JP Morgan’s Top 3 Stocks for 2026: The Halftime Scorecard

The post JP Morgan’s Top 3 Stocks for 2026: The Halftime Scorecard appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Back on December 27, 2025, we wrote about J.P. Morgan’s three overweight picks for 2026 with the highest implied upside: Bright Horizons Family Solutions (NYSE: BFAM), Celsius (NASDAQ: CELH), and GE Vernova (NYSE: GEV). At the halfway point of the year, the scoreboard tells a counterintuitive story. The pick with the lowest percentage upside, GE Vernova, has cleared its target. The two names J.P. Morgan flagged with the largest implied gains have moved in the other direction.

We compared each stock’s move since the original call to J.P. Morgan’s full-year 2026 target, weighing operational drivers, beat-and-raise cadence, and Wall Street’s current consensus. Counting down from worst to best:

3. Bright Horizons Family Solutions

J.P. Morgan had a 2026 price target of $160 for this stock. Shares closed at $70.89 on June 29, 2026, leaving it down 30.1% year to date. That is the deepest hole of the trio.

The Q4 2025 report looked fine on the surface, with adjusted EPS of $1.15 versus $1.12 consensus and revenue of $733.70 million. The problem: management disclosed plans to close 45 to 50 centers in 2026, nearly double the prior estimate, paired with $45.1 million in impairment and lease-termination charges. Multiple law firms initiated securities fraud investigations after the revision. Labor-market softness and enrollment pressure in full-service child care have hit the thesis hard, even as Back-Up Care generated more than $725 million in 2025 revenue.

Wall Street still carries an analyst target of $91.11, the forward P/E is 15x, and FY 2026 guidance calls for adjusted EPS of $4.90 to $5.10 on revenue of $3.075 billion to $3.125 billion. The setup is reset-to-recover, but the J.P. Morgan target looks out of reach without a clean operational quarter.

2. Celsius

J.P. Morgan’s Celsius target was $68. Shares finished at $29.79 on June 29, 2026, down 34.9% since the beginning of the year. The frustrating part is that fundamentals are working. Q1 2026 delivered revenue of $782.62 million, up 137.7% year over year, beating consensus by 2.89%, with EPS of $0.41 versus the $0.293 estimate. Celsius reached a 20.9% dollar share of the U.S. energy drink category.

The market punished integration noise. Folding Alani Nu into PepsiCo’s distribution network compressed gross margin to 48.3% from 52.3%, Rockstar retail sales declined 13%, and a $24.6 million legal settlement accrual showed up in the quarter. CEO John Fieldly framed it as “a defining period for Celsius Holdings.”

Wall Street still carries an analyst target of $58.52 with 20 Buy or Strong Buy ratings against zero Sell ratings, and the forward P/E has compressed to 19x. J.P. Morgan’s $68 target is roughly the old high-water target, and clearing it requires margin recovery to the low-50s that management has guided toward.

1. GE Vernova

GE Vernova was the lowest-implied-upside pick of the three, and it is the runaway winner. J.P. Morgan’s $1,000 target has already been cleared: shares closed at $1,102.51 on June 29, 2026, up 68.7% year to date and 112.2% over the trailing year.

The driver is the AI and data-center power buildout. Q1 2026 revenue of $9.30 billion grew 15.8% year over year, with orders surging 71% organically to $18.30 billion. Electrification booked $2.40 billion in data-center equipment orders in Q1 alone, exceeding all of 2025. Backlog reached a record $150 billion in Q4 2025, and management is targeting 110-plus GW of combined gas turbine backlog and slot reservation agreements by year-end 2026. The 2026 guidance was raised again: revenue of $44.5 billion to $45.5 billion, adjusted EBITDA margin of 12% to 14%, and free cash flow of $6.5 to $7.5 billion.

CEO Scott Strazik said, “Demand is accelerating for our Power and Electrification solutions from a diverse set of customers, with our backlog growing by more than $13 billion quarter-over-quarter.” The consensus analyst target of $1,211.72 is just above current levels, the forward P/E is 37x, and shares trade 7% below the 52-week high of $1,181.95. The thesis is intact; the easy money is already on the table.

The Halftime Verdict

J.P. Morgan’s lowest-upside name carried the franchise. GE Vernova’s year-to-date move blew through the $1,000 price target, while Bright Horizons and Celsius, the two picks with the most implied upside, have undercut their targets by a wide margin. Secular tailwinds like AI-driven power demand can outrun even the most aggressive Wall Street price targets, while consumer and services names dependent on labor markets and brand integrations can stall regardless of how compelling the entry-point math looked in December.

The post JP Morgan’s Top 3 Stocks for 2026: The Halftime Scorecard appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..