抖阴最新版

Welcome to Smart Money! My name is 抖阴最新版, and I鈥檓 glad you鈥檙e here.

Wall Street has sold investors on the idea that they should start with 鈥渕icro鈥� analysis 鈥� the idea that they should make investment decisions by comparing things like price/earnings ratios, income statements, or other company details.

But I do the opposite. I start with 鈥渕acro鈥� analysis.

I look for big-picture trends that drive huge, multiyear moves in entire sectors of the market.

I鈥檓 talking about trends that can spin off dozens of triple- and even quadruple-digit gains in just a few years.

Catching just one of these trends 鈥� at the right time 鈥� can help anyone accumulate enough capital to finance their dreams and  an enviable retirement鈥�

When investors use a global macro strategy, they identify investment opportunities from a broad, global, top-down perspective, rather than by examining stocks one by one (a micro, bottom-up perspective).

And today, I want to highlight my Top 7 Stocks for 2026, each of which capitalizes on a powerful megatrend.

Let鈥檚 get started鈥�

Top 2026 Stock No. 1: Match Group

Match Group Inc. (MTCH) is in the business of making online love connections, but the company hasn鈥檛 been able to make a love connection with investors for several years. Most of them have been 鈥渟wiping left鈥� 鈥� i.e., saying 鈥渘o thanks鈥� 鈥� on the shares of this online dating leader. But the company鈥檚 new management is engineering an AI-powered overhaul that could produce a new era of robust earnings growth.

During the last few years, the company has resembled the kind of match that goes up in flames, rather than the one that sparks romantic flames. From the peak levels of 2019, the company鈥檚 annual revenues and operating margins have both tumbled more than 20%. As a result of this grim performance, the stock price has plummeted 80%.

But the green shoots of a turnaround are starting to sprout, and I expect them to blossom over the coming months. In essence, Match鈥檚 current situation is a classic turnaround setup: a market leader with entrenched competitive advantages, temporarily out of favor due to stagnant growth, but with a clear and credible revitalization plan.

Match is the undisputed titan of online dating websites and apps, with roughly 82 million monthly active users 鈥� about 15 million of whom pay for subscriptions 鈥� and an estimated 30鈥�40% global market share. Its portfolio includes Tinder, the world鈥檚 No. 1 dating app, along with more than a dozen other online dating brands like Hinge, OkCupid, Plenty of Fish, and Match.com.

However, despite the company鈥檚 formidable competitive moat, it has struggled in recent years to convert market leadership into profit growth. This disconnect enticed a couple of activist investors to take large positions in the company last year and begin agitating for an overhaul.

In early 2024, Elliott Investment Management, one of the world鈥檚 biggest and most prominent activist investors, revealed a $1 billion investment in Match. The company named two new directors to the board several weeks later. Shortly thereafter, Starboard Value established a 6.6% stake in the foundering online dating company.

After a lot of back-and-forth, Elliot managed to replace the company鈥檚 CEO with a hand-picked successor named Spencer Rascoff, formerly a co-founder of Zillow. Since taking over the helm seven months ago, Rascoff has wasted no time implementing a comprehensive, AI-focused overhaul. Under his leadership, the company has embraced a long-term vision where AI is not just an enhancement, but the foundational infrastructure for every aspect of the business.

Rascoff is pursuing a three-phase strategy he calls, 鈥淩eset, Revitalize, Resurgence.鈥� The initial 鈥淩eset鈥� phase focused on rebuilding culture, flattening management layers, and accelerating product velocity. That phase is now complete and the 鈥淩evitalize鈥� phase is underway. That鈥檚 the interlude when products start reflecting a renewed focus on 鈥渟peed, accountability, and relentless product execution.鈥� If all goes well, the 鈥淩esurgence鈥� phase will flower in 2026 and 2027.

AI is central to this entire strategy.

