Every beginner investor secretly hopes they’ll be the one to break the code and find that obscure startup just before it blossoms into a cash cow. Most seasoned shareholders, on the other hand, know that trying to time the market by plunging money into a shot in the dark can kill your wealth quickly.
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Immediate success is a noble goal, but more often than not, slow and steady wins the race when it comes to investing. Starting early and staying invested allows your money to expand over time, thanks to compounding. All businesses have to weather ups and downs, but the ones with staying power tend to have sound fundamentals and management and are committed to growing their company brands — not by following, but by leading their sectors.
As of market closing on Feb. 5, 2025, here are the five best-performing stocks over the past ten years, using compound annual growth rate (CAGR) data from Macrotrends, market cap and closing price info from Nasdaq and 10-year historical investment returns courtesy of Stoculator.
Plus, consider these stocks to buy and hold for the next 10 years.
Gravity (GRVY)
- Sector/Industry: Electronic Gaming and Multimedia/Communication Services
- Market cap: $443.896 million
- 10-Year CAGR: 40.59%
- Feb. 5, 2025 closing price: $63.88
- $1,000 invested on Feb. 5, 2015 would now be worth: $31,314
Based in Seoul, South Korea, Gravity is a developer and publisher of online and mobile games, most notably the wildly popular Ragnarok: Rebirth, which has been a top ranked App Store download across multiple Southeast Asian markets and received coveted ISBN approval in China in December 2024, per TipRanks.
One grand invested in GRVY at the start of 2015 would be worth over $31,000 today.
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IES Holdings, Inc. (IESC)
- Sector/Industry: Industrials/Engineering and Construction
- Market cap: $4.466 billion
- 10-Year CAGR: 40.82%
- Feb. 5, 2025 closing price: $223.21
- $1,000 invested on Feb. 5, 2015 would now be worth: $28,764
Due to robust demand in the communications and infrastructure solutions segments, particularly in the data center industry, IES Holdings’ sales increased by 18% over the past year, to $750 million, and its operating income increased by 29% over the prior year, according to GlobeNewswire. Over the past 10 years, IESC has a compound annual growth rate of 40.82%.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)
- Sector/Industry: Technology/Semiconductors, Computers
- Market cap: $181.771 billion
- 10-Year CAGR: 45.30%
- Feb. 5, 2025 closing price: $112.01
- $1,000 invested on Feb. 5, 2015 would now be worth: $36,967
Despite reporting positive earnings results in early February, the chipmaker’s stock dipped almost 9% before the opening bell on Feb. 5. Competing against Nvidia for a share of the AI chip market is an uphill battle, and the past year hasn’t been kind to AMD shareholders, compared to those invested in the “other” semiconductor giant.
Still, AMD has consistently carved its own niche and has been an incredibly strong performer over the past decade.
Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. (STRL)
- Sector/Industry: Industrials/Military, Government, Technical
- Market cap: $4.407 billion
- 10-Year CAGR: 45.72%
- Feb. 5, 2025 closing price: $143.48
- $1,000 invested on Feb. 5, 2015 would now be worth: $44,148
Described as a “compelling buy opportunity” by Seeking Alpha in early February, the heavy construction, e-infrastructure and transportation provider has been impacted by uncertain demand in the housing market and underperformance in the construction sector.
However, the long-term outlook is promising, according to Zacks, who has assigned a firm “hold” on STRL stock.
Nvidia Corporation (NVDA)
- Sector/Industry: Technology/Semiconductors
- Market cap: $3.057 trillion
- 10-Year CAGR: 73.32%
- Feb. 5, 2025 closing price: $124.83
- $1,000 invested on Feb. 5, 2015 would now be worth: $245,089
To say that Nvidia shares took a hit in the wake of DeepSeek’s recent AI breakthrough announcement is an understatement — the 17%, $600 billion market cap plunge was the biggest drop ever for a U.S. company, CNBC reported. Now that the dust has started to clear, though, the company still impresses, has plenty of upside and remains a “strong buy” for many analysts.
Nvidia is the not only the best performing stock over the past decade, but the past two decades.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: The Top-Performing Stocks of the Last Decade — And Their Returns
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
