The S&P 500 is trading at the second most expensive valuation in its history right now.
Investors should never try to time the market as this often leads to missed gains.
However, it can be useful to keep a shortlist of quality stocks to grab if the market stumbles.
10 Stocks We Like More Than Nvidia ›
The stock market is not cheap now. In fact, as my colleague Sean Williams points out, the benchmark S&P 500 the index is trading at the second most expensive valuation in its history, dating back to 1871.
But timing the stock market is virtually impossible, and investors who sit on the sidelines waiting for a correction sometimes miss out on significant gains. Quite simply, there is never a bad time to invest, as long as it is for a long-term period of at least five years, this will reduce the noise and maximize the chances of earning a positive return.
That said, it can be useful to keep a shortlist of quality stocks to add to your portfolio if the broader market hits a bump. Here are three names I plan to collect if there is a crash in 2026.
Image source: Nvidia.
With a market cap of $4.6 trillion, Nvidia(NASDAQ: NVDA) is currently the largest company in the world. Its current 2026 fiscal year will end at the end of January in just a few weeks, and it’s on track to generate record revenues and earnings thanks to incredible demand for its data center chips, which are the world’s best for developing artificial intelligence (AI).
Nvidia is likely to grow even more in fiscal 2027, with the Wall Street consensus estimate (provided by Yahoo! Finance) pointing to total revenue of $319 billion. If the company’s recent operating results are anything to go by, the data center segment will be responsible for around 90% of this figure.
Later this year, Nvidia will release a new range of AI graphics processing units (GPUs) for the data center, which will be based on its new Rubin architecture. These chips could be 3.3 times more powerful than the company’s current Blackwell Ultra chips, so they will be ideal for implementing the latest reasoning models such as OpenAI’s GPT-5, Anthropic’s Claude 4.5, and AlphabetGemini’s 3. So the demand is likely to be astronomical.
Nvidia stock is trading at an attractive valuation as I write this. The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is 46.7, which is a discount from the 10-year average of 61.3. However, this is still a significant premium to the S&P 500’s P/E, which is 25.4. As a result, I’ll likely be a buyer if the stock gets caught up in a broader market selloff at some point this year.
CrowdStrike(NASDAQ: CRWD) is one of the largest cyber security providers in the world. Its Falcon platform is an all-in-one solution designed to protect the entire enterprise, from cloud networks to endpoints (computers and devices), which saves companies a lot of money because they can consolidate their spending with a single provider.
As of its recent fiscal 2026 quarter (ended Oct. 31), CrowdStrike had annual recurring revenue of $4.9 billion, but management has proposed an ambitious plan to double that figure to $10 billion over the next five to six years. This would be a great growth story to have in any portfolio, especially considering that the demand for cybersecurity will only increase over time.
However, CrowdStrike stock is rarely cheap. The current price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 24.7 is close double that of its nearest competitor, Palo Alto Networkswhich trades at a P/S ratio of 13.3. This opens the door to potential significant downside in the event of a broader market selloff or if the company delivers a poor set of quarterly operating results at some point.
So while I wouldn’t buy the stock today, I’m certainly waiting for an opportunity to get it at a more reasonable price.
Meta platforms(NASDAQ: META) is the parent company of the social networks Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, which are used by 3.5 billion people every day. The company generates the vast majority of its revenue by selling ad space to companies within those apps, and last year, it used AI to significantly improve engagement and monetization.
Meta also continues to develop its popular open-source Llama language models. They are at the heart of new features like Meta AI, a chatbot that has already amassed over 1 billion monthly active users after launching just two years ago.
The company has likely spent more than $70 billion on AI data center infrastructure and chips during 2025 (the official number will be revealed at the end of January), which it uses to constantly improve its Llama models to ensure that applications like Meta AI produce the most accurate results for end users. A widely adopted chatbot could unlock entirely new revenue streams, so Meta is fighting hard to beat competitors like OpenAI and Alphabet in this race.
Meta stock is already down 17% from its all-time high, and its current P/E ratio of 28.7 makes it one of the cheapest “Magnificent Seven” stocks. But given the larger and more expensive market, I’m willing to wait for a better opportunity — while fully aware that I might miss my chance entirely if it never happens.
Before buying Nvidia stock, consider the following:
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Anthony Di Pizio has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, CrowdStrike, Meta Platforms and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Palo Alto Networks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
3 Stocks I Plan to Buy If the Stock Market Crashes in 2026 was originally published by The Motley Fool
