rewrite this title Top Wall Street analysts find these 3 stocks attractive in these challenging times

The chaos around tariffs continues to rattle global stock markets, as fears of higher costs and concerns over a potential economic slowdown weigh on investor sentiment.

However, the pullback in several stocks due to these ongoing challenges has created an opportunity to pick attractive stocks trading at compelling levels. Top Wall Street analysts can help identify stocks that could navigate short-term headwinds and deliver solid returns over the long term.

With that in mind, here are three stocks favored by the Street’s top pros, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.

Affirm Holdings

We start this week with Affirm Holdings (AFRM), a buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform. As of the end of 2024, Affirm had 21 million active customers and 337,000 active merchants.

On April 7, TD Cowen analyst Moshe Orenbuch initiated coverage of Affirm stock with a buy rating and a price target of $50, reflecting a valuation of about 23-times the 2026 adjusted earnings per share. “AFRM is one of the top performing BNPL brands in the U.S. with a full-suite [point of sale] lending capability vs peers, and likely the most pro-consumer practices in the industry,” said the analyst.

Orenbuch thinks that AFRM possesses more seasoned underwriting capabilities than its rivals, as the company began underwriting longer-term loans before offering BNPL solutions.

The analyst also highlighted the company’s partnerships with big e-commerce players like Amazon and Shopify. Orenbuch contends that these key partnerships reflect Affirm’s capabilities while allowing it to pursue higher volumes from both big and small businesses more effectively than other BNPL players. Additionally, he pointed out that Affirm has a strong funding program that has historically helped it secure better terms in the capital market compared to others in the consumer lending industry.

Orenbuch added that AFRM fared better than nonprime lenders in the tough credit period in 2022-2023. He contends that even if gross merchandise value growth slows down over the short term due to weakness in the job market, it will have a short-term impact on AFRM’s profits and likely not weigh on its long-term profitability trajectory.

Orenbuch ranks No.22 among more than 9,300 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 64% of the time, delivering an average return of 19.4%. See Affirm Holdings Stock Charts on TipRanks.

TJX Companies

This week’s second stock pick is TJX Companies (TJX), an off-price retailer that operates more than 5,000 stores across nine countries, including the TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Homesense, and Sierra stores in the U.S. TJX and other off-price retailers sell merchandise at deep discounts compared to prices offered on comparable merchandise by department stores or other retailers, as they opportunistically purchase their inventory at lower costs.

Recently, Jefferies analyst Corey Tarlowe reaffirmed a buy rating on TJX stock with a price target of $150. The analyst stated that Jefferies’ updated “Inventory Insanity” analysis following the fourth-quarter results revealed that inventory rose 2.9% year over year across the firm’s coverage group of 85 companies compared to 2.2% in Q3 2024. Tarlowe thinks that TJX Companies is the best positioned in the off-price space to take advantage of the surplus inventory in the marketplace. 

“Therefore, with an experienced team of +1.3k buyers, we believe TJX should witness and outsized benefit from continuing to buy opportunistically across its +21k vendors and more than 100 countries,” the analyst said.

Moreover, Tarlowe expects TJX to gain from the secular shift towards the off-price sector, which could help the retailer grab market share from other, more traditional retailers. The analyst also sees the company’s further expansion in the Home category and overseas markets as unique growth opportunities.

Tarlowe noted that TJX delivered a peak gross margin of 30.6% in fiscal 2025 despite an unfavorable comparison with the previous year, which included a 53rd week (due to a leap year). He thinks that management’s fiscal 2026 gross margin guidance of 30.4% to 30.5% seems conservative, especially given that the company exceeded its fiscal 2025 margin outlook.

Tarlowe ranks No.574 among more than 9,300 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 55% of the time, delivering an average return of 10.2%. See TJX Companies Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks.

CyberArk Software

Finally, let’s look at CyberArk Software (CYBR), a cybersecurity company that specializes in identity security solutions. The company is scheduled to announce its first-quarter results on May 13.

Heading into the Q1 2025 results, TD Cowen analyst Shaul Eyal reiterated a buy rating on CYBR stock with a price target of $450. The analyst thinks that CyberArk is well-positioned to navigate the challenging market conditions and surpass the Street’s revenue estimate. Eyal’s optimism is backed by checks by his firm that indicated continued strength in demand, with CYBR’s effort to expand its platform away from its core privileged access management gaining traction among customers.

Additionally, Eyal noted that despite increasing global macro challenges, value-added resellers, consultants, and partners are not seeing any slowdown in the second-quarter pipeline. He cited some of the key reasons for CYBR’s consistent performance, including its Identity and Access Management’s mission criticality and the persistent attack on digital identities by hackers. Also, rival SailPoint’s recent results and outlook didn’t indicate any slowdown, which bodes well for CyberArk as both companies are targeting similar market tiers.  

Eyal sees the possibility of CyberArk revising the mid-point of its fiscal 2025 revenue guidance higher as the year progresses. Nevertheless, he contends that even if the company reiterates its guidance despite a possible Q1 2025 beat, it will still be viewed positively, given the growing macro challenges.

The analyst also highlighted CYBR’s efforts to expand its platform through strategic acquisitions like that of Zilla, which offers identity governance and administration solutions, and Venafi, which provides machine identity solutions. He continues to see a huge opportunity for CyberArk in the Agentic AI market.

“CYBR is executing well and remains well positioned to achieve its LT FY28 targets of $2.2B in rev and $600M of FCF [free cash flow],” said Eyal.

Eyal ranks No.14 among more than 9,300 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 64% of the time, delivering an average return of 22.5%. See CyberArk Ownership Structure on TipRanks.