Match鈥檚 AI Upgrade

On the consumer side, Rascoff is deploying AI to reshape Match鈥檚 most important brands, Tinder and Hinge. At Hinge, for example, a new AI-powered recommendation algorithm launched in March 2025 has increased matches and contact exchanges by 15%. This meaningful improvement translates into more real-world dates and higher rates of payer conversion.

Additionally, the 鈥渙nboarding鈥� process at Hinge now offers generative AI tools to help users create their profiles. These tools provide real-time feedback on profile prompts to reduce generic answers and encourage more authentic, high-quality responses.

On the Tinder app, which is facing sharp user declines, Match is introducing an even broader suite of AI tools. This AI-enabled upgrade is prioritizing deeper compatibility and better user outcomes, rather than optimizing for superficial swiping or other short-term engagement metrics.

AI is also improving trust and safety on Tinder 鈥� a major Achilles heel. New detection models can identify bots and scammers with higher accuracy. Match has also introduced AI-powered facial verification tools that increase authenticity and trust. The company is even testing ad campaigns that highlight these safety features, with plans to measure and improve public perception.

By embedding AI at multiple touchpoints 鈥� from onboarding and match recommendations to internal product development 鈥� Match is building a unified ecosystem where data, technology, and human creativity reinforce each other. This dual focus on consumer experience and operational efficiency is not simply an experiment; it is the strategic foundation for the company鈥檚 revitalization plan.

Assuming the new AI-led initiatives can stabilize and then grow Tinder鈥檚 user base, while Hinge continues its strong growth trajectory and international expansion, Match shares could mount a substantial rally.

For investors willing to take a chance on the prospective 鈥渞esurgence鈥� Rascoff anticipates, Match offers a unique and compelling opportunity: exposure to a dominant consumer internet franchise at a time when it is fundamentally reinventing itself to align with the next wave of technology-driven user experiences.

Top 2026 Stock No. 2: Novo

Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO) hasn鈥檛 spent a penny building the AI stage, but it is learning how to dance upon it.

Over the past three years, Novo has choreographed several promising AI alliances. It partnered with Valo Health back in 2023 鈥� well before AI dominated every earnings call 鈥� paying $190 million in upfront and milestone payments to hunt for new diabetes, cardiovascular, and obesity treatments.

It鈥檚 also running a working AI alliance with Microsoft Research on Azure 鈥� more on that shortly. And in 2026 alone, Novo signed strategic partnerships with both OpenAI and AWS, opening an AI co-innovation hub in London to compress the timeline between identifying a drug target and dosing the first patient.

None of these AI credentials automatically make Novo a great investment. But they do make Novo a great example of an AI Applier. The investment case, though, doesn鈥檛 hinge entirely on AI credentials. It hinges on a century-old rivalry that just entered a new phase.

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) have been battling each other across the Atlantic since 1923, when both companies started selling the first commercial insulin. A century later, they鈥檙e fighting it out again 鈥� this time over obesity 鈥� but the market has already declared Lilly the winner. That victory celebration looks premature, and the price you鈥檇 pay to bet against it has never been this cheap.

The Denmark-based healthcare company is currently trading for 14 times earnings, while Eli Lilly is trading for about 34 times. That鈥檚 a massive valuation gap between two companies chasing the same therapies, the same patients, and by some estimates, the same eventual market size.

Novo鈥檚 market cap sits near $200 billion; Lilly鈥檚 is above $1 trillion. In other words, Novo is only one-fifth the size of its American rival, even though the two companies鈥� obesity and diabetes franchises generate similar annual sales.

This isn鈥檛 a case of one company being profitable and the other not. Novo鈥檚 operating margin hovers near 40% 鈥� essentially matching Lilly鈥檚 on a comparable basis. Its leverage is the more conservative of the two, and its dividend yield, near 4%, dwarfs Lilly鈥檚 token 0.5%. Novo, in other words, is hardly a 鈥渧alue trap.鈥� It鈥檚 a highly profitable market leader trading like a company whose best days are over.

