In the month of March 2026, the three most popular FTSE 100 stocks on The motley Fool UK were Aviva (LSE: AV), Diageo (LSE: DGE) and BAE Systems (LSE: BA.). The metric I’m using for ‘popular’ here is sessions, that is, the number of times an article has been opened. So essentially, folks are clicking on this site to read about these three more than any other Footsie stocks.
I was curious to see which of the three ChatGPT liked the look of – and whether I agreed or disagreed with its choice. Here are the results.
Question: “Which stock should I buy: Aviva, Diageo or BAE Systems?”
Before taking a look at the answer, I should mention that using ChatGPT is more for fun than anything else. It’s not a financial advisor and shouldn’t be relied on as one. Also, I’ve had to make the somewhat time-consuming task of checking all the details in the following table so there aren’t any hallucinations as it can come up with some howlers.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look!
| ?️ BAE Systems — Best for growth + momentum | ? Diageo — Turnaround / value play | ? Aviva — Income / steady dividend |
| Strong earnings: profit up ~12% and record order backlog (£83bn) | Facing weak demand and guidance cuts, especially in the US | Insurance = typically stable cash flow + dividends |
| Benefiting from a global surge in defence spending (Ukraine, NATO budgets, etc) | Dividend cut + falling sales → investor confidence hit | Less exciting growth than defence |
| Analysts broadly rate it a “moderate buy” with upside targets in the £20+ range | Some see it as undervalued after a big drop | Benefits from higher interest rates (improves returns on investments) |
| Shares already up strongly in 2026 and near highs |
What’s its number one pick? BAE Systems – ChatGPT reckons it’s the best overall package.
The stocks
For my money, I can see why there’s so much attention on Diageo these days. It’s a great company with great brands and the share price is down 67%. If there’s a stock that’s going to have people say ‘of course that was a time to buy the dip‘ in a few years’ time then this very well could be it.
The other side of the coin is that we are very much in uncharted territory when it comes to changing consumer habits. Maybe people are going to turn off alcohol the same way they did for cigarettes. That’s the fear, anyway.
The reasons Aviva is a popular stock nowadays is almost the opposite. The share price has been on a terrific run – shareholders could have tripled a stake since 2020. It’s also paying some of the highest dividends on the FTSE 100. What’s not to love?
Valuation might be one drawback. The price-to-earnings ratio of 24 is high for the sector. Folks don’t tend to look towards insurers for stocks with high expectations of growth for the future.
Worth it?
As for the last choice, BAE Systems has been a popular stock on this website for years, and I’m not surprised. Defence manufacturing is one area where Britain is still world-class, and the huge shifts in government spending have given the firm a record order backlog that has just increased past the £80bn mark.
It’s been a strange period for geopolitics, in fairness. If a more peaceful few years are coming (as I’m sure we’re all hoping for) then this could impact the stock negatively. And it must be said, that’s an ethical reason some may wish to steer clear too.
As for my own choice, I actually own all three already. And in the case of BAE Systems, the stock has grown to a large enough part of my portfolio that I’m not thinking about buying more to become overexposed. To a new investor though? I think it’s worth considering.
