We recently published a list of 10 Best Stocks to Buy Now For the Long Term. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) stands against other best stocks to buy now for the long term.
What’s Next for the Equity Markets?
The US equity markets have started to show signs of recovery after weeks of volatility due to the tariff situation. On March 21, J.P Morgan Management’s Global Investment Strategist, Alan Wyne released his market update noting that this was the first weekly gain after four weeks for the US equity markets. While highlighting the current market condition Wyne highlighted that this improvement follows the Federal Reserve’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged while revising growth forecasts downward and increasing near-term inflation expectations. The Fed has emphasized that tariff-related inflation is likely transitory. Futures markets anticipate two interest rate cuts this year, with a 50% chance of a third, sparking demand in Treasury markets. On the other hand, yields on the 2-year and 10-year Treasury notes dropped by 7 and 9 basis points, respectively. Moreover, European stocks have continued to outperform, supported by Germany’s new legislation exempting defense spending exceeding 1% of GDP from borrowing restrictions. Wyne suggests that this policy could unlock significant fiscal spending across the Eurozone. The Stoxx 50 index is up 0.2% for the week and has gained 11% year-to-date.
While the S&P 500 is hovering near correction territory, marking five years since its COVID-19 drawdown. Wyne noted that the risks appear evenly distributed between bullish and bearish outlooks. On one hand, the bears argue that softer economic data and rising consumer inflation expectations could worsen with tariff escalations, potentially leading to stagflation. On the other hand, bulls counter that weak sentiment data does not necessarily reflect hard economic indicators such as employment and retail sales, which remain robust. Wyne highlighted that bulls point out that long-term inflation expectations are still anchored near the Fed’s target, mitigating risks of a wage spiral. He pointed out that historically speaking, investing during sentiment troughs has yielded strong returns in subsequent months.
Lastly, closing his market outlook with some investment advice, Wyne suggests that balancing risks by maintaining strategic asset allocation might be a viable strategy. He added that investors should use equities for long-term capital appreciation and fixed income for hedging during slowdowns. In addition, tactical adjustments can help capitalize on emerging opportunities while adding resilience through assets like gold and infrastructure investments. Wyne stressed that despite market volatility since the COVID-19 drawdown, the S&P 500 has risen over 150%, which underscores the importance of staying invested through uncertainties.
Our Methodology
To curate the list of the 10 best stocks to buy now for the long term we reviewed financial media reports and blue chip ETFs. From these sources, we picked stocks from multiple sectors including financials, energy, technology, consumer staples, and more. We finally selected stocks with a history of stable operations. Additionally, we checked their 10-year revenue growth rates and only considered companies with a growth rate of at least 7%. The list is ranked in ascending order of the number of hedge funds holding each stock, sourced from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 database.
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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A customer in a warehouse aisles, browsing the wide range of branded and private-label products.
Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST)
10-Year Sales Growth: 8.61%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 96
Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) operates as a membership-based retail chain that offers bulk quantities of nationally branded and private-label products through physical warehouses and e-commerce platforms. The company functions as a membership-only warehouse club, requiring customers to pay annual fees to access its stores and services.
On March 10, Barclays analyst Seth Sigman raised the firm’s price target on the stock to $980 from $940, while keeping an Equal Weight rating on the shares. The company has been growing its presence by opening new warehouses. During the fiscal second quarter of 2025, Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) announced that it plans to open 28 new warehouses during fiscal year 2025, including three relocations, resulting in 25 net new buildings. Moreover, some recent openings include one warehouse in Q2, with six additional openings scheduled for March 2025 in Brentwood and Highland, California, Sharon, Massachusetts, and Prosper, Texas.
In Q2 2025, the company grew its membership fee income by 7.4% year-over-year to $1.193 billion, with a 9.4% growth excluding foreign exchange effects. It ended the quarter with 78.4 million paid household members, up 6.8% year-over-year, and 140.6 million total cardholders, reflecting a 6.6% increase. The company has a history of growing its revenue and has grown its sales by more than 8% over the past 10 years. It is one of the best stocks to buy now for long term.
Aoris Investment Management stated the following regarding Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Firstly, I think we exercised good valuation discipline in our sales of Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) and Cintas. The share prices of these two companies had increased by more than 60% and 40% respectively in the year prior to our sale. It can be difficult as investors to remain objective and not ‘fall in love’ with an investment when it is performing well. A higher share price doesn’t make a business more valuable!
We sold both Costco and Cintas simply for reasons of valuation. These are exceptional businesses that we’d love to own again if valuation permits. Their sales allowed us to recycle portfolio capital into more attractively valued businesses.”
Overall, COST ranks 10th on our list of best stocks to buy now for the long term. While we acknowledge the potential of COST as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than COST but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
