Jamie Murray’s Top Picks for Aug. 18, 2026
Jamie Murray, President, Murray Wealth Group
Focus: North American equities
MARKET OUTLOOK:
We the artificial intelligence (AI) trade continues to dominate the narrative for the foreseeable future.
Anthropic revenue growth continues to astound and its initial Public Offering (IPO) will highlight the fall markets.
With AI growth priced to 2029 for semiconductors and datacenter adjacent companies, we think the focus should be on companies that benefit from falling costs for everyday agentic tasks.
This means enterprise software, organizations with scarce, exclusive data and inherently complex structures should benefit.
The industrial economy continues to turn with project management information system (PMIs) broadly above 50 (expansion) and strengthening.
This is improving order flow for industrial companies and cyclicals in machinery and equipment sectors.
TOP PICKS:
STMicroelectronics (STM NYSE)
A leading diversified semiconductor manufacturer with core exposure to automotive and industrial automation, and expanding secular upside in AI data centres and space. The shares pulled back following its second quarter (Q2) print due to a slight miss on third quarter (Q3) revenue guidance relative to elevated expectations, despite management projecting a sharp second half of the fiscal year ramp with fourth quarter (Q4) revenue guided to less than US$4.0 billion.
The business is positioned to benefit from cyclical stabilization and recovery in automotive (particularly EV powertrains) and expanding electronic content across industrial robotics, factory automation, and physical AI edge compute. In AI datacenters, STM is scaling high-speed optical interconnects , alongside high-efficiency power stages and Silicon Carbide (SiC) modules for high-density server power architectures. In Space, STM maintains a differentiated position as a primary silicon supplier to SpaceX, providing custom radio frequency (RF) beamforming chips and transceivers across Starlink satellites and millions of terrestrial user terminals.
Linamar (LNR TSX)
Linamar maintains a fortress balance sheet with low debt, $2 billion in total liquidity, and strong free cash flow generation. This flexibility underpins a disciplined capital allocation strategy focused on funding organic program launches, executing opportunistic tuck-in acquisitions of distressed casting assets, and returning cash to shareholders via active Normal Course Issuer Bid (NCIB) share buybacks and growing dividends.
Operational momentum is driven by Skyjack, where access equipment unit volumes are up over 50 per cent year-to-date—significantly outpacing global market growth alongside doubled order backlogs. In the Mobility segment, content per vehicle (CPV) continues to expand rapidly (North American CPV up approximately 25 per cent year-over-year), fueled by market share gains in powertrain-agnostic structural components and large light-metal castings. Crucially, over 90 per cent of revenues remain shielded from tariffs via Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) compliance, leaving trade friction largely isolated to select industrial product lines with active mitigation underway. Trading at a eight times price–earnings ratio (P/E), potential defence wins will be slow to grow but could provide a re-rating catalyst in time.
Capital Power (CPX TSX)
Offers a compelling cash-flow growth profile underpinned by operational catalysts, robust merchant power exposure, and strategic private capital deployment. The company is realizing significant growth at its Genesee plant following the completion of its $1.6 billion coal-to-gas combined-cycle repowering (Units 1 & 2), which unlocked 512 megawatt (MW) of high-efficiency net capacity alongside data center–ready land with access to redundant fiber. In the U.S., recent acquisitions expand its Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) footprint positioning CPX to capture substantial earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) upside from surging PJM capacity auction clearings and recontracting. Growth is further accelerated via a US$3 billion equity partnership with Apollo Funds, providing capital-efficient co-investment firepower for accretive U.S. thermal generation without diluting equity. Backed by an investment-grade balance sheet, over $2 billion in available liquidity, and steady contracted baseload cash flows, CPX remains well-equipped to execute deleveraging while growing its annual dividend (4.2 per cent yield).
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Source
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/markets/2026/08/18/jamie-murrays-top-picks-for-aug-18-2026/
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