Best Stocks to Buy Now: Our Buy-and-Hold Picks for May 2026

There are thousands of publicly traded companies you can invest in, not to mention the many exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds you can buy. So it's not surprising that many investors don't know where to start. The stock market has been volatile so far in 2026 due to the Iran conflict, tariff uncertainty, and fears of a weakening economy. Although the S&P 500 is close to an all-time high, many stocks look extremely attractive for long-term investors to consider buying.

But what are the best stocks to buy in May 2026? Although I can't consult a crystal ball to tell me which stocks will deliver the best returns, I've tried to do the next best thing. In this article, I'll discuss 10 stocks that I think could be great buys for long-term investors looking to put their money to work.

Few companies have been as successful in disrupting an entire industry as Airbnb (ABNB +0.68%). The company began in 2007 with a few air mattresses on the floor of the co-founders' apartments (from which the company derives its name) and has since evolved into a leader in changing how millions of people view travel accommodations.

Airbnb has more than 5 million hosts who list over 8 million properties and experiences on its platform. In the first quarter of 2026, more than 156 million nights and experiences were booked on Airbnb's platform, with a total booking value of over $29 billion, which represents 19% year-over-year growth.

Airbnb is not only massive and growing quickly, but also highly profitable. It generated $4.5 billion in free cash flow and achieved a 36% FCF margin over the past 12 months.

Looking forward, Airbnb has $12.1 billion in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet. And it still has a massive growth opportunity.

Its overall market opportunity is estimated to be in the trillions of dollars, encompassing both short- and long-term stays and experiences. Additionally, management appears to believe the stock's valuation doesn't accurately reflect the long-term opportunity, given the company's relatively aggressive share repurchase pace.

2. MercadoLibre

One of my favorite long-term stock investments in the market, MercadoLibre (MELI -12.69%), is often referred to as the Amazon of Latin America, and for good reason. The company operates an e-commerce marketplace with a dominant presence in some of the region's most populous nations, including Brazil and Argentina.

However, there's a lot more to MercadoLibre. It operates a fast-growing payments platform, Mercado Pago, a logistics service, Mercado Envios, a business lending platform, and more.

The marketplace saw $19 billion in merchandise volume in the first quarter of 2026, up 42% from the same quarter in 2025. Mercado Pago processes nearly $350 billion in annualized payment volume, with over three-quarters of that volume coming from outside its e-commerce platform.

Both main parts of the business are experiencing rapid growth. And don't overlook Mercado Crédito, the company's young but fast-growing (and highly profitable) lending business. Mercado Crédito has $14.6 billion in outstanding loan balances.

MercadoLibre isn't just the Amazon of Latin America -- it's the Amazon, PayPal, Block (XYZ +6.77%) (owner of Square and Cash App), Shopify, and more, all rolled into one. And it's in a much earlier stage of growth. As the e-commerce and fintech landscapes in Latin America evolve over the coming years, MercadoLibre could be a major long-term beneficiary.

3. Apple

Apple (AAPL +2.08%) is a company that needs little introduction to most people. It is the largest consumer electronics company in the world, and with products including the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, the Mac line of PCs and laptops, and more, it has built an ecosystem of products used by a highly loyal customer base.

Recent results show no reason to believe demand is cooling off. In the 2025 holiday quarter, Apple generated more than $85 billion in iPhone sales alone, a figure management described as "staggering" demand.

Another interesting part of Apple's business is its Services unit, which has been the fastest-growing part of the company (and also is a high-margin revenue stream). Just to name a few examples, this includes sales on the App Store and products like Apple Music.

It seems like every week, there's another high-profile security breach. The need for cybersecurity solutions certainly isn't getting any smaller. And that's especially true when it comes to cloud-based security. CrowdStrike (CRWD +4.33%) is leading the charge to keep data secure in the cloud. This is a best-in-breed cybersecurity company with a highly effective platform.

CrowdStrike collects security data from its numerous users, analyzes it, and utilizes it to automate security across its entire network. This makes the platform highly effective at detecting the newest threats. Plus, the more users adopt CrowdStrike's solutions (known as its Falcon platform), the more effective it becomes. The use of crowdsourced threat data, combined with its leading market share, gives it a competitive advantage over peers.

It's worth noting that many investors are worried about the effects of AI disruption on CrowdStrike. For example, as agentic AI technology evolves, could it make cybersecurity platforms more vulnerable to threats? But management sees AI as its biggest opportunity.

With more than $5 billion in annual recurring revenue and an 80% subscription gross margin, CrowdStrike's growth has been impressive, but this could be just the beginning. The company sees its current addressable market at $149 billion in potential revenue and expects that the opportunity could more than double to $325 billion by 2030.

5. Intuitive Surgical

Robot-assisted surgery generally beats shaky human hands. That general thesis hasn't changed significantly since I first noticed Intuitive Surgical (ISRG -0.81%) stock in 2005. The da Vinci Surgical System is the clear market leader, and its "razor and blades" model helps Intuitive generate a recurring stream of revenue.

In the first quarter of 2026, Intuitive Surgical reported year-over-year revenue growth of 23%, fueled by 17% growth in performed da Vinci procedures. Intuitive Surgical is a dominant player in its space, with approximately 80% global market share.

