At their monthly meeting in December, Jim Cramer and Jeff Marks, Director of Portfolio Analysis at Investing Club, prepared for the stock market in 2026, including identifying unpopular stocks that are currently strong buys. Here we provide rapid updates on the latest information on each stock in our portfolio. We’ll start with seven currently out-of-fashion stocks that Jim says should be back in style soon. 7 Unpopular Stocks to Buy 1. Boeing: This is a hated stock that has been unfairly hurt. Jim says investors should consider buying now. Since our last monthly meeting, we have used that weakness as an opportunity to strengthen our position. The aircraft maker’s turnaround story remains promising under CEO Kelly Ortberg, especially considering its strong free cash flow performance. 2. Danaher: Buy this neglected stock as biotech funding picks up steam. The more biotech companies go public, the more buyers there will be for Danaher’s equipment. 3. Home Depot: The stock continues to fall due to weak same-store sales and a weak housing market. But they are sure to come back. This is the single best stock to own if President Donald Trump’s new Federal Reserve chief begins to accelerate rate cuts. 4. Honeywell International: Now is a great time to invest in this conglomerate before it splits into three publicly traded companies. Honeywell stock underperformed its peers for much of 2025 due to a Wall Street phenomenon known as “spin purgatory.” But once the three-way split is complete, it will ultimately unlock even more value for Honeywell. be patient. 5. Nike: Buy this retailer before next week’s earnings report. I don’t know if it will make a good print. But we believe in the turnaround story under CEO Elliott Hill. For this stock to skyrocket, old stock needs to go away. We believe Mr. Hill is taking the right steps. 6. Procter & Gamble: It’s not too late to buy Procter & Gamble before its new CEO Shailesh Jejrikar takes over next month and its stock price skyrockets. From there, the real cleaning begins. 7. Texas Roadhouse: Cattle prices are weighing on this stock, but that may finally be breaking down. That’s exactly why it’s a great time to buy shares in this high-quality restaurant stock. After all, value-conscious consumers prefer this location for its affordable prices. …and more 27 1. Apple: This tech stock will no longer be popular among investors in 2025. Jim believes the iPhone is the greatest product in the world. The company also has a strong management team led by CEO Tim Cook. Again, we say we “own and don’t do business” with Apple. 2. Amazon: Jim would be willing to pay more for this e-commerce and cloud giant, even though it is the worst-performing of the big-cap tech companies. Jim said Amazon’s poor performance is a buying opportunity for new investors, given Amazon’s industry-leading cloud business and the potential to reaccelerate its Prime membership numbers. Stock prices should improve next year. 3. Broadcom: Shares fell sharply on Friday after the company’s quarterly results beat revenue and bottom line. This was a misconception, as the chipmaker still has great fundamentals. Jim recommends waiting two days for the dust to clear before purchasing. 4. BlackRock: Just because this financial stock is underperforming doesn’t mean you should sell. This decline may be due to concerns about private credit exposure. But we are not worried. As long as fee growth is strong and CEO Larry Fink is at the helm, we’ll be here for a long time. 5. Bristol-Myers Squibb: The company’s position in this biopharmaceutical name is small, but it recently received a boost after announcing that late-stage studies of its promising drug Cobenfi in treating Alzheimer’s disease psychosis require more time, including enrolling more patients, which the market took as a positive sign. 6. Capital One: Jim predicts the stock could rise to $300 in 2026, implying a 25% increase from Thursday’s closing price. With its recent acquisition of Discover, the credit card issuer has created a strong competitor to American Express. This will likely be CEO Richard Fairbank’s final act, but it will be a great one. 7. Costco: The company reported a solid quarter late Thursday, but a slowdown in non-food categories gave bears an excuse to drive the stock lower. Still, Jim has no intention of selling Costco. Because Costco is a well-run retailer with a durable business model. 8. Salesforce: The SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) company recently had its best quarter in a long time, featuring strong profit growth, so it was hard to exit the stock. While AI remains an existential threat to Salesforce’s seat-based business model, CEO Marc Benioff is pivoting into the world of artificial intelligence with his Agentforce product. 9. CrowdStrike: This cybersecurity giant is a far cry from the company that caused a massive global IT outage just a year and a half ago. Jim said it was a time to buy on weakness, as CEO George Kurtz’s swift and decisive leadership had enabled CrowdStrike to effectively weather the crisis. After the stock ended 2024 up more than 30%, investors who bought the dip were rewarded handsomely. CrowdStrike stock is up 46% so far in 2025. 10. Cisco Systems: We have more confidence in Cisco after the networking company reported quarterly results and an upgraded outlook in mid-November. This was driven by accelerated growth in product orders, particularly from hyperscale AI customers. I was very grateful to hear that the campus network update cycle is also underway. The security business still needs to recover, but we cannot afford to leave it alone. 11. DuPont: This industrial stock is poised for further upside after the recent spinoff of Qnity Electronics. Lesson learned: Don’t give up on a company that is dissolving. You are simply running away from value. The specialty chemicals business is great. 