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Further Reading from MarketBeat.com 5 Stocks Retail Investors Are Betting on for 2026Written by Ryan Hasson. Published: 1/5/2026. 
Quick Look - Retail stock picks have shown real edge in recent years, with previous retail favorites like NVIDIA, Palantir, and Robinhood outperforming the market.
- Retail’s 2026 favorites span quality and growth, led by Amazon and Alphabet, alongside space and AI infrastructure names.
- For all of their top picks, execution will matter most, as earnings, contracts, and scalability will determine whether momentum continues.
A new year of trading and investing has begun, and optimism across markets is high. Risk appetite has returned, speculation is elevated, and retail investors are again embracing bold ideas for the year ahead. Unlike prior cycles, retail enthusiasm is no longer dismissed as noise: in recent years, retail-driven stock selection has often outperformed the broader market and even institutional benchmarks. Gone are the days when retail attention was defined solely by short squeezes and viral trades. The GameStop (NYSE: GME) era was a turning point, but what followed has been more consequential. Retail investors have increasingly identified durable growth stories early, with names like Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), Palantir (NASDAQ: PLTR), Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD), and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) becoming long-term winners rather than short-term trades. That evolution was on display again in a recent poll on the WallStreetBets subreddit, where members voted on their top stock picks for the year ahead. The same community ran a similar survey in 2025, and the basket of top-voted stocks delivered a cumulative return of roughly 76% for the year. Past performance never guarantees future results, but those returns underscore why retail sentiment warrants attention. As 2026 begins, here is a closer look at retail's five most upvoted stock picks for the year ahead and why each one has captured everyday investors' imaginations. First Place: Amazon Tops the List With Strong Retail Conviction Taking the top spot for 2026 is Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), a result that may surprise some given the forum's reputation for favoring speculative growth names. Instead, retail investors have rallied behind one of the largest and most established companies in the world—a sign of how sentiment around Amazon has shifted. Retail enthusiasm aligns with Wall Street. Amazon carries a consensus Moderate Buy rating, and the average price target of $295.50 implies nearly 31% upside from current levels. In other words, Main Street and Wall Street are largely in agreement heading into 2026. Technically, the setup looks constructive. Amazon has spent several months consolidating above the $220 level, tightening its range while maintaining a higher-timeframe uptrend. A sustained move above $240 would likely signal a breakout, putting the stock back into momentum mode after digesting prior gains. Fundamentals also support the bullish case. Amazon reported third-quarter 2025 earnings on Oct. 30, delivering earnings per share of $1.95, well above the consensus estimate of $1.57. Revenue rose 13.4% year-over-year (YOY) to $180.17 billion, also beating expectations. While the headline numbers were solid, the real focus remains on profitability trends. Valuation has normalized after years of compression and expansion. Both current and forward price-to-earnings ratios now sit closer to peer averages, making future performance increasingly dependent on earnings execution. The key driver heading into 2026 is operating leverage. If Amazon Web Services and advertising continue to grow strongly, operating profit should outpace revenue growth. That dynamic is already visible: in the third quarter, AWS revenue rose 20% YOY, its fastest growth rate in several years. AWS accounted for almost two-thirds of Amazon's operating profit during the quarter, so its reacceleration is particularly significant. With its most profitable business regaining momentum and advertising helping commerce margins, Amazon enters 2026 with a credible path to renewed outperformance. Second Place: Rocket Lab Combines Momentum With Strong Fundamentals Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) claimed second place, reflecting sustained retail conviction rather than short-term hype. Shares of the aerospace and defense company have surged more than 2,000% over the past three years. Those returns are extraordinary, yet retail investors remain focused on what lies ahead rather than past gains. That optimism stems from an unusually deep pipeline of catalysts. Rocket Lab is entering a pivotal phase of its growth story, combining strong execution in its core business with transformational opportunities on the horizon. The most crucial long-term catalyst is Neutron. Designed as a medium-lift rocket capable of carrying payloads up to 13,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit, Neutron would dramatically expand Rocket Lab's addressable