It has lots of room to grow as the adoption of its surgical systems and the number of supported procedures increase over time. This is particularly true in many international markets, where the implementation of robot-assisted surgery could be a long-tailed growth catalyst for this excellent business for decades to come.

6. Shopify

The House of Mouse is like the all-weather tires of a portfolio. The pandemic hurt its theme park and movie businesses but helped the Disney+ streaming service, which has grown into a powerhouse for Disney (DIS -0.68%).

In fact, six years after launching, Disney+ Core now has more than 130 million paid subscribers, while Hulu adds tens of millions more. Additionally, the market is absorbing price increases with minimal impact on subscriber counts, and Disney's streaming business is now profitable.

While consumers are clearly feeling the pressure of inflation, demand for Disney's theme parks, movies, and cruise line has been strong. In fact, per-guest revenue in Disney's parks is far greater than in comparable pre-COVID-19 pandemic times, even accounting for inflation, thanks to initiatives that have driven higher in-park spending. Additionally, the company is investing $60 billion over the course of a decade in its theme parks and cruise line to ensure they remain full for the foreseeable future.

With Disney also laser-focused on the profitability of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, this could be a powerful combination of profitable, all-weather revenue streams. In a nutshell, Disney might be the ultimate combination of an in-person experiential stock and a tech-focused growth business.

Disney's amazing stable of intellectual properties (the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, ESPN, Pixar, etc.) and its cash-machine theme park business give it a margin of safety that makes it perhaps the safest stock on this list. And it still has tremendous profit-growth potential as newer areas of its business evolve.

8. Berkshire Hathaway

Although most of this list is made up of growth stocks, or at least stocks that have some exciting growth drivers, this is the relatively boring value pick of the bunch (but in the best possible way). Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A +0.16%) (BRK.B +0.14%) owns a collection of about 60 subsidiaries, including household names such as GEICO, Duracell, and Dairy Queen, among others.

Berkshire also owns a portfolio of common stocks -- worth about $310 billion as of March 2026 -- that includes massive stakes in Apple (AAPL +2.08%), Bank of America (BAC -2.73%), Chevron (CVX -0.63%), American Express (AXP -0.90%), and Coca-Cola (KO +0.00%), as well as positions in dozens of other companies.

Many were particularly savvy investments, such as the Bank of America stake, which resulted from a preferred stock deal made in the wake of the financial crisis. In addition to its businesses and stock portfolio, Berkshire also had nearly $400 billion in cash and short-term investments as of the first quarter of 2026, providing it with considerable financial flexibility to capitalize on opportunities as they arise.

Berkshire is putting some of that cash to work, agreeing to buy Occidental Petroleum's (OXY -1.69%) petrochemical unit, OxyChem, in October 2025 for $9.7 billion. That's its biggest deal since 2022, when Warren Buffett's company bought insurance company Alleghany for $11.6 billion.

Berkshire continues to produce market-beating returns in most years despite its massive size. And while Berkshire certainly won't produce the roughly 20% annualized return it has produced from the time Buffett took the helm in 1964 through the end of 2025, there's no reason to believe it won't continue to outpace the S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.84%) index for the foreseeable future.

In fact, the company recently reached an impressive milestone by becoming the first non-technology company to reach a trillion-dollar market cap. Buffett recently stepped down as CEO, but the company is in good hands with new leader Greg Abel. Berkshire's winning culture is likely to live on for decades, even in its post-Buffett era.

9. Amazon

Amazon (AMZN +0.55%) doesn't really need much of an elevator pitch for most people. The company maintains a dominant market share in the U.S. e-commerce market. And its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform is also a market leader, with a significant lead over the other two large players in the space, Microsoft (MSFT -1.33%) and Alphabet (GOOG +0.41%) (GOOGL +0.66%).

However, there is more growth potential than you might think. We're still a long way from maximizing e-commerce adoption, as it accounts for only a little more than 16% of all U.S. retail sales.

The cloud industry is relatively young and expected to roughly quadruple in size to a $2.3 trillion market by 2032. Amazon also has significant potential in other areas, including healthcare, grocery stores, neighborhood markets, and more.

10. Alphabet

Alphabet isn't exactly a household name, but its main subsidiary, Google, certainly is. And there's a lot more to the business and its potential than just a massive internet search operation with dominant market share.

Google is divided into two main segments: Google Services and Google Cloud. Google services include YouTube, Google Play, Gmail, Android, Chrome, and Nest smart home products. This part of the business generates most of its revenue from advertising, but it also earns significant revenue from hardware (Nest) and in-app purchases (Google Play).

Google Cloud is the company's cloud services division, holding the No. 3 market share behind AWS and Microsoft Azure. It has been growing its market share in recent years, and the cloud infrastructure market itself is forecast to quadruple by 2030. So, while this accounts for approximately 10% of the company's revenue today, it could be the biggest growth driver for years to come.

Additionally, Alphabet has a segment called "Other Bets," which owns several promising early-stage businesses. The self-driving vehicle technology company Waymo is perhaps the most notable and has a clear market lead in the young robotaxi industry. While none of the "other bets" companies produce any significant revenue yet, there's a lot of long-term potential.

Not only is there tons of growth potential, but Alphabet is also extremely profitable and has substantial cash on hand. In fact, this has recently prompted Alphabet to initiate its first-ever dividend payment.