Forward basis. The EPS on a diluted basis year-over-year was up 99%, compared to the financials sector at 14%.

And the Forward diluted growth rate, and this is one of the few companies where my Forward number is actually way higher than my year-over-year number. The Forward diluted EPS growth rate is a 193%, compared to the sector at 10.46%. So, I’m actually loving this EPS growth rate for the company. Very strong indicator.

Another strong indicator is that long-term three to five year CAGR growth rate at 18% versus the sector at 11%. So, these really help give it an A+ in terms of its growth. And if we go to revisions, you could see analysts like the company a lot more now than they did six months ago.

The revision grade is A+ versus six months ago it was a B-. So analysts increasingly are liking this. the last 90 days, 21 analysts have revised their earnings estimate up for Allstate. Zero have revised it down. And for the upcoming quarter, 18 analysts have revised their numbers up and zero have revised it down.

So these are some of the really important things that I look at when I’m assessing this company. I think Allstate is really undervalued, compared to the financials sector, and it has some incredible growth numbers as well.

If you’re interested, as I mentioned, many of our contributors have written about it, so you’ll see qualitative commentary, and you could look at what they have to say on it as well. I think it’s really undervalued. I really like the stock.

Number 7, Incyte Corporation, ticker symbol (INCY). This is a large cap company, but smaller than the ones we’ve been talking about. Market cap on this is $19 billion. It is a Quant Strong Buy.

It is in the healthcare sector, and it ranks 19 out of 975 companies in healthcare. It is in biotechnology specifically where it ranks 11 out of 470. The one-year return on the stock is 42%, and you could see the valuation framework is almost unchanged. It’s an A now versus six months ago, where it was A+. So, remember, this is all sector relative. So the valuation compared to the sector is extremely attractive now.

The growth grade is A+ versus the sector. Profitability is an A versus the sector. Momentum is a B+ versus the sector, and analyst revisions B+. This has improved to B+, compared to six months ago where it was C-.

Analysts are actually feeling a lot more positive on this company, and I will say this is one of the few biotechnology companies that actually has positive earnings. This company offers a diverse pipeline of therapies for cancer, blood disorders, dermatology.

And I said, unlike many other biotech pharmacies, it actually has earnings growth rate, and the year-over-year revenue growth was up 18% in terms of its earnings.

It has a 2026 Forward EPS diluted growth rate. So, its earnings growth is very, very strong, compared to the sector at 10%. It also has an enormous amount of cash from its operations at $1.25 billion versus the sector, which is actually negative. In the healthcare sector, it’s negative $10.

On a PEG basis, it’s 0.07. It puts it at a 96% discount to the rest of the healthcare sector. So, really like this stock. It’s a biotech, one of the few that actually has positive earnings. So, I would definitely encourage you to take a look at this.

Stock number 8, Barrick Mining Corporation, ticker symbol (B), a Quant Strong Buy within the materials sector. It ranks 4 out of 277, and within its industry, it’s gold. But this is actually a bit diverse, and they’re making big headway into copper, but within its industry, it ranks 2 out of 48.

Gold stocks have done incredibly well. This stock is up in the last 52-weeks 186%. But if we look at the valuation, it’s still attractively valued. It was an A- six months ago. It is a B- now. So a little bit more expensive, but still far more attractive to the sector as this is sector relative.

Growth comes in at A-, so it’s just as strong in terms of its growth rate. Very profitable at A+, compared to where it was six months ago. The momentum of the stock obviously is stronger than where it was six months ago.

And importantly, analysts are liking this company more and more. The revision grade is A- now versus six months ago where it was B+. So analysts are picking up their revisions for the company.

In terms of the growth, well, I should say, as I mentioned, they are a leading global miner, but their recent focus is actually on copper and the metal of electrification, which has tailwinds in energy transition, AI data center buildout, and EVs. So, they have a bit of diversification to where their mining takes place.

In terms of its earnings, the Forward EPS diluted growth rate is 46% versus the sector at 12.6%. They have a whopping $6.36 billion in cash from operations. That is a huge premium to the sector. And in terms of the PEG ratio, it’s a 69% discount to the sector.

Taking us to stock number 9, Willdan Group, ticker symbol (WLDN). This is one of the smaller companies that we’re recommending today. The market cap is 1.57 billion. It has a Quant Strong Buy. It’s in the industrials sector where it ranks 5 out of 617 stocks, but within its industry of research and consulting services, it’s 1 out of 39.

This company has had an incredible one-year return at 190%. But immediately, I want to take us over to the valuation. Despite that return, the valuation framework is the exact same now as where it was six months ago, but we’re actually seeing an improvement in the growth for the company.

On a sector relative basis, the growth is A-, but six months ago, it was a B. So that’s a pretty nice bump up in growth for the company. Profitability is bumped up as well to B- from C six months ago. And our momentum looks very strong, and our analyst revisions continue to look strong with an A- there.

