Top Stocks to Buy and Hold in 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. Even with a market near an all-time high in early 2026, many stocks remain extremely attractive for long-term investors to consider buying.

But what are the best stocks to buy in January 2026? Although I can't consult a crystal ball that tells me what 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.

PayPal (PYPL +1.90%) is an absolute cash machine that is down by about 80% from its highs. If you aren't familiar with the recent history, PayPal completely overhauled its management team in late 2023. Every member of its C-suite is new to the business, and it is an impressive group.

The new leaders have already made significant moves, including introducing an industry-leading cash-back debit card product and launching an advertising platform. PayPal announced an agreement with OpenAI in late 2025 to become the first digital wallet integrated into ChatGPT. Since the new leadership took over, efficiency has improved dramatically, and earnings per share (EPS) is significantly higher.

This could be just a starting point. Management presented investors with a growth roadmap in early 2025, which showed that the team believes it can achieve sustainable 20% annual earnings growth in the not-too-distant future.

The company has 434 million active users across PayPal and Venmo, and it processes about $1.9 trillion in annualized payment volume. It also generates more than $6 billion in free cash flow annually and has been using it to aggressively repurchase its own stock, a sign that management believes it's undervalued.

It's not hard to see why PayPal's management is choosing to use its capital this way. As of January 2026, the stock traded at a historically low price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of less than 1.7 times trailing-12-month sales and for just over 10 times forward earnings.

2. Airbnb

3. MercadoLibre

Robot-assisted surgery beats shaky human hands. That general thesis hasn't changed significantly since I first noticed Intuitive Surgical (ISRG -2.68%) 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 third quarter of 2025, Intuitive Surgical reported year-over-year revenue growth of 23%, fueled by 20% growth in performed da Vinci procedures. Intuitive Surgical is a dominant player in its space, with a global market share of approximately 80%.

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

8. Berkshire Hathaway

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 the massive internet search operation that has a 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 the Nest smart-home products. This part of the business makes most of its money from advertising, but there's also 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 a substantial amount of cash. In fact, this has recently prompted Alphabet to initiate its first-ever dividend payment.