Welcome to Smart Money! My name is Eric Fry, and I’m glad you’re here.
There’s no perfect investment method. If there were, we’d all be millionaires, and you probably wouldn’t be reading this letter.
But there is a way to allocate your assets intelligently, so you set yourself up for the best chance at success…
There are multiple facets to this strategy, but the one I want to focus on today is stocks to buy and hold forever.
You should think of these investments as your core holdings – your “Forever Stocks.” Treat these Forever Stocks as your “Elite 8” or “Top 10” – or whatever number you decide on. In total, these stocks should represent about 25% to 35% of your total portfolio.
These are the stocks you hold through thick and thin, unless the rationale for owning them changes significantly or you decide to replace one of them with a different stock.
Obviously, Forever Stocks will suffer during a severe bear market, just like ordinary stocks. So any investor who holds onto stocks like these during a sell-off is likely to suffer mark-to-market losses.
But these losses are a small price to pay for big, long-term gains…
And today, I have seven stocks that I consider to be some of the best “Forever Stocks” out there.
Let’s get started…
Stock No. 1: Omnicell
Omnicell Inc. (OMCL) is a true AI company hiding in plain sight.
For decades, the firm has helped hospitals and health systems handle the most fragile and failure-prone part of modern care: the storing, tracking, preparing, and dispensing of medications.
It sells machines and software that make sure the right drug reaches the right patient at the right time — an unglamorous responsibility, but one that sits at the center of healthcare safety and cost control.
In practice, Omnicell’s world looks like this: automated dispensing cabinets (the secure “medication lockers” nurses use at hospital units), central-pharmacy robots that package and count pills, software that tracks inventory and expiration dates across entire health networks, compounding systems that help prepare sterile IV medications, and the workflow tools that make sure everything moves smoothly. Hospitals buy this technology because mistakes are dangerous, shortages are expensive, and regulatory failures can shut down entire departments.
For most of its life, Omnicell made money like a traditional hardware manufacturer. A health system would buy a set of dispensing cabinets; Omnicell would install the equipment, recognize the revenue upfront, and wait for the next capital budget cycle. The result was a business that looked lumpy and cyclical.
But quietly, Omnicell has been rewiring itself into something very different: a recurring-revenue software and automation platform. The company is not simply selling cabinets anymore. It is building the nervous system of the hospital pharmacy — a unified robotics, software, and AI platform designed to automate one of the most error-prone and labor-strained corners of healthcare.
Over the last several years, Omnicell has expanded into subscription software, cloud services, analytics platforms, inventory-management programs, technical support contracts, and outsourced pharmacy solutions. These businesses renew month after month, year after year. They are steadier, higher margin, and are more deeply embedded in customer operations. Once a hospital begins relying on Omnicell’s workflow tools, dashboards, and analytics engines, it usually sticks around.
In 2020, services accounted for just 6% of revenue. In 2025, it approached 25%, then jumped to 44% this year. Profit margins and net income are benefiting from this strategic shift. Both metrics dipped into the red in 2022, but have been steadily recovering ever since.
Omnicell CEO Randall Lipps captured the moment succinctly…
It is a unique time in the industry… we’ve been preparing for these upcoming years, and I think we’ve done a good job. We’re excited to move forward and get back to solid growth.”
Importantly, Omnicell’s pivot from selling hardware to services relies on a deepening use of AI, robotics, automation, and cloud-based orchestration.
Unlike many companies that talk about artificial intelligence without ever using it, Omnicell is integrating AI directly into the plumbing of medication handling — into the machines, software, and workflows that move thousands of doses every day through a hospital. AI powers its transformation from a hardware manufacturer into what management describes as “an intelligent medication management technology company.”
First quarter results validated that transformation: Revenue grew 15% year over year, adjusted EPS of $0.55 beat estimates, and the company raised its full-year EPS guidance by 8.6% to $1.80 to $2.00.
New product introductions should boost the positive momentum. The company’s next-generation automated dispensing cabinet, Omnicell Titan XT, ships later this year, followed by OmniSphere — the cloud-native control center that unifies all Omnicell devices, data, and workflows into a single digital hub.
