In this article, we will look at the 12 Best Stocks to Buy and Hold for 2026.

The AI trade is said to be entering its third phase, which is the application and agentic model phase, in 2026. Analysts suggest that 2026 will be a year of increased scrutiny, as investors eye the return on investment and the applicability of the AI infrastructure that hyperscalers have built over the past few years. Katerina Simonetti, of Morgan Stanley, calls 2026 the “show me the money” year for the stock market. Moreover, the market is also experiencing strong demand for AI infrastructure as more companies are transitioning towards developing and deploying agentic models, thereby putting pressure on the supply side.

To talk about this, Stacy Rasgon, senior analyst at Bernstein, joined CNBC television on December 16. He noted that reports suggest Nvidia is considering ramping up its H200 production to meet the expected demand from China. However, the deal between the Chinese companies and Nvidia is still pending approval from the Chinese government.

He added that there is speculation that the United States government has allowed Nvidia to export chips to China, ensuring that they remain dependent on importing chips from the US rather than developing their own, potentially more competitive chips. Rasgon noted he believes that, regardless of the Chinese government’s approval, they might already be developing their own chips in competition with Nvidia’s H200. Rasgon pointed out that there is a ton of demand from Chinese companies. However, on the governmental side, the administration is probably not allowing the companies to import AI infrastructure from the US to boost and encourage domestic production.

Lastly, while talking about the international market, Rasgon noted that the international demand for AI remains strong. However, at this point, the question is regarding the supply side and the capacity of AI infrastructure and hardware companies to fulfil the growing demand in China and other countries around the globe.

Now let’s take a look at the 12 Best Stocks to Buy and Hold for 2026.

​Our Methodology

To compile the list of 12 Best Stocks to Buy and Hold for 2026, we used the Finviz stock screener, Yahoo Finance, CNN, and Insider Monkey’s Q3 2025 database. Using the screener, we aggregated a list of stocks for which analysts expect more than 20% EPS growth in 2026 and more than 25% upside potential. Next, we cross-checked the expected EPS growth from Yahoo Finance and upside potential from CNN. Lastly, we ranked the stocks in ascending order of the number of hedge fund holders sourced from Insider Monkey’s database. Please note that the data was recorded on December 16, 2025.

​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 427.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 264 percentage points (see more details here).

12 Best Stocks to Buy and Hold for 2026

​12. Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET)

EPS Growth 2026: 28.79%

Analyst Upside Potential: 32.98%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 63

​Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) is one of the Best Stocks to Buy and Hold for 2026. On December 17, Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) and JD Cloud, a branch of JD.com, announced their strategic partnership to create an international platform that helps developers to manage, deploy, and scale AI workloads.

​This collaboration comes as an expansion of the company’s 5-year partnership with JD. The aim of this extended partnership is to make the process of running trained AI models to generate outputs like chat responses or image analysis seamless. The companies will work on creating a high-performance AI-Cloud that reduces AI inference workloads by up to 80%. Moreover, the cloud will have enhanced security features, including Cloudflare’s Web Application Firewall (WAF), DDoS protection, and global CDN to keep things reliable and safe.

​That said, Wall Street has a positive opinion on the stock. Recently, on December 17, Stifel reiterated a Buy rating on Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) without disclosing any price targets. A day earlier, on December 16, Gregg Moskowitz from Mizuho Securities also reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a price target of $280.

​Stifel noted that Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) has positioned itself as an important player in the growing need for AI securities. The firm sees the need for AI security, identity security, Zero Trust Security, and more to become increasingly important in 2026 as the deployment of AI and agentic AI speeds up. Under these evolving market dynamics, Stifel sees Cloudflare as one of the companies positioned to benefit from AI deployments.

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) is a cloud services provider that powers AI workloads through its Workers AI platform.

​11. American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT)

EPS Growth 2026: 36.67%

Analyst Upside Potential: 27.88%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 75

​American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) is one of the Best Stocks to Buy and Hold for 2026. On December 16, Eric Luebchow from Wells Fargo reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a $200 price target. Earlier on December 9, Batya Levi from UBS also reiterated a Buy rating on American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) and kept the price target the same at $260.

​Analyst Levi of UBS noted that the firm reiterated its bullish sentiment on the stock after Steve Vondran, CEO and President of American Tower Corporation (NYSE AMT), presented at the UBS Global Media & Communications Conference. At the conference, management highlighted its 2026 strategic priorities, including accelerating organic growth across all regions, driving efficiencies by lowering SG&A as a percentage of sales, and increasing discipline across capital allocation.

​Moreover, Levi also highlighted that with the expectation that carriers will need to double their capacity over the next 5 years, the analyst sees American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) as well-positioned to benefit from the increased infrastructure.

Lastly, regarding the Echostar litigation, management noted that while the issue can take longer to settle via courts, they remain open to settling the issue outside the court proceedings with Echostar.

American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) is one of the biggest REITs in the United States, which owns and manages communications real estate within the country and internationally.