5 Momentum Stocks to Buy for March After a Volatile February

U.S. stocks suffered a blow, and the bull run halted in February, with Wall Street concluding a Volatile month. Market participants remained concerned about the continuity of the AI (artificial intelligence) trade.

Investors are highly concerned about the sustainability of lofty AI-related capital spending by hyperscalers, the timing of its monetization, and AI-related disturbances in industries like enterprise software, financials and industrials. Moreover, sticky inflation also dented investors’ sentiment.

In February, the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 fell 3% and 1%, respectively. The Nasdaq posted its worst month since March 2025. The Dow rose a mere 0.2%. Despite these headwinds, a few stocks are expected to maintain their momentum in March, too.

Five such stocks with a favorable Zacks Rank are: NVIDIA Corp. NVDA, Comfort Systems USA Inc. FIX, Onto Innovation Inc. ONTO, Rio Tinto Group RIO and Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. BAM. Each of the stocks sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present and has a Zacks Momentum Score of A or B. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The chart below shows the price performance of our five picks in the past month.

NVIDIA Corp.

NVIDIA — the undisputed global leader of generative AI-powered graphical processing units (GPUs) — has been benefiting from higher shipments of the Blackwell GPU computing platforms. 

In January, NVDA unveiled its new AI superchip — Vera Rubin — during the annual CES technology conference in Las Vegas. This innovative rack-scale system will deliver 10 times more performance per watt than its predecessor, Grace Blackwell. 

NVIDIA will start the shipment of Vera Rubin in the second half of 2026.  It has decided to announce its roadmap for Rubin Ultra, likely to be introduced in late 2027, and Feynman AI chips to be launched in 2028. 

NVDA is supported by an extremely bullish demand scenario. The company expects between $3 trillion and $4 trillion in AI infrastructure spending by the end of the decade. NVDA has been benefiting from enormous spending by AI hyperscalers.

NVDA has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 46.8% and 59.8%, respectively, for the current year (ending January 2027). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 3.7% over the last seven days.

Comfort Systems USA Inc.

Comfort Systems USA operates primarily in the commercial and industrial heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) markets, and performs most of its services within manufacturing plants, office buildings, retail centers, apartment complexes, and healthcare, education and government facilities.

The data center boom, driven by AI, cloud computing, and high-performance computing, is fueling demand for the specialized HVAC solutions of FIX. Cooling systems for these facilities should deliver precise and reliable performance, prompting investments in advanced technologies such as liquid cooling and modular units. 
This segment is becoming a significant growth driver for FIX, offering high-margin opportunities and attracting M&A activity. HVAC firms with capabilities in precision cooling and energy-efficient infrastructure are well-positioned to capture share in this fast-expanding niche.

Comfort Systems USA has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 20.3% and 28.2%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 20.9% in the last seven days.

Onto Innovation Inc.

Onto Innovation is gaining from a diversified portfolio and growing foothold in AI-driven advanced packaging against a softer semiconductor backdrop. Successful 3Di and Dragonfly qualifications, product uptake and offshore manufacturing ramp-up position it for solid sequential and long-term growth. 

In 2026, market growth is expected to be driven by increased investments in advanced packaging to meet rising AI compute demand. ONTO’s 3Di technology completed full qualification at two high-bandwidth memory customers during the third quarter of 2025. 

Following these qualifications, ONTO began discussions for volume orders integrating 3Di and subsurface defect inspection for next-generation HBM devices. Also, the company secured an order from a leading OSAT for 2.5D AI packaging applications.

Onto Innovation has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 19.5% and 29%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 2.7% in the last seven days.

Rio Tinto Group

Rio Tinto is an international mining company. RIO has interests in mining for aluminum, borax, coal, copper, gold, iron ore, lead, silver, tin, uranium, zinc, titanium, dioxide feedstock, diamonds, talc and zircon. RIO’s various mining operations are located in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Europe and Canada.

Rio Tinto has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 10.7% and 21.8%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 1.4% over the last seven days.

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd.

Brookfield Asset Management is an alternative asset manager with assets under management across real estate, infrastructure, renewable power and transition, private equity and credit. 

BAM typically invests in renewable power and transition, and infrastructure sectors. Within the infrastructure sector, BAM seeks to invest across the transport, data, utilities and midstream sectors.

BAM offers a range of alternative investment products to investors including public and private pension plans, endowments and foundations, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, insurance companies and private wealth investors.

Brookfield Asset Management has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 12.5% and 15.2%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 3.8% over the last 30 days.

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

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