Analyst reveals 3 AI stocks to dominate 2026 – plus, Meta’s next move

Wall Street analysts see more room for action for the four Club stocks that broke records in 2025. A new comment from a Rosenblatt Securities analyst shows what a financial windfall a new deal from Meta Platforms could be. Meanwhile, Wedbush details exactly why CrowdStrike, Apple, and Microsoft are the winners from AI development next year. Here is a transcript of both reports and the Club's views on each. News: Meta shares rose on Tuesday after Facebook's parent company announced plans to acquire Manus, a Singapore-based developer of artificial intelligence agents. A Wall Street analyst also praised the acquisition. Although financial terms were not disclosed, The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday that the deal was worth more than $2 billion. Meta will sell its Manus service, its equivalent of a digital assistant, and integrate its technology into offerings like the Meta AI assistant. "Manus already serves the daily needs of millions of users and businesses around the world," Meta said in a statement. he said. “We plan to expand this service to many more businesses.” In response, Rosenblatt reaffirmed his $1,117 price target for Meta shares; This represents an increase of nearly 70% from Monday's close and 40% above all-time highs from August. In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett said Manus was not only a "great deal" but also a "rocket ship growth story" for the company. In fact, this could be as successful as past homerun acquisitions such as Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. That's because, according to Crockett, Manus "fits in really nicely" with WhatsApp's growing footprint in small and medium-sized businesses. These AI agents can make the customer experience more convenient and efficient. Rosenblatt has a buy rating on the shares. Club comment: The Manus deal further advances Meta's AI ambitions, which we have been optimistic about for some time. That's why the club bought more Meta shares last month; This is our first Meta purchase in three years. We also like that Meta has a top-notch team of engineers for its TBD labs, the unit that oversees large language models. This is due to Meta's aggressive efforts to poach the industry's top AI talent. Meta is also reportedly planning to cut costs in its metadata business, giving the tech giant more flexibility to invest in artificial intelligence and other fast-growing areas. We're not sure if the Manus acquisition will be as transformative as Rosenblatt claims. But it will probably help monetize WhatsApp. The integration could help small businesses on the messaging platform and potentially increase revenues as Meta helps customers leverage these intermediaries. The club has an $825 price target for the shares. META YTD Mountain Meta Platforms (META) year-to-date performance News: Wedbush's Dan Ives lists Microsoft, Apple, and CrowdStrike among the firm's "top five names that will play the AI revolution in 2026." The other two were Palantir and Tesla. Analysts reiterated a buy-equivalent rating on each. Wedbush says Wall Street is 'mitigating' Microsoft's situation [the] Analysts added that 2026 will be the "real breakthrough year" for Microsoft's AI growth. Wedbush has a $625 price target on tech stocks, implying a 28% upside from Monday's close. The price target is 12% above Microsoft's all-time July high. Although Apple's AI rollout has been challenging, analysts say the iPhone maker has massively loaded hardware. Wedbush argued that the base will be a significant advantage once management delivers: "We believe the AI monetization piece could add $75 to $100 per share to Apple's story over the next few years as it finally winds down after a confusing AI strategy in Apple Park this year." Analysts maintained their price target of $350, which puts the company's PT almost 28% below the record Apple set earlier this month. Finally, Wedbush says AI integration could be a tailwind for CrowdStrike by not only improving the cybersecurity firm's ability to automate threat detection but also making cyber attacks more sophisticated. This increases demand for CrowdStrike's offerings. His $600 price target for the shares is up nearly 39% this year, last hitting a record high of $566.90 in November. Wedbush's price target indicates a 26% upside from Monday's closing price: Each of these stocks is a clear winner of the AI revolution. We disagree with Wedbush on this issue, and believe that each has a strong opinion that when it comes to Microsoft, the tech company has successfully integrated artificial intelligence. Also, just because Apple is late to the AI party doesn't mean it will lose the race. Apple doesn't have a track record of being first to market, but CrowdStrike was also one of the best when he was the company's CEO, he said. “Every day, businesses experience disruptive moments and witness first-hand hostile AI-powered business activity,” Kurtz said. “Just as anyone can now use AI to generate vibration code and become a software engineer, anyone can now hack vibration and become a sophisticated adversary of AI.” This makes CrowdStrike's offerings even more critical (see here for a full list of Jim Cramer's shares). Charitable Trust .) By subscribing to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a transaction alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable foundation's portfolio. After Jim talks about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing his trading alert before executing the trade. 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