The second half of 2026 begins on Wednesday, and investors should buy several technology stocks to maximize their returns before the end of the year, according to analysts at Rosenblatt Securities. The stock market has gathered a lot of momentum since January. Through midday Tuesday, the S & P 500 was up 9.5% in the first half, hitting 24 all-time highs. Those gains were spread across several sectors, including technology, healthcare and finance. As the market enters the second half of 2026, stocks seem poised to continue their climb. All three major stock indexes have rallied in first two days of the week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at a record high above 52,000 on Monday. Rosenblatt polled its analysts to come up with their best ideas, saying the resulting group of eight stocks offer "attractive risk-reward profiles" entering the second half of 2026. The group takes in a variety of industries, from artificial intelligence to cloud and quantum computing. Among its top picks are Ambarella , Quantinuum and Twilio . Ambarella Ambarella is likely to rally in the latter half of the year, largely due to its massive exposure to the burgeoning physical AI industry, according to Rosenblatt. "We see AMBA as a Physical AI pure play," analyst Kevin Cassidy said Tuesday in the Rosenblatt report. "Applications such as surveillance, robotics, industrial automation, drones and autonomous systems require high-performance, low-power AI vision processors close to the sensor. Ambarella's algorithm first AI [security operations center] architecture delivers." Cassidy has a buy rating on the semiconductor stock, with a $120 price target, equal to 79% gain from Monday's close. Shares have soared 74% in the past three months. Quantinuum The quantum computing stock looks inexpensive, and its shares could soon more than double, making it a solid addition to investors' portfolios in the second half, Rosenblatt said. "QNT is our top pick for [the second half of 2026]," analyst John McPeake wrote Tuesday. "We expect the stock's discount to the peer group to close as the company demonstrates additional quantum compute [key performance indicators] and likely signed additional customers." McPeake rates Quantinuum a buy and has a 12-month price target of $155, suggesting 113% upside from Monday's close. Although the stock trades at a 52% discount to quantum computing rivals, Quantinuum has the "most powerful production quantum computer on earth," giving it a competitive edge that could eventually drive upside, McPeake wrote. Twilio Twilio is poised to score further gains as the cloud communications company deepens its push to integrate AI into voice-based products, Rosenblatt said. "The launch of Twilio's next-generation conversation layer … combined with a rebuilt console and developer workbench that offer seamless multi-product free trials positions Twilio as neutral infrastructure for the emerging agentic era," analyst Catharine Trebnick wrote Tuesday. The analyst has a buy rating on Twilio, and a $230 price target that implies 16% upside from Monday's close. Twilio offers a human-like speech generation tool, ConversationRelay, as well as a phone call transcription service called Conversational Intelligence. With those offerings, the company has "significant opportunities for cross-selling products in its portfolio," Trebnick said. Twilio has climbed 68% in the past three months.
<small>Source: CNBC</small>
