The Best Stocks to Donate Now

The Best Stocks to Donate Now

As of 2/9/2023

After a 12-year bull market the Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average have all contracted since November 2021. Despite recent woes, there are still many outsized gainers that are ripe for tax-advantaged harvesting by donating stocks to charity.

As detailed in our post on how to select stocks to donate to charity we recommend that you:

  1. Harvest gains on hot stocks held 12+ months
  2. Donate your all-time winners
  3. Reduce portfolio concentration

To surface those stocks that are best for gifting today we’ve researched and published the top 20+ widely held stocks with a market cap of at least $10 billion based on 5-year and 10-year returns.

Best Stocks: 1-Year Returns*

RankStock Ticker & Name1-Year Return
1
FSLR
First Solar Inc
121.03%
2
S
STLD
Steel Dynamics Inc
94.00%
3
CEG
Constellation Energy
78.44%
4
OXY
Occidental Petroleum Corp
56.82%
5
SRPT
Sarepta Therapeutics Inc
53.54%
6
MPC
Marathon Petroleum Corp
51.32%
7
M
MBLY
Mobileye Global Inc-A
51.26%
8
P
PDD
Pinduoduo Inc-Adr
50.74%
9
HES
Hess Corp
50.72%
10
VLO
Valero Energy Corp
49.28%
11
L
LW
Lamb Weston Holdings Inc
47.37%
12
C
CAH
Cardinal Health Inc
45.01%
13
XOM
Exxon Mobil Corp
44.75%
14
P
PWR
Quanta Services Inc
43.46%
15
ALNY
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc
42.39%
16
EQT
Eqt Corp/div>
41.86%
17
LLY
Eli Lilly & Co
40.50%
18
MRK
Merck & Co. Inc.
39.45%
19
ULTA
Ulta Beauty Inc
38.84%
20
SLB
Schlumberger Ltd
36.65%
21
NUE
Nucor Corp
36.23%
22
L
LSCC
Lattice Semiconductor Corp
35.26%
23
GWW
Ww Grainger Inc
35.13%
24
GILD
Gilead Sciences Inc
34.95%
25
U
URI
United Rentals Inc
34.66%
Best performing members of the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite with a market cap > $10 billion. 1 Year to 2/9/2023

Best Stocks: 5-Year Returns*

RankStock Ticker & Name5-Year Return
1
ENPH
Enphase Energy Inc
9052.84%
2
L
LSCC
Lattice Semiconductor Corp
1306.98%
3
TTD
The Trade Desk
1065.42%
4
TSLA
Tesla Inc
901.80%
5
BNTX
BioNTech SE-ADR
890.26%
6
SEDG
Solaredge Technologies Inc
818.85%
7
MRNA
Moderna Inc
784.30%
8
MDB
MongoDB Inc
736.36%
9
H
HZNP
Horizon Therapeutics PLC
693.24%
10
DXCM
Dexcom Inc
689.25%
11
ETSY
Etsy Inc
638.38%
12
AMD
Advanced Micro Devices
635.72%
13
AXON
Axon Enterprise Inc
627.10%
14
CMG
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc
529.03%
15
FTNT
Fortinet Inc
521.19%
16
RGEN
Repligen Corp
501.75%
17
PCTY
Paylocity Holding Corp
404.45%
18
A
ARGX
Argenx SE - ADR
397.42%
19
CDNS
Cadence Design Sys Inc
394.35%
20
M
MPWR
Monolithic Power Systems Inc
363.69%
21
P
PWR
Quanta Services Inc
354.70%
22
LLY
Eli Lilly & Co
348.37%
23
SNPS
Synopsys Inc
331.24%
24
K
KEYS
Keysight Technologies Inc
321.91%
25
ZS
Zscaler Inc
321.39%
Best performing members of the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite with a market cap > $10 billion. 5 Years to 2/9/2023

Best Stocks 10-Year Returns*

RankStock Ticker & Name10-Year Return
1
TSLA
Tesla
7825.08%
2
NVDA
Nvidia
7122.96%
3
ENPH
Enphase Energy
4855.08%
4
H
HZNP
Horizon Therapeutic
4625.11%
5
AMD
Advanced Micro Devices
2993.31%
6
DXCM
Dexcom
2800.34%
7
RGEN
Repligen
2648.30%
8
AXON
Axon Enterprise
2096.06%
9
PAYC
Paycom Software
2000.85%
10
M
MPWR
Monolithic Power Systems
1955.70%
11
L
LSCC
Lattice Semiconductor Corp
1624.22%
12
EPAM
EPAM Systems
1600.60%
13
AVGO
Broadcom Inc
1597.08%
14
TTD
The Trade Desk Inc
1557.14%
15
MSCI
MSCI Inc
1534.57%
16
A
ARGX
Argenx SE - ADR
1524.17%
17
NOW
Servicenow Inc
1453.13%
18
ODFL
Old Dominion Freight Line
1402.12%
19
SEDG
Solaredge Technologies
1329.32%
20
NFLX
Netflix Inc
1302.17%
21
MELI
Mercadolibre Inc
1265.88%
22
CDNS
Cadence Design Sys Inc
1215.47%
23
PODD
Insulet Corp
1152.36%
24
FTNT
Fortinet
1133.36%
25
LRCX
Lam Research Corp
1109.86%
Best performing members of the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite with a market cap > $10 billion. 10 Years to 2/9/2023

For reference, we wanted to include a list of mega cap stocks that generally come to mind when speaking of long-term appreciation. While only two made the Top 20, several racked up impressive gains!

Ticker5-Year Return10-Year Return
AAPL
Apple
243% 666%
AMZN
Amazon
79% 791%
GOOGL
Alphabet
85% 481%
MSFT
Microsoft
195% 757%
NVDA
Nvidia
202% 5258%
NFLX
Netflix
51% 2507%

At DonateStock, we know that appreciated stocks exponentially benefit both donors and nonprofits when benevolent (and strategic) investors avoid capital gains tax on stock by donating stock to charities they believe in. If you want to maximize your giving, gifting stock is one of the best tactics you can use.

*Data provided by hedge fund veteran and market analyst Berna Barshay.

Please note: we are not financial advisors and we do not provide investment or tax advice. This is informational only. Please speak to a tax professional.

Setting up nonprofits for stock gifting success

When you allow donors to donate stock to charity, you enable them to avoid capital gains tax on stocks—this often results in substantial savings. It also allows you to receive a larger pre-tax gift and keep the proceeds that would otherwise be paid to the IRS. When you donate stock, everyone wins. We’ve made it fast, safe and free—in less than 10 minutes, anyone can donate stock to charity (more than 1.5 million nonprofits) on our platform.
Claim your free stock gifting page in minutes and accept stock donations today.

Why donate stock to charity?

Donating stock (vs. cash) allows you to donate more and save money. When you donate stock, you avoid capital gains tax while earning a bigger tax deduction. Nonprofits also get to keep more, meaning everybody wins.
Learn more about the benefits of stock gifting and how to avoid capital gains tax on stocks.