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3 Top-Rated Value Stocks to Buy Now

Barchart·09/08/2026 16:18:36

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Finding the best value stocks to buy in this market is a delicate balancing act.

On the one hand, you typically need to think beyond the flashiest names in the stock market—wild growth stories are rarely underappreciated by Wall Street investors. But you also need to think past "cheap stocks," too. For one, nominal price ($5 stocks, $1 stocks, penny stocks) isn't an indication of value. But even "cheap" by actual valuation metrics isn't helpful, either, if you're just buying a discounted name with little else to love.

Value investing is a religion to many folks, the same way bargain hunting at flea markets or coupon clipping is to others. There's a pride that value investors have about analyzing the true worth of a company, and they should. It's a skill.

Today, we'll talk a little about the basics of value stock investing. Then I'll highlight some of the best value stocks for the rest of 2026, across several sectors, that exemplify this approach.

Editor’s Note: Tabular data presented in this article is up-to-date as of Sept. 8, 2026.

Disclaimer: This article does not constitute individualized investment advice. Individual securities, funds, and/or other investments appear for your consideration and not as personalized investment recommendations. Act at your own discretion.

The Best Value Stocks to Buy Now

Today, I’ll look at some of the best value stocks to buy now as rated by consensus analyst ratings from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The consensus rating is the average of all known analyst ratings of the stock, boiled down to a numerical system where …

1-1.5 = Strong Buy
1.5-2.5 = Buy
2.5-3.5 = Hold
3.5-4.5 = Sell
4.5-5 = Strong Sell

In short: The lower the number, the better the overall consensus view on the stock. All stocks here are rated at least 2.0 or below, meaning at worst they’re solidly in the Buy camp, though most of the picks are considered Strong Buys as we enter 2026. And the stocks are listed in reverse order of their consensus rating (from worst to best).

All stocks also have forward P/Es that are below both the S&P 500 and their sectors, as well as PEGs below 1.0.

As iconic investor Warren Buffett once wrote, "In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine." The following three picks, from my broader list of the best value stocks to buy now, are good examples of value-priced equities with real weight.

Bank of America

Sector: Financials
Market capitalization: $438.0 billion
Dividend yield: 2.0%
Forward P/E: 12.6
Consensus analyst rating: 1.54 (Buy)

Bank of America (BAC) is one of the world’s largest banks, serving roughly 70 million Americans through 3,800 branches and 15,000 ATMs across 39 states. However, BofA is much, much more than its consumer business—it also provides financial products and services for small and midsized businesses, large corporations, institutional investors, and even governments. Its offerings range from checking and savings accounts to commercial loans, trade finance, treasury management, and securities clearing.

BofA was caught up in financials' broader slump across the first half of 2026. But despite recovering to double-digit year-to-date gains, BAC stock is still entrenched in value territory. Its forward P/E of less than 13 is cheaper than the broader market, and decently inexpensive compared to the financial sector. A PEG of 0.81 shows that it's a little undervalued in relation to its projected growth.

Part of banks' pain in 2026 has come from worries about artificial intelligence taking over their business models. But Wall Street remains plenty bullish on the space, and on BAC in particular.

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"We do not see AI tools as an existential threat, rather we see them as a tool to enable improving profitability," say Morgan Stanley analysts. "We expect operational efficiency to improve across our coverages as banks utilize AI tools to ramp throughput. Across our large cap banks, we expect AI tools will help drive a productivity gains of 20-50% across a wide range of functions including financial advisors, wholesale banking and markets teams and operational staff."

As for BofA specifically? Morgan Stanley's Betsy L. Graseck rates BofA at Overweight (equivalent of Buy) and calls the stock her "top pick" in 2026, adding that "BAC's investments in AI are already delivering efficiencies." She's one of 20 Buy-equivalent calls on the stock, which compares well to just four Holds and zero Sells.

More recently, BAC is coming off a solid second-quarter earnings release in which the company reported stronger fee income and muted expenses. "The second-quarter print reaffirms our prior view that BAC's NIM remains among the more defensible in the group, supported by fixed-rate asset repricing tailwinds and strong deposit franchise, evidenced by a 1-basis-point decline in total deposit costs," says Citi analyst Benjamin Gerlinger, who also rates the stock at Buy.

Nucor

Sector: Materials
Market capitalization: $58.2 billion
Dividend yield: 0.9%
Forward P/E: 12.0
Consensus analyst rating: 1.53 (Buy)

Nucor (NUE) is North America's largest steel manufacturer and recycler. It produces a wide variety of products, including hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and galvanized sheet steel products; bar steel products; and steel joists and joist girders, among other products. It also has a raw materials segment that produces direct reduced iron, processes scrap metal, and even engages in natural gas production.

It's among the top-rated value stocks to buy right now, too. Its forward P/E of 12 is about a third that of the broader materials sector (18), and it has a dirt-cheap PEG of 0.39. Meanwhile, NUE shares enjoy 14 Buys versus just three Holds and no Sells.

"We view Nucor as a well-run company with a strong record in its industry, and poised to take advantage of megatrends (such as the rebuilding of U.S. infrastructure, the transition to alternative energy sources, and manufacturing onshoring)," says Argus Research's Alexandra Yates (Buy). "Although NUE’s earnings were hurt recently by reduced demand and inflationary pressures, conditions are improving. The balance sheet is clean, and management has experience navigating difficult conditions. With Nucor’s diverse portfolio and commitment to investing in higher-margin businesses, we see potential for share-price gains."

Nucor is a highly cyclical stock whose fates are closely tethered to economic activity, both here and abroad. That's typically not fertile breeding ground for dividend stability, but NUE is an exception to the rule. This company has delivered 53 years of dividend growth, which not only is good enough to merit a spot among the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats (S&P 500 companies that have raised their dividends without interruption for at least 25 consecutive years), but it puts it among the even more elite Dividend Kings (50-plus years).

No. 53 came in December 2025, when the company raised its payout by 1.8%, to 56¢ per share.

Darling Ingredients

Sector: Consumer staples
Market capitalization: $10.5 billion
Dividend yield: N/A
Forward P/E: 10.6
Consensus analyst rating: 1.25 (Strong Buy)

Darling Ingredients (DAR) is a global producer and seller of sustainable natural ingredients, which it creates from edible and inedible bio-nutrients. It operates in three segments: Food, Feed, and Fuel.

Readers with more sensitive stomachs might want to skip a paragraph.

The Food segment turns beef and pork bone chips, beef hides, and pig and fish skins into collagen; processes intestines into natural casings, refines animal fat into food-grade fat, and more. The Feed segment creates non-food-grade oils and protein meals, cookie meal used in poultry and swine food, even blood plasma powder and hemoglobin. And its fuels division turns organic sludge and food waste into biogas, converts certain animal byproducts into low-grade energy sources, and more.

BMO Capital Markets' Andrew Strelzik (Outperform) calls DAR "one of our favorite investment ideas." He said he believes the company is "in the early innings of capitalizing on inflection in fundamentals," and he said the "balance sheet is deleveraging faster than expected, moving DAR closer to potential cash return to shareholder announcement (DAR repurchased $73 million during quarter)" after the company's recent earnings report, which was better than the Street expected.

Strelzik is one of 11 Buy calls on DAR shares, contested by one Hold and no Sells. Those ratings are driven by wild annual earnings-growth estimates of nearly 150% on average, as well as thin valuations for that growth: a forward P/E around 11 that's about half the consumer staples sector, and a PEG just below 0.1.

That puts it among Wall Street's best value stocks, and a true, ahem, darling of the Wall Street analyst set.

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