By Michael Bloom
Publication Date: 2025-12-27 12:40:00
Morgan Stanley named several stocks that are best positioned going in to 2026. The Wall Street investment bank said companies such as Nvidia are its top ideas for next year. Other overweight-rated names screened by CNBC Pro include: Western Digital, Spotify and Palo Alto Networks. Spotify Spotify is firing on all cylinders, Morgan Stanley said. Analyst Benjamin Swinburne said the audio streamer and podcast platform has a unique combination of AI usage and growth upside. “We see the AI risk to music labels already discounted and an opportunity to reposition AI as a tailwind,” he added. Swinburne believes Spotify has many tools available to drive margin expansion , including pricing power. “While we expect Spotify to absorb per-subscriber minimum content cost increases in ’26, likely starting in January with at least [Warner Music Group], we believe it can drive enough [average revenue per subscriber] growth and benefit from other factors to deliver on our and consensus gross margin expansion expectations,” he wrote. Shares of the company are higher by 30% in 2025. Palo Alto Networks Analyst Meta Marshall has the cyber security provider as a best idea for 2026. Morgan Stanley recently raised its per-share price target to $245 from $228 and said the stock is too attractive to ignore at current prices. Marshall likes Palo Alto’s growth prospects and is bullish on its acquisition of CyberArk, which has yet to close. “We initially made PANW our Top Pick in September as we saw…