By John Grove, Buzzing Markets
With the ushering in of a second Trump administration, investors are paying close attention to see the impact on the stock market.
But while the impact of a president on the overall markets is debatable, there is no question that the actions taken by President Trump in his first year will have a significant impact on a number of individual stocks.
“Trump’s campaign promises — from tariffs to mass deportations, tax cuts and deregulation — and his picks to lead federal agencies suggest both risks and rewards for various investment sectors, according to market experts.” – CNBC
Generally speaking, President Trump’s “America First” agenda is likely to mean more favorable regulatory environments in a number of key industries, including energy, crypto and national defense to name a few.
Here are four of the stocks that appear to be best-positioned to potentially soar in the early stages of President Trump’s second term.
As always, be sure to do your own due diligence before investing in any stock to make sure it’s right for your financial situation and that it is consistent with your acceptable level of risk.
Top Trump Stock #1 – The GEO Group, Inc. (NYSE: GEO)
The GEO Group, Inc. (NYSE: GEO) designs and delivers support services for prisons, immigration processing centers and community reentry centers.
The company owns, leases, and manages secure facilities and reentry centers, offering services like security, rehabilitation, education, and food services, along with reentry, electronic monitoring, transportation, and facility design and construction.
The GEO Group saw an immediate increase in stock value in the weeks following Donald Trump’s November 2024 victory, becoming one of the biggest gainers in the U.S. stock market following the election.
The company owns 50 facilities and 64,502 beds across the U.S. concentrated in the South and Southwest.
President Trump’s victory is expected to lead The GEO Group to potentially winning more U.S. government contracts leading to even further potential growth for the company.
According to the three Wall Street analysts’ consensus price targets for The GEO Group, the average price target of $33.50 per share represents a forecasted potential upside of 15.72% from the current share price.
Top Trump Stock #2 – Aris Water Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: ARIS)
Aris Water Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: ARIS) is an environmental infrastructure and solutions company, provides water handling and recycling solutions. The company’s produced water handling business gathers, transports, unless recycled, and handles produced water generated from oil and natural gas production.
Its water solutions business develops and operates recycling facilities to treat, store, and recycle produced water.
By offering water management solutions to frackers in the Permian Basin, the company is well-positioned to benefit from what should be a much more favorable regulatory environment for oil production in the coming years.
Additionally, the company has been performing well over the past year even before President Trump’s victory. Net income for the company’s most recent quarter was $16.4 million, an increase from $12.2 million in the same period of 2023 and $13.1 million in the second quarter of 2024.
This growth was supported by CPI-linked revenue escalation clauses in its contracts and operational cost improvements made over the past year. These factors contributed to a 13% increase in operating margins per barrel, which reached $0.45 in the third quarter of 2024, compared to the same period last year.
According to the six Wall Street analysts’ consensus price targets for Aris Water Solutions, the average price target of $26.17 per share represents a forecasted potential upside of 16.40% from the current share price.
Top Trump Stock #3 – Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT)
Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) is a security and aerospace company that engages in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of technology systems, products, and services worldwide.
The company is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and is the No. 1 U.S. defense contractor by revenue and market cap. It is the world’s third-largest aerospace company, with 75% of its business in the defense market.
Ten percent of Pentagon spending goes to Lockheed Martin, and 50% of its annual revenue comes from the Department of Defense. In 2020, it was the No. 1 recipient of Pentagon spending, at $72.9 billion, more than three times the money spent on the No. 2 U.S. defense player and more than all spent on the second through fourth positions.
With continued geopolitical uncertainty worldwide and President Trump’s emphasis on defending American interests, Lockheed Martin – as manufacturer of the F-35 fighter aircraft among other things – stands poised to potentially see an increase in government contracts.
According to the 14 Wall Street analysts’ consensus price targets for Lockheed Martin, the average price target of $591.21 per share represents a forecasted potential upside of 26.60% from the current share price.
Top Trump Stock #4 – MARA Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: MARA)
MARA Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: MARA), formerly Marathon Digital is a digital asset company that mines cryptocurrencies, and is considered one of the leaders in Bitcoin mining.
MARA Holdings is a global leader in digital asset compute that develops and deploys innovative technologies to build a more sustainable and inclusive future.
The company secures the world’s preeminent blockchain ledger and supports the energy transformation by converting clean, stranded, or otherwise underutilized energy into economic value.
In early January 2025, the company announced that it had surpassed its annual hash rate target by an impressive 168% after reporting a solid month of bitcoin production in December. This represented a 15% improvement from the previous month and helped send shares sharply higher as a result.
According to 11 Wall Street analyst who have issued ratings for MARA Holdings, the average price target for the company’s shares is $25.80, which represents an upside of more than 32.44% from the current share price.