Have $3,000? These 3 Stocks Could Be Bargain Buys for 2026 and Beyond.

There's never a bad time to buy a good stock. A good stock is an even better buy, however, at a lower price.

With that premise in mind against a backdrop of relatively steep valuations for most stocks, here's a closer look at three long-term prospects currently trading at bargain prices.

1. Duolingo

Duolingo (NASDAQ: DUOL) is one of those names that rings a bell, but you may not be exactly sure why. This will help: This company helps people learn a new language via its website or through its mobile app. Most of its 50 million daily users are learning for free, but 11.5 million of them are paying a small monthly fee for access to its premium tools.

And Duolingo is growing like crazy. Its third-quarter revenue of $271.7 million was up 41% year over year, easily outpacing total user growth of only 20%. Moreover, it turned $80 million of that into earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and further expects its fourth-quarter revenue to grow by more than 30% to somewhere in the ballpark of $275 million, with 28% of that number being turned into EBITDA.

And that's one of the more quietly compelling details of the Duolingo story: Despite being a small and relatively young company, it's profitable, and consistently so. Even more compelling is the fact that you can step into this stock at about 14 times analysts' expected 2026 per-share earnings of around $8.

2. Nice

Have you heard the term agentic artificial intelligence (AI) but aren't quite sure what it means? Simply put, it's an artificial intelligence technology used to facilitate what seems like a normal text-based conversation between a real person and an AI platform. While once clunky and obvious, AI-powered chats are now convincing enough that you may not realize you aren't actually talking to a real person.

A handful of companies now offer this tech to outfits that want an off-the-shelf solution rather than building their own. But Nice (NASDAQ: NICE) is arguably the best-established pure play in the business. That's why its customer list includes leading names like Visa, Accenture, Morgan Stanley, and Valvoline, just to name a few.

Image source: Getty Images.

It's not driving massive growth just yet, mind you; last year's top-line year-over-year growth of 8% has more or less been the long-term norm. That's still pretty good though and sustainable, particularly now that it's incorporating true artificial intelligence into its offerings; as of the end of last year, its annualized recurring revenue rate for its AI-powered tech reached $328 million, up 66% year over year.

Moreover, a stake in Nice gets you into the agentic AI industry that's yet -- but set -- to explode. Mordor Intelligence predicts this business will grow at an average annualized pace of 42% through 2031.

You'd be buying into this stock at about 10 times its projected 2026 profit of roughly $11 per share, by the way.

3. Dell Technologies

Last but not least, add computer company Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) to your list of bargain stocks to buy while you can get it at about 12 times this year's anticipated per-share earnings of nearly $10.

It's been conspicuously left out of most discussions of artificial intelligence so far. Don't be fooled, though. It's very much getting into the business now. AI is a big reason the company's third-quarter revenue grew 11% year over year to $27 billion, in fact, reflecting the iconic company's ability to offer well-customized high-performance platforms.

That's still just the beginning, though. As CFO David Kennedy commented in the Q3 fiscal year 2026 report published in November 2025, "FY26 will be another record year, and we're raising our AI shipment guidance to roughly $25 billion, up over 150% year over year, and revenue guidance to $111.7 billion, up 17%." COO Jeff Clarke added, "Our five-quarter pipeline is multiples of our $18.4 billion backlog with a mix of neocloud, sovereign, and enterprise customers."

Investors have sold off the stock since then anyway, despite the encouraging news. All told, Dell shares are now down nearly 30% from their early-November peak.

This weakness is mostly the result of a broader malaise surrounding most artificial intelligence stocks, though, not an indictment of Dell's likely future. Once more investors see that smaller and nimbler Dell is equipped to navigate the rocky road ahead, don't be surprised to see shares of the technology outfit start making their way back toward analysts' current consensus price target of $115.39.

James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Accenture Plc, Duolingo, Nice, and Visa. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2028 $260 calls on Accenture Plc and short January 2028 $280 calls on Accenture Plc. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.