Wall Street's Favorite "Magnificent Seven" Stock to Kick Off 2026
Key Points
Within the Magnificent Seven, Alphabet and Nvidia performed the best in 2025.
Now, the question is whether the outperformers or underperformers in the group will rise in 2026.
While many investors are more cautious on this group, Wall Street analysts still see plenty of room to run for most.
- 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia ›
The "Magnificent Seven" stocks had a fascinating year in 2025. Despite being at the center of most market-related conversations and consuming over one-third of the broader benchmark S&P 500 index, the majority of the stocks in this elite group actually underperformed the broader market. The Magnificent Seven has been on a phenomenal run in recent years, so they've still had excellent performance.
However, the bar now appears to be higher for investors, meaning throwing a dart likely won't work as well as it has in recent years. Here's Wall Street's favorite Magnificent Seven stock at the start of 2026.
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The best can keep rising
Wall Street analysis is a key method that investors use to monitor stocks. Analysts working at various banks and research firms are highly trained investment professionals who examine all aspects of a stock, including qualitative and quantitative analysis. They then combine all of this information into a financial model to project a company's future earnings, in order to arrive at a valuation and ultimately make a recommendation.
Wall Street will average or take a median of all analyst earnings projections to arrive at consensus estimates. Using these recommendations, investors can identify which stocks Wall Street ultimately favors the most. The Magnificent Seven also attract the most analysts, with many having 60 or more covering the stock, making consensus estimates more accurate than those of a traditional group of stocks. Here's how Wall Street views the Magnificent Seven in early 2026. Keep in mind that current share prices are as of Jan. 14.
| Company | Share Price | Average PT | % Upside | Highest PT | % Upside | Buy Recommendation % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nvidia | $183 | $253 | 38% | $352 | 92% | 94% |
| Microsoft | $459 | $622 | 36% | $730 | 59% | 96% |
| Apple | $260 | $288 | 11% | $350 | 22% | 55% |
| Alphabet | $336 | $328 | (2%) | $386 | 15% | 88% |
| Meta Platforms | $616 | $835 | 36% | $1,117 | 81% | 90% |
| Amazon | $237 | $295 | 24% | $360 | 52% | 94% |
| Tesla | $439 | $403 | (8%) | $600 | 37% | 40% |
Data source: Yahoo! Finance. PT = price target.
As you can see above, the clear favorite is Nvidia, the artificial intelligence chip giant. According to Wall Street, the average price target for Nvidia implies 38% upside, more than any other stock in the group. Meanwhile, the highest price target implies 92% upside, significantly more than any other stock in the group. Finally, 94% of analysts covering Nvidia have a buy rating on the stock, which isn't the highest percentage in the group but only 2% below Microsoft.
Nvidia was the second-strongest performer in the Magnificent Seven in 2025, trailing only Alphabet. Often, the best continue to rise. Evercore ISI analyst Mark Lipacis is the analyst with the $352 Street-high price target for Nvidia.
In his research note, Lipacis still believes Nvidia is best positioned to capture a majority of market share as the world continues to adopt AI, noting that its general-purpose graphics processing units (GPUs) still offer the most cost-efficient way to run AI models. Lipacis believes Nvidia can grab 70% to 80% of the total value created. Furthermore, Lipacis views rising inventory at the company as evidence that demand continues to surge.
Can Nvidia stay king?
Based on recent earnings reports and sentiment from Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang, there's no evidence that Nvidia is really at risk of losing market share. Furthermore, it appears that the company will soon resume selling chips to China, a revenue source it could not capitalize on in 2025 due to trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
I'm personally still cautious about Nvidia due to its strong run and reports that the AI sector is shifting its preferences toward custom chips, which could challenge Nvidia's dominance. Hyperscalers are also expected to ramp up their own chip operations, which could pose a problem for Nvidia as well.
However, at this point, it's certainly hard to imagine a future in which AI succeeds and Nvidia doesn't, so I think investors can continue to hold the stock long term. But they should understand that Nvidia is more of a pure bet on AI, as opposed to owning Microsoft or Alphabet.
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Bram Berkowitz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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