Wall Street’s latest bullish turn is becoming more selective.
As US stocks push back toward record territory after absorbing a bruising spell of geopolitical anxiety, Morgan Stanley is steering investors away from blanket optimism.
The bank is highlighting names where it sees a clearer mismatch between market sentiment and underlying business strength.
That is the backdrop for the bank’s latest 2026 “top pick” call, which centers on Intuit and Equinix, two very different companies, but that still offer meaningful upside.
Morgan Stanley strategist Michael Wilson continues to view the selloff as more of a correction than a prolonged downturn, while the S&P 500 has rebounded sharply from its late-March low and finished April 14 just 0.2% below its January record.
Why Morgan Stanley is making this call now
The timing matters as markets have spent weeks wrestling with the fallout from the Middle East conflict.
Yet the tone on Wall Street has shifted as earnings expectations have held up better than feared and oil has come off its peaks.
Morgan Stanley still favors cyclical sectors and quality growth stocks, arguing that improving earnings growth and healthier valuations show that recent weakness was not the start of a bear market.
In that environment, the bank’s latest stock calls read like a search for companies where the next catalyst is visible, and the valuation case remains compelling.
Intuit stock: A contrarian reset with the biggest upside
Intuit is the more aggressive of the two calls, and the one with the sharper recovery angle.
Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss has elevated the financial software group to “Top Pick,” arguing that the selloff tied to fears of AI disruption has gone too far.
The bull case rests on a mix of depressed sentiment and near-term catalysts, including continued momentum in TurboTax, Assisted Tax, and the company’s midmarket accounting and services push.
Intuit’s own results give that view some support: in fiscal second quarter 2026, the company reported revenue of $4.7 billion, up 17% from a year earlier.
The non-GAAP diluted earnings per share rose 25% to $4.15.
Consumer revenue climbed 15%, with Credit Karma up 23% and TurboTax up 12%.
Morgan Stanley’s $580 price target implies about 58% upside from the current share price of $366.80.
Equinix: The steadier infrastructure compounder
Equinix offers a very different kind of upside.
Rather than a bruised growth name waiting for sentiment to recover, it is being pitched as a durable infrastructure winner tied to the long buildout in AI.
Morgan Stanley analyst Cameron McVeigh has named the data-center REIT a top pick, citing strong long-term fundamentals.
He expects near double-digit revenue and AFFO-per-share growth from 2026 to 2029, driven by new capacity and rising interconnection demand.
In its latest reported quarter, Equinix posted fourth-quarter 2025 revenue of $2.42 billion, up 7% year over year, while diluted AFFO per share rose to $8.91 from $7.92 a year earlier.
The company expects full-year 2026 revenue of $10.123 billion to $10.223 billion and AFFO growth of 11% to 13%.
Equinix also says it serves more than 10,500 customers through a global platform of 280-plus data centers, underscoring the scale and stickiness of its colocation franchise.
Morgan Stanley’s $1,250 target implies about 18% upside from the current price of $1,057.37.
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