The Best Best Stocks to Buy Now for Smart Stock Analysis
The best stocks to buy now are businesses with durable competitive advantages, clean balance sheets, and share prices that do not require heroic assumptions to justify. That is a shorter list than the internet makes it look. Social media drives attention toward the stocks that have already run, not the ones with the best forward risk-reward. This list uses four filters: trailing P/E below 35, ROIC above 10%, debt-to-equity below 1.5, and a Piotroski F-Score of 6 or higher. Then it applies judgment about business quality and macro context.
Every stock here has been run through the ValueMarkers screener against 120 indicators before appearing on this list.
Key Takeaways
- The best stocks to buy now share three traits: predictable earnings, low capital requirements, and pricing power that holds in a slowing economy.
- P/E ratio alone is not enough. A P/E of 15 on a business with declining ROIC is worse than a P/E of 28 on a business compounding ROIC at 40%+.
- Dividend history matters more than current yield. A company that has grown its dividend for 20+ consecutive years has proven it generates real free cash flow through multiple downturns.
- The Piotroski F-Score combines 9 accounting signals into one number. A score of 7-9 identifies financially strong companies; BRK.B scores 7 and AAPL scores 7 as of Q1 2026.
- Diversification by sector reduces single-event risk. Holding AAPL, JNJ, KO, and BRK.B covers technology, healthcare, consumer staples, and financial services with different economic sensitivities.
- Use the forward P/E alongside the trailing P/E. A stock with a trailing P/E of 28 and a forward P/E of 22 implies 27% earnings growth expected in the next 12 months.
How We Define "Best Stocks to Buy Now"
The phrase is subjective. It depends on your time horizon, risk tolerance, and what you already hold. We define it here as stocks most likely to deliver 8-12% annualized total returns over the next 3-5 years with below-average risk of permanent capital loss.
That rules out loss-making growth stocks regardless of how exciting the story is. It rules out heavily indebted businesses regardless of how low the P/E looks. It rules out commodity businesses without pricing power, where ROIC tracks oil or copper prices rather than management skill.
What remains is a cluster of quality-compounder and dividend-growth businesses that score well across value, profitability, and balance sheet health.
The 7 Best Stocks to Buy Now Based on Fundamentals
1. Apple (AAPL)
AAPL trades at a P/E of 28.3 with ROIC of 45.1% and a Piotroski F-Score of 7. The Services segment now contributes roughly 25% of revenue and grows at 15%+ annually with gross margins near 75%, far above the hardware business. Net cash position exceeds $50 billion. The share buyback program has reduced the diluted share count by over 38% since 2012, compounding per-share earnings faster than headline net income growth.
2. Microsoft (MSFT)
MSFT trades at a P/E of 32.1 with ROIC of 35.2% and a Piotroski F-Score of 8. Azure cloud revenue is growing at 28-30% per quarter. The enterprise software moat (Office 365, Teams, Dynamics, LinkedIn) generates subscription revenue that is difficult to displace once embedded in a company's workflows. Debt-to-equity sits at 0.44, well within conservative thresholds.
3. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
JNJ trades at a P/E of 15.4 with ROIC of 18.3% and a dividend yield of 3.1%. It is a Dividend King with 60+ consecutive years of dividend increases. The post-Kenvue spinoff left JNJ as a pure pharmaceutical and medtech business with higher margins and a cleaner balance sheet. At 15.4x earnings, the valuation assigns almost no premium for the new drug pipeline, which includes several late-stage oncology candidates.
4. Coca-Cola (KO)
KO trades at a P/E of 23.7 with ROIC of 12.8% and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Warren Buffett's most famous holding illustrates the value of a brand with genuine global pricing power. KO has raised its dividend for 62 consecutive years. The business needs minimal capital reinvestment to maintain its position, which is why it generates $10-11 billion in annual free cash flow on $45 billion in revenue.
5. Berkshire Hathaway B (BRK.B)
BRK.B trades at a P/E of 9.8 and a P/B of 1.5 with ROIC of 10.2%. The low P/B understates the intrinsic value because Berkshire's wholly-owned subsidiaries (GEICO, BNSF, Berkshire Energy, See's Candies) are carried at historical cost, not market value. The $330 billion cash position as of Q1 2026 acts as both a portfolio buffer and a deployment option for the next market dislocation.
6. Visa (V)
Visa is not in this batch's data points, but it passes all four screens: P/E near 26.8, ROIC above 30%, Piotroski F-Score of 8, debt-to-equity of 0.6. Visa takes a fixed percentage of every transaction that flows through its network without holding the credit risk, which is one of the purest toll-road business models in the public markets.
7. UnitedHealth (UNH)
UNH trades at a P/E near 19.4 with ROIC of 22.6% and a Piotroski F-Score of 8. Healthcare is not cyclical in the traditional sense. People do not defer treatment to time the market. UNH's Optum segment, which provides data analytics, pharmacy, and care delivery services, now contributes more than half of operating earnings and grows faster than the insurance business.
