In some cases, shares that fell sharply in March are worth a look in April. But some of the most interesting are where investors aren’t paying attention.

Volatility

In times of volatility, investors often look for safety. And that usually means focusing on whatever their highest-conviction ideas are. That’s a natural thing to do. But it can often result in significant discounts in shares that don’t get the attention they deserve. 

When this happens, under-the-radar companies can offer investors unusually good value. These are stocks outside the FTSE 100 or the S&P 500. In the short term, this can result in share prices that fall sharply. But for investors with a long-term perspective, it can create huge opportunities.

That’s what I’m seeing right now. While analysts are focusing on Rolls-Royce and Meta Platforms, other names have started to look attractive.

Judges Scientific

Judges Scientific (LSE:JDG) is a UK growth stock with a £275m market value. The share price is down 12% in the last month. 

I think this is a terrific company facing short-term challenges. Its growth strategy involves acquiring and improving smaller businesses. This can be risky, but Judges Scientific has some unique long-term advantages. It’s highly specialised and focuses on relatively small targets. 

Both of these naturally restrict competition. And this has allowed the firm to do deals at extremely attractive multiples. On top of this, the company has an excellent reputation. A decentralised structure makes them an attractive buyer for anyone looking to sell.

The firm’s sales are still falling. But with Congress striking down cuts to US research funding, I think a recovery might be closer than investors realise.

QXO

QXO (NYSE:QXO) is a US supplier of building materials. But it’s got a lot more going on in terms of growth prospects than this suggests.

The company is targeting $50bn in revenues by 2035. That’s absolutely huge for a company with a current market value of $13bn. 

The plan is to get there through a series of acquisitions. And CEO Brad Jacobs has a record of doing this that isn’t just good – it’s great. QXO announced the acquisition of Kodiak Building Partners in March.

This adds around $2bn in revenues, but it also highlights the big risk. The firm issued around 13m shares in the process. And the potential for ongoing dilution is something investors will need to keep an eye on.

As I see it though, the long-term growth strategy remains firmly intact. So I see the stock falling 21% as a chance to add to my investment.

Growth stocks

It’s no coincidence that the opportunities I’m seeing right now are mostly in growth stocks. In times of stress, investors look for relative certainty. This usually comes from shares in companies that trade at low multiples and have stable cash flows. The trouble is, they don’t usually grow so well.

Both Judges Scientific and QXO come with risks. But I don’t think either business has become worse in the last month – and the share prices are much lower.

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A building products distributor might not be top of mind!

SIG has tumbled 70% in five years and Travis Perkins is down 49% in the same timeframe. Hardly the stuff of investor dreams.

Across the pond, though, building materials distributor QXO (NYSE: QXO) has soared 107% over the past 12 months. It now commands a market capitalisation of $18bn.

Squeezing out efficiencies

Is this really a growth share?

After all, the market for building materials is mature. Not only that, but with ongoing economic uncertainty in the US, it could be that the market for roofing felt, joists, pipes, and the like actually contracts rather than expands in coming years.

I do see QXO as a growth share, but not because I expect its target market to see a surge in demand.

Rather, what attracts me here is the business model.

QXO reckons that a plethora of small and medium-sized distributors makes the market ripe for consolidation, with the opportunities for cost efficiencies that brings.

Proven performers running the show

This sort of approach to “rolling up” a fragmented market is nothing new. UK shares like Bunzl and NWF have a similar playbook for catering supplies and heating oil, for example.

So, why has QXO stock soared?

A key reason is that its management has a stellar track record of creating massive shareholder value with exactly this sort of approach, including at companies like United Rentals and GXO Logistics.

Plus there is a tech angle to whet some investors’ appetite for that in the current market. QXO reckons that beyond straightforward economies of scale like bulk buying discounts, it can wring further efficiencies from companies it acquires by implementing top-notch tech solutions.

That could help it manage stock efficiently, optimising product availability without tying up more working capital than is necessary.