Applying AI, Not Building It

Novo鈥檚 AI push deserves more than a passing mention, because it鈥檚 the exact mechanism driving the whole AI Appliers thesis 鈥� just running inside one company鈥檚 pipeline instead of across an entire sector.

The oldest and least publicized of Novo鈥檚 AI partnerships is also its most telling. In 2023, Novo expanded a collaboration with Valo Health, paying $190 million in upfront and milestone payments plus an equity stake, to apply Valo鈥檚 AI models and proprietary datasets against Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity 鈥� three of Novo鈥檚 core franchises. That deal predates the current AI infrastructure boom by two years. Novo wasn鈥檛 chasing a hot theme; it was already using AI to hunt for its next generation of drugs while Wall Street was still arguing about GPU shortages.

Novo鈥檚 work with Microsoft Research on Azure has already produced something concrete. Doctors have long used standard risk calculators to estimate a patient鈥檚 odds of a heart attack or stroke 鈥� tools built on broad population averages that often miss the mark for any one individual. Novo鈥檚 team built an AI model that reads a patient鈥檚 own data more precisely, and it鈥檚 already outperforming those standard calculators at identifying who鈥檚 actually at risk. That鈥檚 a rare thing in pharma-AI coverage generally 鈥� an actual, specific, working result, not just a partnership announcement.

This year brought two much larger deals. In April, Novo partnered with OpenAI to integrate AI end-to-end across drug discovery, manufacturing, supply chain, and commercial operations, aiming for full integration by the end of 2026. In August, Novo named AWS its preferred cloud provider and strategic AI partner, opening a co-innovation hub in London where AWS engineers work directly alongside Novo鈥檚 own scientists 鈥� using tools like Amazon Bio Discovery to identify drug targets and rank candidates before they ever reach a lab bench. Novo says its existing AWS relationship has already cut clinical documentation time and lifted productivity for more than 25,000 employees.

Most recently, Novo signed with H1 to speed up an unglamorous but expensive bottleneck: selecting clinical trial sites and designing studies. Small potatoes next to drug-discovery headlines, but exactly the kind of efficiency gain that compounds across dozens of trials running at once.

To be clear-eyed about it: No AI-discovered drug, from any drugmaker, has yet won full FDA approval. Eli Lilly is racing down a similar path, with its own AI ties to Chai Discovery and a $2.75 billion partnership with Insilico Medicine.

Novo鈥檚 AI edge isn鈥檛 exclusive, but it doesn鈥檛 need to be. The AI Appliers thesis was never about finding the one company nobody else has thought of. It鈥檚 about recognizing that a company applying cheap, borrowed AI compute to an already-profitable, already-growing business captures real value, while the companies building and financing the underlying AI infrastructure absorb the risk. Novo already sits on the right side of that line.

Top 2026 Stock No. 3: Savers Value Village

Thrifting is 鈥渁ll the rage鈥� among Generation Z. Two out of five items in the average zoomer鈥檚 closet are secondhand.

That鈥檚 the first reason to consider investing in Savers Value Village Inc. (SVV), but far from the only one. As the largest 鈥渇or-profit鈥� thrift store operator in North America, the company is perfectly positioned to capitalize on the Gen Z thrifting phenomenon.

Savers Value Village didn鈥檛 simply bolt a thrift operation onto a traditional retail model. It has specialized in thrifting since 1954, when founder William Ellison opened the first Savers store in San Francisco. The idea was radical for the time: partner with local nonprofits to collect donations, pay them for the goods, and then sell those goods in a clean, organized retail environment.

For decades, the company quietly grew under private ownership 鈥� expanding across the U.S., into Canada, and eventually into Australia 鈥� while perfecting the operational model. The stores never looked like the musty thrift shops of old. They looked like real retailers: wide aisles, sorted racks, organized departments.

By the 1990s and 2000s, Savers had become the largest for-profit thrift chain in North America, with a business model that turned donations into both community funding and shareholder returns.

