As the S&P 500 hovers near its all-time high and trades at a historically high 30 times earnings, investors should be more selective with the stocks they buy. It might be tempting to chase the market's high-growth stocks, but those darlings could easily fizzle out in the next big crash.
Instead, it's smarter to stick with some evergreen stocks that are built to withstand recessions and punishing bear markets. Here are my three favorite stocks fitting that description: Costco (COST +0.64%), Amazon (AMZN +1.51%), and Uber (UBER +0.61%).
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Costco
Costco, the world's largest warehouse club retailer, is an evergreen stock for three reasons. First, it leverages its scale to negotiate low prices and sell its products at bulk discounts.
Second, it can afford to sell its products a paper-thin margins because it actually generates most of its profits from its higher-margin membership fees.
Lastly, its scale and pricing power continue to improve as it opens more stores and locks in its members with more ancillary services.
NASDAQ: COST
Key Data Points
Costco will continue to grow as long as it continues to attract new members, maintains high renewal rates, and opens new stores. From fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2025 (which ended this August), its number of cardholders grew from 105.5 million to 140.6 million, its global renewal rate rose from 88% to 90.5%, and its number of warehouses increased from 795 to 914.
It maintained that momentum even after it raised its membership fees for the first time in seven years in 2024, and it plans to open another 35 warehouses (including five relocations) in fiscal 2026.
From fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2028, analysts expect Costco's revenue and earnings per share (EPS) to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7% and 20%, respectively. Its stock isn't a bargain at 45 times this year's earnings, but its evergreen strengths justify that premium valuation.
2. Amazon
Amazon, the world's top e-commerce and cloud infrastructure company, has three core strengths. First, it generates most of its operating profits from its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform. Those profits subsidize the expansion of its lower-margin retail business.
Second, its Prime ecosystem -- which has more than 240 million subscribers worldwide -- locks in its shoppers and widens its moat against other retailers. It constantly increases the stickiness of those subscriptions with loss-leading discounts and exclusive perks.
Lastly, it's expanding its higher-margin advertising business with more promoted listings and integrated ads -- and that smaller business could eventually become a second profit engine alongside AWS.
NASDAQ: AMZN
Key Data Points
Amazon's core e-commerce business is maturing, especially in North America, but it should continue to grow as it expands its own third-party marketplace, automates its logistics networks, and deploys more artificial intelligence (AI) tools to strengthen its customer recommendations.
AWS should profit from the explosive growth of the generative AI market, while its oft-overlooked advertising business could pull advertisers away from Alphabet's Google and Meta Platforms' Facebook and Instagram.
From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect Amazon's revenue and EPS to grow at a CAGR of 11% and 20%, respectively, as those catalysts kick in. It's still reasonably valued at 28 times next year's earnings, and it's well-positioned to profit from the secular growth of the e-commerce, cloud, AI, and digital advertising markets over the next few decades.
3. Uber
Uber, the world's top ride-hailing company and one of its largest food delivery service providers, served 189 million monthly active platform consumers (MAPCs) in the third quarter of 2025. That's more than double the 93 million MAPCs it served at the end of 2020.
Uber pulled far ahead of its smaller competitors by expanding more aggressively, attracting more riders and drivers, and bundling together its services with its Uber One subscriptions. It already locked in 36 million Uber One subscribers in its latest quarter.
NYSE: UBER
Key Data Points
As Uber expanded, it cut costs, reined in its stock-based compensation, and streamlined its business by divesting its overseas and non-core businesses. That's why it turned profitable on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis over the past two years.
From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect Uber's revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) to grow at a CAGR of 16% and 28%, respectively. With an enterprise value of $190.5 billion, it still looks like a bargain at 17 times next year's adjusted EBITDA.
So if you're looking for a reliable growth stock to buy, hold, and forget for a few years, Uber checks all of the right boxes.
