as corporate earnings season reaches its peak in the coming weeks morgan stanley advises traders to look for certain stock plays a third of the s  p 500 companies are set to announce earnings this week as well as 40 of the dow jones industrial average investors will be keeping a close eye on megacap tech names alphabet meta and microsoft which have all seen shares surge amid the tech rally this year oil giants chevron and exxonmobil are also set to report their quarterly results as well as major telecom companies and consumer names morgan stanley chief equity strategist mike wilson said in a monday note that he expects performance dispersion to rise as more companies report their earnings wilson recommends investors choose stocks that exhibit high earnings quality strong free cash flow generation and improving earnings revision the firm screened for stocks that fell under the following criteria top 1000 us stocks by market cap top 2 quintiles of earnings stability top 2 quintiles of earnings quality overweight rating by the firms research analysts take a look at some of the names on the list and where they could be headed next healthcare names unitedhealth group  humana and elevance health all appeared on morgan stanleys screen unitedhealth group which is the largest healthcare company in the us is also one of the names listed on the 30stock dow the companys secondquarter results beat analysts expectations on top and bottomlines investor sentiment was further boosted by the company raising the lowend of its fullyear adjusted earnings outlook to be sure shares are still down 4 year to date underperforming the health care sector sdpr fund  which has traded near the flat line in 2023 tmobile  another one of morgan stanleys picks will be releasing its quarterly results thursday shares have only gained 1 in 2023 lagging behind the broad market indexs 183 rise over the same period nonetheless more than 90 of analysts covering the stock rate it a buy according to refinitiv the consensus price target on shares implies nearly 26 upside from fridays close automaker general motors also made the list the company is set to report earnings tuesday before the bell wall street will be looking to see if gm can continue its outperformance from the prior quarter during which it posted an earnings beat and raised its 2023 guidance analysts polled by refinitv estimate gms earnings have jumped more than 60 in the second quarter the stock has gained more than 16 this year household products manufacturer colgatepalmolive  another one of morgan stanleys picks will announce earnings at the end of this week colgatepalmolive has recouped some of its losses from the start of 2023  but is still trading down 2 year to date analyst dara mohsenian upgraded shares to overweight from equal weight in january and also named it his top pick in the household and personal care industry disclosure comcast is the parent company of nbcuniversal and cnbc —cnbcs michael bloom contributed to this report