The first two months of 2026 have been volatile for U.S. stocks as unanswered questions abound about tariffs, economic growth, inflation and interest rates, Morningstar investment specialist Susan Dziubinski wrote in a blog post this week.
The Morningstar US Market Index was up by about 1% through Feb. 20, but eight of the market's 10 biggest stocks are in the red.
To find out where the "smart money" has been finding investment opportunities, Dziubinski wrote, Morningstar analysts looked at the most recent portfolios of some of the best fund managers.
They isolated the top stock pickers among current active fund managers by screening for those that land in the U.S. large-value, large-blend or large growth Morningstar categories, and were holding 50 or fewer stocks as of their most recently reported portfolios.
They further homed in on funds with at least one share class that earns a Morningstar medalist rating of Gold, Silver or Bronze with 100% analyst coverage.
Twenty-five separate fund portfolios passed the screen. Analysts compared the funds' latest portfolios with their portfolios three months earlier to determine which stocks these managers have been buying.
They then calculated a "buy score" for each stock, a weighted average that allows them to make apples-to-apples comparisons of the most purchased stocks. Dziubinski noted that one or two managers making large purchases of a stock could lead to the same buy score as many managers purchasing small amounts of a stock.
She said most of the stocks that top managers have been buying look fairly valued today, according to Morningstar, but a few undervalued stocks appear in the mix as well.
See the gallery for the 10 stocks the top fund managers have been buying recently. One-year performance is as of Feb. 25.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.