10 Best Stocks to Buy Now: Top Investment Picks in May 2025

After reaching an all-time high above 6,144 points in mid-February, the S&P 500 Index retraced all the way to sub-5,000 levels. At the time of writing, the index stands at 5,855 points, which is basically breakeven for the year. A major reason for the slowdown is macroeconomic uncertainty surrounding tariffs and the war in Ukraine. February’s Fed revelation that inflation is more persistent than previously thought, prolonging the restrictive monetary environment where access to cheap capital is difficult to come by, also definitely plays a major role.However, asset prices across traditional and cryptocurrency markets remain close to their multi-year peak. This makes it difficult to decide whether it’s worth pulling the trigger and investing in the market while valuations are this high. Well, the simple answer is that nobody really knows. However, you can hardly go wrong by investing in proven companies that have stood the test of time, especially if you’re a long-term investor.In this article, we will list the best stocks to buy in May 2025, examine their past business performance, and look into how they are projected to perform in the coming months.If you are wondering what the best stock to buy right now is and what our reasoning is for including these companies on our list, read the following sections.Apple has been the world’s most valuable publicly traded company for the past decade, owing its success to an impressive lineup of highly popular hardware and software solutions. The company has transformed the tech landscape with iconic products like the iPhone, iPad, Mac computers, and Apple Watch, as well as services like the App Store, Apple Music, and iCloud. Apple continues to demonstrate its market resilience with impressive financial performance in its fiscal Q2 2025. The company posted quarterly revenue of $95.4 billion, reflecting a solid 5% year-over-year growth, while earnings per share reached $1.65, an 8% increase from the previous year. Most notably, Apple’s high-margin services segment achieved another all-time revenue high, reinforcing the company’s successful pivot beyond hardware sales.The recent easing of US-China trade tensions has triggered a significant stock rally for Apple, addressing one of the key geopolitical concerns that had been weighing on investor sentiment. Additionally, Apple’s newly announced $100 billion share repurchase program represents one of the largest buybacks in corporate history, demonstrating management’s confidence in the company’s future prospects and commitment to returning value to shareholders.Buy Apple StockYour capital is at risk. Other fees may apply. For more information, check out our How to Invest in Apple guide.Microsoft is one of the world’s largest software companies, with a dominant position in operating systems, productivity software, cloud computing, and gaming. The company has been benefiting from the digital transformation trends that have accelerated during the pandemic, such as remote work, online education, and e-commerce. Recently, Microsoft has emerged as the global leader in AI, primarily thanks to its multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI.Microsoft continues to exceed market expectations, delivering remarkable third-quarter fiscal 2025 results with earnings of $3.46 per share-beating consensus estimates by an impressive 8.13%. Revenue surged to $70.06 billion, representing a robust 13.3% year-over-year increase, fueled primarily by accelerating growth in its Azure cloud infrastructure unit and strong adoption of AI solutions.The company’s strategic investment in artificial intelligence is paying substantial dividends, with commercial bookings rising by 18%, significantly outpacing expectations largely due to Azure commitments from OpenAI. Microsoft Copilot has emerged as a mainstream AI tool with 28 million active users across Windows, apps, and web platforms, demonstrating the successful integration of AI capabilities across Microsoft’s ecosystem.Buy Microsoft StockYour capital is at risk. Other fees may apply. For more information, check out our How to Invest in Microsoft guide.Alphabet is the parent company of Google, the world’s largest search engine and online advertising platform. The company also owns other popular and profitable businesses, such as YouTube, Gmail, Google Cloud, Google Maps, Google Play, and Waymo. Alphabet has a dominant market share and a strong competitive advantage. Alphabet delivered exceptional first-quarter 2025 results, with consolidated revenues increasing 12% (14% in constant currency) to $90.2 billion, reflecting robust momentum across all business segments. The company’s diversification strategy continues to bear fruit, with Google Search, YouTube ads, subscriptions, and Google Cloud each delivering double-digit growth rates. The standout performer remains Google Cloud, which saw revenues surge by 28% to $12.3 billion, outpacing major competitors and gaining market share in the rapidly expanding cloud computing space. It’s worth noting that Alphabet has two stocks listed on the stock market, which can sometimes lead to confusion about which stock is a better investment. To learn more about this, feel free to check our deep dive into the differences between GOOG and GOOGL. Earlier this year, Google rolled out so-called AI previews for users from the US. The new feature is arguably the biggest change in SERPs (search engine results) ever and could play a pivotal role in how Google’s core business evolves in the coming years.Buy Alphabet StockYour capital is at risk. Other