Today, Savers Value Village runs 300-plus stores across the U.S., Canada, and Australia, is staffed by over 22,000 team members, and processes billions of pounds of donated goods annually. What looks simple on the sales floor is the product of 70 years of supply-chain engineering.

To support its business, Savers has built one of the most creative and durable sourcing models in retail. For example, the company pairs nearly every Savers store with a Community Donation Center (CDC).The company鈥檚 nonprofit suppliers use these on-site donation centers to drop off used clothes, shoes, books, and household goods.

Unlike charities that simply accept items, Savers pays its suppliers by the pound for these donations. As a result, local charities get steady funding without the overhead of running stores, while Savers secures a consistent stream of inventory.

In select markets, Savers supplements CDCs with GreenDrop donation stations. These freestanding pods or trailers extend the network and make donating easier.

After Savers collects these donations, its employees sort, price, and rack the sellable items. Merchandise hits the floor fast and cycles through quickly. Products that don鈥檛 sell at retail are bundled and resold into the global wholesale reuse market. That 鈥渕ulti-exit鈥� monetization process converts 鈥渨aste鈥� into incremental revenue.

This model means Savers doesn鈥檛 rely on closeouts or liquidation deals. It owns its supply chain, from the donation bin to the cash register. That鈥檚 why it can keep prices dramatically below discount retail 鈥� 40% to 70% lower, according to management鈥檚 checks.

The Moat: Industrial-Scale Treasure Hunting

Thrifting has always been about the 鈥渉unt.鈥� What Savers Value Village has done is industrialize the hunt without killing the fun.

• Frequency and freshness. Savers cycles through its inventory about 15 times a year, which is an extraordinarily rapid rate. That鈥檚 nearly double Walmart Inc.鈥檚 (WMT) inventory turn and about five times faster than Lululemon Athletica Inc.鈥檚 (LULU). Effectively, Savers offers entirely new merchandise every three weeks.
• Scale married to local tailoring. With hundreds of stores, the company can apply data through its 6-million-member loyalty program to optimize assortment, flow, and seasonality at the local level. It can backstock off-season goods, drip them out at the right time, and flex floor space to match neighborhood demand.
• Multi-monetization. Unsold inventory isn鈥檛 a liability. The company exports, recycles, or wholesales it to create an incremental revenue stream, while also keeping landfill diversion part of its brand story.
• Brand halo. Because Savers funds local nonprofits, the firm operates with a built-in community goodwill advantage compared to traditional clothing retailers. Every drop-off becomes a story about supporting charity and sustainability 鈥� soft power that purely commercial resale apps don鈥檛 have.
• Capital efficiency. New stores are highly accretive. Each new store generates 15% to 20% profit margins, on a stand-alone basis.

Taken together, these elements create a moat that few competitors can cross. Traditional retailers can bolt on 鈥渞esale corners,鈥� but they can鈥檛 replicate Savers鈥� 70-year infrastructure of donations, partners, and processing know-how.

Given Savers鈥� business model, there鈥檚 plenty of room for the company鈥檚 growth to accelerate. In its most recent quarter, for example, U.S. same-store sales soared 6%, which is double or triple the growth rate of most clothing retailers.

Looking ahead, the company should benefit from several factors.

1. Because Savers operates fewer than 400 stores in North America, it has massive expansion potential across the U.S. and Canada. Many mall landlords court them as anchor tenants.
2. The thrift supply chain is tariff-free, which means Savers does not need to waste precious resources absorbing tariff expenses or trying to rejigger its supply chain.
3. Savers finds itself in the right place at the right time. Gen Z has embraced thrifting because it is affordable, unique, and sustainable. Capital One Shopping reports that 83% of zoomers have purchased or are interested in purchasing secondhand.

Not surprisingly, the secondhand clothing market is growing five times faster than the overall apparel industry. According to ThredUp, the U.S. secondhand market grew 14% in 2024, compared to just 3% for the broader apparel market. Online resale was even stronger 鈥� up 23%. Analysts expect the U.S. resale market to nearly double by 2029, reaching roughly $40 billion.

