One AI model that is built to help investors pick winners in the stock market has grown confident in the near-term upside for a mid-sized energy stock. IFi Ai is an investment information firm powered by the artificial intelligence of IBM’s Watsonx. The firm’s model takes in a wide range of market signals and data to make projections about where individual stocks will go next. Some of the data sources that feed into the iFi AI model include macroeconomic updates, news articles, fundamental company data and technical trading indicators. The program’s top idea as of Monday morning, with projected upside of nearly 19% in the next 30 days, is Marathon Oil . The stock could be something of a catchup play, since it is lagging behind some other industry leaders. The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) is up more than 13% on the year, while Marathon is up 9%. The stock is well liked on Wall Street, with buy or strong buy ratings from 18 of 25 analysts, according to LSEG. Marathon is not the only stock that iFi AI sees big returns for over the next month. These five stocks had the highest projections as of Monday morning, within the top confidence interval of the model. The AI model is bullish on more energy stocks than just Marathon, as Southwestern Energy also makes the cut. Southwestern is smaller than Marathon, with a market cap of less than $10 billion. However, it is outperforming the energy sector in 2024, with a gain of 15%. Two of the other stocks on the list look more like potential rebound plays after rough starts to the year. Shares of Affirm are down 31% this year, possibly due to concerns about what a weakening U.S. consumer could mean for the the buy-now, pay-later company. However, Affirm did get an upgrade to buy from a JPMorgan analyst earlier this month. Meanwhile, software stock Smartsheet is down 12% for the year. The stock has shown signs of a turnaround in May, however, and on Friday closed at its highest level in more than two months. SMAR 3M mountain Smartsheet is trading at its highest levels in more than two months. One potential momentum play from the iFi AI list is Vertiv , whose share price has more than doubled in 2024. The Ohio-based technology infrastructure said in its first-quarter report that it is seeing strong demand related to the AI boom and that it expects organic net sales to grow between 11% and 13% this year. The CEO of iFi AI, which launched in March , is CNBC senior analyst and commentator Ron Insana. None of the stocks listed above were in the top five of the same screen last week.
