8 Best Middle East and Africa Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds

In this article, we will discuss the 8 Best Middle East and Africa Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds.

The United States and Israel’s strikes on Iran have roiled global oil prices and reignited volatility across global financial markets. As a result, economies around the world, including those in regions like Africa and the Middle East, are under fresh pressure. That turbulence arrived just as the emerging markets asset class was staging its strongest run in years.

Last year, emerging markets trounced the developed markets, and the trend was still going strong in the early days of this year, Tanzeel Akhtar’s analysis in the Wall Street Journal shows. Akhtar noted that the MSCI Emerging Markets Index gained 34% against the MSCI World Index’s 21.6%. Such a variance was last seen in 2017, noted Akhtar. She, however, stated that the conflict in the Middle East has since weighed on that momentum, as investors rotate back toward the relative safety of developed markets.

Even so, the valuation argument for emerging markets is intact, as per Akhtar’s analysis. The analysis noted that emerging markets still trade at roughly a 40% discount to developed markets on a forward price-to-earnings basis, and that this gap reflects years of investor preference for US assets during the dollar’s rise. While the US/Israel-Iran conflict has scrambled the investing outlook, portfolio managers at major funds, such as BlackRock and Vanguard, say that higher crude oil and commodity prices only reinforce the case for certain emerging markets they were already bullish on before the outbreak of hostilities.

In fact, a Reuters analysis by columnist Jamie McGeever shows that emerging markets have defied the energy shock. The analysis points to the MSCI global emerging markets index and the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index, both of which have climbed more than 20% above their March 31 lows. Thea Jamison, manager at Change Global Investment, told Reshma Kapadia of Barron’s that she believes emerging markets are in “complete breakout territory” from a technical standpoint. This development, Jamison argues, will attract further inflows, which will then create their own momentum.

With that backdrop in mind, this article identifies the 8 best Middle East and Africa stocks to buy, based on hedge fund sentiment.

Our Methodology

To compile our list of the 8 best Middle East and Africa stocks to buy according to hedge funds, we used Finviz and Yahoo stock screeners to identify the 30 largest companies in these regions, and ensured that the selected names had positive upside potential as of May 13, 2026. We then used the Q4 2025 13F filings available in Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database to select the stocks with the largest number of hedge fund holders, and then picked the top eight. This list is presented in ascending order of hedge funds with a stake in the stock.

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).

Best Middle East and Africa Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds

8. AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 31

Stock Upside: 23.66%

AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) is one of the best Middle East and Africa stocks to buy according to hedge funds. On May 8, AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) released its Q1 FY2026 earnings, in which it reported $2.52 in quarterly earnings per share, a figure that exceeded the $2.32 consensus estimate. Revenue for the quarter came in at $3.15 billion, which was just short of the $3.25 billion analysts had expected.

According to AngloGold’s management, surging gold prices are the primary reason the company’s earnings were able to exceed Wall Street expectations. The company detailed in the earnings report that the average gold price per ounce it received during the quarter was $4,863, a 69% year over year jump.

For that same reason, EBITDA grew 130% year on year to $2.29 billion and headline earnings also jumped 187% year over year to $1.3 billion, or 252 cents per share. Free cash flow also hit a record $1.2 billion for the quarter, which was nearly triple the $403 million generated in Q1 2025. Beside the higher gold prices, CEO Alberto Calderon also attributed the performance to disciplined cost management and predictable mine-level performance rather than any dramatic volume increase.

Riding the record cash generation, the company declared a record interim dividend of $585 million, or 116 US cents per share. Management said this call was in line with its policy of paying out 50% of free cash flow. The dividend is payable June 12, 2026, to shareholders on record as of May 29.

AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) is a gold mining company founded in South Africa. The company operates a portfolio of underground and open-pit gold mines and also conducts exploration activities in various locations across Africa, including Ghana, Tanzania, Guinea, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

7. Sibanye-Stillwater Limited (NYSE:SBSW)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 33

Stock Upside: 25.56%

Sibanye-Stillwater Limited (NYSE:SBSW) is one of the best Middle East and Africa stocks to buy according to hedge funds. On May 13, Sibanye-Stillwater Limited (NYSE:SBSW) announced the results of its cash tender offer to retire all outstanding 4.000% senior notes due November 2026, in which it revealed that holders tendered a total of $613.875 million of the $675 million in notes outstanding. This means about $61 million was not tendered and will be repaid by the company using its cash reserves when the notes mature.

The company launched the tender offer on May 6, through its wholly owned US subsidiary, Stillwater Mining Company. This offer was structured as an “any and all” offer, which means the company committed to buying back every single note submitted, at full face value of $1,000 for every $1,000 of principal, and with no discount applied. Sibanye issued new debt to fund these buybacks, including a $500 million senior notes offering due 2031, carrying a 6.25% annual coupon, through its UK financing arm.

Separately, Sibanye-Stillwater said on April 17 that it is working on a project to advance nuclear medicine for cancer treatment. The research project is a joint venture with the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa). According to Sibanye-Stillwater, the project intends to develop a radioactive palladium isotope known as Palladium-103, or Pd-103, which is used in a cancer treatment process called Brachytherapy.

Sibanye-Stillwater Limited (NYSE:SBSW) is a mining company headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. The company operates precious metals mining and processing facilities across South Africa and also owns mining assets in the United States and Europe.

6. Elbit Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESLT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 25

Stock Upside: 32.51%

Elbit Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESLT) is one of the best Middle East and Africa stocks to buy according to hedge funds. On May 12, Elbit Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESLT) announced that its US subsidiary, Elbit Systems of America – Night Vision LLC, had been awarded a $212 million delivery order by the US Army for continued production of the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle – Binocular (ENVG-B) system. The company said deliveries are scheduled to run through 2028.

Elbit Systems noted that this award is particularly notable because the US Army has historically split ENVG-B production contracts among multiple vendors. This time round, however, Elbit Systems of America was the sole prime supplier selected. As such, management believes that this is the strongest signal of the US Army’s confidence in their technology.

According to Elbit, the ENVG-B system brings together high-resolution image intensification and thermal imaging, and the combined product allows soldiers to detect, identify, and engage targets in complete darkness or adverse weather. The company has also enhanced the technology with augmented reality. The AR overlays enable passive targeting and improves the survivability of users as well as the effectiveness of missions on the battlefield.

The company said that this new delivery order continues a program that was originally awarded to Elbit Systems of America in 2023. It noted that this new order is a chance to deepen this multiyear relationship, and that this award reinforces its position as the Army’s primary partner in that technology area.

Elbit Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESLT) is a defense electronics company headquartered in Haifa, Israel. The company develops and manufactures defense, homeland security, and commercial aerospace systems for customers in the Middle East, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas.

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