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.
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.
7. Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)
EPS Forward Long Term Growth (3-5 Year CAGR): 23.76%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 72
Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) is one of the best American stocks to buy and hold for the next 3 years. On September 25, Reuters reported that Private equity firm Blackstone is currently exploring strategic options for Ancestry.com, the popular genealogy and DNA testing platform. These options include pursuing an Initial Public Offering/IPO or an outright sale of the company.
Sources familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity, indicated that Blackstone has invited banks to submit proposals for an IPO, with requests being submitted earlier in the week of September 25. A public listing for the Lehi, Utah-based company could potentially value it at approximately $10 billion, although the discussions are in the early stages and details remain subject to change.
Blackstone is also considering the alternative option of selling the asset. However, the private equity firm has not finalized any decision and may opt to hold onto the asset for a longer period. Both Blackstone and Ancestry.com representatives have declined to comment on the matter.
Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) is an alternative asset management firm that specializes in private equity, real estate, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt & equity and multi-asset class strategies.
6. Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO)
EPS Forward Long Term Growth (3-5 Year CAGR): 28.04%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 74
Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO) is one of the best American stocks to buy and hold for the next 3 years. On October 1, FICO announced the launch of the FICO Mortgage Direct License Program, which marked a major change in how FICO Scores are delivered and priced in the mortgage industry. This new program, announced from Bozeman, Mont., gives tri-merge resellers the option to directly calculate and distribute FICO Scores to their customers, thereby eliminating the need to rely on the three nationwide credit bureaus.
This shift is expected to drive price transparency and deliver immediate cost savings, potentially saving lenders up to 50% on per score FICO fees by cutting out credit bureau mark-ups. Firms still have the option to continue working through the credit bureaus. To provide greater flexibility and choice, FICO is introducing two alternative pricing models.
The first is a new performance model built on successful mortgage funding, which reflects the FICO Score’s crucial role in enabling mortgage liquidity. Under this model, the royalty fee for the FICO Score will be $4.95 per score, representing a 50% reduction in average per-score fees to the tri-merge resellers due to the elimination of credit bureau mark-ups.
Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO) develops software with analytics and digital decisioning technologies that enable businesses to automate, enhance, and connect decisions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific.
5. Workday Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY)
EPS Forward Long Term Growth (3-5 Year CAGR): 26.09%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 76
Workday Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) is one of the best American stocks to buy and hold for the next 3 years. On October 1, Workday announced the completion of its acquisition of Paradox. Paradox is a candidate experience agent that uses conversational AI to streamline the job application process, with a particular focus on high-volume hiring in frontline industries.
This acquisition follows Workday’s earlier integration of HiredScore and establishes a powerful, end-to-end, AI-powered talent acquisition suite. The newly unified suite, which combines Workday Recruiting, the AI capabilities of HiredScore (for smarter talent discovery), and the new conversational AI from Paradox, is designed to help companies hire faster, improve recruiter efficiency, and deliver a better, more human candidate experience.
The goal, as stated by Aashna Kircher, group general manager for the office of the CHRO at Workday, is to make hiring quick, personal, and engaging for every type of role and worker, from the frontline to the back office. Adam Godson, CEO of Paradox, noted that joining Workday will bring their vision of making hiring simpler and more human with AI to more organizations, enabling recruiters to focus on building real connections with candidates instead of repetitive tasks.
Workday Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) provides enterprise cloud applications in the US and internationally. It sells its solutions through its direct sales organization.
4. DoorDash Inc. (NASDAQ:DASH)
EPS Forward Long Term Growth (3-5 Year CAGR): 36.97%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 100
DoorDash Inc. (NASDAQ:DASH) is one of the best American stocks to buy and hold for the next 3 years. On September 30, DoorDash announced the unveiling of Dot, its first commercial autonomous delivery robot. Developed entirely in-house by DoorDash Labs, Dot is purpose-built for local commerce and is the first commercial autonomous delivery robot designed to seamlessly navigate bike lanes, roads, and sidewalks.
