18 Recommended Corporate Bonds to Buy 2025

Our Recommended Bonds to Buy 2025 Preview

Bondsavvy makes new corporate bond recommendations each quarter during The Bondcast, a webinar exclusive to Bondsavvy subscribers.  These recommendations include both investment grade and high yield corporate bonds. The 67 bonds currently on Bondsavvy's buy/hold recommendation list offer a wide range of maturity dates and are from issuers across over 15 different industry groups.

Figure 1 provides a summary of our most-recent 18 corporate bond recommendations. The table includes the pick date price, and the price and yield to maturity on June 10, 2025. 

Key takeaways include:

1. The average yield to maturity of our most recent 18 recommended bonds to buy was 6.24% on June 10, nearly 5x higher than the 1.27% S&P 500 dividend yield.
2. These recently recommended bonds are still available at prices at or near the pick-date price, with 13 of 18 bond prices moving fewer than two points between the pick date and June 10, 2025. The five bonds that have moved over two points were all below the pick date price as of June 10, 2025.
3. The bond recommendations include a variety of maturity dates, including 4 bonds maturing in 7 years or fewer; 9 bonds maturing between 9 to 12 years; and 5 bonds maturing in 15+ years.
4. Fourteen of the eighteen recommended bonds to buy had issuing-company leverage ratios of 2.5x and less, with four bonds issued by companies with leverage ratios between 2.9x and 3.5x.

Figure 1: Bond Prices of Our Best Corporate Bonds To Buy 2025 -- Pick Date vs. June 10, 2025

Sources: Pricing data are from Fidelity.com. *Leverage ratios are Bondsavvy calculations based on each company's most recent SEC filings as of March 27, 2025. 

Can I Still Buy the Recommended Corporate Bonds Near the Pick Date Price?

As shown in Figure 1, as of June 10, 2025, the answer was generally 'yes.' Of the 18 recently recommended bonds, 13 were within two points of the pick-date price.

Owning individual bonds vs. bond funds is the more cost-effective way to invest in bonds, as investors do not pay recurring fees based on a percentage of what they invest. In addition, bond funds incur significant trading costs. Bond funds do not disclose the amount of these costs and exclude them from the "expense ratio" fund managers, such as Vanguard, trumpet. By taking actions to limit our market impact, we have enabled our subscribers to purchase bonds at competitive prices and to maximize their corporate bond returns.

Click here to get four prior bond pick updates.

Why Own Our Best Corporate Bonds to Buy 2025

Owning individual corporate bonds enables investors to lock in high income for a specific time period and to have the opportunity for capital appreciation. Individual corporate bonds also, at maturity, provide for a return of the $1,000 face value for each bond you own. With individual corporate bonds, investors can build bond portfolios suited to their investment objectives and risk tolerance.

Since corporate bonds are priced as a percentage of their face value, investors can evaluate a bond's price, YTM, and credit spread and compare these metrics to the bond issuer's financials. This financial analysis is the heart of the Bondsavvy subscription and enables us to identify bonds that can achieve strong total returns over the long term. This analysis is not possible when investing in bond funds and ETFs, as we discuss below.

Bondsavvy Subscriber Benefit

Approximately 11,000 individual corporate bonds are available for online investing each day. Our corporate bond recommendations cut through the clutter to identify bonds that offer high coupons and upside potential relative to their risk.
Get Started

A compelling alternative to money markets, CDs, and bond funds

In the March 2025 Fed dot plot, the US Federal Reserve projected one point of additional interest rate cuts through 2026. Should this happen, popular money market funds such as Vanguard VMFXX will see their yields fall in lockstep with the federal funds rate. In addition, since Vanguard VMFXX targets a net asset value per share of $1.00, VMFXX cannot have capital appreciation. Some CD rates may currently seem attractive; however, CDs often pay their income at the end of their term (compared to corporate bonds, which pay interest semi-annually), can come with onerous call provisions, and lack capital appreciation opportunities.

Mega bond funds such as Vanguard VBTLX are not fixed income investments. They do not pay a fixed coupon and do not return an investor's principal at maturity, as they do not have a maturity date. Bond funds such as VBTLX own thousands of bonds, which drives muted (and often low) returns and makes investors unable to build a portfolio that fits their investment objectives. Further, since bond funds and ETFs do not trade relative to a par value and lack underlying financial metrics, investors cannot assess whether a bond fund investment represents a compelling value.

Why Own Corporate Bonds Now

We strongly advocate investors build bond portfolios over time; however, as of this update, there are several factors making now a compelling time to invest in individual corporate bonds:

• The S&P 500 now trades near a 28x price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio compared to approximately 19x ten years ago, according to Gurufocus.com.
• The 30-day SEC yield for iShares IVV, the $592 billion ETF tracking the S&P 500, was 1.32% as of April 30, 2025, about one-fifth the average YTM of our 18 recommended bonds to buy 2025
• Money market 7-day yields have fallen over one percentage point since September 2024, to 4.20% as of June 9, 2025. They could fall into the 3s should the US Federal Reserve cut rates further per the March 2025 Fed dot plot.
• Income distributions for bond funds and ETFs vary monthly and do not enable investors to lock in long-term income, as can be done with individual corporate bonds. 
• Since bond funds and ETFs do not trade relative to par value and lack underlying financial metrics, investors cannot assess whether bond funds or ETFs are trading at compelling values.

Get Started Watch Free Sample