Zacks Investment Ideas feature highlights SanDisk, Western Digital and Teradyne

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – February 17, 2026 – Today, Zacks Investment Ideas feature highlights SanDisk SNDK, Western Digital WDC and Teradyne TER.

These 3 Zacks Strong Buy Stocks Reflect the Hottest S&P 500 Stocks of 2026

Though it may not feel like it amid recent concerns surrounding technology, particularly in software and some other stocks tied to the broader AI frenzy, many in the trade are still crushing it in the new year, delivering big-time gains.

And concerning the all-star performers, three stocks that sport the highly-coveted Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), SanDisk, Western Digital and Teradyne reflect the top three hottest S&P 500 stocks in 2026. What’s been driving the positivity?

SanDisk Soars

SanDisk shares have been melting higher in 2026 months as its role in the broader AI frenzy finally comes into focus. The stock is up more than 160% in the new year alone, by far reflecting one of the strongest moves we’ve seen.

AI is driving a huge surge in storage demand, which is where SanDisk comes in. NAND prices are rising rapidly, with AI data centers, cloud providers, and edge devices all needing more high-speed storage.

The company’s revenue acceleration is evident in recent quarterly releases, with sales of $3.0 billion climbing 61% year-over-year throughout its latest period. Its current fiscal year (ends in June) has also confirmed the favorable demand backdrop, with the current $14.1 billion estimate up a staggering 50% over the last year.

Can Western Digital Repeat as the Best?

WDC shares impressively reflected one of 2025’s top-performing S&P 500 stocks as well, with the fresh year already looking bright again. Western Digital provides scalable, sustainable technology for hyperscalers, enterprises, and cloud providers, providing cutting-edge innovation that’s expected to drive the next generation of AI-driven data workloads.

Up nearly 70%, the stock has been red-hot in the fresh year, underpinned by favorable quarterly results that have revealed a massive opportunity for the company.

The company’s cash-generating abilities have seen a nice boost thanks to the environment, with free cash flow of $653 million throughout its latest period up by a triple-digit 125%.

It’s critical to note that Western Digital also holds roughly a 20% stake in SNDK.

Teradyne Sales Melt Higher

Teradyne manufactures equipment used by other companies to test chips. Unsurprisingly, the fastest-growing segment here is chips for AI data centers and accelerators, and more complex chips mean greater test demand, with AI chips among the most complex right now.

Up 60%, the stock has enjoyed a great year so far, particularly so relative to the Zacks Technology sector, which is essentially flat YTD.

Teradyne’s sales growth has been incredible over recent periods, as shown below. Recent quarterly results came in above the high-end of previous guidance, further explaining the positivity behind shares in the new year.

Bottom Line

While pockets of the broader Technology sector, particularly software, continue to get hammered in 2026, all three above – SanDisk, Western Digital and Teradyne – haven’t seen hardly any negativity, with all three benefiting in a huge way either directly or indirectly from the AI demand environment.

Notably, all three stocks sport the highly-coveted Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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