That鈥檚 not a niche. That鈥檚 an empire in the making.

Savers is on track to earn about $0.50 per share this year and $0.65 per share in 2027. That steady growth rate would give the stock a valuation of 25 times 2026 earnings and 20 times the 2027 result.

Although this valuation is not the 鈥渄eep discount鈥� variety you might find on the racks of a Savers store, it is below the sector average. Further, if the company accelerates its expansion plans and/or boosts its profit margins as much as I anticipate, earnings could surprise on the upside.

Top 2026 Stock No. 4: Primo Brands

Water is the ultimate circular economy product 鈥� although Mother Nature does most of the heavy lifting. Her complex process of evaporation, precipitation, and decades-long subterranean filtration cycles water through planet Earth to sustain both flora and fauna.

The bottled water industry is a small drop in that planetary bucket, but it too operates within Mother Nature鈥檚 hydration cycle. This trait gives it a circular economy identity. Its core product is essentially limitless. And it can source and distribute that product without relying on a foreign supply chain. In other words, the bottled water industry can thrive as a purely domestic business.

Enter Primo Brands Corp. (PRMB), one of the largest branded water companies in North America.

In a market obsessed with AI-everything, Primo Brands seems defiantly analog. It manages springs, bottles water, delivers water, restocks coolers, and operates a vast logistics network. The company delivers drinking water through three primary sales channels.

First, it sells branded bottled water at retail. This division, which accounts for about 60% of total company sales, includes national powerhouses like Poland Spring and Pure Life, regional spring-water labels like Arrowhead, Deer Park, and Ice Mountain, as well as premium brands like Saratoga and The Mountain Valley. The company distributes these brands into more than 200,000 retail outlets across the United States and Canada. That footprint gives Primo negotiating leverage on shelf space, feature frequency, cold placement, and in-store displays.

Second, Primo operates a large direct-delivery network that supplies five-gallon water bottles directly to homes and businesses. This segment, which accounts for about 35% of company sales, resembles a subscription utility. Customers place recurring orders, Primo loads routes from local branches, and trucks deliver water on a scheduled cadence. That recurring model produces predictable revenue and strong lifetime customer value when service runs smoothly.

Third, Primo runs exchange and refill businesses, which account for about 5% of total sales. Consumers can exchange empty multi-use bottles at approximately 26,500 retail locations or refill bottles at over 23,500 self-service stations. That reusable packaging system reduces plastic waste while creating recurring, traffic-driving transactions.

Behind these customer-facing activities sits a vertically integrated network of more than 80 springs, bottling plants, distribution centers, warehouses, and delivery fleets. Primo employs over 12,000 associates and manages logistics coast-to-coast. This is not a marketing shell over outsourced production. It is an industrial hydration platform.

Primo Is Both an AI Survivor and Applier

Importantly, Primo is one of those rare enterprises that operates a relatively future-proof business. That quality puts it squarely into the AI Survivors framework. Artificial intelligence cannot replace hydration. It cannot digitize a spring. It cannot virtualize a truck route. The demand for clean water persists, regardless of technological shifts.

At the same time, Primo also fits in the AI Appliers category. The company already invests in warehouse management systems, forecasting tools, and digital customer interfaces. AI-driven route optimization can reduce miles driven. Predictive analytics can cut inventory imbalances. Call-center automation can shorten resolution time and increase retention. Revenue management systems can optimize price-pack architecture and SKU mix.

AI will not eliminate Primo鈥檚 network. It will increase its return on invested capital.

This water company does not promise moonshot growth. It offers something rarer 鈥� a recovering industrial consumer platform trading at a distressed multiple while generating nearly $800 million in annual free cash flow. That combination can reward patient capital far more reliably than the next AI wannabe.

