This TSX top gainer is up 56% this year, with even ‘more meaningful upside,’ analysts say

CIBC shares its Top 10 stock picks for February, where “reeling” software stocks go from here and more in The Week in Stocks.

Stock of the week: 5N Plus Inc.

5N Plus

(VNP:TSX) is currently the top gainer for the year on the TSX and National Bank of Canada Capital Markets analyst Baltej Sidhu sees more upside for shares of the Montreal company, which, among other things, is a supplier of raw materials for the solar manufacturing industry, and also owns space solar cell producer Azure Space Solar Power GmBH. Shares of 5N are up 56 per cent in 2026 and Sidhu hiked his price target to this week to $33 from $30 after starting coverage of the shares at the end of January. Shares closed Friday at $27.69. Two “durable growth engines” drive Sidhu’s bullishness. 5N is the exclusive supplier of cadmium telluride to First Solar Inc., America’s largest solar modules maker, while Azure’s production capacity of space solar cell technology for satellites has orders stretching into 2030 as the Germany-based unit operates in a “structurally undersupplied market.” Sidhu also noted a recent US$18.1 million investment by the

U.S. Department of Defense

in 5N’s Utah facility that produces germanium for optics and solar germanium crystal supply chains. “Beyond our base case, VNP offers meaningful upside not reflected in either our or Street estimates,” Sidhu said. The 12-month price target of six analysts who follow that stock is $31.75, according to Bloomberg.

Keeping score

CIBC’s top 10 ideas for February

With much of the S&P/TSX composite index’s gains in January concentrated in precious metals, CIBC Capital Markets felt the sting of being light in that sector, CIBC analysts said, as its best ideas posted a negative return of three per cent last month. Analysts Sid Mokhtari and Michael Petipas have refreshed their top 10 list for February, which include

Methanex Corp.

(MX:TSX), NGEX Minerals Ltd. (NGEX:TSX),

Nutrien Ltd.

(NTR:TSX), Orla Mining Ltd. (OLA:TSX), Peyto Exploration and Development Corp. (PEY:TSX),

Suncor Energy Inc.

(SU:TSX),

Whitecap Resources Inc.

(WCP:TSX),

Bank Of Montreal

(BMO:TSX),

IGM Financial Inc.

(IGM:TSX), and

AtkinsRéalis Group Inc.

(ATRL:TSX). February is typically a “weaker” month for markets, Mokhtari and Petipas said in their note. However, they found that energy stocks tend to “outperform” in the later part of February, carrying on into April, while copper has in the past performed better than gold and silver.

Brutal week leaves software stocks ‘reeling’

Investors fled software stocks this week to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars after artificial intelligence (AI) developer Anthropic released a tool to automate legal work that initially left the developers of legal software “reeling” only to spread to other segments of the sector, David Rosenberg, president of Rosenberg Research & Associates Inc., said in a note. Software stocks are down 18 per cent this year and Rosenberg estimated that the losses in the sector now total more than US$1 trillion if you factor in market capitalization, bonds and loans. Investors appeared to pivot to blue-chip companies and this is just the start of AI reshaping the investing landscape, Rosenberg said. “The latest retrenchment is less about a bubble bursting and more signs that AI is on the precipice of supplanting existing business models,” he said. Still, AI has not proved its worth, he said pointing to

Alphabet Inc.

, which doubled its capital expenditure budget for the technology but “barely beat its revenue target” as risks of overcapacity in the sector rise. Despite the questions about AI’s ability to match the hype, investors still piled into

Celestica Inc.

(CLS:TSX) this week. The stock was up almost 10 per cent placing it among the top-10 gainers. TD Cowen analysts affirmed their price target of $451 for the shares on its tie-ins with Google’s AI push and shares closed Friday at $419.62. Meanwhile, Desjardins Group Capital Markets analysts cut their price targets for a TSX tech companies. Jerome Dubreuil and Laurent Fortier cut their target for

Constellation Software Inc.

(CSU:TSX) to $3,900 from $5,300,  with shares trading Friday at $2,380. They also cut their targets for Topicus.com Inc. (TOI:TSX) to $140 from $190 and Lumine Group Inc. to $36 from $52. The former closed Friday at $94.72 and latter at $20.00. The Desjardins pair also noted that shares of former U.S. software darlings such as ServiceNow Inc.,

Salesforce Inc.

, Intuit Inc. and

Oracle Corp.

declined between 20 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively, year to date.

Price target hikes and cuts

• RBC Capital Markets analysts Rob Mann hiked his price target for Cardinal Energy Ltd. (CJ:TSX) to $9.50 from $9.00 with the company set to begin construction of it second steam assisted gravity drainage project Reford 2 in Saskatchewan. Cardinal has a base dividend of 7.9 per cent. Shares closed Friday at $9.37.
• BMO Capital Markets analyst Randy Ollenberger raised his price target for Suncor Energy Inc. (SU:TSX) to $85 from $70 after the company pulled off a US$10 per barrel reduction in its break-even point a year ahead of schedule. Ollenberger is looking to the March investor day for the “next wave” of cost-cutting improvements. Shares closed Friday at $73.46.
• Raymond James analysts Stephen Boland and his team hiked their price target for TMX Group Ltd. (X:TSX) to $61 from $59 after it reported earnings that beat consensus on revenue and earnings per share. Data providers such as TMX have been swept up in this week’s tech selloff. “We believe this is an overreaction,” the analysts said. Shares closed Friday at $45.42.
• TD Cowen analysts cut their price target for Canadian National Railway Co. (CNR:TSX) to $164 from $166 after the company said it expected muted volume growth in 2026. Shares closed Friday at $138.38.
• National Bank of Canada Capital Markets analyst Mohamed Sidibe hiked his price target for Cameco Corp. (CCO:TSX) to $175 from $145 in the lead up to the miner reporting fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 13. Shares closed Friday at $155.18.
• Several post-earnings analyst notes came out for BCE Inc. (BCE:TSX) with price target changes ranging from a high of $44, up from $40, at ATB Cormark Capital Markets to a low of $37, but still an increase from $33, at JPMorgan Chase & Co. BCE closed Friday at $34.25.

• This Mag 7 stock jumped 10% after reporting earnings and BMO analyst sees ‘green shoots’ from vast AI spending
• This TSX gold and silver play was up 122% in 2025 and is surging again in January

• Email: gmvsuhanic@postmedia.com