The Top Stock Pick for Q1 was ALM – Almonty Industries and the investor that pick this ticker is Genetic Smite. Congratulations for winning the contest for the first quarter of 2026.

Almonty Industries Inc. engages in mining, processing, and shipping of tungsten concentrates. The company explores for tin and tungsten deposits. It holds 100% interests in the Canada, Korea, Portugal, Spain, and the United States projects and mines. The company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Genetic Smite wins an annual subscription to Stockanalysis.com which is the platform / website that sponsor the contest. I have used this website for years and appreciate their support of my channel and community of investors.

The expected revenues, profits and free cash flows from Microsoft are expected to be great for the next 5 years. They have a solid AI strategy, a giant cloud infrastructure business and the software business is a cash cow.

The sentiment on MSFT stock has gotten very negative and the stock price is down 34% since November 2025.

The valuation of MSFT is attractive offering a 31% discount on the stock. The revenue growth, profit margins and free cash flow look excellent. Long term this is a lower risk higher return stock that could be a strong pillar of a portfolio.

The volatility of crude oil prices in the past 30 days has been extreme. The expectation that we would see low crude prices like the prices we saw last year are not expected in 2026.

The sector with the most negative impact from this is consumer discretionary. Stocks like LULU, NKE, ABNB and AAPL will see a slow down in sales as the consumer’s wallet gets smaller due to increase gasoline prices. These same companies will also deal with increase input cost since shipping and transportation will increase. This will shrink profit margins and free cash flows. The valuations of consumer discretionary stocks have gone down and there will be more sellers than buyers of these stocks.

Sectors that will also see some negative impact from high oil prices are financials and industrials. Companies in these sectors will experience a slower revenue growth. Stocks like CAT, UAL and JPM will see profits go down or remain stagnate. Travel, infrastructure projects and financing should experience a slower economic activity.

The sectors that stand to benefit most is energy and consumer staples. Energy companies will see an immediate increase in revenue, profits and free cash flow. Stocks like XOM, ENB and OKE will pay healthy dividends and will be a place for investors that seek outperforming stock this year. The high volatility and increased geopolitical risk has driven investors into safe consumer staple stocks. Safe stocks like KR, PG and PM will pay dividends and protect capital during this higher risk period.

Are higher oil prices here to stay? That is hard to predict the exact timing. We can make one conclusion which is that oil prices will be generally be higher in the next 2 years, then they have been for the past 2 years.

It is great that United Therapeutics is providing treatments for life threatening diseases, growing revenue and making a lot of money. This stock can continue to outperform long term if they launch their new drugs successfully and they are able to launch the organ transplant business as well.

The best performing super investors are invested in materials and energy stocks. In stark contrast with the stocks that lead the market in 2023, 2024 & 2025 which were mostly in technology. It is impossible to determine how long the new trade will last. But studying the most respected investor portfolios opens up ideas on what stocks may outperform over the next 12 months.