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

On June 2, State Street Global Advisors released its mid-year global market outlook for 2025. The firm remains confident in a soft-landing scenario despite recent and ongoing geopolitical and economic issues. The report highlighted that the most recent market volatility was caused by the US trade and tariff policies, however, the markets have now ingested the volatile period as tariff hikes have been paused for negotiations.

Regardless of the uncertainty, State Street Global maintained its base case outlook which indicates no US recession, steady growth across Europe, and global growth trends within the expected range. The report also noted the US equities have shown strong earnings in Q1 2025 as the S&P 500 earnings grew more than 12% year-over-year, with valuations remaining reasonable. The firm anticipates the US stocks to outperform significantly stated the trade tensions are eased.

Despite a positive outlook the firm advised to keep investments diversified across classes and regions such as equity, fixed income, gold, and cash.

With that let’s take a look at the 12 best stocks to buy and hold for the long term.

Our Methodology

To curate the list of 12 best stocks to buy and hold for the long term we relied on reputable financial media sources. We aggregated a list of best stocks for long-term investment and then ranked them based on the number of hedge fund investors, sourced from Insider Monkey’s Q1 2025 database.

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 Stocks to Buy and Hold for the Long Term

12. Axon Enterprise, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXON)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 61

Axon Enterprise, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXON) is one of the 12 Best Stocks to Buy and Hold for the Long Term. On June 8, analyst William Power of Robert W. Baird maintained a Buy rating on Axon Enterprise, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXON) with a price target of $800. The maintained bullish sentiment comes after President Donald Trump signed two major executive orders on June 6, aimed at significantly enhancing the commercial use of drones in the United States.

William Power noted, that the executive orders to enhance the commercial use of drones significantly improve the strategic position of Axon Enterprise, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXON). This becomes more relevant considering the company’s strategic partnership with Skydio to deliver scalable drones as first responders for public safety. Power believes the drone market is expected to grow significantly as regulations will allow more drone operations.

Additionally, Axon Enterprise, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXON) acquired Dedrone last year which also strengthens its capabilities in drone technology and provides its field importance. According to analyst Power, the drone and robotics industries are valued to be worth more than $20 billion, thereby presenting an opportunity for the company to deploy more DFR programs.

Axon Enterprise, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXON) is a global technology company focused on public safety. It manufactures and provides various products including TASER energy devices, body and in-car cameras, and cloud-based software for managing digital evidence.

11. Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 77

Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) is one of the 12 Best Stocks to Buy and Hold for the Long Term. On June 16, William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma maintained a Hold rating on Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) without a price target. The neutral rating is based on the recent contract awarded to OpenAI by the US Department of Defence (DoD), which is valued at $200 million and signals increased competition for Palantir.

Analyst Louie DiPalma noted that while the contract with DoD is a significant win for OpenAI it could impact the market position of Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR), particularly if OpenAI starts expanding into areas traditionally dominated by the company. Moreover, he also finds the current valuation of the company to be quite high and unsustainable given the increased competition. Louie DiPalma acknowledged that Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) has been a leader in securing AI-related contracts with DoD, however, the evolving landscape presents a challenging environment to maintain this dominance.

Regardless of the neutral rating, the management of the company remains optimistic. The company posted encouraging results for the fiscal first quarter of 2025 on May 5. It grew its United States revenue by 55% year-over-year to reach $628 million, out of this government revenue accounted for $373 million, reflecting a 45% increase year-over-year. Notably, the company closed 139 deals valued at least $1 million and 31 deals valued at least $10 million.

Taking confidence from the quarterly highest US commercial total contract value of $810 million, Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) raised its full-year revenue guidance to between $3.890 billion and $3.902 billion.