Holding a stock for ten years is a bet on the business still being excellent in year ten, not on the price being right today. So this screen ignores price entirely and asks three structural questions instead: is the company elite on quality, is it retiring shares rather than issuing them, and is the balance sheet clean enough to survive a bad stretch without a rescue. Every company below scores at least 85 out of 100 on quality, has fewer shares outstanding than five years ago, carries net debt under three years of free cash flow, and has grown earnings. Fourteen survived from a universe of 40. Ranked by quality, the highest is Arch Capital Group (ACGL) at 99 out of 100, followed by Exelixis (EXEL) and Deckers Outdoor (DECK), both at 98.
How we compared these
Nothing here is hand-picked. We ran the five filters below across every US-listed company we score from SEC EDGAR filings, sorted the survivors by quality score, and published the top fourteen in that order. Every figure comes from the same pipeline that powers the stock pages.
Deliberately absent: any valuation filter. A list of stocks to hold for a decade that screens on today's P/E answers a different question, and usually a worse one, since the businesses most worth owning for ten years rarely trade cheaply for long. Prices are shown in the table so you can apply your own judgement, but they played no part in selection or ranking.
Every tool was judged on the same questions:
- →Does the quality score reach 85 out of 100, which is the top few percent of US companies we cover?
- →Has the share count actually fallen over five years, so each share owns more of the business than it did?
- →Is net debt under three years of free cash flow, so a bad year is survivable without raising capital?
- →Have earnings per share grown over five years, which rules out companies scoring well on a single snapshot?
- →Is revenue growth under 60% a year, so the record reflects operating the business rather than buying one?
Competitor plans and features last verified 6 September 2026. Pricing and free tiers change often, so check the source before relying on any figure here.
The 14 best long-term stocks, ranked by quality
Ranked by quality score, highest first. Share count and EPS are five-year figures, and share count is negative throughout because retiring shares is a requirement of this screen. Revenue growth is the compound annual rate to the latest twelve months, the same calculation shown on each company's quality page, so the figure here and the figure you see after clicking through agree. Net debt is expressed in years of free cash flow, where a negative number means the company holds more cash than debt. Figures as of 6 September 2026.
| Company | Quality | 5y EPS | Revenue | Share count | Net debt | P/E | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arch Capital Group (ACGL) | 99/100 | 28.4% | 18.9% | -1.7% | -0.2y | 7.7 | $34bn |
| Exelixis (EXEL) | 98/100 | 51.4% | 10.2% | -2.4% | -0.7y | 19.5 | $16bn |
| Deckers Outdoor (DECK) | 98/100 | 25.6% | 11.1% | -3.1% | -1.0y | 12.2 | $12bn |
| Cincinnati Financial (CINF) | 97/100 | 15.2% | 20.8% | -0.6% | -0.3y | 8.1 | $27bn |
| The Hartford Insurance Group (HIG) | 94/100 | 22.9% | 7.0% | -4.5% | 0.1y | 8.9 | $38bn |
| Allstate (ALL) | 94/100 | 17.1% | 8.1% | -3.3% | 0.1y | 5.2 | $67bn |
| ResMed (RMD) | 93/100 | 26.3% | 10.2% | -0.1% | -0.4y | 21.9 | $33bn |
| The St. Joe Company (JOE) | 93/100 | 20.9% | 21.4% | -0.4% | 1.2y | 31.0 | $4bn |
| EMCOR Group (EME) | 92/100 | 63.7% | 13.8% | -4.0% | -0.3y | 23.5 | $34bn |
| lululemon athletica (LULU) | 92/100 | 24.1% | 11.0% | -1.9% | 0.6y | 10.0 | $14bn |
| Assurant (AIZ) | 92/100 | 19.4% | 7.2% | -4.2% | -1.2y | 13.7 | $14bn |
| Argan (AGX) | 91/100 | 45.2% | 27.1% | -2.2% | -1.0y | 32.5 | $6bn |
| Paylocity Holding (PCTY) | 91/100 | 31.3% | 14.7% | -0.6% | -0.3y | 30.9 | $8bn |
| Markel Group (MKL) | 91/100 | 24.9% | 9.9% | -1.8% | -0.7y | 10.1 | $23bn |
The filter that does the most work
Of the three structural requirements, the shrinking share count is the one that changes the list most. It is also the least discussed, because it is the slowest signal: a company that retires 3% of its shares a year does nothing dramatic in any single year and owns roughly a quarter more of itself per share after a decade.
The reason it belongs in a long-term screen is that it is difficult to fake. Buying back shares consistently for five years requires free cash flow the business does not need for anything else, a board willing to prioritise it, and no crisis forcing a capital raise. It is an outcome of durability rather than a claim about it. The Hartford has retired 4.5% of its shares a year, Assurant 4.2%, EMCOR 4.0%. Compounded over the holding period this article contemplates, that is a large share of the total return arriving without revenue needing to grow at all.
The top ten, in depth
1. Arch Capital Group (ACGL), quality 99
Arch writes insurance and reinsurance across property, casualty and mortgage lines, and at 99 out of 100 it holds the highest quality score in this article and one of the highest in our US coverage. Earnings per share have compounded 28.4% a year over five years against revenue growth of 18.9%, it holds net cash, and it has retired 1.7% of its shares.
Earnings growing meaningfully faster than revenue in insurance means underwriting margin has widened, not just that more policies were sold, which is the harder and more valuable of the two. Arch also appears on our value screen at 7.7 times earnings, and the caveat that applies there applies here: insurer earnings currently absorb investment portfolio gains, so the multiple flatters in a strong market. The quality score rests on underwriting and balance sheet strength rather than on that multiple.
2. Exelixis (EXEL), quality 98
Exelixis is an oncology company whose commercial success rests heavily on its lead cancer franchise. Earnings per share have grown 51.4% a year over five years, the second-fastest here, alongside 10.2% revenue growth, net cash, and a 2.4% reduction in share count, which is genuinely rare for a biotech.
A biotech that retires shares rather than issuing them is a different animal from the category's reputation, and it is the reason this one clears a long-term screen. The risk is equally specific and does not show up in any of these figures: revenue concentrated in a small number of drugs faces patent expiry and competitive entry on a known timetable. A quality score measures the business as it has been. For a company like this, the pipeline determines whether that continues, and no backward-looking score can tell you about the pipeline.
3. Deckers Outdoor (DECK), quality 98
Deckers owns the UGG and HOKA footwear brands. It scores 98, has grown earnings 25.6% a year and revenue 11.1%, holds net cash, has retired 3.1% of its shares, and trades at 12.2 times earnings, the third-lowest multiple on this list.
The combination of elite quality, net cash and a low multiple is unusual enough to ask what the market is discounting, and in footwear the answer is nearly always the same: brand heat is cyclical and the market is reluctant to capitalise a hot brand as though it will stay hot. That scepticism is reasonable, and it is also what makes the row interesting. The financial record here, growing earnings faster than revenue while buying back stock with no debt, is what a well-run consumer brand looks like while the brand is working.
4. Cincinnati Financial (CINF), quality 97
Cincinnati Financial is a property and casualty insurer that also carries the longest income credentials on this list, with a 2.0% dividend yield and a raise record that stretches back beyond the reach of the electronic filings we parse. Earnings have grown 15.2% a year, revenue 20.8%, and it holds net cash.
Its share count has fallen only 0.6% over five years, the smallest reduction here, because this is a company that returns cash primarily through the dividend rather than through buybacks. That is a legitimate choice and a different one from most of this list. If income rather than compounding is the point of a decade-long hold, this is the row to look at, and our dividend growth ranking covers that angle in full.
5. The Hartford Insurance Group (HIG), quality 94
The Hartford writes commercial and personal insurance alongside employee benefits. It scores 94, has compounded earnings 22.9% a year against modest revenue growth of 7.0%, and has retired 4.5% of its shares over five years, the largest buyback on this list.
This row is the cleanest illustration of the point made above. Revenue growing under 7% while earnings grow nearly 23% is partly margin and partly arithmetic: with 4.5% fewer shares each year, the same profit divides into a larger number per share. That is the mechanism a long-term holder is buying into, and unlike revenue growth it does not require the company to find new customers.
6. Allstate (ALL), quality 94
Allstate is the largest personal-lines insurer here at $67bn, scoring 94, with earnings compounding 17.1% a year, revenue 8.1%, and 3.3% of shares retired over five years.
Allstate appears on all three of our current screens, which is worth being upfront about: it is cheap enough for the value list, durable enough for this one, and consistent enough with its dividend for the growth-of-income list. The 5.2 P/E is the number to treat with most care, since it is depressed by unrealised investment gains flowing through reported earnings. Judge the durability case here on the buyback record and the quality score instead.
7. ResMed (RMD), quality 93
ResMed makes devices and masks for sleep apnea and respiratory care, a business built on consumables: the device is sold once, the masks and supplies recur. It scores 93, has grown earnings 26.3% a year and revenue 10.2%, and holds net cash.
Its share count is essentially unchanged, down 0.1% over five years, which is the smallest move on this list and just enough to clear the filter. ResMed is here on the strength of the recurring-revenue model and the balance sheet rather than on capital return. The variable that matters over a ten-year horizon is whether treatment for sleep apnea continues to run through devices, and drug therapies that reduce the underlying patient population are the live question the current financials cannot answer.
8. The St. Joe Company (JOE), quality 93
St. Joe develops a very large legacy land holding in the Florida panhandle into residential, hospitality and commercial property. It scores 93 with the fastest revenue growth on this list at 21.4% a year, earnings up 20.9%, and a slightly reduced share count.
This is the one company here whose durability argument rests on an asset rather than on operations: the land was acquired long ago at low cost and is finite. That makes the ten-year question unusually concrete, which is a virtue. It also carries the highest net debt on this list at 1.2 years of free cash flow, still modest, and the second-highest multiple at 31.0. It also grows faster than anything else here, at 21.4% a year, which is a function of how quickly that land is developed rather than of an expanding market.
9. EMCOR Group (EME), quality 92
EMCOR provides mechanical and electrical construction and facilities services, the specialised contracting that goes into data centres, hospitals and industrial plants. It scores 92, has grown earnings 63.7% a year over five years, the fastest on this list, against 13.8% revenue growth, holds net cash, and has retired 4.0% of its shares.
Earnings compounding at more than four times the revenue rate is the row that most demands scepticism, and the honest reading is that contracting margins expand sharply when demand outstrips skilled labour supply, as it has during the data centre build-out. Those margins are cyclical in a way that a five-year growth rate does not convey. The net cash balance sheet is what makes this a defensible long-term holding rather than a bet on the cycle continuing.
10. lululemon athletica (LULU), quality 92
Lululemon designs and sells athletic apparel largely through its own stores and website, which is what produces the margins behind a 92 quality score. Earnings have grown 24.1% a year, revenue 11.0%, and it has retired 1.9% of its shares while carrying modest debt of 0.6 years of free cash flow.
At 10.0 times earnings it is the second-cheapest company on this list, and the same brand scepticism described for Deckers applies with more force here. Apparel is the category where durable advantage is hardest to prove, because the barrier is taste rather than technology or contracts. What the numbers establish is that the economics have been excellent and the balance sheet is sound. Whether the brand holds for another decade is a judgement no score can make for you.
Build your own ten-year shortlist
Quality score, share count change and net debt are all filters in the screener. Raise the quality floor, demand a bigger buyback, or add a valuation limit, and rebuild this on today's numbers.
Open the screenerHow to use a list like this
A quality score is a measurement of the past. That is its strength, since the past is the only thing that can be measured, and its limitation, since a ten-year holding period is entirely about the future. Three habits close some of that gap.
- Find the one question the score cannot answer. For Exelixis it is the pipeline behind a concentrated drug franchise. For ResMed it is whether drug therapy shrinks the patient population. For Deckers and lululemon it is brand durability. Every company on this list has one, and identifying it is more useful than re-reading the financials.
- Treat the share count as the compounding engine. The Hartford grew revenue 7.0% a year and earnings per share 22.9%. Much of that gap is a shrinking denominator. A buyback that survives five years is evidence of surplus cash and stable governance.
- Check the industry concentration before you buy the list. Six of these fourteen are insurers whose results correlate in a heavy catastrophe year. Fourteen names is not fourteen independent bets.
This is analysis rather than investment advice. The thresholds are ours, they are arguable, and every one of them is written down in our published methodology so the argument can be about a specific number rather than about trust.