When Wall Street analysts assign a “buy” or even a “strong buy” rating to a stock, they are signaling conviction, or a belief that shares will outperform over the next 12 to 18 months.
But for retail investors, that label needs some context.
Analysts work for large financial institutions with research budgets, sophisticated earnings models and direct lines to company management.
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Their ratings reflect sophisticated analysis, but also potential conflicts of interest, since many of the banks issuing “buy” ratings also do business with the companies they cover. A “buy” rating could be awarded in a bid to do investment banking business with any given company.
Historically, “buy” ratings outnumber “sells” by a wide margin, which means the bar for what qualifies as a genuine endorsement is usually higher than the label might suggest.
That said, when a stock draws a cluster of “buy” ratings from multiple independent firms, or when a single analyst raises a target meaningfully above current prices, it’s often worth digging into the reasons.
Trying to Spot Winners
The seven stocks below range from a near-unanimous “buy” consensus to a single firm’s upgrade to “overweight” or “strong buy.” These companies range from consistent dividend growers with decades of earnings history to early-stage, still-unprofitable growth stories.
“If there is one theme connecting these names, it is that investors spend far too much time trying to identify the next winner and far too little time thinking about what they are actually paying for future growth,” says Steven Crane, financial planner at Financial Legacy Builders in Fairborn, Ohio.
“A great company can be a terrible investment if expectations become unrealistic. That distinction is where many fortunes are made and lost,” he says.
Here are seven stocks that garner “buy” ratings from analysts:
| Stock | Implied upside* |
| Uber Technologies Inc. (ticker: UBER) | 47% |
| Vistra Corp. (VST) | 38% |
| Lowe’s Cos. Inc. (LOW) | 23% |
| Amcor PLC (AMCR) | 21% |
| Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) | 9% |
| DraftKings Inc. (DKNG) | 33% |
| SoundHound AI Inc. (SOUN) | 117% |
*Based on consensus analysts’ price targets and June 22 closing price.
Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER)
D.A. Davidson’s Tom White recently reiterated his “buy” rating on this stock with a price target of $107, slightly above the consensus Wall Street price target of $104.97, according to MarketBeat.
Earnings grew 4% in 2025, with analysts expecting a decline of 30% this year, despite a forecast of revenue growing 12%.
“Our GAAP net income may continue to see swings from quarter to quarter due to equity stakes on our balance sheet,” Balaji Krishnamurthy said in Uber’s first-quarter earnings call.
Jim Crider, a certified financial planner (CFP) at Intentional Living Financial Planning in New Braunfels, Texas, says the bull and bear cases for Uber are both tied to autonomous vehicles.
“The bull case is that Uber’s real moat isn’t the cars. It’s the matching technology and a two-sided marketplace that’s brutally hard to rebuild city by city,” he says.
“The business is largely capital-light, margins look poised to widen as it matures and there’s a small but high-margin advertising business riding on top of an unusually valuable pool of user data,” he adds. “Seen that way, self-driving becomes a tailwind.”
However, the bear case is that the companies with the autonomous technology, such as Waymo and Tesla Inc. (TSLA), already have their own apps, brand presence and the resources to build a network themselves.
“And because Uber’s network effects are local, winning one city doesn’t automatically win the next, which is exactly how regional players have fended Uber off before,” Crider says.
Vistra Corp. (VST)
AI data centers need massive amounts of electricity, and Vistra owns the nuclear plants to supply it.
Analysts’ consensus rating on Vistra is a “buy,” with a price target of $230.44.
In June, Morgan Stanley’s David Arcaro maintained his “buy” rating on the stock. Central to his thesis is Vistra’s $1 billion founding role in the Helix Digital Infrastructure platform alongside other backers, including Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) and the Kuwait Investment Authority.
Helix finances AI data centers and connects them to reliable power sources.
“The company has been a proactive mover in investing in the energy transition, which is likely to drive growth as alternative energy solutions are sought out for data center projects,” says Ivan Marchena, senior economist at Just2Trade, a Dubai-based trading platform.
Lowe’s Cos. Inc. (LOW)
Housing activity is muted, but Lowe’s grew earnings by 3.8% in the first quarter, following a rebound to earnings increases in 2025 after two years of slumps. The company beat both top- and bottom-line estimates in the most recent quarter.
