Time’s Almost Up

Hey there, bargain hunter. Goldman Sachs published a cross-sector screen over the weekend naming five buy-rated stocks the bank says have been unfairly punished: Alibaba (BABA), Burlington Stores (BURL), Ulta Beauty (ULTA), AECOM (ACM), and Viking Holdings (VIK). The backdrop is not gentle: the Fed is signaling it may hike again, Brent crude is around $96, and consumer discretionary is among the weaker S&P 500 sectors so far in 2026. Five names, five situations. Not all five are equal.

The Scoreboard

• BABA: ~$113, off 41% from its 52-week high of $192.67. Shares plunged as much as 10% in late August after a $10.2 billion share placement to fund an AI push.
• BURL: ~$327, up for the year but net sales of about $3.0 billion in Q2 missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations even though adjusted EPS blew past estimates.
• ULTA: ULTA hit a 52-week high of $714.97 on February 18, 2026 and has since retreated to the mid-$500s, roughly 20% off that level.
• ACM: Pulled back hard after a messy Q3 earnings report driven by a single construction charge.
• VIK: VIK reached its all-time high of $110.09 on August 5, 2026 and has since fallen to around $86, a drop of roughly 22%.

Genuine Bargain No. 1: Burlington (BURL)

Burlington is the easiest call on this list. Q2 represented the company’s 15th consecutive quarter of double-digit EPS growth. The market sold it because comp store sales increased just 2% on top of 5% last year. That 2% disappointed. What the market largely ignored: excluding the impact of tariff refunds, adjusted EPS grew 38% versus the second quarter of last year. Gross margin hit 46.2%, up 250 basis points year over year.

Burlington raised its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $11.77 to $11.97, targeting comp growth of 3% to 4% and EPS growth of 16% to 18%. The company plans to open 115 net new stores in 2026 and is focusing on merchandising execution and supply chain productivity. Goldman’s note on Burlington flags that 2% comp fell short of investor hopes, but calls out strong margin execution and multiple operational levers. This is a stock punished for a revenue miss while its earnings machine kept running. That is the kind of dislocation bargain hunters live for.

Genuine Bargain No. 2: Ulta (ULTA)

Ulta reported Q2 net sales of $3.0 billion, up 8.9% year over year, and diluted EPS of $6.55. CEO Kecia Steelman said the company generated 3.8% comparable sales growth and saw higher average spending per member. The stock dropped anyway, because Goldman analyst Kate McShane noted investor concern that promotional activity increased year over year in Q2 and that second-half guidance implies a top-line deceleration.

McShane’s post-earnings view remains constructive: Goldman believes Ulta is well positioned to continue gaining share, and company guidance could prove conservative for the year. Full-year diluted EPS guidance was raised to $28.70 to $29.00, implying growth of 11.9% to 13.1%. Trading roughly 20% below its February 52-week high on a business that is still growing sales nearly 9% and raising guidance is a fair place to start building a position.

Interesting But Imperfect: Viking (VIK)

Goldman added Viking to its US Conviction List on August 3, 2026, reaffirming a Buy rating and setting a price target of $120 per share. The sell-off since the August 5 all-time high has been tied in part to low European river water levels disrupting itineraries. That is a real headwind but a transient one. Q2 revenue came in at $2.19 billion. Advanced bookings for 2026 stand at $6.386 billion, with $4.711 billion booked for 2027. That kind of forward visibility is rare in leisure.

The catch: VIK is not cheap on traditional multiples. Insider activity also has not screamed conviction. This is a quality business with pricing power and an affluent customer base, but into a Fed tightening cycle it is still a name to scale into slowly.

Proceed With Caution: AECOM (ACM)

AECOM’s dip comes with an asterisk. A $337 million pre-tax charge on a single 2019 construction management project pushed the company into an operating loss of $76 million in Q3. Management called it a one-time item tied to a legacy contract. The underlying story is real: total backlog reached $27.8 billion, representing 13% year-over-year growth and a record high. The book-to-burn ratio was 1.6x, with the Americas segment at 1.8x.

But the charge cut fiscal-year free cash flow guidance meaningfully, and underlying design net service revenue growth slowed versus the company’s long-term target. The infrastructure funding tailwind from the IIJA is real, and the backlog gives Goldman something to point to. Wait for one clean quarter before adding size.

Falling Knife Alert: Alibaba (BABA)

BABA is the most controversial name on the list and the one that requires the most patience. Goldman kept Alibaba on its Asia-Pacific Conviction List and has argued the earnings downgrade cycle may be close to bottoming out. The price target of $186 implies upside of roughly 65% from current levels. That is a big number.

Reality check: Alibaba’s August share placement diluted holders and signaled that management is willing to spend heavily on AI before the returns are clear. Regulatory risk in China is not gone. This is a speculative position, not a core holding. If you buy, keep it small and treat about $93, the 52-week low, as your line in the sand.

That placement did not happen in a vacuum — it was the centerpiece of a broader strategic pivot that rattled investors across multiple sessions. our full breakdown of Alibaba’s $10 billion AI share sale, cloud streak, and profit collapse walks through the mechanics of the deal and what the 12-quarter cloud winning streak means for the bull case, giving you the context needed to size a position responsibly.

Action Plan

• BURL: Buy. Build a full position in two tranches. The margin story is intact even when comps disappoint.
• ULTA: Buy. Scale in at current levels. A second tranche on any further weakness toward $490 makes sense given the raised guidance.
• VIK: Start a small position. Add after river disruption clears and insider selling stabilizes.
• ACM: Watch. Wait for a clean Q4 before committing capital. The backlog is there; the execution risk is not resolved.
• BABA: Speculative only. A starter position for risk-tolerant accounts. Not appropriate as a core holding until earnings stabilize.

Understanding why Alibaba is spending so aggressively requires a look at the competitive pressure building across the AI infrastructure landscape. the data behind NVDA, AMD, and Broadcom’s AI arms race and what it means for investors lays out the scale of capital being deployed by the companies supplying the chips that Alibaba and its rivals are racing to secure — context that explains why management felt compelled to dilute shareholders now rather than wait.

Cheap Investor Scorecard

• BURL: 15 consecutive quarters of double-digit EPS growth. Check.
• ULTA: Q2 diluted EPS of $6.55; full-year guidance raised to $28.70 to $29.00. Check.
• VIK: $6.386 billion in 2026 advance bookings; $4.711 billion for 2027. Check.
• ACM: $27.8 billion backlog at record high; 1.6x book-to-burn. Conditional check.
• BABA: Share dilution plus heavy AI spend. No check yet.

Bottom Line

Goldman’s list is not five equal opportunities. Burlington and Ulta are genuine dip buys: the businesses are outperforming while the stocks lag. Viking is a quality name that just got expensive before pulling back, and the near-term river headwind is real but not permanent. AECOM needs a clean quarter before you trust the backlog conversion story. Alibaba is the riskiest of the five and should be sized accordingly. If you own nothing on this list, start with BURL. If you own all five already, trim BABA until the earnings trajectory reverses.