5 Stocks I’d Buy Right Now (May 2026)

The stock market just saw their best one-month performance since November of 2020, climbing more than 10%. Does the momentum continue in May, or do we run the risk of the old saying, sell in May and go away? Dating back to the 1950s, the May through October period has been the weakest for stocks. But are times different now that the markets are being essentially run by AI stocks? Here's a look at the top performing S&P 500 stocks in 2026. SanDisk is up 400%, Intel 172%, Seagate 165%, Lum 159% and Western Digital 150%. Essentially, all of them related to AI. Those are insane results, especially given that we are only talking about four months. But today, we won't be talking about any of those stocks. Instead, I'm going to be walking you through five stocks that I believe are good buys at current levels. And the last stock we'll look at won't be a straight buy, but rather an option play. So stay tuned for that as well. These are not all the same types of stocks. Each one fits a different theme. Growth, commodities, cyber security, income, and even space. That diversification matters. Let's jump right into the list. Beginning with the name that has fallen out of favor with stock number one, which is going to be Spotify, stock ticker SPOT. This is a business that has finally started to flip the narrative. For years, the concern was no profitability, high content costs. Now, you're seeing margin expansion, pricing power, and operating leverage. Spotify is turning into a real business, not just a growth story. However, now that those concerns have eased, there's a new concern, and that's centered around AI. AI music has gained a lot of traction, but artists are already looking to fight that. Taylor Swift is one of them. Not sure I would ever mention her in one of my videos, but she recently filed a series of trademarks to protect from AI enabled impersonations. And Spotify themselves have been fighting back to take down AI related stocks. Last year alone, they took down more than 75 million fakes. In terms of performance though, shares of Spotify have fallen more than 25% with growing fears centered around AI. I believe those to be overblown because if AI music does in fact take over, this is a massive threat to all musicians. So with Spotify, let's check the financials. When looking at revenues, they continue to grow, but yes, topline revenue growth has been slowing. And look at this chart here. You can see both monthly active users for the ad supported tier and then premium tiers, both subscriber bases continue to grow as well. So are things still growing is the first question. We saw that answer. It's a yes. But are they growing slower? And that's also a yes. So when we look at valuation multiples, I would expect them to fall and be much lower than they were. This is a company that only became profitable just a few years ago. And it was trading at 70 times and a 40x multiple the past 2 years. And as you can see here, earnings are still expected to grow roughly 22% on average over the next couple of years. So there's still plenty of growth to be had. But today, you can pick up shares at just 29.7 times, giving the stock a PEG ratio of 1.3, which is pretty decent. Not the steel of a century. But in May, given the downward pressure, I'm going to look for a bounce in shares of Spotify. Valuations are well below historical norms. Users are up in both paid tiers and ads supported. And the company is not scared of AI. In fact, they're embracing it with things like AIDJ and using AI for more targeted ads. a similar approach that that of Google and Amazon and say Meta use. Analysts continue to be upbeat on the stock having a 12-month average price target of $600, giving the stock more than 35% upside from current levels. This is a product I use on a weekly basis, and I believe the pullback to be overdone. And before we move on to stock number two, let me thank today's video sponsor, which is Seeking Alpha. Seeking Alpha has a number of premium services, but one of their hottest is their Alpha Pick service. If you like these stock pick ideas that I do on this channel, you will also love the Alpha Pix tier, which gives you datadriven picks every single month. And as you can see from this chart, Alpha Pix has easily outperformed the S&P 500 the past few years alone. And when you use my link down in the description below, you'll also get $50 off. Give it a try today. All right, let's move on to stock number two, which is going to be Freeport Macaran, stock ticker FCX. This is a play on copper and in return it's a play on the continued growth of the AI buildout. Copper is a vital component for electrification, AI infrastructure and energy transition. Demand is strong and supply is constrained. That imbalance matters. Freeport has a market cap of $83 billion and it's up 55% over the past 12 months. Yet shares have pulled back 20% in the past week and a half alone. The company recently reported their latest earnings, hence the recent volatility that we have seen. They continue to see lingering impacts from the mine tragedy that happened in Indonesia which resulted in the company cutting their output targets for the year. 2026 should be the bottom though for this particular mine before things return to growth in 2027 and beyond. This chart here though that the company provided in their latest earnings I thought was very interesting. It shows their IBIDA and operating cash flow where it would end up depending on the price of copper. And as you can see here, the current price of copper is currently $6 a pound. So if we were to go back to that last slide, staying around that, their IBIDA and cash flow targets would need to increase because right now they're only assuming a $5 price. Therefore, the biggest risk to the company come by way of lower copper prices and less demand. And I could tell you right now, demand is not slowing anytime soon. If anything, it continues to pick up. From a valuation perspective, shares trade at just 22 times with earnings set to grow more than 40% each of the next two years. If you don't have any exposure to copper in some shape or form, you definitely want to think twice about that. And this FCX is a great opportunity. Now, let's move on to stock number three, which is going to be Zcaler, stock ticker ZS. And we just talked about the growth of AI and the buildout, but something that's being completely blown out of proportion is the importance of cyber security. Cyber security is not optional. Anthropic releases tools like Claude