On October 1, Keith Lerner, Chief Investment Officer at Truist Wealth, appeared on CNBC and stated that the shutdown fears are muted, and investors are not overly concerned right now. Discussing whether the shutdown is merely noise, or if there is other noise investors should either block out or pay attention to, Lerner specified that his word of the day, ‘noise’, was specific to the shutdown. He explained that historically, looking at the 20 past shutdowns, the S&P 500 has been flat and up 50% of the time during the actual shutdowns. He emphasized that while there may be short-term volatility, from a portfolio standpoint, investors should not make any real drastic changes. He predicted that in two weeks, earnings season starts again, and that will be the north star of the market.
The S&P saw a considerable gain during the most recent five-week shutdown under the Trump administration. But there are also worries about stagflation in the broader economy, particularly given a Moody’s data point that every week of the shutdown equates to about a tenth of a percent impact on quarterly GDP. Regarding this, Lerner conceded that the shutdown complicates the overall outlook, due to less data and the divergence between the labor market and other economic data. He countered the concern by noting that the Atlanta GDP estimate for the quarter is still around 3.9%, which implies that the shutdown doesn’t drastically change things. He still expects a bit of a pickup, but acknowledged that the shutdown just adds to some of the economic uncertainty in the short term.
Lerner also confirmed that the main theme for his firm’s bull market outlook is AI and tech. He stressed that a government shutdown is not likely to change the trajectory of tech and AI spending, which is where the strongest profit growth is. He concluded by addressing bubble fears: he noted that tech is up about 30% over the last year, which is still far from the closer to 100% on a year-over-year basis typically seen during true bubble periods, leading him to believe that there’s more to go in the sector.
That being said, we’re here with a list of the 12 best growth stocks to buy now.
Our Methodology
We sifted through the Finviz stock screener to compile a list of the top growth stocks. We then selected the 12 stocks that were the most popular among elite hedge funds and that analysts were bullish on. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of the number of hedge funds that have stakes in them, as of Q2 2025. The hedge fund data was sourced from Insider Monkey’s database.
Note: All data was sourced on October 9.
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).
12 Best Growth Stocks to Buy Now
12. Infosys Limited (NYSE:INFY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 30
Infosys Limited (NYSE:INFY) is one of the best growth stocks to buy now. On October 3, Infosys announced its collaboration with Telenor Shared Services/TSS to modernize TSS’s Human Resources/HR operations.
TSS is a global business services organization that provides systems, services, and support to Telenor Group. The core of this collaboration is the implementation of a new Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management/HCM solution to standardize HR processes and enhance both employee productivity and experience for TSS.
The project uses Infosys’ deep expertise in Oracle Cloud HCM implementations. HCM cloud solution will help TSS standardize and streamline processes, improve employee productivity, and harness the potential of embedded AI and cloud technology.
Infosys Limited (NYSE:INFY), together with its subsidiaries, provides consulting, technology, outsourcing, and digital services in North America, Europe, India, and internationally.
11. LiveRamp Holdings Inc. (NYSE:RAMP)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 31
LiveRamp Holdings Inc. (NYSE:RAMP) is one of the best growth stocks to buy now. On October 1, LiveRamp announced the debut of new AI capabilities, including agentic tools, segmentation, and search. The company introduced these solutions to its platform to use its data collaboration network and deliver superior customer outcomes, with customers accessing the new tools in accordance with their organization’s AI policies.
LiveRamp is now the first platform to grant autonomous AI agents governed access to its data collaboration network. By connecting the trillions of signals from its network, LiveRamp enables secure, intelligent data collaboration at scale for the agentic ecosystem, powering multi-agent collaboration throughout the entire marketing lifecycle.
LiveRamp’s new agentic orchestration permits marketers to connect their own or partner agents via APIs. With controlled access to LiveRamp’s identity, segmentation, activation, measurement, clean rooms, and insights from 900 partners, marketers can utilize their preferred agents to make faster, better decisions.
LiveRamp Holdings Inc. (NYSE:RAMP) is a technology company that operates a data collaboration platform in the US, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally.
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