In this article, we are going to discuss the 12 most profitable American stocks to buy in 2026.

The S&P 500, which is widely considered the premium benchmark for the broader American stock market, has surged by 9.52% since the beginning of 2026, broadly driven by the AI-driven rally and developments around the Iran conflict.

That said, the star performer so far this year has been the energy sector, supported by the soaring oil prices amid the US-Iran war. While a peace deal has been announced and global crude prices have fallen to a 4-month low, analysts don’t expect to see gas prices at pre-war levels until 2027, as it will take months for global oil inventories to recover. However, the sudden crash in oil prices should help ease inflation concerns and lift investor sentiment.

As a result, Wells Fargo raised its year-end 2026 target for the S&P 500 to 7,950 on June 16, implying a YoY growth of over 16% for the benchmark index. The brokerage cited stronger corporate earnings, easing macroeconomic risks following the interim deal between the US and Iran, and a recent market selloff that has reset investor sentiment for the target boost.

Moreover, Wells lifted its S&P 500 earnings per share ​forecast from $315 to $340 for 2026, while also raising its EPS target from $365 to $390 for the next year.

With that said, here are the Most Profitable American Stocks to Buy Now.

Our Methodology 

To collect data for this article, we referred to screeners to identify US-based companies that had a net profit margin of over 20%, as of the most recent quarter. We then limited our final selection to companies that have recently reported noteworthy developments likely to impact investor sentiment. The following are the Most Profitable American Stocks to Invest in.

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 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).

12. Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX)

Net Profit Margin: 21.60%

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) is a leader in mass-capacity data storage. The company has delivered more than four billion terabytes of capacity over the past four decades.

On June 15, Morgan Stanley upped its price target on Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) from $767 to $1,035, while keeping an ‘Overweight’ rating on the shares. The target boost indicates a slight upside of over 1% from the current levels.

According to Morgan Stanley, its recent Asian market checks over the last three weeks clearly indicate that the hard disk drive (HDD) cycle is lasting longer than previously projected. The firm believes that HDD shortages are likely to persist through at least 2028. The findings also indicate that HDD pricing is strengthening clearly and significantly.

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) is expecting its June quarter revenue to be around $3.45 billion, plus or minus $100 million, while its adjusted EPS is projected at $5, plus or minus $0.20. Meanwhile, the company is targeting an operating margin in the lower 40% range. Moreover, Seagate remains confident in increasing its annual revenue growth target from the low to mid-teens to a minimum of 20% over the next few years.

Sands Capital Management, LLC stated the following regarding Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:

“We initiated positions in Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) and Lam Research and believe both businesses will play a key role in this transition. As a provider of hard disk drives, we expect Seagate Technology to benefit from limited capacity and potential price increases for solid state memory, which we expect may exceed current expectations. The hard disk drive market is a duopoly with limited risk of Chinese competition and Seagate is the clear industry leader in both share and technology.

Seagate Technology is a global leader in mass-capacity data storage. The company has built its position over decades of innovation and industry consolidation, emerging as one of two scaled providers in the global storage market, with a focus on high-capacity nearline hard disk drives that serve cloud service providers and enterprise data centers. Its Mozaic platform uses heat assisted magnetic recording to increase storage density, enabling a significantly lower cost per byte than flash alternatives and reinforcing hard drives as the preferred solution for large-scale data storage. Demand for storage is rising rapidly, driven by AI-related workloads that generate and retain large volumes of data, including generative and agentic applications that require long-context processing. We believe this growth in data creation is likely to outpace near-term supply, creating a favorable industry backdrop. In our view, a constrained supply environment, combined with sustained demand, should support volume growth and stable to improving pricing, positioning Seagate to benefit from durable trends tied to cloud computing and AI-driven data expansion.”

11. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Net Profit Margin: 21.83%

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and its subsidiaries develop, manufacture, and sell a broad range of healthcare products, giving the company a presence across multiple areas of the healthcare industry. The company’s dividend remains one of its biggest attractions for income-focused investors.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) announced on June 15 that it would invest over $1 billion to build a contact lens manufacturing facility in Jacksonville, Florida. Scheduled to be fully operational in 2028, the plant will add manufacturing, packaging, and distribution capacity for the company’s market-leading Acuvue contact lenses. The investment includes the construction of a distribution facility, plus the installation of manufacturing and packaging technologies.

The investment in Jacksonville is part of Johnson & Johnson’s previously announced plan to invest $55 billion in US manufacturing, R&D, and technology, through early 2029. The company had already invested around $12 billion under the expansion plan by the end of 2025.

Joaquin Duato, Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, commented:

“This investment reinforces our long-standing conviction that advanced manufacturing in the United States is essential to delivering innovative, high quality healthcare solutions to patients at home and around the world. By further strengthening our Vision operations in Jacksonville with next-generation manufacturing, packaging and distribution capabilities, we are enhancing the resilience of our U.S. supply chain while helping more people see better and live better. This commitment reflects the confidence we have in our people, our technology, and our more than 40-year legacy of advancing eye health globally.”

Guinness Global Equity Income Fund stated the following regarding Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:

“Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) was the Fund’s top-performing stock in Q1 2026, rising 18.7% as markets gained confidence that the company has been effectively replacing revenues of Stelara, a drug that accounted for more than 10% of sales at its peak, but ‘loss of exclusivity’ led to numerous biosimilar launches in 2025. That confidence was fuelled by a very solid earnings print with which the firm reported full-year sales growth of 6%, despite a 7.5 percentage point headwind from Stelara’s loss of exclusivity. Organic sales growth accelerated significantly, rising from 3.7% in Q3 (and 2.4% in Q2) to 7.9% in Q4. Performance was broad-based, with strong momentum across a number of key drugs within the firm’s pharma division, with Tremfya (Crohn’s disease) and Darzalex (Myeloma) the stand-outs. Alone, these drugs were able to provide $4.2bn in sales growth, nearly fully offsetting the $4.3bn decline from Stelara. The remaining drugs in the pharma portfolio were able to grow another $3.6bn, a 6% contribution to the overall growth of the pharma division. MedTech was similarly encouraging, with sales ahead of consensus by 40 basis points and strength across Orthopaedics (recently spun out), Surgery, and Vision, supported by the firm’s recent Shockwave acquisition. Importantly, management reiterated solid 2026 guidance at 5.9% (at the mid-point), and reiterated confidence in achieving the upper end of its 5-7% long-term sales growth target, with a credible path to double-digit growth later in the decade, benefitting from the roll-off of patent cliff headwinds…” (Click here to read the full text)