My 3 Favorite Stocks to Buy Right Now

With the S&P 500 trading near its all-time highs and looking historically expensive at 31 times earnings, it might seem like a smarter time to sell stocks than to buy them. That might be a prudent move, since a broad range of macro headwinds could compress those valuations.

However, long-term investors who plan to hold their stocks for at least another decade shouldn't fret too much over those near-term challenges. Instead, they should still accumulate shares of well-run companies that will dominate their growing markets for the foreseeable future.

Image source: Getty Images.

Three stocks that fit the description are Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Cameco (NYSE: CCJ), and S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI). While I don't own any of these stocks yet, I'd be willing to accumulate all three regardless of the broader market's fluctuations.

Alphabet

Alphabet's Google owns the world's most widely used search engine, mobile operating system (Android), web browser (Chrome), webmail service (Gmail), and streaming video platform (YouTube). It also operates one of the world's top cloud infrastructure platforms and cloud-based productivity suites, and its Gemini generative AI platform is growing rapidly.

That sprawling ecosystem makes Alphabet one of the most diversified ways to simultaneously profit from the secular growth of the digital advertising, cloud, and AI markets. It faces plenty of competition across those booming markets, but it can bundle its services and leverage its scale to fend off smaller competitors. It's also an easy target for antitrust regulators, but it's weathered plenty of those probes and lawsuits over the past decade.

From 2025 to 2027, analysts expect Alphabet's revenue and earnings per share (EPS) to grow at a CAGR of 13% and 11%, respectively. Its stock isn't cheap at 30 times this year's earnings, but it should outperform the market over the next decade as its core markets expand.

Cameco

Cameco, which is based in Canada, is the world's second-largest uranium miner. From 2011 to 2021, its annual revenue declined every single year. The Fukushima disaster in 2011 drove many countries to pause their nuclear energy plans, and the spot price of uranium plummeted from a peak of $136 per pound in July 2007 to a trough of $18 in November 2016.

However, uranium's spot price bounced back to $81.55 per pound by the end of 2025. The rapid growth of the power-hungry cloud and AI markets, along with more advanced reactor technologies, drove many countries to restart their nuclear projects. At the same time, geopolitical conflicts in uranium-rich regions and reduced uranium production drove its price higher. As that market warmed up again, Cameco reopened its mines and, in 2023, acquired a 49% stake in Westinghouse Electric, a leading designer and builder of nuclear power plants.

Cameco's big uranium mines and its stake in Westinghouse make it one of the easiest ways to profit from the long-term growth of the nuclear energy sector. From 2025 to 2027, analysts expect its revenue and EPS to grow at a CAGR of 9% and 35%, respectively. Its stock might seem pricey at 69 times this year's earnings, but its strengths justify that premium valuation.

S&P Global

S&P Global provides essential financial data, credit ratings, and analytics services to all 100 Fortune 100 companies and 80% of the Fortune 500 companies. The company's top customers -- including banks, insurance companies, corporations, universities, and institutional investors -- rely on those services to make major financial decisions.

S&P Global typically grows through bull and bear markets, since its customers still need access to its services regardless of the market's near-term direction. It also has significant pricing power, as it holds a near-duopoly in its core markets with Moody's (NYSE: MCO). The Fed's interest rate hikes in 2022 and 2023 curbed the growth of its credit rating business, but those headwinds dissipated in 2024 and 2025 as the Fed cut those rates six consecutive times.

From 2025 to 2027, analysts expect S&P Global's revenue and EPS to grow at a CAGR of 7% and 14%, respectively. Those growth rates might not seem impressive for a stock that trades at 32 times this year's earnings, but its evergreen business model deserves a higher valuation. It should also remain a reliable, safe-haven stock during the next market downturn.

Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Cameco, Moody's, and S&P Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.