12. Dover: After a long period of stagnation, stock prices have made an impressive recovery since mid-October. I bought the stock on the way down because the strong fundamentals remained the same. I’m glad we did this, as Dover is trading at its highest since February. 13. Eaton: This stock has been volatile lately. However, we’re sticking with it. Eaton has a great data center business. Deutsche Bank earlier this week announced the power solutions company as its top choice for 2026. 14. GE Vernova: Shares surged more than 15% in this week’s trading after positive reports from management, prompting us to raise our price target. This large turbine manufacturer supports the construction of data centers and is a big beneficiary of the AI boom. 15. Corning: The maker of fiber optics, connectors, and hardware used in AI data centers has performed well in 2025, with its stock up more than 86%. Shares fell on Friday after Oracle’s disappointing results this week, reigniting fears of an AI bubble. But they still have too many wins to further improve our position. 16. Goldman Sachs: We decided to sell this high-performing bank stock at a significant profit earlier this month. The club believes Goldman is the big winner in the trade recovery. 17. Linde: Despite overall lackluster performance in 2025, the industrial gas giant’s stock price has recovered in the last few sessions. We were encouraged this week by the news that CEO Sanib Lamba had bought nearly $1 million in Linde stock. This is a great sign of positive confidence from management. 18. Eli Lilly: This stock has recently fallen back after reaching a $1 trillion market cap, making it a difficult stock to own. However, the FDA may expedite the launch of Lilly’s oral weight loss drug olglypron, which could help boost the stock price. The company is ready to launch and is unlikely to face supply constraints as was the case with Mounjaro. “We’re in it for the long haul,” Jim said, adding that he would consider buying if it drops a bit further. 19. Metaplatforms: Social media giants have figured out how to dominate the advertising market, but what continues to worry investors is the sheer volume of AI spending. However, management recently announced that it is cutting back on Metaverse projects, giving investors like us confidence that the company has more flexibility to shift investments to other growth areas. 20. Microsoft: This is one of the best enterprise software stories about successfully bringing AI across a suite of cloud tools to improve productivity. Cloud revenue also increased thanks to a partnership with AI startup OpenAI. In fact, Microsoft was the only Magnificent Seven stock up on Thursday as the market turned away from technology. 21. Nvidia: Stock prices have fallen in recent months, and Jim said the chip’s stock price could fall further. However, Jim advised members to be patient. With big demand from China and the expected debut of new inference chips, Nvidia will bounce back. After all, the club made a huge profit in NVIDIA by not listening to the naysayers. “We’ve seen this many times,” he said of Nvidia’s decline. “The stock is undervalued, so you have to buy it.” 22. Palo Alto Networks: The cybersecurity giant’s stock has fallen more than 8% over the past month. This is despite the company announcing better-than-expected quarterly results and a positive full-year outlook in late November. We took advantage of that drop to further strengthen our position. While Wall Street may be wary of Palo Alto’s acquisitions of CyberArk and Chronosphere, we see these deals as positioning the company to differentiate itself in the AI era. 23. Qnity Electronics: This is a great stock and also one of the cheapest stocks in the group. The company’s exposure to long-term trends such as high-performance computing and artificial intelligence makes it worth keeping around since its split from DuPont. 24. Starbucks: The coffee giant is in the middle of a turnaround led by CEO Brian Nicol, who Jim has full confidence in. Although progress has taken longer than initially expected, progress is being made with improved sales in the core US market. We expect the turnaround to become even more tangible in 2026. 25. Solstice Advanced Materials: This specialty chemical company was recently separated from the club’s name, Honeywell. This stock has already been a winner since it went public. As reflected in the company’s November quarter results, Solstice’s revenue growth is among the highest in the group, driven by attractive end markets such as electronics. 26. TJX Company: Off-price retailers are a bright spot in the retail industry as consumers seek higher quality products at lower prices. Thankfully, Marshalls and TJ Maxx parents have both. It came as no surprise to us when the company reported a strong quarter last month. We also expect TJX to benefit from the holiday season. 27. Wells Fargo: Once the least popular bank stock, Wells has grown significantly under CEO Charlie Scharf, whose leadership and turnaround plan led regulators to lift a long-standing $1.95 trillion asset cap this year. If the stock price continues to rise and the price/earnings ratio outperforms peers such as JPMorgan, consider selling some shares. (See here for a complete list of Jim Cramer Charitable Trust stocks.) As a subscriber to Jim Cramer’s CNBC Investment Club, you will receive trade alerts before Jim makes a trade. After Jim sends a trade alert, he waits 45 minutes before buying or selling stocks in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim talks about a stock on CNBC TV, he will issue a trade alert and then wait 72 hours before executing the trade. The above investment club information is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, along with our disclaimer. No fiduciary duties or obligations exist or arise from your receipt of information provided in connection with the Investment Club. No specific results or benefits are guaranteed.
