Shopping for stocks when the major benchmarks are back trading near all-times highs might seem counterintuitive. After all, the idea is to buy low. But not only do new highs tend to beget fresh highs, stocks are actually cheaper now than they've been in some time.
Thanks to rising earnings estimates, the forward price-to-earnings ratio, or P/E ratio, on the S&P 500 currently stands at less than 20, according to Yardeni Research. That's down from 23.5 just a couple of months ago.
Meanwhile, the index's price-earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio, which measures how fast stocks are rising relative to their growth prospects, has plunged to 0.8. In early 2026, it was well above 1.4. By that measure, stocks are about 40% cheaper than they were in February.
Not too long ago, finding outsized gains in Wall Street's top S&P 500 stocks was a challenge. But with equities offering more attractive valuations, a long list of index names appears poised for serious outperformance.
True, uncertainty abounds. Geopolitical instability has global markets on edge. Perhaps most troubling, higher energy prices are inflationary, and that's putting the Federal Reserve in a tight spot.
Markets were expecting two cuts to the short-term federal funds rate at the beginning of 2026. Now, they're not so sure. At the same time, a weak July jobs report and easing inflation data have undermined the case for rate hikes, at least for the time being.
Nevertheless, estimates for operating earnings, also known as mother's milk for stocks, continue to march higher. Net margins are at multi-year highs, as well. And the technical picture is increasingly constructive.
"After a flat July, things appear to be getting back on track in what has historically been a weak month of August," writes Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group. "Any weakness should be fairly contained, and we believe higher prices are still coming in 2026."
The bottom line is that although markets may be a bit choppy, the fundamental outlook for equities remains bright.
Analysts spy lots of big bargains
As long as a company's earnings prospects are rising faster than its share price, its stock can very much look like a bargain, and therefore a potential market beater. To get a sense of where to start digging for such finds, we screened the S&P 500 by implied upside to industry analysts' average price targets.
What we found: 33 stocks in the S&P 500 have implied upside of at least 33% over the next 12 months or so, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
But before we get to the S&P 500 stocks that could rally the most based on price targets, a caveat is in order.
Price targets are a blunt tool when it comes to sussing out cheap stocks. Committing capital based on a single data point is not an investment process.
It's also important to note that stocks with the most upside potential don't necessarily get consensus Buy recommendations from the very same analysts whose models spit out the target prices.
With that warning out of the way, if you're looking for widely traded stocks with the most upside potential, the names listed below aren't a bad place to start.
Company (Ticker) |
Price target |
Implied upside |
Consensus rating score |
Consensus rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
AppLovin (APP) |
$528.32 |
73.0% |
1.61 |
Buy |
Oracle (ORCL) |
$246.43 |
71.4% |
1.59 |
Buy |
Micron Technology (MU) |
$1,521.62 |
62.4% |
1.37 |
Strong Buy |
NRG Energy (NRG) |
$188.75 |
56.5% |
1.56 |
Buy |
Vistra (VST) |
$219.72 |
54.0% |
1.37 |
Strong Buy |
CRH (CRH) |
$138.38 |
46.1% |
1.33 |
Strong Buy |
Broadcom (AVGO) |
$527.88 |
45.6% |
1.33 |
Strong Buy |
EchoStar (SATS) |
$128.43 |
45.2% |
1.17 |
Strong Buy |
Coherent (COHR) |
$416.09 |
44.7% |
1.64 |
Buy |
Western Digital (WDC) |
$664.92 |
43.9% |
1.54 |
Buy |
Reddit (RDDT) |
$215.78 |
42.2% |
1.91 |
Buy |
Flex (FLEX) |
$160.50 |
42.0% |
1.27 |
Strong Buy |
Microchip Technology (MCHP) |
$109.21 |
41.7% |
1.56 |
Buy |
Ciena (CIEN) |
$557.29 |
41.0% |
1.90 |
Buy |
Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR) |
$1,829.54 |
40.7% |
1.33 |
Strong Buy |
ON Semiconductor (ON) |
$107.68 |
40.6% |
2.17 |
Buy |
United Airlines (UAL) |
$161.85 |
39.8% |
1.36 |
Strong Buy |
Synopsys (SNPS) |
$560.17 |
39.6% |
1.71 |
Buy |
Akamai Technologies (AKAM) |
$157.43 |
39.5% |
2.16 |
Buy |
Nvidia (NVDA) |
$304.03 |
39.2% |
1.30 |
Strong Buy |
Lumentum (LITE) |
$1,148.30 |
38.8% |
1.54 |
Buy |
C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW) |
$199.84 |
38.3% |
1.84 |
Buy |
Meta Platforms (META) |
$754.14 |
38.1% |
1.35 |
Strong Buy |
NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) |
$311.10 |
37.6% |
1.80 |
Buy |
Jabil (JBL) |
$441.44 |
36.8% |
1.40 |
Strong Buy |
Aptiv (APTV) |
$66.61 |
36.2% |
1.60 |
Buy |
Sandisk (SNDK) |
$2,126.17 |
35.5% |
1.54 |
Buy |
Trimble (TRMB) |
$80.18 |
35.3% |
1.38 |
Strong Buy |
Seagate Technology (STX) |
$1,125.00 |
35.1% |
1.44 |
Strong Buy |
Generac (GNRC) |
$283.88 |
34.7% |
1.76 |
Buy |
Deckers Outdoor (DECK) |
$122.81 |
34.1% |
2.35 |
Buy |
T-Mobile US (TMUS) |
$243.38 |
33.5% |
1.70 |
Buy |
Carnival (CCL) |
$35.55 |
33.2% |
1.63 |
Buy |
Data as of August 24, courtesy of S&P Global Market Intelligence.
