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5 of the Most-Upgraded Stocks Over the Last Quarter Are All Software Names—Here's WhyWritten by Ryan Hasson on August 24, 2026 
Key Points
- MarketBeat's five most-upgraded stocks over the past 90 days are all software companies, including Snowflake, Okta, Datadog, CrowdStrike, and Palo Alto Networks.
- Analysts cite these companies' ability to directly monetize the AI boom, through consumption-based data platforms, AI agent identity security, and cloud observability, as the driver of upgrades.
- All five stocks have posted strong year-to-date gains and carry consensus Moderate Buy ratings, but several trade near price targets ahead of upcoming earnings that could test valuations.
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When analysts collectively raise their price targets and ratings on a single group of stocks, it pays to notice. Upgrades reflect where Wall Street's research desks see the earnings power and momentum heading next, and when they cluster tightly around one theme, that clustering could potentially mark the early stage of a leadership rotation. Right now, something worth flagging is happening on MarketBeat's most-upgraded stocks list: the five names drawing the heaviest analyst enthusiasm over the past 90 days are all software companies. Now, this is not entirely a coincidence. After a brutal stretch earlier in the year that saw software badly lag the AI hardware trade, the group has come roaring back. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (BATS: IGV) has climbed about 9.65% over the past quarter, comfortably outpacing the broader S&P 500. This comes as capital has rotated out of the crowded, expensive semiconductor, memory, and neo-cloud names and into software companies that are now proving they can monetize AI in their own right. The five names below sit at the center of that shift, and here is why analysts can't stop upgrading them.
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Snowflake: The Data Cloud Turning AI Into ConsumptionSnowflake (NYSE: SNOW) runs a cloud-based data platform that lets enterprises store, analyze, and share massive volumes of data across every major public cloud. It has become one of the purest ways to play a simple reality: artificial intelligence is only as good as the data feeding it, and analysts have taken note. The stock is up about 51% year-to-date, and the upgrades keep coming. Just last week, Truist raised its price target to $375, well above the current price, and the consensus rating among 40 analysts is Moderate Buy. And the overarching sentiment and theme driving the narrative is fairly straightforward. Snowflake's consumption-based model means that as customers build and run more AI workloads, they consume more Snowflake, turning the AI boom into a direct revenue tailwind. With earnings just around the corner, due Sept. 2, analysts have been confidently lifting targets and ratings ahead of what many expect to be another strong quarter. Okta: The Identity Layer Finding a Second WindOkta (NASDAQ: OKTA) is the leading independent provider of identity and access management, the software that controls who can log in to what across an organization's digital footprint. Long viewed as a mature, steady grower, the company has found a fresh catalyst in the AI era, where securing not just human identities but autonomous AI agents has become a rapidly expanding need. That narrative and organic, strategic shift, if you will, has powered the stock by almost 57% this year, and the analyst community has moved quickly, rating it as a consensus Moderate Buy. In just the past week alone, JPMorgan raised its price target to $165, and Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed its Buy rating. Morgan Stanley and KeyCorp reiterated their Overweight ratings on the stock, with both price targets implying over 27% upside. The company's improving profitability, paired with its emerging role in securing AI agents, has reframed what was once seen as a forgotten software name. The company is set to report its Q2 results on Aug. 26, so investors can expect another round of analyst actions. Heading into the print, the stock has spent several months consolidating in the upper band of its 52-week range, with $130 acting as critical support and $156 as the major breakout level.
The Wall Street Journal is already raising the alarm about a potential market crash, and Weiss Ratings research points to the first half of 2026 as a particularly rough stretch for certain holdings.
Some of America's most popular stocks could take serious damage as a radical market shift plays out. Analysts at Weiss Ratings have identified five names you may want to remove from your portfolio before this unfolds.
If any of these are in your portfolio, now is the time to review your positions. See the 5 stocks to avoid
Datadog: The Observability Leader Riding the Cloud WaveDatadog (NASDAQ: DDOG) provides cloud monitoring and observability, giving engineering teams real-time visibility into the health and performance of their applications and infrastructure. As enterprises pour money into AI and cloud workloads, the need to monitor those increasingly complex systems grows right alongside it, placing Datadog squarely in the flow. The stock has been a standout sector and industry performer, up about 73% year to date, and it carries the most attractive upside target in this group. The consensus rating across 45 analysts is Moderate Buy, with an average price target of $276.32, implying more than 17% upside from current levels. Datadog's Q2 2026 report on Aug. 6 actually beat expectations, and while the stock sold off on that print amid a stretched valuation, analysts have used the subsequent pullback to reiterate their conviction. The company reported earnings per share (EPS) of 65 cents, comfortably topping the estimate of 58 cents, while quarterly revenue grew 35.6% over the prior year, also beating estimates. CrowdStrike: The Cybersecurity Heavyweight Analysts Keep BackingCrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) is the dominant force in cloud-native cybersecurity, protecting endpoints, cloud workloads, and identities through its Falcon platform. It has become the enterprise standard in an era when AI is enabling attacks at machine speed, and that structural tailwind has kept analysts firmly in its corner. Shares are up almost 64% year to date, and the company has continued to draw positive analyst action, including recent target raises tied to its new partnership with Cerebras (NASDAQ: CBRS) to accelerate its AI security capabilities. The consensus across 50 analysts, the deepest coverage of this group, is Moderate Buy. One honest flag to note is that, after its powerful run, the stock has recently pulled back and now trades near the consensus price target, so much of the near-term optimism might already be priced in. But that structure could change soon, with earnings expected on Aug. 26 after the market closes. Expectations are running hot for CRWD, with the consensus estimate calling for an almost 26% year-over-year increase in earnings and about 23% growth in sales over the prior quarter. Palo Alto Networks: The Platform Giant at the Front of the PackPalo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is the largest pure-play cybersecurity company in the world, consolidating firewalls, cloud security, and AI-driven security operations into a single platform. Its platformization strategy, getting customers to adopt its entire security stack rather than piecemeal tools, has made it the default enterprise choice as companies race to secure their AI deployments. No name on this list has performed better in 2026, with the stock up an eye-catching 94% year to date as of Friday’s close. Palo Alto also has the strongest news sentiment score in the group, and it just launched a Frontier AI defense program to protect enterprise AI systems. The consensus across 48 analysts is Moderate Buy. As with several of its peers, the valuation is now rich and the stock trades close to its average target, so the burden shifts to its upcoming earnings report, expected around Sept. 1, to justify the enthusiasm. Institutional activity in Palo Alto has been rampant, with a whopping net inflow over the prior 12 months. Over the prior year, more than $51 billion in total institutional inflows have been recorded, versus just $4.4 billion in outflows. Ahead of the company's all-important Q2 report, its current institutional ownership percentage is nearly 80%. The Common DenominatorFive stocks, one sector, and a wave of analyst upgrades that is hard to ignore. What connects these names is a shared realization on Wall Street: software is no longer the laggard of the AI trade but an increasingly direct beneficiary of it, whether through consumption-based data platforms, identity security for AI agents, or observability for sprawling cloud systems. The upgrades reflect that shift in thinking. But the caution, as is often the case in this market, is valuation. Several of these names have run hard and now trade near their targets, with earnings reports looming that will separate the leaders from the laggards. However, one thing remains clear: when analysts move this decisively on an entire group, it is usually a signal worth respecting. Read this article online › Further Reading
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