William Blair’s top 2026 picks in tech, media, and communications: META, INTU and more

William Blair’s equity research team identified nine promising stocks with strong growth potential for 2026.

These selections span technology, software, financial services, and public safety sectors, with each company demonstrating unique competitive advantages and favorable valuation metrics that position them well for the coming year.

• Meta Platforms (META) continues to show strength in its core advertising business, with acceleration for the second straight quarter in Q3 2025 driven by improvements to its AI recommendation engine. According to the research, Meta’s business messaging represents a significant underappreciated opportunity, with Meta Business AI expected to generate revenue in either 2026 or 2027. The analysis suggests META stock has roughly 30-35% upside over the next 12 months using a 10% discount rate and a 14x EBITDA multiple.
• Intuit (INTU) has established itself as a scaled mission-critical platform for SMBs, with $21 billion of revenue expected in fiscal 2026 and offerings spanning accounting, payroll, payments, marketing, bill-pay, and taxes. The research highlights that Intuit’s midmarket growth was 40% last year, largely driven by QuickBooks Online Advanced, while its TurboTax Live revenue grew an impressive 47% at 23x 2027 FCF, analysts view Intuit as attractively valued for a mid-teens compounder with potential to accelerate to 20% growth over time.
• Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR) leverages its proprietary manufacturing approach to deliver low-voltage power solutions for the server market, with research indicating strong socket win momentum across hyperscaler custom programs. According to the analysis, MPWR is expected to deliver strong 35%-plus growth in its data center revenue in 2026, with shares trading at a P/E multiple of 47x 2026. Despite the premium valuation, researchers note potential upside to estimates due to various secular tailwinds across diverse end-markets.
• Axon Enterprise (AXON) is a strong fourth-quarter finish, with management indicating no expected impact from the U.S. federal government shutdown and confidence that growth can remain at current levels for the next three to five years. The research highlights Axon’s ability to disrupt legacy workflows and outcompete incumbents through continuous innovation in public safety. With the stock trading around 13x 2026 revenue forecasts and 53x 2026 adjusted EBITDA estimates, analysts view AXON as attractive given its unique positioning and durable recurring revenue model.
• Toast (TOST) has demonstrated impressive location growth, reaching 156,000 locations as of September 2025 (up from 57,000 ending 2021), with management expecting to add more locations in 2026 than in 2025. According to the research, Toast’s pricing power remains underappreciated, with multiple levers to raise payment take-rates and software pricing, while its new Toast IQ AI tool is already being used by 25,000 locations. On 2026 estimates, Toast trades at 10x non-GAAP SaaS and fintech gross profit, which analysts consider reasonable given its faster top-line growth compared to peers.
• Pegasystems (PEGA) helps customers modernize legacy applications via its low-code app development platform, with research indicating that its new GenAI Blueprint solution is helping reduce sales cycles and the end-to-end concept-to-build process by over 50% for many apps. The analysis suggests Blueprint is also opening doors to new logos and helping to accelerate actual cash value growth to an expected 14% in 2025, up from 11% in previous years. PEGA shares trade at 18x 2027 free cash flow estimate versus peers at 20x, which analysts believe is compelling for a mission-critical software platform with accelerating growth.
• EPAM Systems (EPAM) is highlighted as a top pick for 2026, with research citing four consecutive quarters of positive organic growth driven by improved pricing and strong large-account penetration. According to the analysis, AI-native services are already driving double-digit sequential growth, while margin expansion of 30 to 50 basis points is expected in 2026. Trading at 16.3x P/E on 2026 estimates, EPAM shows a discount to peers at 18.1x and to its own historical averages, offering attractive upside potential as organic momentum continues.
• Clearwater Analytics (CWAN) is building the industry’s first-ever cloud-native end-to-end platform for investment management by integrating recent acquisitions with its best-in-class reporting and reconciliation platform. The research notes Clearwater’s strong track record of executing on financial targets with sustainable core growth around 20% and 30%-plus EBITDA margins expected to expand approximately 200 basis points annually. Shares trade at 22x adjusted EBITDA, a discount to leading vertical software peers despite outsized EBITDA growth potential.
• DigitalOcean (DOCN) is positioned to deliver steady growth acceleration from 13% revenue growth in 2024 to a projected 19% in 2026, according to research citing fundamental enhancements in product breadth and go-to-market execution. The analysis highlights DigitalOcean’s comprehensive end-to-end AI platform, which is becoming material to the business (about 10% of sales this year) with multiple eight-figure-per-year committed contracts signed with AI-native customers. Trading at an EV/sales multiple of 5.4x and an EV/free cash flow multiple of 34x on 2026 estimates, researchers see a favorable risk/reward equation for DOCN stock.