Our top picks for 2026 include a blend of UK household names, exciting UK small caps, high-growth US tech shares, and leading investment trusts.
UK Investor Magazine journalists and guest contributors have scoured equity markets to bring you a thematic selection of share tips for the year ahead, focusing on the sectors and individual names we feel are best placed for outperformance in 2026.
As always, our selections cater to a broad range of investment styles and strategies, from long-term income strategies to higher-beta growth portfolios.
UK Investor Magazine’s Top 20 Share Picks 2026:
- JPMorgan UK Small Cap Growth & Income (LON:JUGI)
- VanEck Defense UCITS ETF (LON: DFNG)
- Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ: AUR)
- NextEnergy Solar Fund (LON: NESF)
- Tekcapital (LON: TEK)
- Filtronic (LON: FTC)
- Aberdeen Equity Income Trust (LON: AEI)
- D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS)
- Vistra Corp (NYSE: VST)
- Cornish Metals (LON: TIN)
- Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS)
- Vietnam Holding (LON: VNH)
- Barratt Redrow (LON:BTRW)
- Majestic Corporation (AQSE: MCJ)
- Property Franchise Group (LON: TPFG)
- Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)
- Adsure Services (AQSE: ADS)
- Finsbury Growth & Income Trust (LON: FGT)
- Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA)
- Whitbread (LON: WTB)
JPMorgan UK Small Cap Growth & Income (LON:JUGI)
On most measures, UK small caps are tremendously undervalued. JPMorgan UK Small Cap Growth & Income plc provides investors with the opportunity to gain exposure to the sector through a portfolio of UK smaller companies yielding around 4.5%, managed by an experienced team led by Georgina Brittain and Katen Patel.
The trust’s investment philosophy centres on identifying attractively valued, high-quality stocks with positive momentum, combining three key factors: value (seeking companies with high free cash flow yields and catalysts for re-rating), quality (market leaders with strong returns on invested capital and disciplined capital allocation), and momentum (companies in structurally growing markets with positive earnings revisions). This disciplined approach, refined over three decades, has delivered impressive long-term results, with the trust achieving 9.98% annualised returns over five years and 8.20% over ten years. Portfolio companies include Premier Foods, Lion Finance, and Morgan Sindall.
VanEck Defense UCITS ETF (LON: DFNG)
The VanEck Defense ETF tracks the MarketVector Global Defense Industry Index, which comprises companies that derive at least 50% of their revenue from defense-related activities, including defense technology and cybersecurity. Tragically, the various conflicts around the world show signs of persisting into 2026, and governments are consequently continuing to beef up defence spending.
This particular ETF is interesting because it provides exposure to AI-powered defence technology companies such as Palantir, as well as to more traditional defence companies like Leonardo, which manufactures fighter jets. Some constituents of the ETF have also set their sights on space technology – an industry that’s likely to accelerate in the coming year. USD and GBP options are available on the London Stock Exchange.
Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ: AUR)
Aurora Innovation believes it is in ‘pole position for autonomous trucking’, underscored by the fact that it is currently the only company with autonomous truck operations across the US. But Aurora isn’t a trucking pureplay – its technology can be applied across multiple autonomous vehicle use cases.
The ‘Aurora Driver’ is a self-driving system that can operate multiple vehicle types, from freight-hauling lorries to ride-hailing passenger vehicles, and serves as the foundation for Aurora’s driver-as-a-service products in both sectors. Aurora Innovation shares hit $10 in early 2025 before easing back to $4, offering a possible entry point for the year ahead. The margin of error looks acceptable given the potential size of the AV market.
NextEnergy Solar Fund (LON: NESF)
The NextEnergy Solar Fund, which has 939MW of installed solar facilities, trades at a 43% discount to NAV and currently yields 16%. The dividend for FY26 ending March 2026 is forecast to be covered 1.1x -1.3x by earnings. Concerns about changes to inflation-linked payments under the Renewable Obligation Certificates and Feed-in Tariff schemes, coupled with high gearing, have driven the share price down in 2025, but the canyon between the current NAV and the share price seems unfair. The trust said it is exploring options to manage the discount and will announce the results of a review in the new year.
Tekcapital (LON: TEK)
Tekcapital was included in our 2025 picks, and the investment thesis remains unchanged. If anything, it has become even more compelling. Tekcapital holds a controlling stake in Guident, an autonomous vehicle safety company preparing to list on the NASDAQ. The most recent S-1 filing with the SEC suggests that Tekcapital’s stake in Guident will be worth more than its entire market cap on listing. We must then consider that Tekcapital has three other portfolio companies, whose market valuations imply that Tekcapital could trade at a 60%-80% discount to NAV when Guident completes its IPO. This discount to NAV will likely narrow as Guident begins trading and Tekcapital moves closer towards paying a long-awaited special dividend. There could be returns of 2x-3x, or even more, on Tekcapital shares if the Guident IPO goes well.