Top 2026 Stock No. 5: Carter’s

There is one type of consumer who does not respond to financial uncertainty the way economics textbooks say they should. These consumers do not defer their purchases. They do not trade down to a cheaper brand. They do not wait for a sale or consult a spreadsheet to reconsider their priorities. They do not care about the price of gasoline or the direction of interest rates.

They simply buy the onesie because the baby needs the onesie.

Those consumers 鈥� the parents of a child between zero and ten 鈥� represent the core customer base of Carter鈥檚 Inc. (CRI), North America鈥檚 dominant baby and children鈥檚 apparel company. The company possesses a 25% market share in its category and operates over 1,000 stores across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Despite these strengths, however, investors have spent most of the past three years punishing the stock for a 鈥渟in鈥� that was beyond its control: a tariff regime that crushed its profit margins. The stock collapsed from above $75 to a 52-week low of $23 before recovering to around $40 today.

But a recovery is clearly underway, as recent results indicate. In the first quarter of this year, revenue rose 8.1% to $681 million, exceeding analyst expectations by $20 million. Earnings per share of $0.39, while down from $0.43 the prior year, came in $0.29 ahead of what the Street had modeled.

The star of the quarter was the direct-to-consumer business. Total U.S. retail net sales grew nearly 13%, with comparable sales up more than 10% versus the same quarter of the prior year. It was the fourth consecutive quarter of positive comp growth, and the company is seeing improvement in its two-year comp trend as well.

The international business is adding to the picture. Total international net sales rose 14% over the prior year, driven by Canada and Mexico. The Mexico business posted a plus-21% comparable sales result in the first quarter, and the company plans to open 12 new stores there this year.

The only major negative in the quarter has become an odd sort of positive: tariff expense.

Because tariffs added more than $30 million to the company鈥檚 cost structure in the quarter, operating margins plummeted more than 50%. That鈥檚 the bad news. The good news is that the Supreme Court鈥檚 ruling against the IEEPA tariffs will provide major benefits to Carter鈥檚.

First, management expects the combined effect of lower tariff rates and the elimination of the India-specific tariff to boost margins toward normalized levels. Second, Carter鈥檚 should soon receive a windfall from the tariff reversal earlier this year.

The company has filed for a refund of approximately $130 million in IEEPA tariffs paid between last year and early 2026. Although the company has not booked this 鈥済ain,鈥� it expects to receive the funds later this year.

Since Carter鈥檚 net debt totals just $94 million, a $130 million tariff rebate would eliminate all its liabilities and leave $36 million leftover. The company has signaled that it will use this 鈥渆xcess鈥� money to fund growth investments, including $20 million in new marketing efforts.

Despite the improving prospects for Carter鈥檚, the stock is still languishing at low valuations. It is trading for just 11 times estimated earnings and pays a 2.6% dividend yield.That valuation does not seem overly demanding for North America鈥檚 dominant baby and children鈥檚 apparel company 鈥� with over 25% market share, more than 1,000 stores, and a maturing e-commerce platform.

As margins normalize into next year, and revenue growth continues to gain momentum, the stock could appreciate significantly over the next year or two.

Top 2026 Stock No. 6: Birkenstock

Even though Birkenstock Holding plc (BIRK) sandals are more popular than ever, the company鈥檚 stock has fallen out of fashion. Slightly disappointing earnings results in December 2025 knocked the stock for an 11% one-day loss 鈥� increasing its drop over the preceding 12 months to 25%.

But this steep price decline is creating a great opportunity to buy a premier global brand off the discount rack. You don鈥檛 often get the chance to buy a 250-year-old cult brand at a what鈥檚-wrong-with-it valuation, especially right after it reports the best year in its history.

Birkenstock鈥檚 fiscal 2025 results not only set a record, but did so by a wide margin. What鈥檚 more, the company鈥檚 annual revenues and net profit are now more than double what they were four years ago. For the year, revenue reached approximately 鈧�2.1 billion, up 18% 鈥� with all regions contributing double-digit growth. The Americas grew roughly 18%, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) grew mid-teens, and Asia-Pacific (APAC) grew 34%. Those growth rates place Birkenstock near the top of the global footwear category.

