In this article, we will look at the 10 Best Penny Stocks to Buy for Long Term.
The opportunity is not in buying every low-priced penny stock but rather in finding smaller companies where earnings, balance sheets, and business quality are improving faster than the market is giving them credit for. Franklin Templeton’s Royce Investment Partners says “2026 could be the year that small-caps reassert themselves,” adding that “both small-cap quality and value are poised for meaningful rebounds in 2026.” That matters for penny stocks because the better candidates are often those that can move from speculative stories into more credible and tangible growth.
The broader small-cap backdrop is also becoming more supportive. AllianceBernstein says “Earnings growth, for example, is expected to outstrip those for large companies in 2026,” while “small-cap earnings could be widely underestimated by the market.” T. Rowe Price makes a similar point, arguing that “the small-cap rebound has not been driven by sentiment alone” because “fundamentals also have turned.” In summary, the setup is not just about cheap share prices. It is about whether smaller companies are entering a better earnings cycle after years of being ignored.
Against this backdrop, the more interesting names are those with improving fundamentals, analyst support, manageable balance sheets, and a path toward sustained growth rather than one-off trading spikes. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the 10 Best Penny Stocks to Buy for Long Term.
Our Methodology
We used the Finviz screener to identify stocks that are trading below $5 per share and offer at least 50% upside from analysts’ median price targets. We then limited our final selection to companies that have recently reported noteworthy developments likely to impact investor sentiment. These stocks are also popular among analysts and elite hedge funds.
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 498.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 303 percentage points (see more details here).
10. Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RXRX)
On May 14, 2026, Morgan Stanley raised the firm’s price target on Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RXRX) to $5.50 from $5 and kept an Equal Weight rating on the shares.
On May 6, 2026, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RXRX) reported Q1 EPS of (22c), versus the consensus estimate of (26c). Revenue totaled $6.47M, versus the consensus estimate of $15.78M. Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash stood at $665.2M, compared to $753.9M as of December 31, 2025. The company continues to expect its cash runway to extend into early 2028. CEO and President Najat Khan said the company is seeing strong momentum and execution across its portfolio, with increasing evidence that its integrated platform can translate biological and chemical insights into differentiated clinical programs. Khan added that recent developments, including initial safety and pharmacokinetic data from REC-1245 and the dosing of the first patient in REC-4539, represent additional proof points supporting the company’s end-to-end AI-driven drug discovery platform.
Last month, JPMorgan lowered the firm’s price target on Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RXRX) to $10 from $11 previously and kept an Overweight rating on the shares.
Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RXRX) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on using AI, automation, and data science to industrialize drug discovery.
9. Nuvation Bio Inc. (NYSE:NUVB)
On May 13, 2026, Nuvation Bio Inc. (NYSE:NUVB) announced the completion of the process technology transfer and product introduction to Thermo Fisher Scientific for IBTROZI-taletrectinib, for the treatment of advanced or metastatic ROS1-positive non-small cell lung cancer. The transition was submitted as a supplement to the IBTROZI New Drug Application held by Nuvation Bio and has now been completed.
Earlier in May, Nuvation Bio Inc. (NYSE:NUVB) reported Q1 EPS of 1c, versus the consensus estimate of 5c. Revenue totaled $83.23M, versus the consensus estimate of $62.34M. Founder, President, and CEO David Hung said the company was encouraged by ongoing launch trends for IBTROZI during the first quarter as adoption continued to expand across treatment lines for advanced ROS1-positive NSCLC. Hung also highlighted updated long-term follow-up data presented at the AACR meeting, which showed durability exceeding four years in TKI-naive patients, supporting physician confidence in selecting IBTROZI. In addition, management said the company recently secured exclusive global development and commercialization rights to safusidenib and plans to advance the pivotal Phase 3 SIGMA study in high-risk IDH1-mutant glioma. Nuvation Bio also expects to provide updates on its drug-drug conjugate platform later this year.
Nuvation Bio Inc. (NYSE:NUVB) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for cancer treatment.
