3 Hidden Gem AI Stocks to Buy Now

• (0:30) - Finding Hidden AI Stocks That You Should Consider For Your Portfolio
• (9:00) - How To Screen For Zacks #1 Rank Stocks
• (16:05) - Tracey’s Top Stock Picks For Your Watchlist
• (41:10) - Episode Roundup: ECG, FIX, ALNT, ARMN, RHI
•                 [email protected]

Welcome to Episode #464 of the Zacks Market Edge Podcast.

Every week, host and Zacks stock strategist, Tracey Ryniec, will be joined by guests to discuss the hottest investing topics in stocks, bonds, and ETFs and how it impacts your life.

This week, Tracey is going solo to discuss how investors can use the Zacks Rank system to find hidden gem AI stocks to buy right now.

All investors know the top AI stocks such as NVIDIA Corp. and Palantir. But the AI Revolution story involves more than just these mega-cap companies.

The AI infrastructure must be built out and that includes building data centers, cooling them, building out the interiors with racks and chips, and finding the power to keep them operating.

There are more companies involved in the AI infrastructure build-out than you might think.

But how do you find them? NVIDIA is an obvious investment if you’re looking for an AI stock.

But how do you find the hidden gems that few know about?

Look at the Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) Stocks

The Zacks Rank is a short-term recommendation of just 1 to 3 months that looks at revisions to analyst earnings estimates. If more analysts are revising their earnings estimates higher in the last week or 30 days, the more bullish it is.

At the time of this podcast, there were 209 stocks that were Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks. This is the top Zacks Rank.

How Do You Find AI Stocks with the Top Zacks Rank?

Unfortunately, there is no “AI Revolution” industry or sector. That would have made it easy. The AI stocks are in numerous industries from semiconductors, to construction, to engineering, and to electronics. Some may be in industries that you would never think would be involved in AI at all.

Tracey had to manually look at each individual stock to see if they were involved in the AI Revolution.

3 Top AI Stocks to Buy Now

1. Everus Construction Group (ECG)

Everus Construction is a construction services provider with a market cap of $5.1 billion. It’s Electrical & Mechanical segment was up 42.9% to $767.3 million in the third quarter, due to continued growth in the data center submarket.

Did someone say data center?

Shares of Everus Construction are up 43.8% year-to-date to a new all-time high. Earnings are expected to rise 27.8% this year. Everus has a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 27.9.

Everus is a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock.

Should investors have Everus on their short list?

2. Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (FIX)

Comfort Systems is a building and service provider in mechanical, electrical, modular and plumbing building systems. It is a large cap company with a market cap of $33.7 billion.

Data centers need to be powered and cooled. Comfort Systems is a hidden gem AI play.

In the third quarter of 2025, Comfort Systems reported a backlog of $9.38 billion. It was the first time the backlog had ever been over $9 billion.

Shares of Comfort Systems have soared 127% year-to-date to new all-time highs. It’s not cheap, with a forward P/E ratio of 36.3. A P/E over 30 is considered expensive.

But Comfort Systems is expected to grow its earnings by 80% this year.

Should Comfort Systems be on your short list?

3. Allient Inc. (ALNT)

Allient is a global engineering and manufacturing company. In the third quarter of 2025 it had double-digit revenue growth and record gross margin of 33.3%. The industrial market revenue was up 20% in Q3 due to strong demand for power solutions in HVAC/data center.

Allient is a small cap company with a market cap of $887 million. It’s in the Zacks industry of Electronics – Miscellaneous Components.

Shares of Allient are up 117.1% year-to-date. Earnings are expected to rise 35.6% in 2025. Allient has an attractive P/E ratio of 25.9.

Should this small cap engineering company be on your AI short list?

What Else Should You Know About Using the Zacks Rank to Find Top AI Stocks?

Tune into this week’s podcast to find out.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research