“I think the economic outlook is actually good,” according to Roger Altman, founder and senior chairman of Evercore, during an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box on February 25. He then proceeded to enumerate several economic data points to support this claim.
Roger said Evercore expects real GDP to grow between 2.50% to 2.75% for 2026. Inflation is trending back down and is now approaching the lower bound of the US Fed’s target range. Nominal wages are also expected to grow by over 3% this year, which would mean that real wage growth would likely be positive (assuming inflation holds at its current level). The corporate profit outlook is also quite good.
Gary Cohn, IBM vice chair and former Trump National Economic Council director, had similar sentiments. According to him, during an interview with CNBC on February 27, “We’ve got a lot of really positive economic tailwinds.” One of these tailwinds he mentioned is the higher expected tax refunds that consumers will receive come tax filing season, due to the Build Back Better bill (which lowered taxes but not the withholding rates).
Gary further added that he thinks more traditional companies, rather than growth companies, will be the ones to benefit the most from these tailwinds. He said, “I think we’re having a rotation,” as investors start to reassess whether the growth estimates for tech stocks are still reasonable.
Given this backdrop of improving economic outlook and the rotation to the more undervalued, low multiple, traditional stocks, let us now take a look at the 14 most undervalued NYSE stocks to buy according to analysts.
Our Methodology
We screened stocks listed on the NYSE with a market capitalization of at least $2 billion, at least three analysts covering them, a median projected upside of at least 25%, and a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio between 3x and 15x. We then filtered the list to only contain stocks with at least 15 hedge fund holders, according to Insider Monkey’s proprietary hedge fund database, which tracks over 1000 hedge funds as of Q4 2025. Finally, we selected and ranked the 14 stocks with the highest median projected upside from analysts. When two or more stocks were tied on upside, we used the number of hedge fund holders as a tiebreaker.
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 427.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 264 percentage points (see more details here).
Note: All data presented are as of 27 February 2026.
14. Sonic Automotive Inc. (NYSE:SAH)
Sonic Automotive Inc. (NYSE:SAH) is one of the 14 Most Undervalued NYSE Stocks to Buy According to Analysts.
Stephens, on February 19, trimmed its target price on Sonic Automotive by 1.5% and retained its Equal Weight call on the stock. The target price update came as a result of the firm adjusting its 2026 forecasts and initiating its 2027 estimates, following the release of the company’s Q4 2025 earnings report a day before, on February 18.
The earnings release showed solid results for Sonic. It delivered adjusted EPS of $1.52, just barely beating street consensus estimates of $1.50 despite a slight miss in revenue ($3.87 billion actual vs. $3.94 street consensus).
Even with a solid quarter (and a record year in revenue), Sonic’s management warned about the potential impact of rapidly rising vehicle prices, which would dampen consumer demand in 2026. Frank Dyke, Vice President of Retail Strategy during the Q&A segment of the earnings briefing, said that “The prices are just getting too high,” with manufacturers starting to pass on the costs more and more to consumers, “in a way that we did not see in 2025.” He is now concerned that consumers may not be able to deal with much more, which could lead to softer demand.
Sonic Automotive Inc. (NYSE:SAH) is an automotive retailer, selling both new and used cars and providing maintenance, warranty, paint, and repair services. The company is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was founded in January 1997 by Ollen Bruton Smith and Bryan Scott Smith.
13. Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC)
Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) is one of the 14 Most Undervalued NYSE Stocks to Buy According to Analysts.
Wells Fargo upgraded its call on Lincoln National to Overweight (from Equal Weight) on February 25. This rating upgrade was accompanied by a 17.1% increase in the firm’s target price on the company to $48 (from $41). These changes were triggered by the release of the company’s FY 2025 earnings briefing on February 12.
The firm thinks that the company’s “momentum is gathering in a positive direction,” as shown by the 39% YoY growth in the free cash flows to the firm that Lincoln National generated in FY 2025. The life insurance segment was a key driver for this cash flow growth, with operating profit margins improving sequentially from improved mortality rates and higher alternative investment income.
With this improved cash flow, the company was able to meet its 2026 targets for capital buffer (as measured by its Risk-Based Capital (RBC) ratio) and leverage (as measured by its leverage ratio) a year in advance. With the balance sheet targets met, Wells now believes that Lincoln will start buying back stocks as early as 2026 and will ramp up in 2027 and 2028.
Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC), through its subsidiaries, provides insurance and retirement policies. The company is based in Radnor, Pennsylvania, and was founded in 1968.
