The Best "Training-Wheel" Stocks for New Investors in 2025

If recent gains from several artificial intelligence (AI) stocks have you interested in getting into the market for the first time, then great! The stock market really is the best way to grow a meaningful amount of wealth. The key is just being patient enough to ride out its inevitable ups and downs.

If the stocks you're thinking about buying are the same AI stocks that got you interested in investing in the first place, however, you might want to rethink that plan. What names like Nvidia and Amazon are doing at this time is unusual as well as unsustainable. They'll eventually fall out of favor, with unpredictable consequences. You're far better off starting your journey with holdings that are easier to own because they're easier to understand, and much more predictable.

To this end, here's a look at three stocks that are perfect for newcomers to the market, yet will remain very ownable as you become a veteran investor. (It's also no coincidence that all of these names are also consistently profitable, by the way, even if not wildly so -- you want to make it as easy as possible to earn as you learn.)

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) is of course one of the world's biggest and best-known beverage players, with its popular namesake cola as well as brands like Gold Peak tea, Minute Maid juice, and more. It did $47 billion worth of business last year, turning more than $12 billion of that into net income by selling products it's been selling for decades. It's gotten very good at what it does, particularly when it comes to marketing.

Its sheer size provides it with an major advantage over most of its competition as well.

Why it's a solid first pick for new investors: Some businesses are tough to assess. Coca-Cola's isn't one of them. Although there are some years when it may sell less total product than it did the year before, it's clear when and why that's happening, just as it's clear if what the company is doing about it is paying off. This won't prevent the stock from temporarily losing ground. But it's easier to ride out a rough patch when you know there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

In the meantime, The Coca-Cola Company continues to reward shareholders in another way even when its business and its stock may be running into headwinds. That's its dividend. The beverage behemoth has not only paid a quarterly dividend like clockwork for decades now, but has raised its per-share payout every year for the past 63 years. Newcomers would initially be collecting total yearly dividends that are worth 2.9% of their total investment, which can be accumulated as cash or used to automatically purchase more shares of Coke.

2. Alphabet

Google parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) might be a bit more complex than The Coca-Cola Company, but not necessarily more complicated for shareholders to own.

Google (which includes Gmail, personal productivity software, the Chrome web browser, a maps app, and more) is still its breadwinning business, although the company's also doing pretty well with YouTube, mobile operating system Android, and its fast-growing cloud computing service. It's even tinkering with quantum computing-based artificial intelligence.

Why it's a solid first pick for new investors: Yes, it's an aggressive growth stock pick from a usually volatile technology sector. There are two reasons it's still a compelling option for newbie investor, though.

First, like Coke, it's not a difficult business to understand. Either the company is turning web page views into internet ad clicks or it's collecting subscription-based revenue. That's pretty much it. Alphabet also provides detailed quarterly information about how each of its different profit centers are performing, plainly comparing recent revenue and operating income to year-ago figures. It may not always do as well as investors are hoping, but there's no ambiguity about how it's doing at any given time.

And second, just because your first stocks should be simple ones doesn't necessarily mean they need to be low-growth holdings. Even if some quarters may be relatively disappointing, Alphabet is outgrowing most other companies, and is well positioned to continue its double-digit growth pace well into the distant future.

3. Walmart

Finally, new investors will want to add Walmart (NYSE: WMT) to their list of "training wheel" stocks to consider buying.

It's the biggest name in the relatively simple brick-and-mortar retailing business, generating nearly $700 billion worth of annual sales. Most of those sales are made within North America, although its overseas operation is growing faster than its domestic one. And more and more of its revenue is being indirectly driven, like with the ads it allows third-party brands to display at Walmart.com, or the advertising revenue it's now generating via its wholly owned Vizio line of smart televisions. Several million households are now signed up for Walmart+, which offers them perks like free delivery of online orders.

Why it's a solid first pick for new investors: Don't look to Walmart for the same sort of growth that Alphabet offers. You're not going to get it. Single-digit growth is the norm here, as are relatively thin margins -- only about 3% of last year's revenue was turned into after-tax net income, for perspective, in line with long-term norms.

What the retailer lacks in growth firepower, however, it more than makes up for in staying power. It tends to perform well all the time by virtue of selling goods that consumers always need regardless of the economic environment.

WMT Revenue (Quarterly) data by YCharts

That's still not quite the reason you might want to dive in, however. Although this reliable resiliency certainly makes it easier to own, this stock is arguably one of the safest names to own while learning by watching.

And you will want to watch. The seemingly simple company is being surprisingly strategic in how it operates and evolves into more of a lifestyle company, yet these efforts never seem to result in any serious short-term setbacks. Just watching these strategic changes from the inside without fear can teach you a lot about how companies should connect one quarter to the next, as well as turn ideas into actions and then into reportable numbers.

James Brumley has positions in Alphabet and Coca-Cola. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, and Walmart. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.