fees may apply. For more information, check out our How to Invest in Alphabet guide.Amazon is the undisputed leader in e-commerce, cloud computing, and digital entertainment. The company has been growing its revenue at a double-digit rate for years and has a loyal customer base of over 200 million Prime members. Amazon recently acquired One Medical, expanding its portfolio of income streams to the rapidly growing healthcare sector.Amazon demonstrated solid growth in the first quarter of 2025, with net sales increasing 9% to $155.7 billion compared to the previous year. The company continues to excel across multiple segments, with North America sales growing 8% year-over-year to $92.9 billion and international sales increasing 5% (8% excluding foreign exchange impacts). While AWS revenue growth of 17% to $29.27 billion slightly missed analysts’ expectations, the cloud division’s profitability continues to impress, with operating income reaching $11.55 billion and operating margins expanding to a record 39.5%-the widest margin since at least 2014. This enhanced profitability in AWS provides substantial cash flow to fund Amazon’s ambitious investments in artificial intelligence and other growth initiatives.Analysts maintain a bullish stance on Amazon, with several raising their price targets. For instance, HSBC analyst Christopher Johnen increased his target price to $270, indicating a potential 25% upside from recent levels. The bottom line is that Amazon seems poised to perform well in the long term, especially if it manages to maintain its dominant position in the e-commerce sector. If you want to estimate what future EPS might be, make sure to use our earnings per share calculator.Buy Amazon StockYour capital is at risk. Other fees may apply. For more information, check out our How to Invest in Amazon guide.Meta Platforms (formerly known as Facebook) is a tech giant that owns major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Pioneering in virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), Meta aims to create a comprehensive “metaverse” – a unified virtual community for users to work, play, and socialize. The company emphasizes innovation in digital connectivity and immersive experiences.At the start of the year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a major overhaul of the company’s content policy, with a greater focus being placed on free speech and more lenient rules against hate speech. The decision could help drive user growth, which has been stalling for the past couple of years, suffering from user saturation and strong competition from the likes of X, TikTok, and others.The company’s strategic pivot to artificial intelligence continues to gain momentum, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg announcing that Meta AI now has nearly 1 billion monthly active users, establishing it as one of the most widely used AI platforms globally. This rapid adoption demonstrates Meta’s ability to leverage its massive user base across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to introduce new technologies and services. Meanwhile, the company’s financial efficiency has improved dramatically, with net income increasing by 35% year-over-year to $16.6 billion and diluted EPS growing to $6.43 from $4.71 in the previous year. In addition, last year, Meta started paying out dividends to every Class A and Class B shareholder. This was the first time in the company’s history that Meta distributed a dividend, indicating a level of maturity and stability for the company that has been solely focused on maximizing its growth since its inception.Buy Meta StockYour capital is at risk. Other fees may apply. For more information, check out our How to Invest in Meta guide.Nvidia is the world’s leading supplier of graphics processors for gaming, artificial intelligence, and data center applications. The company has been growing its revenue at a double-digit rate for years, giving early investors a very good average stock price on their investment, and has a loyal customer base of gamers, developers, and cloud providers. Nvidia also has a diversified portfolio of businesses, including automotive, health care, and edge computing, making NVDA one of the better growth stocks out there.Nvidia continues its extraordinary growth trajectory, reporting fiscal fourth-quarter 2025 revenue of $39.3 billion, representing a 78% year-over-year increase. This performance capped a remarkable fiscal year 2025, during which the company generated total revenue of $130.5 billion, an astonishing 114% increase from the previous year.The company’s dominance in AI semiconductor technology remains unchallenged, with CEO Jensen Huang highlighting “amazing” demand for Nvidia’s Blackwell AI supercomputers, which achieved “billions of dollars in sales in its first quarter”. The successful ramp-up of massive-scale production for these advanced chips demonstrates Nvidia’s operational excellence and ability to meet surging market demand.Buy Nvidia StockYour capital is at risk. Other fees may apply. For more information, check out our How to Invest in Nvidia guide.Tesla is the world’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer, with a strong market share in the U.S. and international markets. The company also develops energy storage solutions and autonomous driving technology, with a rapidly expanding global production capacity.Why Tesla?Despite Tesla’s disappointing Q1 2025 results, with adjusted earnings of $0.27 per share falling short of the $0.44 estimate and revenue of $19.34 billion missing expectations, several factors support a bullish outlook