Many FTSE 100 shares have continued to make investors richer in 2026. Year to date, 11 are already up by double digits, while five have surged by more than 15% (Beazley, Glencore, Babcock International, and BAE Systems).
According to City brokers, the following two FTSE 100 stocks could be joining in the fun by this time next year.
Software Armageddon fears
The most eye-popping City analyst target I saw recently was on London Stock Exchange Group (LSE:LSEG). On 27 January, Citigroup reiterated its Buy recommendation, with a 13,100p price target.
While that was slightly below the old target of 13,300p, it’s still a whopping 60% above the current price.
Shares of the group, which provides financial data and analytics, have slumped 32% in a year. Some investors fear AI agents will soon be able to pull and analyse the same data that the firm provides for a fraction of the cost, making the firm’s expensive physical terminal obsolete. This is a potential risk.
In reality, however, the group has recently partnered with both Anthropic and OpenAI (ChatGPT) to sell its real-time data. So AI could be as much of an opportunity as it is a threat.
With the shares trading for 18 times forward earnings, and the company expected to keep growing its dividend by 10% per year, the stock is worth assessing more closely while it’s out of favour.
Another AI ‘loser’?
Next, we have another tech stock in the shape of credit bureau Experian (LSE:EXPN). It’s slumped 31% in the past 12 months, and is now up just 8% over five years.
This is surprising because Experian’s huge treasure trove of consumer and business data had underpinned strong business and share price for many years. So it’s very rare to now see the stock badly underperforming the FTSE 100.
Why is the market skittish here? Well, it’s almost certainly been dragged down by the AI-will-destroy-software trade. But Citigroup believes Experian will prove to be more of a beneficiary than a casualty of AI, and I agree with this (it has hard-to-replicate datasets).
However, the company behind the FICO score in the US has started selling its scoring services directly to mortgage lenders at lower prices. So there’s potential competitive challenges in its key North American market, and this has also been weighing on the stock.
Even with these threats, the stock now looks too cheap to me. It’s trading at just 20 times forward earnings. Historically, Experian has always commanded an earnings multiple well north of 30, so this is a savage rerating.
If analysts rather than the market are right though, there could be a lot of value on offer here. The average target is now 4,195p — an incredible 52% above the share price!
In a show of confidence, Experian has just announced a mammoth new $1bn share buyback programme.
Foolish takeaway
Are these price targets realistic? I’m not sure they are because currently the market is avoiding most software/data stocks like the plague due to fears about AI disruption.
With the AI revolution just getting started, these fears could linger for some time, keeping pressure on high-quality tech stocks.
That said, there will be plenty of babies getting thrown out with the bathwater right now. And I think these FTSE 100 shares may well be two of them.