Co and the market price sells all cyber stocks. Selling stocks and asking questions later, that's a sure way to lose money. People did that with Google earlier in the AI process, but I was buying. People have done that with Nvidia recently in the past 12 months. Stock went down to 160. I was buying. People did the same thing with Amazon. I was buying. Now we get a chance with a company like Zcaler. And Zscaler is positioned in cloud security zero trust architecture which has become standard. The stock has a market cap of 21 billion and over the past 12 months shares of ZS have fell nearly 40%. Almost all of that coming in 2026 alone. The thing with AI is it can be great but cyber security is a necessity. Cyber stocks right now are not trading on fundamentals. They're trading on fear. Simple as that. Cloud code security does not replace cyber security companies. It's good for pre-eployment code scanning, a niche known as SAS or static application security testing, a good pre-scanner, but does not address the vast majority of enterprise security needs. And that there is what is creating an opportunity in cyber security companies like Zcaler. From a valuation perspective, this is the lowest you've been able to buy shares of ZS on an earnings basis alone. Analysts also continue to believe in the stock, giving them an average 12-month price target of $228 per share, implying more than 60% upside from current levels. And with that, let's move on to stock number four, which is going to be Vichy Property, stock ticker VIC. Vichy is a REIT or a real estate investment trust. And if you are looking for both share price gains mixed with high income while diversifying your portfolio into real estate, this is a name that's incredibly cheap. Vichi is a hospitality REIT. They own casino real estate, long-term leases, and have strong cash flow. And here's the key, these leases are long duration and inflation protected. So, you're getting yield, stability, and predictable income. Vichi also happens to be the largest landlord on the Las Vegas strip and during the pandemic was one of less than a handful of REITs that continued to collect 100% of the rent they were due, which was a testament to the type of highquality tenants they leased to. They own properties like Caesar's Palace, MGM Grand Park, MGM, the Venetian, Mandandalay Bay, New York, New York, and many more. Vichy currently has a market cap of $31 billion, and over the past 12 months, shares are down nearly 10%. When it comes to REITs, as investors, we pay no attention to EPS due to the large size of depreciation expense from all the real estate assets they own, but rather we do focus on what's called FFO or funds from operations, which can be thought of more like operating income to a degree. As you can see here, the company's FFO has increased every year in which they've been a public company, recently surpassing $3 billion. Since going public, shares of Vichy have traded an average price to FFO of 11.6 times. Today, you can pick up shares at 9.7 times in single digits. In addition to a cheap valuation, you also get that big yield at 6.2% with a 5-year dividend growth rate of 7% and seven consecutive years of dividend growth. Real estate has been a lagging sector for the past few years. In fact, they've been the worst sector in the S&P 500. But if you're looking for a big income play trading at a cheap valuation, look no further than Viche. And now let's move on to our final stock on today's list, which is going to be Rocket Labs, stock ticker RKB. This is your high-risk, high upside name. But remember, instead of buying it here, as much as I like the stock, I want to have a better entry point. In fact, I brought this stock to your attention last year in a video covering three stocks that could double your money in the next few years. Two stocks on that list were AMD and Rocket Labs. And they've already essentially doubled. AMD is up over 100% and Rocket Labs up nearly 80% since that video was released. Much faster than even I anticipated. But I say that to let you know that this is a name I've been high on for a while. Rocket Lab is building launch capabilities, space systems, infrastructure for the space economy. And if you don't think space is growing, I don't know what galaxy you're living in. Just look at SpaceX. that's ready to become the largest IPO ever by a long shot later this year. But with that being said, this is a name that has shot up and instead I want to approach this from an option standpoint. Looking here at this chart, we could see that shares are currently trading at nearly $79 per share down from their all-time highs that nearly touched $100 per share. From a technical perspective, we have the 50-day, which is the yellow line, crossing under the 100 day moving average, which is a bearish move. And then at the bottom of the chart, we have the MACD crossing below in another bearish move. So, I do expect further downside here, but I would be a buyer closer to that $60 range, which is near the 200 day moving average, which has proven to be a key level of support for the stock. As such, if we sold the $60 put expiring on June 18th, roughly 45 days or so from now, we could generate about $240 in income per contract, which would put you on the hook to purchase shares if they fell that low before June 18th. This is a play I will likely look at into the coming weeks. And if you're interested in options, I will be hosting a two-day options workshop this week on Wednesday and Thursday beginning at 700 p.m. Eastern time. You can check out how to start utilizing options to take your investing to the next level. See the link in the description below. So stepping back, we talked about Spotify improving fundamentals, Freeport Macmaran, Macro Tailwind with AI buildouts, Zcaler structural growth, Vichy Properties, income stability and great valuation. And then Rocket Labs, long-term upside, but we're looking for a better entry point through the use of options, generating income to wait to buy a stock at a price that we want to buy it at. Different angles, same idea. Positioning for what's next, not what has already happened. And if you want to see my entire portfolio option trade alerts, be sure to join my growing community, the Stock Investors Edge, you can see the link in the description below. And if you found any value in today's video, please kindly hit that like button down below, subscribe to the channel so you'll be notified anytime we drop new content. And with that being said, we'll see you in the next one. Take care.