On October 2, Kourtney Gibson, CEO of TIAA Retirement Solutions, appeared on CNBC to state that a prolonged shutdown raises volatility and risks for markets, while investors seek safety and guaranteed retirement income. Kourtney Gibson believes that the one thing markets do not like is uncertainty. She explained that generally, a shutdown causes a rally in the bond market and noted this is currently visible on the short end of the curve while the long end is somewhat down, and that equities would potentially wobble. She stressed that a short-term shutdown is not expected to have a significant impact on either market, but should the shutdown persist, volatility will rise. She noted that volatility is currently low, around 16, far below the 52-week high of around 60 and slightly above the low of about 13.
The problem becomes acute if the shutdown persists and the Fed does not get the data it needs to remain data dependent. This lack of data will cause people to become shaky, prompting institutions to execute a flight to safety. Gibson also clarified that the market will still have some data via private reports like ADP. However, she asserted that the bigger problem is the Fed not having that data, which raises the question of what the Fed will do. Options include becoming more dovish and deciding to cut more (currently expecting around three rate cuts through the balance of the year) or choosing to pause because they are data dependent. If the cuts are put on hold, the market will begin to recalibrate based upon its own data, which could cause a spike in the long end of the curve from a yield perspective, similar to earlier in the year. Therefore, the Fed not having the information to inform rate cuts is what will ultimately impact the markets. This broader market trend leads to people wanting a diversified portfolio with protection during accumulation and the option for guaranteed lifetime income on the back end.
Given this market sentiment, we’re here with a list of the 10 best American stocks to buy and hold for the next 3 years.
Our Methodology
We sifted through the Finviz stock screener to compile a list of the top US stocks. Then, for the 9 best stocks to buy and hold for the next 3 years, we included stocks with an average expected EPS growth of at least 15% over the next 3 to 5 years, according to Wall Street estimates. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of the number of hedge funds that have stakes in them, as of Q2 2025.
Note: All data was sourced on October 1.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
9 Best American Stocks to Buy and Hold for the Next 3 Years
9. American Tower (NYSE:AMT)
EPS Forward Long Term Growth (3-5 Year CAGR): 23.73%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 70
American Tower (NYSE:AMT) is one of the best American stocks to buy and hold for the next 3 years. On September 25, CoreSite, which is an American Tower company that handles critical business and AI workloads through interconnected data center solutions, announced the completion and launch of its newest data center facility, NY3. This purpose-built facility is located at 2 Emerson Lane, Secaucus, New Jersey, and is part of the New York metropolitan area.
It is positioned adjacent to the company’s existing NY2 facility, creating one of the most connected and scalable data center campuses on the Eastern Seaboard. The new NY3 data center adds more than 138,000 square feet of data center capacity to CoreSite’s New York footprint. With the addition of NY3, CoreSite’s total New York market footprint now exceeds 442,000 square feet and includes three facilities: NY1 (32 Avenue of the Americas, Manhattan, New York), NY2 (2 Emerson Lane, Secaucus, New Jersey), and the new NY3.
The New York campus offers direct cloud connection to AWS and serves a diverse ecosystem that includes global financial services, higher education institutions, and domestic and international carriers. Customers can leverage the Open Cloud Exchange/OCX to access all the major public cloud providers. Furthermore, to support high-performance and AI-driven workloads, both the NY2 and NY3 facilities offer the ability to deploy advanced liquid cooling solutions for enhanced thermal efficiency.
American Tower (NYSE:AMT) is a leading independent owner, operator, and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a portfolio of ~150,000 communications sites and a highly interconnected footprint of US data center facilities.
8. Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW)
EPS Forward Long Term Growth (3-5 Year CAGR): 19.08%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 70
Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) is one of the best American stocks to buy and hold for the next 3 years. On September 29, GlobalFoundries Inc. (NASDAQ:GFS) and Corning Incorporated announced a collaboration to develop detachable fiber connector solutions for GlobalFoundries’ silicon photonics platform. The initiative will meet the increasing requirements of AI datacenters for high bandwidth and power-efficient optical connectivity by enabling co-packaged optics solutions.
The collaboration pairs Corning’s established supply chain and leadership in optical interconnect technologies with GF’s high-volume manufacturing capabilities in silicon photonics. The core of the initial collaboration is Corning’s GlassBridge solution, which is a glass-waveguide-based edge-coupler compatible with the v-grooves on GF’s silicon photonics platform.
The companies are also developing a vertically-coupled detachable fiber-to-PIC/Photonic Integrated Circuit solution, demonstrating their combined ability to produce multiple forms of co-packaged PIC-to-fiber connectivity. This effort uses Corning’s world-leading innovation, which includes a broad portfolio of special glass compositions, glass wafer, IOX, laser processing, and Fiber Array Units/FAUs that use fibers with ultra-precise core alignments to minimize insertion loss for demanding data center and high-performance computing applications.
Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) operates in optical communications, display technologies, environmental technologies, specialty materials, and life sciences businesses.
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