11 Great Stocks to Buy and Hold for the Next Decade

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Buy-and-hold investing isn’t just about sitting around and collecting dividends.

That’s not to cast any aspersions on dividends. Far from it. Regular and rising payouts are often the key to beating the market over long periods of time. Just have a look at the best stocks in Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index over the past half-century.

But when we’re looking at shorter time frames, such as, say, a single decade, strong and sustainable earnings growth is a critical factor too. Companies with key advantages in growing industries – or that have a long history of adapting to changing times – have a better chance of outperformance in the decade ahead.

It also doesn’t hurt to find yourself in rapidly evolving sectors that continually spawn new ways to drive revenue growth. Think: technology or finance or health care.

That said, boring can be beautiful too.

Disclaimer

Data is as of Jan. 22, 2019, unless otherwise noted. Stocks are listed alphabetically. Dividend yields are calculated by annualizing the most recent quarterly payout and dividing by the share price. Analysts’ ratings provided by Zacks Investment Research.

Dan Burrows
Senior Investing Writer, Kiplinger.com

Dan Burrows is Kiplinger's senior investing writer, having joined the august publication full time in 2016.


A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of SmartMoney, MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, InvestorPlace and DailyFinance. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Consumer Reports, Senior Executive and Boston magazine, and his stories have appeared in the New York Daily News, the San Jose Mercury News and Investor's Business Daily, among other publications. As a senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance, Dan reported market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and hosted a weekly video segment on equities.


Once upon a time – before his days as a financial reporter and assistant financial editor at legendary fashion trade paper Women's Wear Daily – Dan worked for Spy magazine, scribbled away at Time Inc. and contributed to Maxim magazine back when lad mags were a thing. He's also written for Esquire magazine's Dubious Achievements Awards.


In his current role at Kiplinger, Dan writes about equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities, funds, macroeconomics, demographics, real estate, cost of living indexes and more.


Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Columbia University.


Disclosure: Dan does not trade stocks or other securities. Rather, he dollar-cost averages into cheap funds and index funds and holds them forever in tax-advantaged accounts.