In this article, we will take a look at the 10 Best Stocks to Buy Now for the Next 3 Months.
On June 8, Reuters reported the top brokerages’ estimate for the S&P 500 for 2026, with the majority of firms expecting the rally to continue. Despite the months-long war in the Middle East, which has disrupted global energy flows and pushed inflation higher, brokerage firms still see upside in the stock market. Citi is the latest to raise its 2026 target for the S&P 500 index beyond the 8,000 mark, citing resilience in corporate earnings and AI-driven growth. This indicates that near-term growth in top stocks will continue amid AI investment hype.
On average, brokerages have an end-of-year guidance of $7,714 for the S&P 500, with an upside of 4.43% as of June 9. Strategists at major investment banks believe that AI momentum will continue to drive stock market performance in the second half of the year. However, they have pointed to recession risks due to persistently higher oil prices.
Citi strategists added that everything revolves around AI-related ecosystems, but eventually attention will shift to whether U.S. companies can deliver the returns promised by AI investments, especially beyond 2027. The firm also upgraded its adjusted earnings per share forecast for the S&P 500 to $350 for 2026, up from $320 per share set in December 2025. The firm has also set a preliminary target of $400 for 2027.
“We have high confidence in continued earnings beats through the year-end,” Citigroup said as reported by Reuters. Citigroup has called this AI investment cycle a ‘supercycle,’ and believes that the short-term momentum remains robust. The brokerage firm further added:
Our view is that this is not a traditional cycle and looks more like a one-time capex supercycle, thus increasing the burden on earnings, growth, and related expectations to drive index price action.
With that, let’s take a look at the 10 best stocks to buy now for the next 3 months.
Our Methodology
To create the list of 10 best stocks to buy now for the next 3 months, we shortlisted the top stocks that are widely held by hedge funds. We selected the top 10 stocks with a minimum analyst upside of more than 20%. Finally, we ranked the 10 best stocks to buy now for the next 3 months based on analyst upside estimates. The hedge fund data for each stock were sourced from Insider Monkey’s database as of Q1 2026.
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. Insider Monkey’s quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 599.2% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 372 percentage points (see more details here).
Note: All the data is as of market close on June 9, 2026.
10. Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT)
Upside Potential: 21.33%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 123
Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) ranks among the best stocks to buy now for the next 3 months. SPOT has an upside of over 21%, with 37 analysts rating the stock a Buy and 7 a Hold.
Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) shares have plunged over 14% year-to-date as the company focuses on AI-driven policy. The recent introduction of paid AI remix tools and expanded content offerings is aimed at boosting user engagement and diversifying revenue streams for Spotify. Analysts see upside as Spotify continues to evolve its network with AI-driven strategies.
On June 3, Citizens reiterated a Market Perform rating on Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) with a $625 price target. The analyst firm sees new product launches driving better monetization and operating expense growth, keeping the company in a moderate zone as it pushes around €200 million of temporary 2026 spending. Based on this, the analyst sees Spotify’s 2027 EBITDA estimate to surpass consensus by 5%.
Spotify’s dynamic mix of music, podcasts, video podcasts, and audiobooks creates a proprietary dataset, especially considering its 750 million monthly active users, according to the analyst.
In other news, on June 8, Bloomberg reported that Spotify is working on becoming a live music content platform, streaming live concerts and festivals. Spotify has approached concert promoters regarding licensing rights to broadcast the events, as per the report. This is a potential opportunity for the company to diversify its portfolio and reach a broader audience through live events.
Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) is a leading digital music streaming platform. The company is based in Luxembourg and was founded in December 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.
9. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)
Upside Potential: 23.98%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 181
Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is widely held by hedge funds and is one of the best stocks to buy for the next 3 months.
Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is working on enhancing its payment capabilities and infrastructure, exploring stablecoin settlements along with Mastercard. The company is also focused on AI-driven solutions and adding simpler payment processing capabilities for its clients.
On May 27, Visa announced that it is expanding its Commercial Solutions Hub (VCS Hub) by embedding Visa Accounts Receivable Manager. This is a notable move that focuses on reducing the days’ sales outstanding and fully automating the virtual card process to under two weeks. Visa mentioned that early adopters have reported an 89% reduction in the process. The VR Manager is backed by proprietary AI and automates the exchange of payment, remittance, and invoice data, which leads to a reduction in manual reconciliation and accelerates supplier connectivity at scale.
This is a meaningful development for Visa as virtual cards are among the fastest-growing segments in commercial payments. Visa is lowering the barrier for issuers to scale commercial card programs by integrating end-to-end processing capabilities into a single unified platform. This happens at no additional cost to eligible VCS Hub clients, thus expanding its penetration into B2B payment flows.
Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is a payment technology company operating in the United States and internationally. It operates VisaNet, a transaction-processing network that handles the clearing, authorization, and settlement of payments. The company offers its services under various brands, including PLUS, Visa, V PAY, Visa Electron, and Interlink.
8. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Upside Potential: 31.05%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 353
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is a popular stock among hedge funds, and a majority of analysts rate it Buy. Amazon is one of the best stocks to buy now for the next 3 months.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has a dominant position in e-commerce and cloud services, making it a hedge fund favorite, and analysts also favor the stock heavily. Of 71 analysts covering AMZN, 68 rate the stock Buy, while 3 rate it Hold. The average median price target of $320 presents an upside of over 31%.
On June 5, Amazon announced it had unveiled its various advertising formats, AI tools, and streaming partnerships at its Upfront Madrid 2026 event. The company’s goal is to strengthen its Ads revenue streams across its owned and third-party inventory. Amazon Prime Video is bringing its location-based interactive video Ads and Next Up Ads in Spain, while Amazon DSP has partnered with NewixMedia and is expanding its reach across Spain’s regional TV channels. Amazon has also expanded its partnership with Netflix in Spain, allowing advertisers to use Amazon Audiences to reach Netflix users through Amazon DSP.
The update to its advertising formats will strengthen Amazon’s position as a cross-platform advertising infrastructure play. Working on the AI side, Amazon’s Creative Agent and Ads Agent are also available for Spanish advertisers, providing them with real-time response data from live sponsored content and offering AI-powered chat sentiment analysis.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) operates across e-commerce, digital content, advertising, and cloud computing. Its online and offline stores offer both in-house and third-party products, while its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division runs one of the world’s largest data center networks.
7. Mastercard Incorporated (NASDAQ:MA)
Upside Potential: 33.77%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 157
Mastercard Incorporated (NASDAQ:MA) is a leading financial institution and a favored holding among hedge funds. With an upside of over 33.50%, Mastercard makes it to the list of best stocks to buy now for the next 3 months.
Mastercard Incorporated (NASDAQ:MA) is making strategic moves in the digital payment landscape. As part of a consortium with Visa and other firms, Mastercard is working to develop a stablecoin platform, potentially bringing a change to the current dollar-linked stablecoin markets.
On June 2, Mastercard reported that it is expanding its settlement capabilities to include intraday, weekend, and holiday card settlement, and also on-chain settlement using regulated stablecoins. This option provides greater flexibility to issuers and acquirers to settle transactions across Mastercard’s global payments network. The company will support its settlements through various regulated stablecoins.
In other news on June 4, Mastercard announced a strategic collaboration with PaidBy to speed up its global adoption of open banking-powered account-to-account (A2A) payments and establish seamless cross-border commerce. PaidBy is a global A2A payment platform developed by Xryma Plc.
Mastercard’s partnership connects its global connectivity and scale with PaidBy’s proprietary orchestration layer, merchant payout network, cross-border settlement, and dynamic currency capabilities. These features will allow consumers to pay merchants directly from their bank accounts in their native currency, while the receiving party receives payment in their local currency. The partnership targets global merchants, payment service providers, and platforms. This deal is part of Mastercard’s broader Open Finance strategy to expand its network, which spreads beyond conventional payment gateways.
Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) operates in the payments industry and is one of the leading payment processors for everyday consumers, financial institutions, governments, and businesses. The company is headquartered in New York, United States.
6. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Upside Potential: 36.34%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 282
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is broadly held by hedge funds, and analysts, on average, rate it a Buy, ranking it among the best stocks to buy now for the next 3 months.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) remains a solid pick, given its broader market positioning in the AI space, especially its backing of OpenAI and Copilot. On May 28, Microsoft revealed the new design of its 365 Copilot app, which now offers a faster and more responsive interface and is deeply integrated across its productivity suite. The latest update loads the Copilot app twice as fast, while response time for complex prompts has improved by 10%, according to Microsoft. It also brings a new intelligence layer called Work IQ that delivers more contextually relevant outputs using data from users’ emails, files, chats, and meetings.
The redesign has already shown meaningful results, with Copilot activity improving by 27% in Word, 33% in Excel, 43% in PowerPoint, and 30% in Outlook. This shows that Copilot is making strides, and more users are embedding it into their daily workflow. Microsoft’s broader focus remains on integrating AI deeply into its enterprise ecosystem.
Of 65 analysts covering MSFT, 69 rate the stock as Buy, while 3 rate it Hold. A consensus median price target of $550 implies more than 36% upside potential.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a global technology company that develops and sells a wide range of software, cloud services, devices, and business solutions, serving both individual users and enterprise customers worldwide. Its flagship products include Windows, Microsoft 365, Azure, LinkedIn, and Xbox.
While we acknowledge the potential of MSFT 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 MSFT and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
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