market. It would allow the company to compete for larger defense contracts, constellation deployments, and commercial missions not accessible with its Electron rocket. If Rocket Lab can replicate Electron's reliability at a larger scale, Neutron could reshape the company's revenue profile beginning in 2026 and beyond. Another tailwind lies outside Rocket Lab's direct control but could have an outsized impact. Speculation around a SpaceX IPO has renewed investor interest across the public space sector. With SpaceX widely rumored to be preparing for a public listing as early as mid-2026, valuations across the industry could be repriced. As one of the few publicly traded, vertically integrated space companies, Rocket Lab would likely benefit. Wall Street has taken notice. After winning an $816 million Space Development Agency contract to build 18 satellites, analysts sharply raised price targets—Needham to $90 and Stifel to $85—citing Rocket Lab's evolution into a defense prime contractor. Heading into 2026, the stock carries a consensus Moderate Buy rating with a price target near $61. Third Place: AST SpaceMobile Emerges as the Most Polarizing Pick AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS) is one of the more polarizing picks on the list. The company is developing a space-based cellular broadband network that connects standard mobile phones directly to satellites, eliminating the need for specialized hardware. Shares surged more than 260% in 2025, putting ASTS squarely on retail radars. Analyst sentiment is far more cautious. Based on 11 analysts, the stock carries a consensus Hold rating; the average price target of $45.66 implies more than 45% downside from current levels. That disconnect reflects valuation concerns. AST SpaceMobile currently has a market capitalization north of $30 billion, remains unprofitable, and trades at an extreme price-to-sales multiple—metrics that prompt institutional caution. Retail investors see optionality. The stock is consolidating above key moving averages, short interest sits near 15%, and the broader space sector appears poised for renewed attention in 2026. For retail, ASTS represents upside potential rather than certainty. For optimism to translate into sustainable gains, the company must deliver tangible progress. That includes successful BlueBird satellite deployments and high-profile contract wins that validate its technology and revenue model. Without those milestones, valuation risk will remain elevated. Fourth Place: Alphabet Wins Over Retail, Analysts, and Institutions Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) claimed fourth place, reflecting a rare alignment among retail investors, institutions, and analysts. After a period of skepticism, Alphabet staged one of the most impressive mega-cap turnarounds of 2025. The company delivered multiple strong earnings reports, including its third quarter, in which revenue exceeded $100 billion—underscoring the scale and diversification of its business. Growth has extended beyond advertising, with Google Cloud emerging as a meaningful profit engine. Artificial intelligence has become central to the story. Products like Google Overviews and the launch of the Gemini 3 large language model have reshaped market perception. Alphabet's long-standing investment in proprietary TPU hardware has given it a head start in training and deploying AI models at scale. Institutional flows reflect that shift. Over the past 12 months, Alphabet attracted $140 billion in inflows, compared with $74 billion in outflows. The stock carries a consensus Moderate Buy rating, and its forward P/E of 28 appears reasonable given its growth trajectory. For retail investors, a pullback toward support near $300 could present an attractive entry point heading into 2026. Fifth Place: Nebius Emerges as an AI Infrastructure Powerhouse Rounding out the list is Nebius Group N.V. (NASDAQ: NBIS), a name still unfamiliar to many investors but one that is increasingly difficult to ignore. The company operates a diversified ecosystem of AI-driven platforms, including Nebius AI cloud infrastructure, Toloka AI data services, autonomous vehicle technology through Avride, and tech education via TripleTen. Nebius has quickly emerged as a major player in AI computing power. Its infrastructure is optimized for high-intensity workloads, making it an attractive partner for companies scaling AI operations. After surging 234% over the past year, the stock carries a consensus Buy rating from 10 analysts, with a price target implying more than 60% upside. Institutional interest has followed. Over the last 12 months, Nebius recorded $3.4 billion in inflows, compared with $821 million in outflows. The growth outlook is striking: management expects annual run-rate revenue of $7 billion to $9 billion in 2026, up from a run rate of $551 million at the end of Q3 2025. The projected increase is driven by long-term contract wins with hyperscalers such as Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). If those projections materialize, current analyst targets may prove conservative.
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