JP Morgan’s Top 3 Stocks for 2026: The Halftime Scorecard

Back connected December 27, 2025, we wrote astir J.P. Morgan's 3 overweight picks for 2026 with the highest implied upside: Bright Horizons Family Solutions (NYSE: BFAM), Celsius (NASDAQ: CELH), and GE Vernova (NYSE: GEV). At the halfway constituent of the year, the scoreboard tells a counterintuitive story. The prime with the lowest percent upside, GE Vernova, has cleared its target. The 2 names J.P. Morgan flagged with the largest implied gains person moved successful the different direction.

We compared each stock's determination since the archetypal telephone to J.P. Morgan's full-year 2026 target, weighing operational drivers, beat-and-raise cadence, and Wall Street's existent consensus. Counting down from worst to best:

3. Bright Horizons Family Solutions

J.P. Morgan had a 2026 terms people of $160 for this stock. Shares closed astatine $70.89 connected June 29, 2026, leaving it down 30.1% twelvemonth to date. That is the deepest spread of the trio.

The Q4 2025 study looked good connected the surface, with adjusted EPS of $1.15 versus $1.12 statement and gross of $733.70 million. The problem: absorption disclosed plans to adjacent 45 to 50 centers successful 2026, astir treble the anterior estimate, paired with $45.1 cardinal successful impairment and lease-termination charges. Multiple instrumentality firms initiated securities fraud investigations aft the revision. Labor-market softness and enrollment unit successful full-service kid attraction person deed the thesis hard, adjacent arsenic Back-Up Care generated much than $725 cardinal successful 2025 revenue.

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Wall Street inactive carries an expert people of $91.11, the guardant P/E is 15x, and FY 2026 guidance calls for adjusted EPS of $4.90 to $5.10 connected gross of $3.075 cardinal to $3.125 billion. The setup is reset-to-recover, but the J.P. Morgan people looks retired of scope without a cleanable operational quarter.

2. Celsius

J.P. Morgan's Celsius people was $68. Shares finished astatine $29.79 connected June 29, 2026, down 34.9% since the opening of the year. The frustrating portion is that fundamentals are working. Q1 2026 delivered gross of $782.62 million, up 137.7% twelvemonth implicit year, beating statement by 2.89%, with EPS of $0.41 versus the $0.293 estimate. Celsius reached a 20.9% dollar stock of the U.S. vigor portion category.