{"id":96144,"date":"2026-07-02T16:26:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T16:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/96144\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T16:26:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T16:26:50","slug":"these-are-top-stock-picks-from-ubs-analysts-heading-into-third-quarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/96144\/","title":{"rendered":"These are top stock picks from UBS analysts heading into third quarter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the second half of the year kicks off, a list of favorite stocks from UBS for the third quarter includes Vertiv and Nvidia . The third quarter of 2026 comes after an exceptional first half, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its best first-half performance since 2021. In the three months ended in June, the S &amp; P 500 and Nasdaq Composite scored their largest quarterly gains since the second quarter of 2020. In a note out Wednesday, UBS analysts shared their top stock picks for the third quarter of 2026. Some of the individual names from that basket are shown in the table below: Data center stock Vertiv is an AI infrastructure &#8220;picks and shovels&#8221; play that has surged 92% this year, through Wednesday. &#8220;Investor optimism on VRT has been underpinned by its enviable combination of robust CFROI and high asset growth rates,&#8221; UBS wrote, referring to cash flow return on investment, a financial yardstick. &#8220;Tailwinds tied to the AI boom persist and consensus estimates suggest that VRT&#8217;s upward trajectory in value creation remains intact,&#8221; the bank said. Most analysts covering the Ohio-based company are similarly bullish, with 26 investment banks rating it either &#8220;strong buy&#8221; or &#8220;buy,&#8221; and only four giving it a &#8220;hold.&#8221; The average price target suggests upside of about more than 18% from Wednesday&#8217;s close. Nvidia, the dominant maker of artificial intelligence semiconductors, is just 6% higher in 2026, but is still a favorite at UBS. &#8220;NVDA is an exemplary wealth compounder, earning the highest Economic Profit of any company ever last year and with forecasts indicating a doubling in Economic Profit by 2027,&#8221; the bank wrote. &#8220;Despite strong value creation from the Vera Rubin platform, the market is pricing CFROI to fade from a forecasted 81% to pre-AI levels of 21% by 2030. Assuming consensus over the next 3 years, NVDA is priced for 7% topline growth with compressed margins thereafter.&#8221; Of 63 analysts covering Nvidia, no less than 59 rate the Jensen Huang-led company as either a &#8220;strong buy&#8221; or buy, while three call it a &#8220;hold&#8221; and one an &#8220;underperform.&#8221; Analysts&#8217; consensus price target would equate to upside of more than 50% from Wednesday&#8217;s close. UBS analysts also highlighted Ralph Lauren as a favorite stock. The clothing retailer has rallied 13% this year. &#8220;Over the past five years, RL&#8217;s CFROI has rebounded sharply from pandemic lows, exceeding pre-Covid levels as the company drives structural improvement through brand elevation, reduced discounting and tighter distribution control,&#8221; UBS wrote. &#8220;CFROI is forecast to reach a decade high of 15%, yet the market prices a fade toward 14% longer-term. Assuming RL can meet consensus estimates for the next 3 years, expectations imply 8% long-term top-line growth.&#8221; Other analysts are also bullish on Ralph Lauren, with 17 recommending it as either a &#8220;strong buy&#8221; or &#8220;buy,&#8221; and only three saying it&#8217;s a &#8220;hold.&#8221; The average analyst price target implies Ralph Lauren could still climb another 7% from current levels. Other stocks on the UBS list include Spotify , Boston Scientific , Target and Coca-Cola .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the second half of the year kicks off, a list of favorite stocks from UBS for the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[129],"tags":[48047,166,48046,48051,39721,48050,48052,13790,2132,13789,17350,38664,11467,48043,13826,48049,48045,7993,48044,223,48048,48042],"class_list":["post-96144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ubs","tag-boston-scientific-corp","tag-business-news","tag-coca-cola-co","tag-consumer-discretionary-select-sector-spdr-fund","tag-dow-jones-industrial-average","tag-global-x-data-center-digital-infrastructure-etf","tag-graniteshares-2x-long-vrt-daily-etf","tag-invesco-qqq-trust","tag-investment-strategy","tag-ishares-expanded-tech-software-sector-etf","tag-ishares-semiconductor-etf","tag-nasdaq-composite","tag-nvidia-corp","tag-ralph-lauren-corp","tag-sp-500-index","tag-spdr-sp-500-etf-trust","tag-spotify-technology-sa","tag-stock-markets","tag-target-corp","tag-ubs","tag-vanguard-information-technology-index-fund-etf-shares","tag-vertiv-holdings-co"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}