At less than 20 times 2027 earnings for a company transitioning into a higher-margin, AI-enabled subscription business, Omnicell offers one of the more compelling risk-reward profiles in our healthcare holdings.
Stock No. 2: Block
Volatility can open the door to new buying opportunities. That’s how I spotted Block Inc. (XYZ), which owns and operates the well-known payment app, Square.
The company’s story starts like this…
In 2009, Jim McKelvey, the founder of Mira Digital Publishing, ran into some trouble with his glass-blowing side gig. He wanted to sell an expensive set of glass bathroom faucets… but had no way of accepting his customer’s credit card. He spied a market opportunity.
In partnership with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, the duo developed a square-shaped card reader that could plug into smartphones, eliminating the need for expensive card readers. It was a simple, elegant solution that cost just $0.97 in hardware and was given away to merchants for free.
In 2010, Square added 50,000 test merchants in a single summer. The following year, the firm was reportedly adding 100,000 new merchants every month.
Today, the company – now known as Block Inc.– helps merchants transact over $200 billion annually. Its point-of-sale systems are found everywhere from farmers’ markets to national retail chains. And the company has expanded far beyond the four-sided card readers that inspired its original namesake.
- Peer-to-peer payments. In 2013, Block launched Cash App, a peer-to-peer payments service that skyrocketed to popularity after offering lottery-style cash awards to users. In 2023, the mobile payment service available Cash App brought in over $248 billion of gross inflows, eclipsing Square by that metric.
- Small Business Software. In 2014, the company launched the integration of payroll features. This would eventually grow into a full software suite that includes inventory management, business analytics and order tracking.
- Buy Now Pay Later. The company acquired Afterpay in 2022, a buy-now, pay-later service. This acquisition gave Block a toehold in the fast-growing market. Its BNPL segment contributed $1 billion in revenues last year.
- E-Commerce. The firm acquired web hosting company Weebly in 2018, which it would transform into an e-commerce website builder for small businesses.
- Crypto. Block has also made some moves into cryptocurrency, including starting a decentralized crypto platform, known as TBD, and a self-custody Bitcoin wallet, known as Bitkey.
Thanks to Block’s sizeable multi-year spending on both capital investments and M&A, the company has become one of the world’s leading fintech companies. It has developed a comprehensive financial services ecosystem that serves both merchants and consumers and generated $2.425 billion in free cash flow for 2025. That’s a 129% increase from its $515 million free cash flow three years ago. Block now appears to have reached an important inflection point, and the company is on a path to potentially grow beyond that.
In part, this hockey-stick-shaped growth is a reflection of the broader payment processing industry. The business tends to be highly scalable, since digital payment systems require large upfront investments that can eventually serve an unlimited number of additional customers at virtually zero marginal cost. (Block’s card readers also came with billions of costs in back-end investments.) So, payment processors tend to become enormously profitable after they reach a certain scale.
But Block’s business model also exaggerates this growth trend, given its focus on flat fees, efficient client onboarding, and diversified software offerings. This creates more overhead, but also greater efficiencies once scale is reached.
In addition, the company’s Cash App product has gained a major adoption rate among younger demographic groups. It is in the top 10 most downloaded apps in the finance category on Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) App Store, and Gen Z and Millennials combined account for more than 70% of Cash App’s inflows. Additionally, Block is the only major fintech firm with a banking charter, and management recently announced intentions to roll out banking services for Cash App customers.
“It is about making Cash App our base’s primary financial tool,” Block CFO Amrita Ahuja said during his second-quarter earnings remarks, “which ultimately leads to stronger engagement and stronger inflows.” The Cash App card now has 57 to 59 million monthly transacting active users, making it even larger than many regional banks like TD Bank by that measure. This offering is an “option value” for future growth.
Best of all, shares of Block don’t yet reflect these truths. Investors rarely seem to reward forward-looking companies that “spend big” to gain market dominance and instead rely on the rearview mirror of past earnings and expenses. But this necessary evil is the exact process that companies like Amazon, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Netflix Inc. (NFLX), and others pursued to become legendary companies.
