Investing

Stocks at All-Time Highs: 12 Wall Street Picks to Buy Now!

The stock market has continued to hit new highs in 2025, and now Wall Street is expecting an imminent interest rate cut that might be the first of several rate cuts in the coming months. The S&P 500 is up almost 13% and the tech-dominated NASDAQ-100 is up 16% year-to-date. It turns out that bull markets really do crawl a wall of worry. Now is a time that investors need to reflect and ask themselves where they should be committing new capital as 2026 comes into focus.

Tactical Bulls reviews the daily flow of Wall Street research each morning to hunt for some of those overlooked items and hidden gems that would have otherwise been missed. The effort in finding those new ideas is also for short-term traders and long-term investors alike. Many of these analyst calls are targeted directly at tactical investors who rotate their assets more than buy-and-hold investors.

There are many stocks that are actually not hitting their all-time highs — and ones where Wall Street analysts are seeing favorable trends for investors into 2026. Investors need to always keep in mind that no single analyst report should ever be the sole basis to buy or sell a stock. Analysts can get their thesis wrong just like the rest of us. And sometimes the market or a company’s fundamentals can change in the blink of an eye. Please read the disclaimer at the end of this reporting to read about additional investing risks.

As a reminder, all ratings and price targets below have been assigned to each brokerage firm by name. Tactical Bulls maintains no formal rating of its own nor any formal price targets on any of these shares. Here are 12 fresh analyst calls from Tuesday, September 16, 2025 that are being given new Buy or Outperform ratings or where the existing ratings are being given significant price target hikes from current share prices.

Clear Secure, Inc. (NYSE: YOU) is a wonderful privilege to enjoy at the airports when security lines are long. Most who have it probably don’t want to give that up if they travel. D.A. Davidson started coverage as Buy with a $45 price target. Clear Secure closed up 1.3% at $37.82 and has a 52-week range of $21.67 to $38.88.

The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) is not too hard to figure out as a leader in candy and chocolate snacks. Goldman Sachs believes that it’s ten-plus percent discount from highs is a bargain in a rare double-upgrade, to Buy from Sell. Goldman Sachs also hiked its price target to $222 from $170 in the call. Hershey closed at $185.56 on Monday and its 52-week range is $140.13 to $208.03. Hershey had previously reached a high of roughly $275 back in 2023.

ITT Inc. (NYSE: ITT) shares just hit an all-time after crossing over the $180 mark, but BofA is telling clients much more upside is ahead. ITT was reiterated as Buy and its price objective was hiked all the way up to $210 from $190 after an investor meeting was hosted. The firm remains confident in ITT’s growth ahead coming from multiple sectors driving margin expansion despite some economic choppiness. This appears to be the highest of the recent price targets despite other recent price target hikes at KeyBanc (to $200 from $192) and UBS (to $200 from $168).

Jumia Technologies AG (NYSE: JMIA) may not be a household name in America, but it operates a large e-commerce platform and marketplace in Africa. Its stock was also already up 150% year-to-date. RBC Capital Markets has upgraded Jumia Technologies to Outperform from Sector Perform, and the firm raised its price target to $15.00 from $6.50. RBC held management meetings and sees sustained supply benefits and easing currency pressures at a time when order growth is accelerating in its key markets. Jumia closed at $9.79 ahead of the call with a 52-week range of $1.60 to $10.27, but the shares were indicated up nearly 9% at $9.65 in the immediate impact of this upgrade.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) recently hit an all-time high of $160.34 but has pulled back to $157.77. Mizuho has jumped on with one of the highest price targets, raising that to $182 from $155 while sticking to its Outperform rating. This call is considered to be “tactical” because it’s just a week ahead of earnings — and Mizuho sees tight supply driving pricing power as AI demand continues to drive the cart. Similar target hikes were also seen just a day earlier: Cantor Fitzgerald (to $185 from $155); Deutsche Bank (to $175 from $150); and UBS (to $185 from $155). Keep in mind that Micron is up about 87% year-to-date.

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Wells Fargo has raised its price target on the major U.S. banking sector ahead of the expected interest rate cut. Wells Fargo thinks the economy is moving better than the baseline case that most analysts are using and it expects the nation’s biggest banks to keep winning with upside earnings surprises. Here are the top picks from Wells Fargo:

  • Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $60 from $56 (versus $50.59 close).
  • Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $125 from $115 (versus $99.79 close).
  • Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $855 from $785 (versus $786.76 close).
  • J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $345 from $325 (versus $308.90 close).

Wolfe Research issued new buy ratings on three top insurance providers in a larger sector coverage call. If you own a house, car or other property (or had life insurance) chances are high that you have had one of them or will one day have one of them as your insurance provider. These were the three:

  • Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) was started as Outperform with a $235 price target; prior close $196.89 and 52-week range of 176.00 to $214.76
  • Chubb Limited (NYSE: CB) was started as Outperform with a $320 price target; prior close $274.33 and 52-week range of $252.16 to $306.91.
  • MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET) was started as Outperform with a $95 price target; prior close $80.46 and 52-week range of $65.21 to $89.05.

 

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