What will the next decade bring and how will we be living in the 2030s? It’s a question marketing professionals and traders spend a lot of time trying to figure out as they forecast which stocks will define and dominate the next decade for consumers. In 2010, who among us could have predicted the rise of streaming services, smartphones and social media that today define our lives? Now we have artificial intelligence, weight loss drugs and microchips dominating the stock market rally this year.
While some new start-ups will emerge, many of the companies that dominate our lives today can be expected to continue doing so in coming years. Here are three consumer goods stocks that dominate today and are likely to define the next decade as well.
Costco Wholesale (COST)
Warehouse club Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) has dominated the retail and consumer staple space over the past decade, and there’s every reason to believe it will continue to do so in the coming decade. Especially as the company gets a new CEO, only the third one in the company’s 40-year history. Current long-time CEO Craig Jelinek is leaving the company at the start of 2024 and will be replaced by current Chief Operating Officer (COO) Ron Vachris, another company veteran.
Analysts have praised the appointment of Vachris, age 58, saying it provides Costco’s senior ranks with consistency that should continue the company’s track record of success. Vachris began his career at Costco as a forklift driver in the 1980s and has held every major role at the company. Every member of Costco’s executive team has been with the company for more than 20 years and knows the operations intimately. The task ahead is to simply continue Costco’s record of outperformance.
Year-to-date, COST stock is up nearly 30% and has gained 164% over the last five years.
Novo Nordisk (NVO)
The new class of weight loss drugs are expected to have a profound impact on consumer behavior and society as a whole, impacting everything from the food people buy and consume to the ways they exercise and the clothes they buy. While still relatively new, the potential impact of weight loss drugs has been enough to send the shares prices of McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) and Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) down, and they’ve been credited with the bankruptcy earlier this year of weight-loss chain Jenny Craig.
Given the huge potential to disrupt and dominate the consumer weight loss market, investors should allocate some capital to Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO), the Danish pharmaceutical company behind Ozempic and Wegovy, two leading weight loss medications that have a profound impact in people who are obese. It’s still early days, but the potential blockbuster sales of its weight loss medications has NVO stock up 82% over the last 12 months, and up 358% over the past five years. It’s not too late to take a position.
Nike (NKE)
Nike (NYSE:NKE) currently has a dominant 38% share of the worldwide sneaker and sportswear market. The company has maintained its dominant position since the 1980s, and there’s every reason to believe it will continue over the next decade. The company remains a marketing powerhouse and closely associated with leading sports figures around the world such as LeBron James and Tiger Woods. Nike made more than $5 billion in 2022 from its Michael Jordan line of shoes and apparel, and Jordan has been retired for 20 years.
There’s an opportunity for investors to buy NKE stock now while it is in a slump. So far this year, the company’s share price has declined 10%. Currently, Nike’s stock is trading 40% below the all-time high it reached in November 2021 when the market last peaked. Reasons for the decline include production issues in Southeast Asia, bloated inventory levels coming out of the pandemic and a sales slowdown in China. However, Nike’s most recent financial print showed encouraging signs of a turnaround. And long term, this stock is a winner, having gained 180% over the past decade.
On the date of publication, Joel Baglole did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.