Hot or Not, Stock Market Edition: 10/01/2025

By Jessie Moore, Stock Researcher and Writer

October 1, 2025 5:33 AM UTC

Hot or Not, Stock Market Edition: 10/01/2025

CRM

INTC

JNJ

ARM

Happy October! We took a deep dive into what’s trending in our Zen Ratings system right now — here’s what’s sizzling and what’s fizzling:

Hot: 3 factors are propelling Salesforce (CRM) forward; Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) has a home-court advantage
Not: Former hot IPO ARM Holdings (ARM) has cooled down; we have reservations about Intel’s (INTC) trajectory despite the buzz

P.S. For more stocks making moves, check out our Zen Ratings Upgrades & Downgrades screener.

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🔥 HOT: Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). Healthcare stocks as a whole are dealing with some serious headwinds thanks to regulatory uncertainty and brand-new tariffs. But there are solid picks in the sector poised to benefit from tariff exemptions for U.S-centered production — like healthcare heavyweight and dividend aristocrat JNJ. Analysts are optimistic — two top-rated analysts just reiterated Strong Buy ratings, and both project double-digit gains in the coming year (see all recent ratings on JNJ here). Looking at the Zen Ratings, JNJ currently earns a B (Buy) rating, with several points in its favor. Not only is it in an A-rated industry, but when you dig deeper into the Component Grades for the individual stock, you’ll find A ratings for Safety and our AI factor, which uses a 20-year trained neural network to detect stocks that have what it takes to outperform. The bottom line? JNJ stands out as a solid pick even among sector uncertainty.

🥶 NOT: Former hot IPO ARM Holdings (ARM) has cooled down in recent memory — and in our quant ratings system, where it languishes in the 40th percentile of stocks we track, earning an overall C (Hold) rating. Despite a persistent hum of excitement about data center and AI expansion, ARM has fallen out of favor with the Smart Money crowd — looking at its Component Grades in the Zen Ratings system, it only earns a D for Sentiment. In scanning analyst commentary, this could be due to factors like ARM’s extreme sensitivity to tariffs, a high valuation and the fact that growth expectations are already baked in, which makes ARM vulnerable to any macro shocks or sector rotation away from high-growth stocks. Adding to this, its other Component Grades are mostly middling Cs, with a single above-average B for Financials. Considering these factors, it may be worth waiting to see if ARM has legs before buying in.

🔥 HOT: While the stock price is down 13% YTD, the forecast looks sunny for cloud-based software company Salesforce (CRM), thanks to 3 things: 1) A slew of bullish analyst upgrades (7 Strong Buy ratings in the past month — see all ratings here), 2) Renewed expansion ambitions, with a recently-announced $6 billion UK investment by 2030, and 3) The general hotness of AI and everything related to it. Salesforce currently earns a Zen Rating of B (Buy), ranking a respectable 35 of 196 stocks in the App Industry, which itself earns an Industry Rating of B. Standout Component Grades include above-average Bs for Value, Financials, and our proprietary AI factor, which uses advanced AI algorithms to detect subtle patterns in market data to forecast future trends with a high likelihood of delivering superior stock price results. The bottom line? Despite the ho-hum price action as of late, CRM looks like a solid tech player with meaningful room to run.

🥶 NOT: Don’t be fooled by the buzz. Yes, Intel’s (INTC) stock price enjoyed a 20% spike last week following headlines about a forthcoming NVDA partnership and government incentives. But our Zen Ratings system paints a much more sober picture than the splashy headlines. At writing, our quant ratings system's 115-factor review assigns INTC a middling C (Hold) rating. The Component Grades that make up the overall rating reveal further chinks in INTC's armor, like D ratings for Sentiment and Financials, and a slew of Cs for Value, Growth, Momentum, and Safety. There is some good news: Our AI rating gives it a standout A, indicating a spark of future potential for the stock. While this might make it worth adding INTC to your WallStreetZen watchlist, at the moment, there may be better options. With 56 stocks ranking higher than INTC in the Semiconductor industry (see them here), we’re content to wait and see if the headlines turn into something more substantive.

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