Volume growth, rather than price increases, powered most of these strong results. Unit pairs sold grew approximately 12%, while average selling price (ASP) increased 5%, supported by targeted price actions and the mix shift toward premium executions. The company continues to produce double-digit growth on both unit and ASP lines, which is a rare achievement for any clothing company in the current environment.

Clearly, the company is not 鈥渂roken.鈥� It simply disappointed investors, mostly because of short-term factors like foreign exchange headwinds, tariff impacts, and capacity constraints. On last month鈥檚 earnings call, Birkenstock management reduced revenue growth guidance for 2026 to a range of 13% to 15%, versus the 17% number Wall Street had penciled in. Management also trimmed the gross margin forecast from 59% to 57% 鈥� a casualty of foreign exchange impacts and tariffs.

Importantly, short-term headwinds are causing most of this downward growth revision. The core, long-term engine of the business is still roaring ahead: strong top-line growth, a brand with real moat, and a long runway of organic growth in both product and distribution.

Management emphasized that demand is not the factor constraining its growth; it鈥檚 the company鈥檚 limited production capacity. As CEO Oliver Reichert put it, 鈥淥ur growth is only limited by our production capacity and disciplined distribution.鈥� In other words, product scarcity is mostly intentional, not accidental. Birkenstock is pacing supply deliberately to preserve premium positioning and full-price realization.

A Classic 鈥淎I Survivor鈥�

In early 2025, I introduced the concept of 鈥淎I Survivors鈥� 鈥� enterprises whose value proposition becomes stronger in an AI-saturated world. These are businesses that produce value by providing physical experiences, sensory appeal, scarcity, and/or identity. The more digital and automated the world becomes, the more humans look for grounding in the uniquely human or material aspects of life.

Birkenstock fits that profile perfectly.

It monetizes physical comfort and iconic fashion 鈥� something an AI model cannot simulate or replace. Birkenstock sells physical products that serve an essential human desire to 鈥渨alk the way nature intended,鈥� while promoting a feel-good fashion ethos. That brand equity should strengthen as 鈥渟creen fatigue鈥� accelerates.

Birkenstock鈥檚 journey from a fringe 鈥渉ippie sandal鈥� to a universally recognized fashion staple is one of the most unusual brand evolutions in modern consumer culture. For decades, Birkenstocks were the footwear of the 鈥渇lower power鈥� counterculture 鈥� embraced in the United States in the 1960s and 鈥�70s by the hippie movement as a symbol of comfort, natural living, and rebellion against 鈥渢he Establishment.鈥�

If you strip the story to its essentials, you find a simple narrative: The worst of the bad news 鈥� tariffs, FX drag, and the guidance reset 鈥� is reflected in the share price. The business itself just delivered the strongest year in its history and continues to invest in future capacity, distribution, and premium mix expansion.

Demand is booming, while disciplined production growth prevents product saturation and discounted pricing. The consumer continues shifting toward structured, comfort-first closed-toe silhouettes, and Birkenstock is capturing a growing share of that market. The brand continues to extend into new, fast-growing geographies, especially APAC. The direct-to-consumer channel is robust and growing.

Lastly, the more digital our world becomes, the more we humans will crave non-digital products and experiences. Birkenstock answers that craving.

Top 2026 Stock No. 7: Devon Energy

Not all natural gas is created equal. Its location greatly affects its value.

For example, the Delaware Basin鈥檚 natural gas, much like a long-distance sweetheart, is geographically undesirable.

Today, natural gas prices in the Delaware Basin, in far west Texas and southeast New Mexico, are depressed for one obvious reason: Gas has nowhere to go. The pipelines that run from the upper Permian Basin to hubs near the Gulf of Mexico do not have enough 鈥渙fftake capacity鈥� to transport all the gas the region produces.

