The broader market trend remains positive, with the S&P 500 up 16% and the NASDAQ gaining 22% so far in 2025. Despite mixed economic data competing for attention, third-quarter earnings appear to be the key driver behind recent market strength.
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With more than 90% of S&P 500 companies having reported, earnings have climbed 11.75%, supported by revenue growth of 8.2%. That’s a clear beat compared to the 8% profit increase FactSet had forecast before the season began.
Morgan Stanley equity strategist, Mike Wilson, explains why the earnings results should be getting more attention: “We’re encouraged by the sales beat rate in earnings season (>2x avg.) and the best EPS growth for the median stock (11%) in 4 years—supportive of our call that a new cycle and bull market began in April… We think this is an underappreciated story and see this trend continuing into 2026, driving a broadening in earnings contribution across major and secondary indices. As usual, stocks have figured this out ahead of the consensus forecaster…”
Wilson’s colleagues among the Morgan Stanley stock analysts are busy following this line of thought, and turning it into concrete recommendations for stocks to buy. The analysts are pounding the table on two stocks in particular, and we’ve looked up their details in the TipRanks platform. Let’s dive in.
Galaxy Digital (GLXY)
The rise of the connected digital world has had a massive impact on the financial sector, as investors and traders shift toward an online model of banking and trading services. Galaxy Digital lives exactly in the middle of this ongoing change. The company has been working to establish a footing at both ends of online finance: digital assets, facing the customer; and data centers, at the back end.
On the digital assets side, Galaxy manages a wide range of assets, including active and passive funds, hedge funds, ETFs, and venture capital. The company uses an Infrastructure Solutions platform based on blockchain to allow digital asset management with the maximum of online security. This is a strategic decision, designed to connect traditional financial trading services with the digital economy.
Along with these assets, Galaxy also provides a suite of products and services to enhance trading activities. Among these are high-touch over-the-counter (OTC) trading coverage, electronic trading coverage, OTC crypto derivatives trading, and bespoke lending, to name a few. Galaxy’s aim is to bring cutting-edge technology into digital trading.
None of our top-end tech platforms would be possible without the right hardware and infrastructure, and that’s where Galaxy’s data center business steps in. The company is investing in and operating a data center campus designed to power AI and high-performance computing (HPC), applications that are in high demand yet require specialized physical facilities in the background. Galaxy’s Helios campus, its data center business, is located in Dickens County, Texas, and covers an area of 1,500 acres. The facility is currently approved for 800 megawatts of operation and has a 2.7-gigawatt future expansion currently under study. The Helios data center is designed from the ground up to support AI and HPC at any scale and boasts an uninterruptible power supply.
James Faucette, in his coverage of this stock for Morgan Stanley, comes down squarely with the bulls on Galaxy, writing, “We view Galaxy Digital as a compelling combination of 1) a nascent AI data center developer with a clear path to monetizing one of the largest single-campus HPC data centers under development and 2) a blockchain-enabled investment bank. The Helios data center, if fully built out and contracted, could be one of the largest data centers in the world, worth >$30B in terminal equity value.”
Along with these comments, Faucette rates GLXY as Overweight (i.e., Buy), with a $42 price target that implies an upside of 37% for the year ahead. (To watch Faucette’s track record, click here)
The 10 recent analyst reviews here split 9 to 1 in favor of Buy over Hold, giving the shares their Strong Buy consensus rating. The stock is priced at $30.74, and its $45.69 average price target points toward a share appreciation of 49% by this time next year. (See GLXY stock forecast)
Phoenix Education Partners (PXED)
The next stock we’ll look at here is Phoenix Education Partners, the parent company of the well-known for-profit post-secondary school, the University of Phoenix. The school traces its roots back nearly 50 years, to 1976, and is known for opening up new routes of access to higher education opportunities for its students.
The University of Phoenix offers a ‘skills-aligned’ curriculum, with a strong focus on professional and continuing education programs. It claims more than 1.1 million alumni and some 80,000 students enrolled in degree programs. The school’s target student base is mainly working adults, and it works with more than 2,500 employers.
On the business side, Phoenix Education Partners acts as the holding company – and in October of this year, Phoenix Education Partners went public through an IPO. The event saw 4,250,000 shares go up for sale by certain ‘selling stockholders’ at an offering price of $32 each. We should note here that the selling stockholders received the proceeds of the IPO; the gross proceeds came to approximately $136 million.
A newly public company is sure to attract attention, and Phoenix Education Partners has already attracted six analyst reviews. Morgan Stanley analyst Greg Parrish wrote one of these, explaining why Phoenix is a sound investment now that it’s public. Parrish says of the firm, “The company comes public with a strong, tenured management team and a clear drive to improve the lives of working adults and families. PXED operates in a large market with secular tailwinds, and we expect the traditional university format to continue to lose share to adult/digital formats as student needs/preferences change. While competition is stiff, PXED can leverage its leading brand awareness in the market. PXED brings an attractive financial profile and clean balance sheet with no debt, mid-twenties adj. EBITDA margin, and LSD capital intensity leading to 65-70% FCF conversion. At 5x CY ’26 adj. EBITDA, ~2-turns below primary for-profit education comps, we believe the stock is attractively priced…”
Quantifying this stance, Parrish puts an Overweight (i.e., Buy) rating on the stock, along with a $45 price target that suggests a one-year upside potential of 46%. (To watch Parrish’s track record, click here)
The Street as a whole gives PXED a Moderate Buy consensus rating. As noted, there are six recent reviews on file for the stock; they include 4 Buys and 2 Holds. The shares have a trading price of $30.75 and an average target price of $44.38; together, these prices imply a gain of 44% for the stock by this time next year. (See PXED stock forecast)
To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analyst. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.