Buy these 6 stocks to crush the market in 2026, says a CIO overseeing $1.6 billion
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Nancy Tengler of Laffer Tengler Investments shared her top stocks to buy in the new year.
The list features some prominent tech names but also spans multiple other sectors.
The wealth manager’s six for ’26 list includes Walmart, AMD, and Tesla.
After another stellar year for tech and the AI trade, it’s understandable for investors to wonder what the next frontier of the market’s bull rally could be. Luckily, one CIO has a list of top picks for the new year that includes some names outside of the hottest AI plays.
Nancy Tengler is CIO and CEO of Laffer Tengler Investments, a wealth management and advisory firm with $1.6 billion under management. After last year’s five for ’25 list, she’s back with six for ’26.
Tengler is well known for her bullish calls on high-growth tech stocks. Last year’s list reflected that, and included names such as Broadcom (up 75% year-to-date) and Spotify (up 33% year-to-date).
Her updated list for 2026 is a complete refresh of last year’s. Here’s what she likes.
Walmart
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Walmart‘s recent announcement that it is moving from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq as part of a rebranding has helped earn it a spot on Tengler’s list of stocks to buy. However, she’s more focused on its successful AI integrations and new ways of scaling growth.
“The company is growing revenue at 6%, ecommerce at 27% and gaining share in grocery, apparel and general merchandise,” she said. “They are serving the K-shaped economy serving both low income and higher income consumers.”
Shares of the retail giant have performed well this year, overcoming some volatility early in 2025 to notch a 27% gain in 2025.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
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Nvidia didn’t make Tengler’s list of top stocks to buy for 2026, but its primary US rival did. AMD, a fellow chipmaker that has benefited from the AI boom, is the second pick on Tengler’s list, having spent 2025 mostly trending upward. The stock is up 76% year-to-date.
Tengler credited AMD CEO Lisa Su for ushering in dramatic changes at the company, helping it capture a much larger share of the market for high-tech chip hardware.
“We think AMD is uniquely positioned to thrive during the shift to inferencing. Demand will shift from clusters designed to assist in training large language models to inferencing. AMD has a strong lineup of inference computing chips,” Tengler said.
Tesla
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Tengler has been bullish on Tesla for months, and her perspective hasn’t changed heading into 2026, even as the EV leader has lagged behind many other members of the Magnificent 7. Her faith in CEO Elon Musk remains strong.
“TSLA has never been a valuation driven purchase,” she noted. “This is a stock you to own for the vision and execution of CEO Elon Musk. We believe TSLA is at the center of the next stage of this technological revolution and is the primary AI company in the world.”
The CIO thinks that Tesla’s full self-driving and humanoid robot technology will continue to drive growth over the coming decade. She also cited Tesla’s royal retail investor following as a reason to bet on the stock to keep rising.
Crowdstrike Holdings
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This cybersecurity firm has had a strong year in the market. It recently reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings with a 22% year-over-year revenue increase, and Crowdstrike stock is up 48% year-to-date.
Tengler isn’t swayed by the stock’s high valuation. On the contrary, her team expects it to rise another 20%-30% in the years ahead as it continues to leverage AI and as conditions in the tech space shift in its favor.
“The stock is expensive but in the sweet spot of AI/cyber,” she noted. “The company remains the gold standard for cybersecurity and in the early innings of its multi-year growth story as its platform consolidation strategy.”
Quanta Services
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This company may not be as well known as other stocks on Tengler’s list, but it has performed extremely well in 2025, rising 46% year-to-date. A leader in the electric power infrastructure space, Quanta Services is an example of a stock that’s quietly surged amid shifting industrial and economic trends.
“PWR is perfectly positioned to capitalize on ongoing electrification, datacenter buildouts, and the return of domestic manufacturing,” Tengler stated. “Management delivered triple plays in every quarter reported this year, consistently compounding earnings by double-digit percentages — a trend we expect to continue.”
She added that infrastructure modernization will likely push the stock up in 2026, as will battery energy storage and AI data center projects.
Dr. Horton
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This homebuilder stands out on a list comprised mostly of prominent tech names, but Tengler sees DR Horton as a top stock to buy for one big reason: her team expects to see a housing market recovery in 2026.
Tengler’s bullish thesis is based on the expectation that economic policy will help boost the real estate market from its anemic state over the last few years.
“Whether it is through first time buyer tax credits or additional incentives to homebuilder to increase supply,” she stated, “we believe the housing related stocks will start to reflect expected improvement in the environment for homebuilders.”
DR Horton’s stock struggled early in the year, but it has picked up momentum in the second half. The stock is up 13% in 2025.
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