for the company. Most critically, Tesla confirmed that its development of new budget-friendly vehicles remains on schedule for production commencement in early 2025, addressing a key investor concern about the company’s future growth trajectory.The company’s long-term strategic vision continues to advance, with volume production of robotaxis scheduled to begin in 2026. While Tesla acknowledged increased uncertainty in the automotive sector due to changing trade policies and political sentiments, these macroeconomic challenges affect all industry players and may ultimately benefit Tesla, given its technological leadership and manufacturing efficiency.Buy Tesla StockYour capital is at risk. Other fees may apply. For more information, check out our How to Invest in Tesla guide.Eli Lilly is a global pharmaceutical company specializing in diabetes, oncology, immunology, and neuroscience treatments. The company has seen rapid growth due to its diabetes and weight-loss drugs and is expanding its pipeline in Alzheimer’s and cancer therapies.Eli Lilly delivered exceptional first-quarter 2025 results that showcase its dominance in the rapidly growing markets for diabetes and weight management treatments. Revenue surged 45% to $12.73 billion compared to the prior year, driven by extraordinary demand for the company’s incretin-based therapies.The standout performers in Lilly’s portfolio continue to be Mounjaro, whose sales more than doubled to $3.84 billion, and the newly launched Zepbound, which generated an impressive $2.31 billion in revenue. Together, these two products contributed over $6 billion in quarterly revenue, establishing Lilly as the clear leader in the treatment of diabetes and obesity, two conditions with massive and growing global prevalence.Buy Eli Lilly StockYour capital is at risk. Other fees may apply. For more information, check out our How to Invest in Eli Lilly guide.JPMorgan is the largest U.S. bank by assets, offering a range of financial services, including consumer banking, investment banking, wealth management, and commercial banking. The bank’s strong balance sheet and diversified revenue streams provide resilience and steady growth.JPMorgan Chase demonstrated its financial strength and market leadership with impressive first-quarter 2025 results, reporting earnings per share of $5.07 on revenue of $45.31 billion, both substantially higher than the previous year’s figures of $4.44 and $41.93 billion, respectively. The results significantly exceeded analyst expectations, with net interest income reaching $23.4 billion, highlighting the bank’s ability to benefit from the current interest rate environment.Dimon also highlighted potential positive catalysts, including tax reform and deregulation under the new administration, which could provide additional tailwinds for the banking sector. JPMorgan’s leadership position across consumer banking, investment banking, and asset management provides multiple revenue streams and the ability to capitalize on various economic scenarios. For income-focused investors, JPMorgan offers an attractive combination of dividend yield, earnings growth, and relative stability within the financial sector.Buy JPMorgan & Chase StockYour capital is at risk. Other fees may apply. For more information, check out our How to Invest in JPMorgan & Chase guide.Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is a multinational corporation headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and is renowned for its diverse portfolio of healthcare products and services. Established in 1886, J&J has grown into one of the world’s largest and most trusted names in healthcare, with a presence in over 175 countries.The most striking aspect of J&J’s performance in Q1 2025 was its dramatic improvement in profitability, with net earnings surging 237.9% to $10.99 billion and earnings per share increasing 238.8% to $4.54. While these figures likely include one-time items, they nonetheless reflect J&J’s ability to enhance operational efficiency and extract more value from its diverse healthcare portfolio.Johnson & Johnson continues to strengthen its position in high-growth healthcare segments through strategic acquisitions, including the recently completed purchase of Intra-Cellular Therapies, which enhances the company’s neuroscience portfolio.Buy Johnson & Johnson StockYour capital is at risk. Other fees may apply. For more information, check out our How to Invest in Johnson & Johnson guide.The decrease in interest rates in the second half of 2024 has introduced some much-needed relief to the markets and provided a dose of bullish optimism that helped stocks and major indexes reach new heights. The relaxation of the monetary policy is slated to continue well into 2025, albeit at a slower pace. That could mean that the bullish sentiment could continue for the foreseeable future, but probably not at the rate we saw last year, especially when we account for the myriad geopolitical headwinds.Hopefully, the stocks included in our article will prove to be worthy of investment and generate solid returns for investors in the coming months. However, it’s worth noting that the selection consists mainly of conservative options. If you are prepared to stomach higher risk in exchange for potentially higher returns, we suggest you check out our selection of the best stocks under $5 or look into the best AI penny stocks if you want to gain exposure to the AI industry.If you prefer to focus on long-term growth and building a portfolio that’s centered around dividend-yielding stocks, check out our selection of the best long-term dividend stocks.