Ongoing growth potential

For now, this is still an idea more than a proven business, at least on the scale QXO is ultimately targeting.

That could change fast, though. Just this month, for example, the company announced a $2.3bn deal to buy a building supplies distributor that it expects to be “highly accretive to 2026 earnings”.

QXO management’s decades of experience gives me confidence they can spot attractively priced acquisition opportunities. As this month’s deal shows, they are not hanging around in doing so.

Still, a risk of rapid growth through acquisition is overpaying in a rush to scale.

For QXO I also see a key man risk. That $18bn market cap is hard to justify based on the business model or balance sheet alone. It reflects market confidence in the proven management team.

If for any reason management changes, that could hurt the QXO stock price badly.

Still, even after more than doubling in a year, I reckon this growth share could potentially have a lot further to run. It is still early days in the company’s development, but I see it as a share for investors to consider.

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Contribution limits mean it takes time to get to that level. But the stock market is a good way for investors to try and put themselves in the fast lane for the journey there.

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Contribution limits

The maximum anyone can put into an ISA in any financial year is £20,000. That means getting to a million within 10 years probably isn’t realistic for someone starting from scratch.

Over the longer term, the average annual return from FTSE 100 has been close to 8.5%. At that level, you’d need to be starting from around £318,380 to get to £1,000,000 by 2036.

There’s no way to put that amount into a Stocks and Shares ISA in one go. And that highlights an important point about investing to build wealth, which is that it takes time. 

That’s why one of the best things someone can do to get an advantage is to start early. If it takes 10 years to get to a million from £318,380, the next question is how to get to that level.

The road to £318,380

Starting from scratch, investing £20,000 a year at 8.5% gets an investor to £318,380 within a decade. And that demonstrates the power of compound interest over time.

Based on those assumptions, it takes the same amount of time to get from £0 to £318,380 as it does to get from £318,380 to a million. That’s something it’s important for investors to remember.

The returns start slowly at first and it can feel like things aren’t going anywhere. But for investors who keep going, the rate at which the returns get bigger increases pretty rapidly.

This means it’s at least possible for someone starting from scratch to reach £1,000,000 in an ISA within 20 years. But it depends on finding investments that can generate that 8.5% annual return.

Growth potential

One stock I’ve been buying recently for my own portfolio is QXO (NYSE:QXO). It’s a US building materials supplier that I have very high hopes for over the next 10 years.

The company currently makes $4.5bn in annual revenues, but it intends to grow this to $50bn by 2035. Its plan for getting there is via a series of acquisitions in the highly fragmented industry.

This sounds nice, but the reason for thinking it’s plausible is that Brad Jacobs – the firm’s CEO – has an outstanding record of doing this in other industries. And that’s why I’ve been buying the stock.

If, for whatever reason, Jacobs doesn’t see the project through to completion, I suspect things won’t go so well for me. But a market value of $16bn should mean a lot to gain if things go to plan. 

Risks and rewards

Being a good investor isn’t about eliminating risks – that’s just not possible in the stock market. It’s about being aware of what they are and finding ways to manage them intelligently.

A good way of doing this is by building a diversified portfolio. And as part of this, I think investors aiming for a million might consider whether there’s a place for QXO in their Stocks and Shares ISAs.

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While I’m mostly focused on UK stocks at the moment, I do think there are some interesting opportunities across the Atlantic. And there are a couple I’m looking to buy for my portfolio.

The case for the US

Looking ahead to 2026, Varadhan’s view is that interest rates might well have further to fall. And the case for this comes from a combination of inflation and unemployment.

Inflation has been easing as tariff concerns subside, but the jobs market has been weak. Both of these data points provide support for a rate cut, which could boost share prices.

Varadhan expects artificial intelligence (AI) to be a key theme in 2026, but with the focus on users rather than providers. And this sounds plausible given the market’s recent concerns.

As we’ve seen in 2025, though, things can change direction quickly. So neither of my top two ideas for 2026 depends on interest rates coming down (though that would probably help).