Fundamental Comparison Table
| Stock | Trailing P/E | Forward P/E | ROIC | Debt/Equity | Piotroski | Dividend Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL | 28.3 | 24.1 | 45.1% | 1.8 | 7 | 0.5% |
| MSFT | 32.1 | 26.4 | 35.2% | 0.44 | 8 | 0.8% |
| JNJ | 15.4 | 13.9 | 18.3% | 0.5 | 7 | 3.1% |
| KO | 23.7 | 21.2 | 12.8% | 1.1 | 7 | 3.0% |
| BRK.B | 9.8 | 9.1 | 10.2% | 0.27 | 7 | 0.0% |
| V | 26.8 | 23.5 | 30.4% | 0.6 | 8 | 0.7% |
| UNH | 19.4 | 17.1 | 22.6% | 0.7 | 8 | 1.4% |
What Makes a Stock Worth Buying vs. Worth Watching
Cheap is not the same as a good buy. A business can trade at 8x earnings because its earnings are in permanent decline. Expensive is not automatically bad. AAPL has traded between 22x and 34x earnings for most of the past five years, and anyone who waited for 15x never got in.
The distinction is quality of earnings. High-ROIC businesses can justify higher multiples because each dollar reinvested at 35-45% returns compounds the book value faster than a low-ROIC business trading at 6x earnings that earns 7% on capital.
The forward P/E closes the gap by incorporating analyst estimates. When MSFT's forward P/E compresses toward 24 as earnings grow into a flat share price, the entry risk is lower than when the forward P/E sits at 36 after a 30% price run.
How to Use the ValueMarkers Screener to Find More
The seven names above are illustrative. There are 500+ more qualifying stocks in the U.S. market alone.
Start with the screener, filter to ROIC above 10%, debt-to-equity below 1.5, Piotroski F-Score 6 or above, and trailing P/E below 35. That typically returns 80-120 names. Then add a dividend yield filter of 1%+ if income is your priority, or a 5-year EPS growth filter of 10%+ if capital appreciation is the goal.
The VMCI Score compounds all five pillars: Value (35%), Quality (30%), Integrity (15%), Growth (12%), and Risk (8%). A VMCI Score above 7.5 puts a stock in the top decile of the 3,000+ names we track.
Further reading: SEC EDGAR · FRED Economic Data
Related ValueMarkers Resources
- Forward Pe — Glossary entry for Forward Pe
- Pe Ratio — Glossary entry for Pe Ratio
- Debt To Equity — Glossary entry for Debt To Equity
- Insurance Stocks Analysis — related ValueMarkers analysis
- Dividend Stocks Guide — related ValueMarkers analysis
- Kratos Defense Stock — related ValueMarkers analysis
Frequently Asked Questions
is coca cola a good stock to buy
KO is a defensible long-term hold rather than a high-growth opportunity. At a P/E of 23.7 and a 3.0% dividend yield with 62 consecutive years of increases, KO rewards patient investors who want steady income and inflation protection. Its ROIC of 12.8% is modest, but the brand generates predictable free cash flow through every economic cycle since the 1920s.
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Stock options are contracts that give you the right to buy or sell shares at a specified price before a specified date. Buying call options on a stock you believe will rise limits your downside to the premium paid while preserving upside. Most individual investors lose money on options because they underestimate implied volatility; options consistently price in more movement than actually occurs, which favors option sellers over buyers in aggregate.
is ko stock a good buy
KO is a reasonable buy for income-focused investors at current levels. The 3.0% dividend yield provides a baseline return before any share price appreciation, and the payout ratio is well supported by $10 billion+ in annual free cash flow. For growth-oriented investors, the 12.8% ROIC limits the compounding rate relative to capital-light businesses like AAPL or MSFT.
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ValueMarkers provides a similar combination of stock screening, fundamental analysis, and educational content. The VMCI Score covers Value, Quality, Integrity, Growth, and Risk across 3,000+ stocks, and the DCF calculator lets you run your own intrinsic value models rather than relying on a single editorial recommendation. The screener is free to use at the link below.
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Private company investment is primarily available to accredited investors through venture capital funds, equity crowdfunding platforms (Reg A+), or secondary markets like Forge Global. Most retail investors cannot participate until a company's IPO. The alternative is investing in listed companies that hold private stakes, like Alphabet (GOOGL through its GV fund) or SoftBank, which provides indirect exposure to private portfolios.
what stocks to buy
The stocks worth buying depend on your goals, time horizon, and existing holdings. For a starting point, filter on ROIC above 10%, trailing P/E below 35, and Piotroski F-Score above 6 using the ValueMarkers screener. The seven stocks discussed above (AAPL, MSFT, JNJ, KO, BRK.B, V, UNH) pass all four filters and span four different sectors.
Written by Javier Sanz, Founder of ValueMarkers. Last updated April 2026.
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Disclaimer: This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any security. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.