Deutsche Bank updated its investment ideas for the fourth quarter. What to expect from the favorites?

Deutsche Bank analysts have updated their list of stocks with the greatest potential for the fourth quarter, highlighting 38 companies, of which 22 are named for the first time. The focus was on tech giants and new beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence trend, from Palo Alto Networks and Lam Research to Amazon and Meta. Deutsche calculates that its lists since July 2017 have generated returns higher than the main U.S. index, the S&P 500.

In the technology, media and telecom sector, the bank has identified nine of the most interesting ideas, including four new ones, MarketWatch writes. Among them is Palo Alto Networks, which is still lagging the S&P 500 index, but, according to analyst Brad Zelnick, is able to outperform the market due to its strong position in cybersecurity, the use of AI and expansion through mergers and acquisitions. In July, the company said it would buy CyberArk for $25 billion, with the deal expected to close in the second half of 2026.

The list includes Visa, whose shares have added only 9% this year against the S&P 500's 14% rise. Analyst Nate Svensson believes the market is overreacting to temporary fears of a slowdown in cross-border payments and stablecoins. In his opinion, Visa is able to capitalize on the growth in consumer spending and new payment flows, including the B2B segment.

Another favorite is Lam Research, whose shares have nearly doubled since the beginning of the year. Analyst Melissa Weathers added them to the list, noting improved dynamics in the dynamic DRAM segment and signs of a turnaround in the NAND (a type of flash memory) market. End-device demand and DRAM shortages are creating a favorable environment for OEMs, she said.

Amazon remained on the list despite the stock's weak performance in 2025 (adding only 0.5%). Investors are concerned about the slowdown in growth of the AWS cloud division, but analyst Lee Horowitz is confident: generative AI is accelerating digital transformation, infrastructure spending will be in the trillions of dollars, and Amazon will retain its leadership in the cloud sphere.

Analyst Ben Black also noted Meta, whose shares have risen 23% since the beginning of the year. In his opinion, the company can significantly outperform the market and competitors thanks to "the most stable advertising platform" and new opportunities related to foundation models - large universal artificial intelligence models that are trained on huge data sets and can solve a wide range of problems.

The full quarterly list of high-confidence stocks that the bank's analysts recommend as the best investment ideas includes companies across industries, from Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Hyatt Hotels to Eli Lilly, McKesson and Archer Aviation.

Since the strategy's launch in July 2017, the list's total return has been 241% versus 213% for the S&P 500, Deutsche Bank says.

- Coca-Cola

- Hyatt Hotels

- Life Time Group

- Starbucks

- American International Group

- Charles Schwab

- S&P Global

- Synchrony Financial

- Webster Financial

- Welltower

- Wells Fargo

- Acadia Healthcare

- Alkermes

- Danaher

- Eli Lilly

- McKesson

- Penumbra

- Repligen

- Archer Aviation

- Alaska Air Group

- Celanese

- Constellium

- Navigator Holdings

- nVent Electric

- Pentair

- Trex

- Union Pacific

- Visteon

- Woodward

- Cellebrite

- EchoStar

- New York Times

- NXP Semiconductors

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor