Best Stocks of 2025

2025 was a bullish year indeed. 

That was hard to see in March and April in the midst of a nasty 20% correction. Yet as the smoke cleared the market pushed ahead with a 3rd straight year of gains. 

The S&P 500 is up about 18% on the year. But so much of that is the froth from the Magnificent 7 fueled by dreams of AI growth. 

The 10.5% gain for the Equal Weighted S&P 500 (RSP), which removes the bias of those mega cap stocks, is a more accurate measure of the gains enjoyed by the average investor this past year. 

With that backdrop in place I wanted to quickly review my top stock picks for the past year from the Zen Investor portfolio.

+138% Kinross Gold (KGC)- all gold stocks glittered in 2025, gladly KGC was one of the top performers. 

+79% Emcor Group (EME)- specialty construction firm riding the AI wave with their focus on building out data centers. 

+67% Enersys (ENS)- industrial battery maker that was obscenely underpriced and investors finally took notice of their impressive growth. 

+64% Tapestry (TPR)- luxury brands like Coach and Kate Spade had no problem passing on higher tariff costs to their brand obsessed customers. 

There are another 10 picks up double digits to handily beat the market. 

Not too shabby for a portfolio of only 20 stocks that I hand pick with the best long term potential. 

Going into the year ahead I believe that smaller stocks and value are the best places to be. 

This is because large caps have led the way for the past 5 years leading to some very bloated valuations. 

In November investors took notice with a long overdue rotation to small caps and value that I think continues into the year ahead. Thus, I am overweight in those groups. 

If you’d like to see my current portfolio of the top 20 stocks for the year ahead, then it’s time to discover my Zen Investor portfolio. Just click the link below to get started…

Discover the Zen Investor portfolio & Top 20 Stocks Now > 

Wishing you a world of investment success!

Steve Reitmeister…but everyone calls me Reity (pronounced “Righty”)

Editor of the Zen Investor

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