Dot is approximately one-tenth the size of a car, reaches speeds of up to 20 mph, and is all-electric, aiming to accelerate local commerce by providing quick, efficient, and secure deliveries while helping to reduce traffic congestion and emissions. The introduction of Dot is part of the larger rollout of DoorDash’s Autonomous Delivery Platform.
This platform functions as an AI dispatcher that orchestrates a multi-modal delivery system, matching each order with the optimal fulfillment method—whether that’s a human Dasher, a Dot on the road, a drone in the air, or a sidewalk robot.
DoorDash Inc. (NASDAQ:DASH) operates a commerce platform that connects merchants, consumers, and independent contractors in the US and internationally.
3. ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE:NOW)
EPS Forward Long Term Growth (3-5 Year CAGR): 33.91%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 106
ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE:NOW) is one of the best American stocks to buy and hold for the next 3 years. On September 30, ServiceNow announced the launch of AI Experience. This new offering is a unified, conversational interface, referred to as the “UI for Enterprise AI”, that acts as an intelligent entry point for employees to interact with AI.
AI Experience is designed to solve the problem of fragmented user experiences and disconnected AI tools within enterprises by converging data, AI models, AI modalities, and workflows onto a single, intuitive, and multimodal interface. The AI Experience elevates the traditional user interface, operating as a multimodal and multilingual front door that provides instant access to voice, text, image, web, and build agents.
These agents are deeply connected to the business and deliver context-aware, personalized, and proactive interactions across any workflow. At its core, the system uses intelligent, role-aware AI agents that operate transparently to complete tasks, resolve issues, and drive outcomes while always keeping the human user in control.
ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE:NOW) provides cloud-based solution for digital workflows in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific, and internationally.
2. Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)
EPS Forward Long Term Growth (3-5 Year CAGR): 17.02%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 124
Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is one of the best American stocks to buy and hold for the next 3 years. On October 1, Oracle Health and Life Sciences announced an enhanced partner program, extending the benefits of the existing Oracle partner program to the healthcare and life sciences sectors. The enhanced program strengthens collaboration with a broad ecosystem of systems integrators and consultancies to simplify, accelerate, and drive customer success in the deployment and adoption of innovative technology.
According to Seema Verma, executive vice president and general manager of Oracle Health and Life Sciences, expanding this work with partners will extend Oracle’s reach and accelerate its ability to help more customers achieve their clinical and operational goals with transformative, AI-fueled technology. The company aims to meet the demand from healthcare providers and administrators for innovations that improve care, reduce administrative burdens, and make day-to-day work easier and more effective.
The enhanced Health and Life Sciences Partner Success program builds upon Oracle’s existing robust partner offerings by adding several new features. These include a new training academy that, for the first time, shares internal Oracle Health product and implementation training to help partners build subject matter expertise. Additionally, the program offers new Oracle Health certification badges to highlight a consultant’s proficiency and expertise upon completion of the training tracks.
Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) offers products and services that address enterprise information technology environments worldwide.
1. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
EPS Forward Long Term Growth (3-5 Year CAGR): 17.72%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 335
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is one of the best American stocks to buy and hold for the next 3 years. On October 1, Amazon announced the launch of a new private label brand, Amazon Grocery. This new brand unifies existing customer-favorite private labels, Amazon Fresh and Happy Belly, into one cohesive collection of grocery essentials.
The product line is extensive, featuring more than 1,000 high-quality food items, all of which are rated 4 stars or above. Most of these products are priced under $5, reflecting the brand’s focus on offering exceptional value to customers, particularly during a time of price-consciousness. The Amazon Grocery assortment spans all categories.
Notable items include cage-free eggs, Caesar Salad with Chicken, Everything Pre-Sliced Bagels, and Ground Beef. To celebrate the launch, new items like fresh bakery cinnamon rolls, refrigerated pizza dough, bottled spring water, and refrigerated lemonade are also being introduced. The company also noted that customers can expect more variety in the coming months, such as new frozen pasta meals, pie fillings, granola, sliced loaf cakes, deli meats, canned beans, and frozen vegetables.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) engages in the retail sale of consumer products, advertising, and subscription services through online and physical stores in North America and internationally.
While we acknowledge the potential of AMZN to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AMZN and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None.