Filtronic (LON: FTC)
Filtronic is one of the UK’s leading growth companies. Revenue in the 12 months ended 31 May 2025 surged 121% to £56.3m, and it has since won a string of contracts, suggesting the company is set to deliver similarly strong results in the coming periods. In August 2025, Filtronic announced its largest single order to date under its strategic partnership with SpaceX, worth £47.3m to be delivered in 2027/28. In addition, Filtronic has announced RF solutions deals with a major European aerospace manufacturing firm and a European defence prime. Filtronic is becoming the partner of choice for major aerospace, space, and defence firms. Underpinning its growth trajectory, Filtronic says it is actively diversifying its customer base, which is essential to maintaining the current momentum.
Aberdeen Equity Income Trust (LON: AEI)
Aberdeen Equity Income Trust, the winner of ‘Best Equity Income Trust’ at the UK Investor Magazine Awards 2025, is an ideal choice for investors seeking a carefully balanced portfolio of high-quality UK stocks and an above-average yield. The trust still yields 5.7% even after share price returns of 23% through 2025.
Aberdeen Equity Income Trust stands out from the UK equity peer group mainly because of its index-agnostic approach to generating income from UK equities. Although British American Tobacco is the largest holding, the trust’s top holdings include an exciting mix of FTSE 100 income stalwarts and mid-cap companies with strong growth potential. 41% of the trust is invested in FTSE 250 companies, and is an allocation to AIM and the FTSE Small Cap index. Investors will struggle to find a UK equity trust that offers such a high yield and the growth potential of the Aberdeen Equity Income Trust. Their award-winning approach means the trust trades at a premium to NAV – something that not many trusts do, and a testament to the differentiated nature of their strategy. A continued recovery in UK valuations will act as a driving force for this trust.
D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS)
Last year, we selected Rigetti Computing as our pick in the US quantum computing sector, noting that, due to the industry’s infancy, we could have chosen any of five stocks at the time. Fast forward a year, and the industry has developed with D-Wave Quantum getting our vote for the year ahead.
We’re steering towards D-Wave this year after it broke away from the pack in terms of commercial progress in 2025. D-Wave is attractive because it offers both annealing and gate-model quantum computers, whereas many of its competitors focus on one or the other. During 2025, D-Wave announced several commercial deals through 2025, including a $10m agreement with Swiss Quantum Technology SA for an annealing system – one of the largest deals in the sector to date. Quantum computing is still in its early stages, and the sector is not for the faint of heart, but if 2026 is the year that quantum takes off, we could see multibagger returns here.
Vistra Corp (NYSE: VST)
The associated benefits of artificial intelligence will only be achieved if the adoption and implementation of the technology are made possible by the rollout of data centres and other AI infrastructure. This will all require huge amounts of power, much of which will be supplied by Vistra Corp’s network of nuclear, solar, and fossil fuel power plants. To meet burgeoning demand, the company is planning to build several new power plants near its AI data centres, particularly in Texas, where the firm is based.
Like most AI-related stocks, Vistra’s valuation raises some questions. However, should the company meet the recently issued operating EBITDA guidance of $6.8bn – $7.6bn for 2026, the current $54bn market cap starts to look reasonable. A growth story for those who believe AI adoption will accelerate.
Cornish Metals is working to recommence tin production at the South Crofty mine in Cornwall, which holds the world’s highest-grade non-producing tin resource. With the first tin production scheduled for 2028, 2026 will be a busy year of construction updates that should capture the market’s attention. South Crofty currently has an NPV of £180m, but this is expected to rise in the coming years as further exploration activity and increased production capacity unlock further value. The current market cap doesn’t reflect the scale of the resource or future cash flows.
Nebius Group (NASDAQ: NBIS)
Nebius is a neocloud AI infrastructure play. Amsterdam-headquartered Nebius provides vertically integrated cloud platforms specifically designed for artificial intelligence workloads. The firm operates large-scale GPU clusters and AI clouds across Europe and the United States, offering a full-stack solution that provides the scale and flexibility required by firms that need high levels of AI computing power. The stock had a very strong 2025, and valuations are indeed rich. But the continued adoption of AI won’t be possible without companies like Nebius ensuring demand for their offering in the years ahead.
Vietnam Holding (LON: VNH)
Despite Donald Trump’s trade tariffs sparking a wave of disruption, Vietnam’s longer-term growth remains intact, underpinned by robust economic fundamentals. Indeed, recent data shows Vietnam is humming along just fine. Manufacturing PMI registered 53.8 in November, outperforming most regional and developed economies, whilst GDP expanded 8.23% year-on-year in Q3 2025, the fastest pace since Q3 2022.
Vietnam Holding is again our pick of London’s Vietnam-focused trusts, as managers at Dynam Capital demonstrate a nimble approach to high-growth Vietnamese stocks that has delivered a 15-year CAGR of 9.9% versus 7.1% for the benchmark. At 379p, Vietnam Holding trades at a 7% discount to NAV, with much of the recent decline driven by discount expansion rather than NAV erosion. The trust traded at a premium not long ago, and managers remain committed to managing the discount through innovative redemption offerings. Vietnam Holding shares should see fresh all-time highs in the year ahead.