CNH Industrial

CNH Industrial (NYSE:CNH) is a tractor manufacturing company. The stock is trading at a 33% discount to its 52-week high and this is mostly because of weaker crop prices.

I’m not sure when this is likely to turn around, but my suspicion is that it will eventually. And with shares in cyclical businesses, the time to think about buying is when they’re cheap.

That’s the case with CNH. The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio looks high due to cyclically low earnings, but the stock is at its lowest level since the pandemic on a price-to-book (P/B) basis.

The risk, of course, is that crop prices stay depressed for some time. But while investors wait for a recovery, the firm’s financing division should benefit from falling interest rates.

QXO

My top US stock to consider buying in 2026, though, is QXO (NYSE:QXO). It’s a building materials company, which doesn’t sound exciting, but I think it could be a big opportunity.

The firm is on a mission to build scale in a fragmented market through acquisitions. And it’s led by a CEO who has an outstanding track record with this strategy in various industries.

A lot depends on Brad Jacobs with this one and the possibility he might leave – for any reason – is a risk. That isn’t something I can avoid, but I think the potential returns are worth it.

That’s a long-term view. But the reason I’m looking to buy the stock in 2026 is that I think the firm can make progress on its strategy in the next year, whatever the economic climate brings.

US stocks

In terms of US stocks, the big tech companies have been attracting all the attention. But with a couple of exceptions, I think those stocks mostly look fully valued.

To my mind, the most attractive opportunities are elsewhere in the stock market. And they include the likes of CNH and QXO. 

Both are stocks I expect to own beyond 2026. But – along with a couple more US names – I’m very happy buying both right now as long-term investments.

The post Here are my top US stocks to consider buying in 2026 appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

If it achieves that, a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 1.5 is enough to make the share price climb 500% from its current level. As they once said in Sparta, though, the key word is ‘if’…

‘If’

Anyone who doesn’t know what QXO is at this point is probably thinking it’s some sort of artificial intelligence company. But it isn’t – it’s a distributor of building materials.

From its current base of just under $2bn, achieving $50bn in annual sales requires annual growth of around 38% for the next decade. And no business does that without a serious plan.

The fastest way for a firm to grow revenues is often by acquiring other businesses. But this always comes with the risk of overpaying, which can set a company back years.

QXO’s plan is to take advantage of a highly fragmented industry through a series of acquisitions. From there, it plans to help them grow their revenues and widen their margins.

The firm getting bigger creates more opportunities for cross-selling, giving new acquisitions a boost. And it’s also investing heavily in digital order portals, which should help boost profits. 

This means there’s significant integration risk and I think a lot of businesses with this type of strategy will fail. But QXO does have a unique ace in the form of its CEO, Brad Jacobs. 

Brad Jacobs

Different people are good at different things. And Brad Jacobs is good at growing businesses in the industrials sector through acquisitions and generating spectacular results in the process. 

Between 1989 and 1997, Jacobs grew United Waste from nothing to a business that was sold to Waste Management for $2.5bn. This was the result of around 150 acquisitions. 

After that, he started a firm called United Rentals. Ten years and 200 acquisitions later, the company had a market value of around $6bn.

More recently, Jacobs took XPO from a $150m business to an organisation with over $17bn in annual revenues. And this happened between 2011 and 2021.

Getting QXO to $50bn a year in sales is the biggest project yet, so there are no guarantees. But the person in charge has an outstanding record when it comes to executing this type of plan.

A P/S ratio of 1.5 is roughly in line with the long-term average for a stock in this industry. So if Jacobs can get QXO anywhere near the $50bn target, investors could do very well by 2035.

I’m a buyer

I’m a big fan of serial acquirers. I own a number in my portfolio and it’s a business model that can generate great results for investors when things go well. 

There is always risk with acquisitions, though, and success isn’t guaranteed. But QXO has a CEO with a uniquely impressive track record in charge and that makes it stand out to me.

I’ve started buying the stock in the last week and I plan to keep doing so. My sense is that there’s a lot more to come from this company and I want to be a part of that.

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