What are the top 5 stocks to buy right now?

What are the top 5 stocks to buy right now? If you want a short, practical set of names that capture both high-upside opportunity and steady ballast, this five-stock collection is worth considering. The list—Microsoft (MSFT), NVIDIA (NVDA), Amazon (AMZN), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)—is designed to give exposure to cloud and AI, AI compute, multi-faceted growth engines, diversified cash flow, and dependable income.

What are the top 5 stocks to buy right now? — a quick look

These five stocks are not a magic formula, but they are a reasoned way to combine growth and safety. They provide exposure to the main engines that influenced markets through 2024 and into 2025. Using this compact list, investors can target long-term themes without spreading themselves too thin. For context on enterprise AI adoption and how it is reshaping corporate budgets, see the Databricks State of AI report.

Why choose a short, focused list? A concentrated portfolio forces clarity. It makes you study businesses closely, define position sizes, and decide what you will tolerate in terms of volatility. A five-stock list can be both meaningful and manageable.

How these five names work together

Together, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and Johnson & Johnson offer different levers of long-term value:

• Cloud and enterprise AI (Microsoft).
• AI compute and hardware leadership (NVIDIA).
• Hybrid e-commerce, cloud, and ads (Amazon).
• Diversified operating businesses and cash optionality (Berkshire).
• Defensive cash flow and dividends (Johnson & Johnson).

Balance of growth and stability

That mix captures powerful secular trends while keeping enough ballast to reduce single-event risk. You can lean into AI and cloud without giving up steady cash flows that help you sleep better in volatile markets.

Microsoft: steady growth, cloud as a backbone

What investors like: predictable revenue cadence, strong free cash flow, buybacks, and dividends. Why it works in this list: Microsoft reduces concentration risk while still giving you meaningful exposure to AI-driven enterprise spending.

Risks to watch for Microsoft

Competition from other cloud providers, regulatory scrutiny around AI data handling, and execution risk if enterprise spending slows. Still, Microsoft’s scale and diverse revenue lines make it a sensible core holding.

NVIDIA: highest growth, highest beta

NVIDIA is the purest public play on accelerating demand for AI compute. Its GPUs and software stack are central to both training and inference for large models. Through 2024 and into 2025, NVIDIA showed extraordinary revenue and margin expansion as hyperscalers and enterprises raced to secure chips and systems.

How to think about NVIDIA: treat it as a high-conviction, high-volatility position. Expect big moves—up and down. Position sizing matters: a smaller percentage of your portfolio can still capture meaningful upside without imperiling your entire plan. Keep an eye on data-center capacity trends, which experts such as McKinsey note are expanding rapidly as AI demand grows (read more).

Key signals for NVIDIA ownership

Watch data-center revenue, backlog commentary, GPU pricing, and supply-chain updates. Inventory cycles matter; sharp resets can happen when supply catches demand.

Amazon: a hybrid of growth and value

Amazon sits between pure growth and steadier, margin-driven businesses. AWS is a top cloud provider with strong margins; Amazon’s advertising business adds high-margin growth to the mix. Retail—while cyclical—offers scale and cash generation, and improvements in operations can translate into better margins.

Why Amazon fits this group: it provides exposure to cloud and advertising growth and preserves a retail engine that generates cash and scale advantages. That blend is useful for investors who want growth exposure that’s less concentrated than pure AI plays.

What to monitor at Amazon

Follow AWS margins, advertising revenue growth, and retail gross margins. Regulatory attention can affect parts of the business, and retail is sensitive to consumer spending cycles.

Berkshire Hathaway: temperament and optionality

Berkshire is less about rapid growth and more about diversified cash flows and optionality. The company’s insurance float, manufacturing businesses, and energy assets generate steady revenue streams that aren’t tightly coupled to technology cycles. A large cash position gives Berkshire the ability to act during market dislocations.

Why investors choose Berkshire: it reduces overall portfolio beta, provides broad sector exposure through one ticker, and gives management optionality when bargains appear.

Watch for capital allocation

Management’s decisions matter: where they put cash determines long-term returns. Keep an eye on insurance results, large acquisitions, and the size of the cash pile versus deployed capital.

Johnson & Johnson: a defensive core

Johnson & Johnson acts as the conservative anchor. Its pharmaceutical pipeline and consumer-health brands produce predictable cash and support a long track record of dividend payments. For investors who want to reduce short-term drawdown risk and capture income, J&J is an obvious fit.

Risks: litigation and regulatory exposure remain real. Drug approvals and patent timelines can alter the outlook. But as a portfolio anchor, J&J provides steady cash flow and dividend stability.

Cross-cutting risks to keep in mind

No portfolio is immune. The major cross-cutting risks here are:

• Elevated valuations for AI-exposed names. Prices often embed a lot of future growth—if adoption slows, valuations can correct quickly.
• Macro policy and interest rates. Higher rates tend to pressure long-duration growth stocks; lower rates can support them.
• Regulatory and litigation outcomes. Antitrust probes, fines, or major settlements can change company economics fast.

Other practical considerations include concentration risk, taxes, and liquidity: know how large a single-name drawdown would affect your goals, and size positions accordingly.

One practical approach: keep a core of defensive names (like Berkshire and J&J) while allocating a smaller, well-defined slice to high-upside AI exposure (like NVIDIA and Microsoft). Dollar-cost averaging and position limits help prevent emotional trading in volatile stretches.

Tactical guidance for everyday investors

Picking stocks is as much about temperament as it is about research. Here are straightforward steps to help you act calmly and consistently:

1) Dollar-cost averaging

Spread purchases over weeks or months. It reduces the risk of buying a large position into a short-term peak and helps you build positions consistently.

