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If you want stocks that you can buy and hold for not only years, but potentially the rest of your life, it's important to consider businesses that have massive growth opportunities. These are the types of companies that generate significant profits, are leaders within their respective industries, and are likely to remain dominant for years -- potentially decades.
Whether you're starting out and building your portfolio or just want some quality investments to hang on to, I have some great options for you to consider. Three stocks that look unstoppable and you should be able to safely hang on to for decades are Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY), Walmart (NYSE: WMT), and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL). Here's why they can be no-brainer buys for the long haul.
Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly has been a growth machine over the years, relying on a combination of acquisitions and in-house development to expand its operations. Today, the big excitement around the business is due to its GLP-1 drugs, Zepbound and Mounjaro, with the former approved for weight loss and the latter approved for diabetes.
And while those are incredibly promising drugs, the company isn't just relying on those treatments for its growth. Last year, the Food and Drug Administration also approved Kisunla, the company's treatment for early Alzheimer's, another blockbuster drug that can bolster its revenue and profit in the future.
The company recently announced plans to build Lilly Medicine Foundry, a center focused on researching new drugs and producing medications more efficiently. It's a $4.5 billion investment that can help advance its pipeline at a greater scale over the years.
Eli Lilly has generated an operating profit of just under $15 billion over the trailing 12 months on revenue totaling $41 billion. With impressive margins and some fantastic long-term growth potential, this can be a solid investment to buy and hold.
Walmart
Big-box retailer Walmart is another solid stock that likely isn't slowing down anytime soon. Its stores are one-stop shops for many consumers, but Walmart has been showing an appetite for more growth than simply expanding its store count.
It has significant opportunities in online retail and launched Walmart+ in 2020 in a bid to cater to customers who want free delivery along with other perks (e.g. streaming, discounts). Last year, it also acquired TV-maker Vizio in a move to help grow its advertising business, Walmart Connect.
The company is already a beast, generating more than $670 billion in sales over the trailing 12 months. While its profit margins aren't huge at just under 3%, with its volume, the low-cost leader is in an excellent position to grow its bottom line in the long run given its plentiful growth opportunities.