“You’ll have a good career if you help your clients make money or you make them smarter, and if you can do both, you’ll have a great career.”

It was this sage advice from an old colleague that has always stuck with one of the newest No. 1 ranked analysts in Extel’s All-America Research Team ranking. In practice, that meant focusing on differentiated and proprietary work, intellectual honesty and—truly noteworthy in 2026—conviction.

“Investors are looking for conviction—genuine, not manufactured,” he told Extel. “This means when you’ve done good and unique work and think consensus is wrong, then be bold in your estimates and stock calls. You’ll get a bigger payoff and more recognition when you’re right.”

For him and nine other analysts, recognition has come from the 55th annual ranking of the top sell-side equity research analysts based on the most discerning opinions of all—their clients. More than 4,400 directors of research and investment professionals representing 1,608 asset management firms weighed in on this year’s results.

Each analyst earned a No. 1 ranking for the first time in their respective sectors, which cuts across a wide swath, touching Washington research, clean energy, media and satellites. The new winners also represented a substantial mix of firms: BNP Paribas and Wells Fargo Securities topped the list with three new No. 1s each. Wolfe Research was next with two, and UBS and Morgan Stanley had one analyst each. From data centers to Duolingo, these analysts dug in.

“Connecting the dots across themes and influencing the investor conversation through unique data points (from conferences, private company events, and customer checks) never goes out of style,” observed one.

And they collaborated across sectors as well. “Crossing sector boundaries to see the bigger thematic picture, and understanding how dynamics in one sector can have a big impact on other sectors,” said another No. 1 analyst.

“In 2026, we have seen this with respect to the U.S. power shortfall facing U.S. data center developers.”

It was a tumultuous year across markets—from macroeconomic shocks; to U.S. politics (“I always say it’s a bad sign for the market as a whole when investors need to pay this much attention to DC,” mused one honoree); and the unprecedented global capital expenditure into artificial intelligence, which is estimated to top $1 trillion by the end of 2026.

“Our greatest value comes from being a dependable, steadying hand when markets are at their most treacherous,” said another new No. 1 analyst.

What makes an all-star analyst in 2026? “I believe an all-star analyst in 2026 is someone who is intensely curious, who can see connections across multiple disciplines, and who is constantly reassessing their analyses based on the most compelling emerging counterarguments,” according to one.

And analysts must never shy away from complex or controversial topics simply to avoid pushback from corporates or clients, according to the mentor of another No. 1. “Taking on these challenging subjects has consistently produced our highest-impact work—driving alpha-generating stock calls and publishing research with an enduring shelf life,” he said.

In the age of AI, these technologies are rapidly reshaping the sectors these top analysts cover as well as their own roles. The most important thing is to be able to adapt to remain relevant.

“Not long ago, much of an analyst’s bandwidth went toward weeklies, previews, earnings updates, and the like,” said another. “Today, AI agents let investors build bespoke feeds covering most of that. The all-star analyst of tomorrow needs to do what those feeds cannot: synthesize themes across verticals and actually dig in.”

Read on to learn more about how these ten analysts captured their first No. 1s and the lessons imparted by their worst calls as much as their best ones—and how they never rest on their laurels.

What’s the best call you ever made?
Lumentum, which we upgraded from Neutral to Outperform on March 11, 2025 at $57.

What’s the worst call you ever made?
Not upgrading SanDisk in October 2025 when we double upgraded Micron.

Biggest challenge facing your sector right now?
The pace of data center expansion is causing a multitude of constraints across the supply chain, which provides record visibility for component vendors. However, inflationary pressures have crimped Free Cash Flow (FCF) generation at hyperscalers, frontier labs, and neoclouds as these cohorts aggressively expand AI infrastructure capacity.

Investors seek to better understand the duration and nominal growth of cloud infrastructure, as well as those companies who are entering a product-cycle refresh that will allow these companies to out-grow overall AI infrastructure deployments.

What makes an all-star analyst in 2026?
My team strives to best understand technological shifts by hosting expert calls, attending all AI infrastructure trade shows, and analyzing new compute and network architectures to inform our investment recommendations.

What’s the best call you ever made?
We initiated with an underweight rating on Duolingo in September 2025. At the time, Duolingo user growth was benefiting meaningfully from viral social media marketing, but we felt that the tailwind was beginning to fade and monetization of the platform was beginning to peak. Viral marketing is a challenging growth lever for internet businesses because it requires content ‘hits’ that are difficult to consistently create over time, especially at scale.

What’s the worst call you ever made?
We upgraded WIX to overweight in June 2025 because we felt that the AI challenges website builders were likely to face over the next several years had been contemplated in the valuation of the stock. Claude Code began to rapidly emerge several months later and it became clear that agentic coding would represent a more meaningful headwind than we anticipated. Making value calls in our sector has been challenging over time; for an internet stock to work there has to be a combination of strong secular trends and product cycles that accelerate growth.

Biggest challenge facing your sector right now?
Investor concerns about AI disintermediation, both real and perceived. There has already been a real impact to desktop and mobile web traffic from Google rolling out AI Overviews, a search summary product. Investors are concerned that coding agents like Claude Code will increase competition in consumer internet, while consumer agents like Muse will deflate pricing. These bear cases are difficult to disprove in the near term.

What makes an all-star analyst in 2026?
The aperture of available information is widening rapidly. CEOs are speaking more frequently on podcasts, and important industry checks are emerging on X. Leveraging AI to keep up with the broadening of information channels is critical to understanding industry trends.