Barratt Redrow (LON:BTRW)
General pessimism about the UK economy has created a ludicrous situation in which FTSE 350 housebuilders are trading at less than book value. Barratt Redrow trades at just 0.7x its NAV despite the integration of Redrow into the business and the realistic target of £100m synergies nearly being achieved. Value investors will find a lot to like in the group’s balance sheet when the sheer size of its inventories is compared with the current market valuation of its equity.
The combination of Barratt and Redrow has created a group capable of delivering 22,000 homes per year, making it an ideal choice for the eventual recovery of the UK property market. Lower interest rates should act as a catalyst for a rerate, and the Labour government may actually do something to boost the property market next year, but this isn’t the basis for the investment case.
Majestic Corporation (AQSE: MCJ)
Urban miner Majestic Corporation was one of our best-performing tips of 2025, and its ambitious plans for UK-focused growth in 2026 earn it a place for the second year running. The company is planning to launch a new 50,000-square-foot facility in Wrexham in the coming year, which will be instrumental in boosting processing volumes towards the company’s target of 100,000 tonnes by 2030.
Majestic collects and processes a wide range of waste materials, including chipboard, mobile phones, and solar waste, and recovers critical minerals such as copper, cobalt, gold, and PGMs.
Property Franchise Group (LON: TPFG)
The Property Franchise Group has delivered strong results in 2025 following its 2024 acquisitions of Belvoir and a licensing business, with revenues jumping from £27.3m to £67.3m and underlying pre-tax profit doubling to £22.3m. The enlarged group now manages 153,000 properties and benefits from resilient recurring revenues in lettings, whilst cost synergies of £2.1m are expected in 2025.
Management is proactively engaging landlords ahead of the Renters Rights Bill coming into force in autumn 2025, which may drive self-managed landlords towards professional agents, and believes it can replace renewal fees with rent review fees to maintain revenue levels.
Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)
Google is emerging as a frontrunner in AI. The release of Gemini 3, the latest version of Google’s AI LLM, set Google’s A model apart from many competitors in terms of reasoning capabilities, multimodality, and the agentic toolbox. Gemini is also a lot better value than many of its competitors.
When this AI prowess is combined with Google’s existing suite of Google Ads, YouTube, Gmail, Cloud, and the search engine, you have a company that sits at the forefront of the world’s workflows, capturing a huge amount of data and generating monstrous revenues in the process. Google is also rolling out its answer to Nvidia’s dominance – the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) – which powers Google’s AI offering and reduces reliance on the market leader, Nvidia.
Adsure Services (AQSE: ADS)
Adsure Services has been laying the foundations for many years of future growth powered by artificial intelligence. The business assurance firm is on the brink of launching its ‘TIAA Insight’ AI tool after a phase of testing through the end of 2025. The company has enjoyed steadily increasing EBITDA margins in recent years, and the introduction of the new tool promises to enhance the effencies of human operatives further. Adsure Services provides risk and audit services to government-funded organisations, such as local councils, universities, and housing associations, through long-term contracts that offer excellent revenue visibility. This has allowed them to become one of the only companies listed on Aquis to pay a dividend.
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust (LON: FGT)
Nick Train’s Finsbury Growth & Income Investment Trust offers investors concentrated exposure to UK-listed data and digital businesses that are leveraging artificial intelligence to accelerate growth, with these AI-enabled companies now comprising nearly 60% of the portfolio. The fund’s core holdings, including RELX, Experian, and London Stock Exchange Group, demonstrate how AI is transforming traditional data businesses into indispensable services with powerful network effects.
The investment case rests on a compelling valuation disconnect: UK data businesses like Sage trade at five to six times sales compared to 10-15 times for US peers, despite executing similar AI strategies and generating superior returns on capital. With the UK playing catch-up with the rest of the world on a valuation basis, the Finsbury Growth & Income Trust is a great way to capture the realignment.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA)
Having more than doubled from 52-week lows, Tesla’s share price going into 2026 isn’t particularly attractive, but we can’t justifiably leave the stock out of our top tips for 2026, especially given that the world is on the verge of a robotics and automation revolution.
Elon Musk has previously predicted that Tesla’s humanoid Optimus robots could make Tesla a $25 trillion company. This should be taken with a shovel or two of salt, but you wouldn’t want to bet against the world’s richest man, who now has a £1 trillion pay package as an incentive. Tesla EV sales are nothing more than a sideshow to its robotics and automation efforts, and we’ll watch with fascination as Tesla ramps up deployment of Robotaxis in 2026.
Whitbread (LON: WTB)
A steady recovery play for 2026. Activist investor Corvex Management took a 6% stake in Whitbread in late December and immediately demanded a strategic review into the business. Corvex highlighted the disconnect between the market value of their hotel portfolio and the value of their shares and is seeking representation on the board. Whitbread had a five-year plan; Corvex’s involvement may speed up an overhaul and encourage Whitbread to return more than the £2bn to shareholders they had already earmarked for distribution by 2030.