In the parlance of the oil & gas industry, this excess production is called 鈥渟tranded gas,鈥� and it is so worthless that producers must find ways to dispose of it. The producers who have permits to burn off the gas simply 鈥渇lare鈥� it at drilling sites. Otherwise, they must pay companies to truck it away, like dumpsters full of old mattresses.

But the economics of producing natural gas in the Delaware Basin may be on the verge of a major transformation 鈥� one that will flip today鈥檚 negative gas pricing into solidly positive pricing. 

A company called鈥�Devon Energy Corp. (DVN)鈥痠s ideally positioned to benefit from that prospective transformation. It is the fourth-largest natural gas producer in the Delaware Basin, and it has been investing heavily in natural gas transport and processing facilities. 

One of those facilities is the 580-mile Matterhorn Express Pipeline, which opened for business in 2024. This new pipeline, in which Devon holds a 12.5% stake, transports up to 2.5 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from the Waha Hub to the Katy area near Houston.

Following close on the heels of the Matterhorn, Devon鈥檚 new 365-mile Blackcomb Pipeline is in operation and aims to be in service in the second half of 2026. It will transport gas from West Texas to the Agua Dulce Hub in South Texas, near Corpus Christi.

Importantly, Devon has contracted for significant offtake capacity on both pipelines, which is why the company is planning to ramp up its natural gas production from the Delaware Basin over the next few years.

Devon might also benefit from a new 鈥渨ildcard鈥� source of natural gas demand: data centers.

As the big tech companies build ever-larger and ever-more-numerous data centers, they are struggling to secure the dedicated power supplies these centers require.

For example, Dominion Energy Inc. (D), the utility that serves Northern Virginia鈥檚 鈥渄ata center alley,鈥� announced in October 2024 that it 鈥渆xpects the time it takes to connect large data centers to the electric grid to increase by one to three years, amid a surge of requests, bringing the total wait time to as long as seven years.鈥�

Because of power bottlenecks like these 鈥� both current and prospective 鈥� the big tech companies are turning to every and any possible power source to satisfy their needs. 

But over the near term, natural gas will take the lead in supplying the additional power. According to Goldman Sachs, natural gas will satisfy 60% of the power demand growth from AI and data centers, while renewables will provide the remaining 40%.

As a result of this growth, data centers could boost the demand for natural gas to fuel U.S. power plants by 20% to 45% over the next three years, according to Wells Fargo research. The midpoint of that estimate would be equivalent to鈥�doubling鈥痶he current production from the Delaware Basin.

The natural gas market offers three major advantages over competing technologies鈥�

1. It is abundant.
2. It is cheap, especially in the Delaware Basin.
3. It is a proven technology with relatively rapid permitting processes.

Data center demand for natural gas could become especially acute in the Delaware Basin, with a new 鈥淒ata Center Alley鈥� potentially blossoming in that region.

To be clear, data centers will not immediately impact the economics of natural gas production in the Delaware Basin. However, this wildcard source of demand, combined with the two new pipelines coming onstream, could produce significantly higher and sustainable natural gas pricing throughout West Texas.

This likelihood is not lost on the heavy hitters of the U.S. oil & gas industry. They have been falling all over each other to acquire drilling acreage in and around the Delaware Basin. Because this region, which extends from West Texas into southeastern New Mexico, is less developed than the eastern Permian, it contains vast, untapped reserves.

Devon Energy was ahead of the game. Way back in January 2021, Devon kicked off this land-grab in the Delaware Basin by launching a $5.75 billion takeover of WPX Energy. After completing the deal, Devon possessed a massive 400,000-acre land position in the Delaware, along with significant production. 

Five years later, Devon is attempting to cash in. The company is devoting about 60% of its capital investment budget to drilling projects in the Delaware. 

Devon Energy鈥檚 share price does not reflect any upside potential from these new activities鈥� nor much upside potential from any of its other activities.

But as Delaware gas prices trend higher, in the context of stable-to-rising energy prices, Devon鈥檚 share price could soar from current levels. 

Moving Forward

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