In this article, we discuss the Best Low Risk High Growth Stocks to Buy Right Now.
The US economy is navigating a period of heightened volatility, defined by a sharp geopolitical tax on consumers and a resilient but stressed financial sector. While the first quarter began with a solid footing, recent conflict in the Middle East has disrupted global energy supplies, forcing a pivot in both market sentiment and Federal Reserve policy. Reuters has reported a significant surge in headline inflation expectations. The University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers indicated that year-ahead inflation expectations jumped to 4.8%, the largest one-month increase since 2025. This was primarily driven by a record surge in gasoline receipts at service stations. Consequently, consumer sentiment sank by 11% in April. Reuters noted that Americans across all demographic groups cited the conflict in the Middle East as the primary cause of unfavorable changes to the economy, with assessments of personal finances declining due to high energy prices and weakening asset values.
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Despite the gloom in sentiment, actual spending remained surprisingly buoyant at the start of the quarter. Reuters reported that US retail sales increased 1.7% in March, beating economist expectations. While higher gasoline prices accounted for much of this gain, core retail sales, which exclude volatile categories like autos and building materials, rose by 0.7%. This data suggests that households are leaning on tax refunds and pandemic-era savings to maintain spending, even as the price squeeze intensifies. The Federal Reserve, currently facing a Senate confirmation hearing for nominee Kevin Warsh, has maintained a target interest rate of 3.5%–3.75%. However, Reuters highlights that the vast majority of Fed participants now see elevated upside risks to inflation. Minutes from recent meetings suggest that if the closure of the Strait of Hormuz persists, impacting roughly 20% of global crude flows, the Fed may be forced to delay expected rate cuts or even consider additional hikes to prevent high energy costs from passing through to core inflation.
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Our Methodology
For this article, we used stock screeners to make a list of firms with a beta of less than 1 and positive earnings per share growth over the past five years. Data for the hedge fund sentiment surrounding each stock was taken from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2025 database of 1041 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 498.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 303 percentage points (see more details here).
Stocks
Best Low Risk High Growth Stocks to Buy Right Now
14. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD)
McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is a 70-year-old brand. It has recently transformed into a data-driven real estate and AI powerhouse, shifting its growth trajectory. The smart money has been pouring into the company because unlike most fast-food chains, McDonald’s is primarily a real estate company. It owns the land under 85% of its restaurants. It leases this land back to franchisees, ensuring a stable, high-margin rent stream that is largely independent of whether a specific store has a bad month in sales. In 2025, the company generated $7.2 billion in free cash flow. This massive liquidity allows it to weather economic downturns, as consumers trade down to McDonald’s value meals when luxury dining becomes too expensive.
McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is also becoming a tech-enabled logistics firm. Data shows that by March, the MyMcDonald’s Rewards program had scaled to 210 million active users. This allows for hyper-personalized marketing that has increased visit frequency by 12% in key demographics. Earlier this month, McDonald’s completed the full rollout of generative AI drive-thrus across 8,000 US locations, which has reduced average wait times by 15 seconds per car, a massive efficiency gain in a high-volume business. The company is currently in the first phase of its most ambitious expansion in history. It is on track to open 2,600 new restaurants in 2026 alone, part of a broader goal to hit 50,000 locations by 2027.