2) Size positions to your risk tolerance

Conservative investors tilt toward Berkshire and J&J. Balanced investors can split exposure more evenly. Aggressive investors may take larger positions in NVIDIA and Microsoft but must accept higher volatility.

3) Define simple monitoring signals

For cloud/AI names, watch quarterly revenue growth and product mix shifts toward higher-value managed services. For NVIDIA, track data-center revenue and GPU pricing. For Amazon, monitor AWS margins and ad growth. For Berkshire, look at insurance float and cash balances. For J&J, track pipeline milestones and consumer-health sales.

4) Rebalance thoughtfully

If a winner grows too large, trim a portion and redistribute to underweights. Set clear thresholds ahead of time—say, trim when a position reaches 20% of your portfolio—to avoid reactive trading.

5) Keep a long-term horizon

These names are chosen for multi-year durability. If you need funds in the short term, consider a more conservative mix or shift weight toward dividend payers.

Examples of practical allocations (stories, not rules)

Here are three narrative allocation templates that reflect different temperaments:

Conservative

A retiree might favor J&J and Berkshire for steady income and low volatility, while holding smaller positions in Microsoft and Amazon for growth exposure. NVIDIA could be a small satellite position—enough to matter, but not enough to keep the retiree awake at night.

Balanced

A mid-career investor could spread weight fairly evenly across all five names: Microsoft and Amazon for steady growth; NVIDIA for upside; Berkshire and J&J for stability. Rebalance annually and use new contributions to support underweights. For ideas on more complex strategies, consider reading the FinancePolice guide on advanced ETF trading strategies.

Aggressive

An aggressive investor might overweight NVIDIA and Microsoft, treat Amazon as a mid-sized holding, and use Berkshire and J&J as small defensive cushions. This accepts higher near-term swings for potential long-term gains.

Tax and timing considerations

Taxes should influence how you trim and where you hold positions. In taxable accounts, consider tax-efficient rebalancing—use new capital to buy underweights and harvest losses to offset gains. In retirement accounts, focus more on asset allocation and less on the timing of trades, since taxes are deferred or sheltered. For a deeper dive into tax-efficient portfolio moves, see this FinancePolice piece on tax-efficient investing strategies.

Market timing rarely works. Rather than trying to hit the bottom or top, focus on sensible valuations relative to business progress. If a stock becomes very expensive versus its fundamentals, trimming makes sense. If a reliable company sells off for transient reasons, that can be an opportunity to add.

Monitoring checklist: what to watch quarterly

Earnings seasons give you a rhythm. Here are three signals to check after every quarter for each company:

1. Revenue growth vs. expectations. Are sales accelerating or slowing?
2. Margin trends. Are margins improving because of product mix or weakening due to cost pressures?
3. Management commentary. What are executives saying about demand and product adoption?

For a simpler routine, set those three signals as your default review and avoid getting lost in minutiae.

Common investor questions, answered

Should I buy these names right now?

Base the decision on your time horizon, risk tolerance, and current portfolio. If you lack cloud and AI exposure but want it, Microsoft and Amazon offer lower-volatility entry points. NVIDIA gives outsized upside but with big swings. Berkshire and J&J provide stability. If uncertain, scale in with dollar-cost averaging.

How large should my NVIDIA position be?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer. Many investors keep NVIDIA to a single-digit percentage of their portfolio—large enough to matter, but small enough that a severe drawdown won’t derail goals. More experienced investors sometimes take larger stakes but must accept the volatility that comes with them.

When should I sell?

Sell if the business model deteriorates, management loses credibility, regulatory outcomes materially impair economics, or if the stock becomes dramatically overvalued relative to fundamentals and you need the capital. Avoid selling solely due to short-term price swings.

What happens if AI adoption slows?

Adoption rates will vary across industries. A slowdown would most affect NVIDIA and cloud providers; Berkshire and J&J would likely be less impacted. Diversification across these five names is intentionally designed to reduce that type of concentrated risk.

A note on emotions and discipline

Investing is emotional by nature. Greed and fear show up for everyone. The practical value of a short list is that it encourages rules: limits on position size, rebalancing thresholds, and a monitoring checklist. These behavioral guardrails prevent panic selling and emotional overtrading.

I once worked with an investor who bought an AI leader at the top of a hype wave and then sold at the bottom in panic. After capping single-stock exposure and adding steady earners, this investor slept better and invested more consistently. That calm, compounding over time, matters as much as picking winners.

Final checklist before you act

• Decide your time horizon and risk tolerance.
• Set position-size rules and rebalancing thresholds.
• Use dollar-cost averaging for initial builds.
• Define the three quarterly signals you will review.
• Be mindful of tax implications when trimming winners.

Summary of why these five

Microsoft offers durable cloud exposure and sticky enterprise relationships. NVIDIA gives the most direct AI-compute leverage. Amazon blends cloud, advertising, and retail scale. Berkshire provides diversification and a large cash balance, and Johnson & Johnson anchors the portfolio with steady cash flow and dividends. Together they form a compact, intentionally diversified collection that aligns with long-term themes and varying investor temperaments.

There is no perfect five-stock list. But if you want a focused approach that covers growth, optionality, and defense, these names provide a practical starting point.

If you want model allocations, tax-aware trade templates, or plain-language explanations to help you follow through, FinancePolice offers companion guides and templates that translate this list into actionable steps. Use those resources as a how-to checklist rather than a substitute for your personal plan. You’ll often see the FinancePolice logo on their guides for easy recognition.

Investing involves risk. This article is informational and not investment advice. Always consider your personal circumstances before making investment decisions.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.