We recently published a list of the 10 Best Stocks to Buy and Hold For 3 Years. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) stands against the other best stocks to buy and hold for 3 years.

What to Expect From the Stock Market in 2025?

On December 12, Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors managing partner and head of research, joined CNBC’s ‘Closing Bell’ to discuss his playbook for 2025. Following two years of significant gains, his playbook suggests an optimistic yet cautious outlook for the stock market next year. Lee anticipates that the S&P 500 will rise to approximately 7,000 by mid-2025, before retreating to around 6,600 by the end of the year. This reflects an overall expected increase of about 8% for the year, which is consistent with historical averages for stock market returns. In terms of Earnings Per Share (EPS) estimates Lee projects EPS for the S&P 500 at $260 in 2025 while estimating $300 for 2026. This is slightly below the consensus estimates from Wall Street, which average around $268 for 2025.

READ ALSO: 11 Best Aerospace and Defense Stocks to Buy Right Now and 11 Best Computer Hardware Stocks to Invest in Right Now.

Explaining his investment thesis, Lee pointed towards several themes that could drive the market in 2025. He predicts a “tale of two halves,” where the first half of the year will see stronger market performance due to factors like Federal Reserve policies and business-friendly initiatives under President Trump. Conversely, he expects a pullback in the second half, reflecting historical trends after strong consecutive years. He sees potential in small-cap stocks, which have underperformed relative to large-cap stocks historically. Lee also talked about the mega caps that are leading. He mentioned that investors reach for these companies when there is even slight risk in the market. Secondly, mega-cap stocks are highly sensitive to falling interest rates. With the December cut in effect, the market is bullish for tech, thereby further solidifying the investment case for megacaps.

Despite his generally positive outlook, Lee acknowledges several risks that could impact market performance. For instance, he thinks the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could potentially lead to reduced government spending and slower economic growth if it is too effective in cutting costs. Moreover, the implementation of tariffs could adversely affect economic conditions and corporate profits. Lee pointed out that historical patterns suggest that after two years of substantial gains, markets often experience declines in the latter half of the third year.

Our Methodology

To compile the list of 10 best stocks to buy and hold for 3 years, we applied a consensus approach. We sifted through recent articles to get an aggregated list of the best stocks to buy and hold for 3 years. Next, we ranked these stocks based on the number of hedge fund holders as of Q3 2024, sourced from Insider Monkey’s database.

Why do we care about what hedge funds do? 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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Number of Hedge Funds: 57

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) is a major telecommunication company in the United States. It is one of the largest wireless carriers in the country and holds over 37% market share. The company operates through Verizon Consumer Group and Verizon Business Group segments providing wireless and wired communication and data services.

Several points make Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) one of the best stocks to buy and hold for 3 years. Firstly the company has been successful in growing its customer base in a highly competitive market. According to its third-quarter results of fiscal 2024, it achieved 239,000 retail postpaid phone net additions, more than doubling the figure from the previous year. As a result total wireless service revenue reached $19.8 billion, indicating a 2.7% increase year-over-year.

The growth has not been limited to merely the Wireless segment, its Broadband Segment also witnessed an addition of 389,000 broadband connections. This marked the ninth consecutive quarter with over 375,000 net additions. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) has been actively working to expand its fiber network to accelerate its offering of premium broadband and mobility services. To achieve this, management on September 5 announced a strategic acquisition of Frontier Communications, the largest pure-play fiber provider in the United States, for $20 billion. The acquisition will increase its fiber customer base to approximately 25 million subscribers. Management has set an ambitious goal to reach 30 million fiber customers by 2028, with a long-term target of between 35 million and 40 million.

Third Point Management stated the following regarding Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

“While some economic activity has been showing signs of slowing, the defensive composition of the current high yield market with a high mix of higher quality credit and short duration has let the rates tailwind overwhelm such concerns. The lowest quality sectors of the market have performed best, fueled by both soft/no landing expectations, as well as two positive events in the beleaguered telecom space. Telecom/cable have been poor performers year to date due to overhang from the growth of FWA (aka “wireless cable”) and increased fiber building, however the sector re-rated materially on two deals. Second, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) announced a deal to acquire Frontier Communications (FYBR), a transaction which the fund benefited from by virtue of its investment in FYBR debt. This transaction, aimed at increasing’s VZ fiber footprint, has led to broad revaluation of fiber retail networks that we think is appropriate. While we continue to expect to see FWA rapidly erode non-upgraded cable and especially copper’s share of the low-end broadband market, the VZ deal underscores the value of the higher end footprint.”

Overall, VZ ranks 10th on our list of best stocks to buy and hold for 3 years. While we acknowledge the potential of VZ to grow, 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 VZ but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.