In this article, we are going to discuss the 12 best large cap energy stocks to buy now.
As of the writing of this article, the S&P Energy index has soared by more than 25% since the beginning of 2026. This compares to a decline of over 3% by the overall S&P 500 during the period.
The sharp surge comes on the back of global crude oil prices reaching multi-year highs, driven by the supply disruptions amid the US-Iran war. The WTI crude oil futures are currently trading at just below the $100 per barrel mark, hitting their highest level since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, as Iran continued its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The move has choked around a fifth of the global crude oil supply and forced major Gulf producers to cut output due to storage reaching critical capacity. That said, American oil majors are benefiting strongly from the crisis, as the surging crude prices have sent their stocks soaring to record highs.
The war has also led to a halt in liquified natural gas production in Qatar, blocking around a fifth of global LNG supply and jolting the global market. The move has prompted an uptick in gas prices in the key markets of Asia and Europe, creating a gap that American LNG exporters can exploit.
With that said, here are the Best Large-Cap Energy Stocks to Buy in 2026.
Our Methodology
To collect data for this article, we used our stock screeners to identify energy stocks with a market cap of over $10 billion. Then we ranked these stocks by the number of hedge funds invested in them at the end of Q4 2025, as per the Insider Monkey database. The following are the Best Large-Cap Energy Stocks to Invest in.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 498.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 303 percentage points (see more details here).
12. Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 20
Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) is an international energy company headquartered in Norway, with over 25,000 employees in around 20 countries worldwide.
Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) revealed on March 10 that it had discovered oil in the Troll area and gas and condensate in the Sleipner area in the North Sea. The find at Troll’s Byrding C prospect contains between 4 million and 8 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), while the discovery in the well northwest of the Sleipner Vest field is estimated to contain 5M-9M boe.
Moreover, both these discoveries are considered commercial and were made in areas with well-developed infrastructure for export to Europe. Equinor owns 75% of the permit in the Byrding C prospect and 58.3% in the Sleipner field, while also being the operator in both.
The discoveries come as Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) is targeting to grow its production by 3% in 2026, after already hitting a record high production level. Meanwhile, the company’s CapEx guidance stands at $13 billion for 2026 and $9 billion for 2027.
11. TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TTE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 26
TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TTE) is a global integrated energy company that produces and markets energies.
TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TTE) confirmed on March 13 that it had shut down approximately 15% of its output in the Middle East following the US-Iran war. The company has shut down or is in the process of shutting down in Qatar, Iraq, and the UAE offshore, while its UAE onshore production has not been impacted by the war at this stage. Total’s operations at its SATORP refinery in Saudi Arabia are continuing normally for now, while the impact of LNG production shutdowns in Qatar is limited to 2 million tonnes of LNG. This is because most Qatari LNG is marketed by QatarEnergy.
The closed output accounts for around 10% of TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TTE)’s upstream cash flow, but the company clarified that the surge in global oil prices is more than enough to offset this loss, especially as it brings additional production online elsewhere this year.
