Undervalued Quality Stocks Expected for 2026 Picked by a Legendary Wall Street Tech Analyst | Mark Mahaney, Evercore ISI
[한국어] 월가의 전설적 테크 애널리스트가 꼽은 2026년 기대되는 저평가 우량주 | 마크 마하니, 에버코어 ISI [Global Money Talk]
Speakers
Mark Mahaney
— Head of Internet Research, Evercore ISI
Summary
Mark Mahaney of Evercore ISI discusses his 2026 tech outlook, arguing AI remains a worthwhile investment theme supported by real ROI evidence, especially at Meta, Amazon, and Google. He highlights Amazon and Meta as top picks, Expedia and Zillow as favored smaller ideas, and warns that software faces AI-driven pricing and seat pressure. He rejects AI overbuild fears, pointing to supply constraints in chips and power, and discusses IPO conditions and a quality-buying discipline.
- AI remains a core investable theme, with Meta cited as evidence of real AI return on investment.
- Amazon is favored for AWS growth inflection, AI-enabled retail, advertising, and undervaluation.
- Meta is favored for strong AI-driven engagement, ad efficiency, revenue growth, and reasonable valuation.
- Google remains liked but is lower priority after its rerating.
- Software is viewed as pressured by AI's effect on ARPU and seat counts.
- Expedia and Zillow are top picks, with U.S. travel catalysts and housing recovery as key drivers.
- AI capex is not seen as overbuilt; demand exceeds supply, with power as the likely bottleneck.
- IPO speculation around OpenAI and others is not recommended, and he stresses buying quality stocks when cheap.
Ideas
Meta AI ROI supports revenue growth.
Meta is one of his favorite picks. Its aggressive CapEx, roughly doubling in 2025 and reaching $130-135 billion in 2026, is generating measurable AI ROI: user engagement and ad campaign efficiency are improving; March-quarter revenue is expected to grow about 30% year over year, impressive at its current size. The stock trades around 21 times next-year GAAP earnings and margins may expand.
Alphabet still liked, but lower priority.
Alphabet remains attractive even after its large rally, though it is lower priority than Amazon and Meta. The core narrative changed from AI loser to AI winner, driving the P/E from 15x to 30x; at about 25x next-year earnings the valuation is not excessive, and the truth is probably between the extremes.
AI remains investable with real ROI.
AI remains a worthwhile investment theme because recent Meta results provide strong evidence of return on AI investment; AI improves efficiency, products, and processes, and companies that use it well are seeing real revenue gains. He prefers selectively buying high-quality AI beneficiaries when valuations are temporarily depressed.
AI pressures software pricing and seats.
The software sector is under pressure because AI can pressure both ARPU and volume. If AI substantially raises productivity, customers need fewer seats/users, making premium pricing harder, and this dynamic has likely hurt software multiples.
Amazon is top pick on AI-led growth.
Amazon is his top 2026 tech pick. AWS growth is inflecting from 17% to 20% year over year with high margins; AI/Rufus and agentic commerce are improving retail; advertising should accelerate with more sports content; grocery efforts are improving; revenue growth is accelerating and operating margins expanding while the stock has been undervalued.
Expedia attractive on valuation and travel catalysts.
Expedia is a top tech pick. It trades at about 18x GAAP earnings, has a good balance sheet, strong free cash flow, buybacks, and dividends. Online travel has fragmented supply that favors platforms; the CEO previously ran Expedia's most successful division, and the newer CFO came from eBay. U.S. travel demand should recover on tax refunds and the World Cup, and Expedia has high U.S. exposure.
Fragmented travel supply favors platforms.
Online travel is a very good industry to invest in because its supply base is highly fragmented; the more fragmented the supply, the better the economics for intermediary platforms and marketplaces.
US travel demand set to surge.
U.S. travel demand should strengthen in 2026 after prior weakness from tariff-related uncertainty, boycotts by European and Canadian travelers, and the government shutdown. Tax refunds may encourage trips, and the FIFA World Cup in North America should be the largest ever, driving a surge in travel demand that benefits travel companies with the greatest U.S. exposure.
Zillow is leveraged to housing recovery.
Zillow is his top small/mid-cap pick and a way to bet on a U.S. housing recovery. The product cycle is good with Showcase Listings; it achieved GAAP profitability for the first time in ten years and he thinks it is sustainable; GAAP profitability could make it an S&P 500 inclusion candidate. Legal issues remain, but resolution could be a catalyst, and revenue growth was set to close 2025 at 19-20% with easier first-half 2026 comps. If mortgage rates fall below 6% and housing activity recovers, both fundamentals and the stock could benefit.
AI capex is not overbuilt.
The AI capex boom is not an overbuild. Hyperscalers and CFOs say they are supply-constrained for GPUs and power, meaning demand exceeds supply. These are highly profitable companies with huge cash balances asking for more supply, and major AI investors such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Amazon trade at reasonable multiples, so public-market valuation risk is not severe. Power is likely the real bottleneck, and adding efficient power capacity would be constructive.
Power is the AI bottleneck.
The real bottleneck for AI expansion is likely electric power. Hyperscalers say they cannot get enough GPUs or power to meet demand, so power generation capacity is the key constraint; adding efficient and environmentally conscious power capacity would be constructive. He does not invest in energy or infrastructure companies, but power/electricity is a critical bottleneck to monitor.
Up Next
This 3PRO TV (삼프로TV) video, published February 07, 2026, features Mark Mahaney discussing META, GOOGL, AIQ, IGV, AMZN, EXPE, Online travel platforms, U.S. travel sector, Z, AI-SECTOR, Power/electricity. 11 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers: Mark Mahaney · Tickers: META, GOOGL, AIQ, IGV, AMZN, EXPE, Online travel platforms, U.S. travel sector, Z, AI-SECTOR, Power/electricity