5 Best Stocks To Buy and Hold Forever

In this article, we discuss 5 best stocks to buy and hold forever. If you want to read our discussion on the stock market landscape, head over to 13 Best Stocks To Buy and Hold Forever. 

5. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 166

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) ranks 4th on our list of the best stocks to buy and hold forever. On January 30, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) reported Q4 GAAP earnings per share of $1.64 and a revenue of $86.31 billion, exceeding Wall Street estimates by $0.04 and $1.04 billion, respectively. Revenue for the period increased 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. 

According to Insider Monkey’s fourth quarter database. 166 hedge funds were bullish on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), compared to 163 funds in the earlier quarter. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management is the biggest stakeholder of the company, with 45.2 million shares worth $6.3 billion. 

The FPA Crescent Fund stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:

“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) continued going from strength to strength during 2023 despite concerns that competition may infringe on the company’s dominant position in Search. Thus far, Alphabet has continued to hold its own, and we look forward to seeing how the company incorporates further AI developments across the Alphabet ecosystem. Lastly, we are hopeful that the impending arrival of a new CFO will bring a renewed focus on efficiency – an area where we believe Alphabet has ample room for improvement.”

4. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 173

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is a leading provider of graphics, computing, and networking solutions globally. It offers GPUs for gaming, PCs, enterprise workstations, cloud-based computing solutions, data center computing platforms, automotive platforms, and embedded systems. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is one of the best stocks to buy. 

On February 21, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) reported a Q4 non-GAAP EPS of $5.16 and a revenue of $22.1 billion, outperforming Wall Street estimates by $0.52 and $1.55 billion, respectively. Revenue for the period rose 265.3% on a year-over-year basis. 

According to Insider Monkey’s fourth quarter database, 173 hedge funds were long NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), compared to 180 funds in the last quarter. Rajiv Jain’s GQG Partners is a prominent stakeholder of the company, with 13.90 million shares worth $6.8 billion. 

Alger Spectra Fund stated the following regarding NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:

“NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is a leading supplier of graphics processing units (GPUs) for a variety of end markets, such as gaming, PCs, data centers, virtual reality and high-performance computing. The company is leading in most secular growth categories in computing, and especially artificial intelligence and super- computing parallel processing techniques for solving complex computational problems. Simply put, Nvidia’s computational power is a critical enabler of Al and therefore critical to Al adoption, in our view. During the period, shares contributed to performance as Nvidia reported solid fiscal third quarter results well above analyst expectations, driven by strong demand from data centers. Growing Al data center workloads are driving demand for the increased interconnections and fully accelerated software stacks, thereby enabling leading application performance and fast result times.”

3. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 242

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is one of the best stocks to buy. According to Wells Fargo, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s strong Q4 revenue, driven by artificial intelligence, is expected to benefit companies like Nvidia due to increased spending. Meta foresees continued AI development requiring infrastructure investments beyond 2024. The company emphasizes the growing computational intensity of AI training and future models, with a focus on advanced AI clusters and novel data center efforts. Wells Fargo analysts also commended the positive impact of Meta’s AI initiatives on different companies.

According to Insider Monkey’s fourth quarter database, 242 hedge funds held a stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), compared to 234 funds in the last quarter. Rajiv Jain’s GQG Partners is a prominent stakeholder of the company, with 11.15 million shares worth $4 billion.

SaltLight Capital stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:

“Meta Platforms, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:META) primary mission is all about capitalising on user engagement and maintaining its network effects. AI is augmenting their objectives in two ways: 1) Improving engagement time per daily active user (AI Job One) 2) Matching ad buyers (advertisers) with ad consumers (AI Job Two)

Improving Engagement Time per Daily Active User Meta is in the business of making sure that when you’re scrolling through your feed or watching videos, you’re glued to the screen as long as possible. Why? Because the longer you watch, the more ads they can slip into your viewing experience (think of digital billboards). But these ‘digital billboards’ are a finite resource – only more engagement time creates them.

And here’s where the magic of ‘AI job one’ comes in – finding that perfect video that keeps you hooked – thereby increasing the time you spend on the platform. It’s a cycle that feeds itself: more engagement means more opportunities to serve ads, which in turn means more revenue…” (Click here to read the full text)

2. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 293

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is one of the best stocks to buy and hold forever. In Q4 2023, the tech giant’s cloud computing unit resumed growth after seven consecutive quarters of stagnant sales, driven by increased benefits from artificial intelligence. The acceleration in larger new deals is attributed to the management’s confidence in offering more AI model options to customers. Piper Sandler analyst Thomas Champion rated Amazon shares as Overweight with a $220 price target.

According to Insider Monkey’s fourth quarter database, 293 hedge funds were bullish on Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), compared to 286 funds in the last quarter. Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management is a prominent stakeholder of the company, with 13.6 million shares worth $2 billion. 

Polen Global Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:

“Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), which saw significant price appreciation throughout much of 2023, saw its share price increase materially in Q4 following the company’s Q3 2023 earnings report. We have yet to see the long-awaited re-acceleration in AWS (Amazon Web Services) revenue growth. However, in our estimation, the segment’s growth has likely bottomed, and we could see accelerating growth in 2024. Further, Amazon’s e-commerce business has gradually re-accelerated from 2022’s levels and, perhaps most importantly, the company’s margins and free cash flow have rebounded materially from last year. This rebound in margins and free cash flow at Amazon has been a key component of our long-term thesis for the business, and we expect the improvement in these metrics to continue into 2024 and beyond (though perhaps not linearly) as the company continues to optimize costs and capital expenditures. Our position in Amazon reflects our positive long-term expectations of the business, and it is currently our largest absolute weight in the Portfolio.”

1. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 302

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) ranks 1st on our list of the best stocks to buy. On February 29, Goldman Sachs reiterated a Buy rating for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) due to the company’s investments in generative artificial intelligence. The investment bank sees Microsoft in a unique position to benefit from the technological shift toward a Gen-AI tech stack, without structural changes to its profitability. Despite concerns about increased capital expenditures, Goldman Sachs believes these investments will pay off, with Gen-AI being a significant revenue growth driver for Microsoft in the near term. Microsoft’s Azure, combined with generative AI services, is seen as having the potential to scale into a $200 billion business. 

According to Insider Monkey’s fourth quarter database, 302 hedge funds were bullish on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), compared to 306 funds in the earlier quarter. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust is the largest stakeholder of the company, with 38.2 million shares worth $14.3 billion. 

RiverPark Large Growth Fund stated the following regarding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:

“Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT): MSFT was a top contributor in the quarter following strong FY1Q24 earnings in late October. In that earnings report, MSFT delivered better-than-expected revenue (+13%) and earnings (+27%), with growth in both accelerating from the prior quarter. All three major segments grew revenue faster than expected, highlighted by 28% constant currency growth in Azure, the company’s cloud offering. This marked the first quarter-over-quarter acceleration for Azure in six quarters. Operating margins (48%) were 400 basis points better than expected and earnings came in 13% ahead of expectations.

Cloud-based services have become the company’s largest revenue and earnings producer. The company’s Azure platform alone has the potential to grow to more than $100 billion in annual revenue over the next decade. Overall, we believe that the company will continue to deliver double-digit revenue and EPS growth and generate an enormous amount of free cash flow to both return to shareholders and use for acquisitions.”

Insider Monkey focuses on uncovering the best investment ideas of hedge funds and insiders. Please subscribe to our free daily enewsletter to get the latest investment ideas from hedge funds’ investor letters by entering your email address below. You can also check out 15 Best Stocks to Buy According to Billionaire D.E. Shaw and 14 Stocks With Heavy Insider Buying In 2024.