In terms of its growth rate, it has a 61% EPS diluted growth rate, which is a 542% premium to the sector. Revenue growth for the company is 13% versus the sector at 4% for year-over-year. And the trailing PEG is 0.54x, which puts it at a 53% discount to the sector. So, again, this being one of the smaller companies, but we really like the numbers that we’re seeing.

And our final stock, but not least, last but not least, is (ATI). This company has a market cap of $16 billion with a Quant Strong Buy. It’s in the industrials sector as well ranking 4 out of 617, and its industry is aerospace and defense where it ranks 1 out of 62 competitors.

Obviously, another good return up 114%, but the valuation is almost identical to where it was six months ago. So that valuation is really in-line with the sector. Growth is where it was six months ago. So, we like it from that standpoint.

Profitability has actually increased. So, the company’s becoming more profitable. It’s a B now, compared to six months ago where it was C-. Momentum is an A+ and the analyst revision grades is at an A.

And interestingly enough, if you actually look three months ago, that has improved at a full grade from just three months ago. So analysts over the three months have increasingly been liking the stock, taking up their earnings. Growth rate for the company is 25% EPS growth, a 110% premium to the sector, cash from operations is $679 million, 73% premium to the sector, and on a PEG basis, it’s at an 18% discount to the sector.

So, Daniel, that is our Top 10 Stocks. Something I want to add about these Top 10 Stocks, and one of the reasons, a core reason why I picked these stocks is because of the amazing top and bottom line growth that we’re seeing.

The average for the Top 10 Stocks for the Forward revenue growth rate is 20%. So, we’re taking all the revenue growth Forward estimates. It’s 20%. The EPS Forward estimates is 73% on average. If we compare that to the S&P 500 you’re looking at the S&P 500 with a revenue growth rate of 6% and an EPS growth rate of 10%.

Again, our Top 10, 20% and 73% versus 6% and 10% for the S&P 500. And even comparing it to the Mag 7, which is 35% of the S&P 500 the revenue growth rate there is 17%. So our Top 10 coming in with stronger growth, but notably the Mag 7 stocks on average have an EPS growth rate of only 20%, compared to our Top 10 with a growth rate of 73%.

One of the reasons why we like these stocks is these are growth companies and crushing the S&P 500, as well as the Mag 7 in terms of its growth.

This is January. These are our Top 10 Picks. There are more months in the year than just January. And if you want assistance for February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December, there is a way to get assistance for that.

I do have two products that I created where we help provide the research for you. One product is called Alpha Picks, and the other product is called PQP. We actually started Alpha Picks about 3.5 years ago. Alpha Picks is a really easy user friendly product. If you don’t like investing in a lot of stocks but you want some good ideas, we send out our two favorite stock picks each month.

On the trading day closest to the 1st of the month and the 15th of the month, we’ll send you a Quant Strong Buy. Just over the last 52-weeks, really for 2026, the portfolio did quite well. Alpha Picks was up 41% versus the S&P up 16% for the same period.

Typically, any month, there’s just going to be 2 to 3 trades. So it’ll be those two Buys and occasionally there’ll be a Sell. So, maybe that is the third trade. Alpha Picks, a little bit more conservative than PQP. We look at stocks that are predominantly in the U.S., and they have to have a market cap above $500 million. We’re also looking at stock prices above $10.

PQP is for those who are a little bit more adventurous and want more than just two ideas a month. So the PRO Quant Portfolio is actually 30 equally weighted positions, and we rebalance it every Monday. So any given Monday, you’ll have on average two to three new stock recommendations. It’s definitely broader in terms of the universe of stocks because we’re looking at U.S. stocks, plus ADRs from all over the world. Both platforms, you get detailed analysis every time there’s a stock pick.

We also do webinars for each one of them. And the turnover, I would say is, definitely far higher for PQP because it is a fixed portfolio of 30 stocks. We’re taking names out pretty fast and bringing new names in, and it’s very focused on the Top Quant Stocks on a weekly basis, where with Alpha Picks we’re looking at just two a month.

But you can see the PRO Quant Portfolio on the right hand side, we actually just started that in June. So it’s only six months of performance. And you could see the PRO Quant Portfolio is up 26%, compared to the S&P 500. And here, I do it on an equal weighted basis because it’s an equal weighted portfolio. So, the S&P 500 for that period is up 9.67%, compared to the PRO Quant Portfolio up 25%. Bottom line is, these Quant ideas, they perform very well.

Our strategy is a GARP strategy where it’s growth at a reasonable price with a couple of little extra add-ins there, and it’s really a systematic trading model that has worked quite well, compared to the S&P overall and Wall Street.

Thank you so much for your time. I hope that wasn’t too long. We covered a lot during the presentation. My hope is that you found it valuable, and it will help you make informed decisions going forward. And to those who invest in the Top 10 for 2026, we wish you luck.