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 NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) 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.
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.
Is NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) the Best Edge Computing Stock to Invest in According to Analysts?
A close-up of a colorful high-end graphics card being plugged in to a gaming computer.
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).
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is one of the leading GPU makers internationally, which is driving the AI revolution. It had previously revolutionized the gaming industry through its technology, now its GPUs are the powerhouse for data centers, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and more.
The company has been generating substantial income through its revolutionary technology. Over the past 5 years, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) has grown its top line by 62% and bottom line by 92%. During its third quarter of fiscal 2024, it generated $35.1 billion in revenue, indicating 94% year-over-year. While the gaming segment contributed $3.8 billion to the total, data center revenue stood out after growing 112% to contribute $30.8 billion.
NVIDIA Corporation’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) Blackwell architecture has been a significant advancement in GPU technology, particularly with its flagship GB200 GPU. The demand for the Blackwell and Hopper platforms has driven substantial revenue growth in the company’s Data Center segment. Sales of the H200 GPU have surged into double-digit billions, marking it as one of the fastest product ramp-ups in NVIDIA's history. It is one of the best stocks to buy and hold for 3 years.
Ithaka Group’s Ithaka US Growth Strategy stated the following regarding NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is the market leader in visual computing through the production of high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs). The company targets four large and growing markets: Gaming, Professional Visualization, Data Center, and Automotive. NVIDIA’s products have the potential to lead and disrupt some of the most exciting areas of computing, including: data center acceleration, artifi cial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and autonomous driving. The reason for the stock’s appreciation in the quarter was twofold: First, the stock benefi ted from tremendous excitement surrounding the further development of generative AI and the likelihood this would necessitate the purchase of a large number of Nvidia’s products far into the future; Second, Nvidia posted another strong beat[1]and-raise quarter, where the company upped its F2Q25 revenue guidance above Street estimates, showcasing its dominant position in the buildout of today’s accelerated computing infrastructure.”
Overall, NVDA ranks 4th on our list of best stocks to buy and hold for 3 years. While we acknowledge the potential of NVDA 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 NVDA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
