In this article, we will take a look at the 12 Best Stocks to Buy Now for Long-Term Growth.
Stock markets fell on February 23 as President Trump moved ahead with new tariffs on US trading partners, despite a Supreme Court ruling and rising criticism from Americans. Concerns about the status of global trade treaties alarmed investors, causing a dip in US share prices, especially the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which fell 1.6% by the day’s close.
The President appeared to be doubling down on his tariff agenda, despite the fact that some countries with which Washington had negotiated trade accords in the previous year were now demanding further clarity on his levies.
Moreover, a Citrini Research report being discussed online has generated new concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence. The firm examined the long-term effects of the AI surge, outlining a scenario in which AI continues to advance, eventually proving damaging to the overall economy.
According to Citrini’s report, AI will soon affect the real estate sector, with once-high-earning professionals in pricey metro areas no longer able to purchase homes, causing a ripple effect in the mortgage industry. These negative developments would eventually culminate in a stock market catastrophe, with the S&P 500 plunging 38% from its October 2026 peak.
Our Methodology
For this list, we used stock screeners to identify stocks with long-term growth, defined as 5-year revenue growth rates exceeding 25%. We 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 427.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 264 percentage points (see more details here).
12. Zscaler Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS)
Zscaler Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) ranks among the best stocks to buy now for long-term growth. On February 13, Barclays raised Zscaler Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) from Equalweight to Overweight while dropping its price target to $228 from $264. Barclays recognizes Zscaler’s outstanding net revenue retention rate of over 115%, which was made possible by strong up-selling and cross-selling efforts, and considers artificial intelligence as a potential benefit instead of a concern for the company.
The firm had originally downgraded Zscaler Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) back in December 2025 after the company’s fiscal first-quarter 2026 earnings report, expressing concerns about growth stability and growing rivalry threat from market competitor Cloudflare, which threatens new client acquisition.
According to Barclays, Zscaler’s new customer growth contribution has dropped significantly from roughly two-thirds to about 30%. The firm thinks this might eventually limit the company’s ability to grow net revenue as growth among current customers hits its inherent limits.
Zscaler Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) is a cloud-based security company that provides cybersecurity solutions by protecting user access to applications and data, regardless of location.
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