Goldman Sachs has a “buy” rating on the stock with a price target of $293, above the consensus Wall Street target of $264.57. However, investors should understand that earnings are expected to grow just 1% this year on a revenue increase of 8%.
“This has been the most difficult housing market that I have faced in this business since the financial crisis,” CEO Marvin Ellison said in the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
“We’ve delivered four quarters of positive comps in an environment where the DIY customer has faced more economic pressure than I’ve ever seen before,” he added. “We’re really confident that as we start to see some type of moderation or normalcy in the home improvement and housing market, we think we’re positioned really well for long-term gains, because we structured this business to win in any economic environment.”
Amcor PLC (AMCR)
It’s not exactly a familiar name, but Amcor has a large presence as the manufacturer of the packaging on food, medicine and consumer products worldwide.
Headquartered in Zurich, the company has delivered reliable dividend increases over the past five years. Its current yield is 6.4%.
Fund ownership rose in the past two quarters, a sign of institutional confidence in the stock, which has a market capitalization of $18.8 billion.
Wall Street has AMCR rated a “moderate buy,” with a consensus price target of $49.33.
On June 15, Amcor named Ryan Yost as head of its global flexible packaging solutions division, its largest business segment, signaling a renewed push on organic growth in healthcare and protein packaging. That indicates that the company is serious about winning higher-margin contracts in those two industries.
[Read: 7 Up-and-Coming Stocks to Buy Now]
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
Johnson & Johnson recently raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to a range of $100.3 billion to $101.3 billion, driven by the strength of oncology drugs.
Leerink Partners’ David Risinger upgraded the stock to “outperform” with a $265 target, based explicitly on the launch trajectory of Icotyde, a once-daily pill approved to treat moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.
Johnson & Johnson is a well-established Dividend King, with a 64-year history of increasing its shareholder payout. The yield is 2.3% and the annual dividend is $5.36.
The company beat revenue and earnings views in the most recent quarter.
Johnson & Johnson could be a diversifier away from tech and AI stocks, says Marchena.
“This stock has proven to show resilience even in times of market volatility, and its ability to pay dividends can serve as a steady, passive income stream,” he says.
DraftKings Inc. (DKNG)
The sports-betting technology company’s stock is trying to climb out of a correction that began in September.
Analysts don’t see the stock languishing for too much longer. The consensus price target for DraftKings is $34.21, meaning Wall Street sees room to run 33% higher.
Morgan Stanley reiterated its “overweight” rating on the stock in May.
DraftKings had the good fortune of going public in July 2019, in time to take advantage of the pandemic-era betting craze. Its stock price took off in 2020 but began tapering the next year, and has yet to regain its March 2021 high.
Earnings have grown every year since 2023, although sales growth has been decelerating.
“DraftKings is one of those stocks that forces investors to confront an uncomfortable reality: The company may continue to grow, but growth alone does not automatically make something a good investment,” Crane says.
Sports betting has become deeply embedded in American culture, and DraftKings is one of the biggest beneficiaries, he adds.
“The question investors should be asking is not whether more people will gamble,” Crane says. “The question is whether the current valuation already assumes that future growth. Too many investors confuse a product they love with an investment that is attractively priced.”
SoundHound AI Inc. (SOUN)
SoundHound AI started as a music recognition app before evolving into its current business of building speech recognition and natural language technologies. Founded in 2005 and based in Santa Clara, California, the company has customers that range from restaurant ordering kiosks to connected cars to customer service systems.
Ladenburg Thalmann’s Michael Legg upgraded SoundHound to “strong buy” on May 7, citing strong enterprise execution and its acquisition of LivePerson, which added enterprise customer service capabilities.
Revenue grew 52% year over year in the first quarter, to $44.2 million. However, the company has not been profitable. Analysts expect an earnings loss of 42 cents a share this year, although sales are forecast to grow 38% to $232.4 million.
As that sales figure suggests, this is a small company, with a market capitalization of just shy of $3 billion. Along with that, the stock has a beta of 2.7, meaning it moves more than twice as much as the broader market, in either direction.
Despite the lack of profitability, analysts have an optimistic price target of $14.93, suggesting the potential for a gain of 117% in the next 12 to 18 months.
“SoundHound sits at the intersection of two things Wall Street loves: artificial intelligence and a compelling story,” Crane says. “The challenge is that stories and investments are not the same thing.”
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7 Top Stocks With Recent “Buy” Ratings originally appeared on usnews.com
