STOCK MARKET: Top analysts are bullish on these 3 stocks despite ongoing volatility

The stock market continues to be volatile as investors digest developments related to the U.S.-Iran conflict, artificial intelligence disruption fears and concerns about the sustainability of the AI boom.

Investors seeking solid stock picks in this backdrop can turn to the recommendations of top Wall Street analysts for useful insights. These experts look beyond short-term pressures and focus on a company’s ability to deliver strong returns over the long term.

Here are three stocks favored by some of Wall Street’s top pros, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.

Nvidia

Semiconductor giant Nvidia (NVDA) is this week’s first pick. Following a meeting with Nvidia’s CFO Colette Kress, UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri reiterated a buy rating on Nvidia stock with a price target of $245. In comparison, TipRanks’ AI Analyst has an “outperform” with a price target of $230.

Arcuri stated that following the meeting, he is bullish on Nvidia’s networking growth and long-term margins. He noted that NVDA is very upbeat about its networking expansion. Management indicated that the company already sees itself as the largest global networking player, with the target to surpass the combined revenue of other networking semiconductor suppliers by the end of 2026.

With regard to gross margin, the five-star analyst highlighted that NVDA expects some variance in the near term due to new program launches. Management sees 75% as a good long-term target for gross margin and is not currently aiming for a significantly higher level above 75%. Nvidia expects compute performance and TCO (total cost of ownership) improvements, along with enhanced customer economics in each generation, to help sustain strength in margins over the longer term.

Among other key takeaways, Arcuri mentioned that while Nvidia expects upside to the $550 billion backlog for Blackwell and Rubin, it doesn’t intend to continue to update this figure. This is because management believes that customer focus has moved to 2027 buildouts, with the company seeing continued strength in compute demand.

Nvidia’s confidence about compute buildouts is backed by its optimism about the capex sustainability of hyperscalers, thanks to their solid balance sheets and cash flow-generating capabilities. “Management also sees financing mechanisms expanding from straight capex to leases, SPVs and other vehicles,” said Arcuri.

Arcuri ranks No. 5 among more than 12,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 76% of the time, delivering an average return of 41.7%. See Nvidia Stock Buybacks on TipRanks.

Palo Alto Networks 

We move on to Palo Alto Networks (PANW), a cybersecurity company. Recently, TD Cowen analyst Shaul Eyal reaffirmed a buy rating on PANW stock with a price target of $255 following a virtual meeting with the company’s senior vice president of investor relations and strategic finance. TipRanks’ AI Analyst is also bullish on PANW stock, with an outperform rating and a price target of $181.

Eyal noted that Palo Alto continues to see strong demand for security vendors with a unified platform ecosystem, which integrates multiple security functions, particularly network security, SASE (secure access service edge), endpoint and SIEM (security information and event management).

The five-star analyst considers growing adoption of agentic AI as the next potential secular catalyst for Palo Alto. The analyst explained that as agentic AI becomes embedded across business operations, companies might prefer security tool consolidation for dealing with cyberattacks, as relying on conventional, fragmented tools may not be effective in protecting autonomous systems.

Eyal’s call with the management also highlighted the factors driving strength in SASE. Specifically, customers who first adopted SASE during the pandemic are now reevaluating their architecture and vendors, allowing Palo Alto to capture market share as clients look for a more comprehensive solution. Moreover, PANW’s Prisma Browser and a strong go-to-market (GTM) execution backed by an experienced sales team are also driving SASE sales.

Finally, Eyal noted, “Opportunistic tuck-in acquisitions on an annual basis will remain an integral part of achieving $20B in NGS ARR [next-generation security annual recurring revenue] by FY30.”

Eyal ranks No. 393 among more than 12,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 56% of the time, delivering an average return of 17.2%. See Palo Alto Networks Ownership Structure on TipRanks.

Micron Technology

Memory and data storage solutions provider Micron Technology (MU) is scheduled to announce its fiscal second-quarter results on March 18. The company is benefiting from AI-led demand for its products and rising memory prices.

Ahead of the results, Stifel analyst Brian Chin reiterated a buy rating on Micron stock and boosted his price target to $550 from $360. TipRanks’ AI Analyst has an outperform rating on MU stock with a price target of $497.

“Memory pricing is hitting levels we did not envision, evidence of the widening/persistent gap between supply and demand,” said Chin.

The five-star analyst believes that the real opportunity for Micron is not just high-bandwidth memory (HBM) but the server DDR5 product. In fact, Chin expects the company’s DDR5 RDIMM product’s gross margin to expand more than 80%, significantly surpassing the HBM margin.

Meanwhile, Chin doesn’t expect the strength in memory pricing to fade, as supply checks continue to indicate that memory supply will remain relatively fixed over the near term. He contends that consensus expectations are too low and underestimate the extent of upward revision potential in the quarters ahead.

The analyst highlighted that his revised estimates reflect solid average selling price (ASP)-driven growth across Micron’s cloud, data center and mobile/client segments. While industry bit growth may be modest in Q1 2026, Chin expects higher pricing across segments to boost gross margins.

Chin ranks No. 176 among more than 12,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 66% of the time, delivering an average return of 34.5%. See Micron Technology Financials on TipRanks.