Stock No. 3: Primo Brands
Water is the ultimate circular economy product – 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’s 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’s network. It will increase its return on invested capital.
This water company does not promise moonshot growth. It offers something rarer – 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.
Stock No. 4: Equinor
Equinor ASA (EQNR) is the largest energy company in Norway and the ninth largest in the world, based on revenue. Importantly, it is Europe’s largest non-Russian supplier of natural gas, by far, and also a major crude oil producer.
The fact that this company operates next door to Russia used to be a footnote that barely deserved a mention. But that footnote became a headline after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Since then, European countries have been phasing out Russian supplies of oil and gas, and phasing in additional supplies from Norway. The conflict in Iran is supercharging that trend.
As a result, Equinor finds itself in the right place at the right time.
But even before the recent geopolitical turmoil, Equinor was fast-becoming a superb all-weather oil and gas play. Last year, for example, the company achieved an all-time record production of 2,137,000 barrels per day, up 3.4% from the prior year, driven by the ramp-up of Johan Castberg in the Barents Sea and Bacalhau in Brazil — the latter representing the first pre-salt operatorship ever awarded to an international company in that country.
Return on average capital employed came in at 14.5%, an industry-leading figure the company has sustained for more than a decade. Cash flow from operations after tax reached $18 billion, and the company returned $9 billion to shareholders while maintaining its investment program.
Today, Equinor accounts for nearly 30% of gas volumes to Europe and remains the lowest-cost pipe gas supplier to that market, with all-in costs below $2 per MMBtu (1 million British Thermal Units). That competitive moat is formidable.
Meanwhile, the company’s U.S. gas business has emerged as a meaningful complement. Production in that segment grew 45% in 2025 following well-timed acquisitions, generating approximately $1 billion in operating cash flow.
Capital Discipline and Portfolio Quality
Equinor management has continued to “high-grade” its portfolio with renewed vigor. The company has divested $6 billion of projects during the last two years, in order to concentrate capital where breakevens are lowest and returns are highest.
The resulting project portfolio features enviable economics: a low average breakeven of $40 per barrel, an internal rate of return of 25% at $65 oil, and an average investment payback per well of just two and a half years.
In short, Equinor is fulfilling its considerable potential: record production, industry-leading returns on capital, an optimized project portfolio, growing gas volumes to a captive European market, and a clear path to substantially higher free cash flow in 2027.
Reflecting those positives, the stock is not as cheap as it once was, but it is not even close to being pricey. At less than three times gross earnings (EBITDA), the stock is trading for less than half its peer group average… and not even one-third the valuation of stocks like ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM) or Chevron Corp. (CVX).
This discount seems all the more remarkable – and all the less sustainable – when one considers that Equinor’s operating margins are double those of its peer group, including Exxon and Chevron. Additionally, the stock pays a plump 3.5% dividend yield.
Stock No. 5: Match Group
Match Group Inc. (MTCH) is in the business of making online love connections, but the company hasn’t been able to make a love connection with investors for several years. Most of them have been “swiping left” — i.e., saying “no thanks” — on the shares of this online dating leader. But the company’s 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’s 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’s 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 – about 15 million of whom pay for subscriptions – and an estimated 30–40% global market share. Its portfolio includes Tinder, the world’s 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’s 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’s 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’s 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, “Reset, Revitalize, Resurgence.” The initial “Reset” phase focused on rebuilding culture, flattening management layers, and accelerating product velocity. That phase is now complete and the “Revitalize” phase is underway. That’s the interlude when products start reflecting a renewed focus on “speed, accountability, and relentless product execution.” If all goes well, the “Resurgence” phase will flower in 2026 and 2027.
AI is central to this entire strategy.
Match’s AI Upgrade
On the consumer side, Rascoff is deploying AI to reshape Match’s 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 “onboarding” 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 – 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 – from onboarding and match recommendations to internal product development – 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’s revitalization plan.
Assuming the new AI-led initiatives can stabilize and then grow Tinder’s 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 “resurgence” 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.
Stock No. 6: Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) is one of the largest pharmaceuticals in the world, with a number of drugs that treat diseases in immunology, cardiovascular, and oncology. This portfolio includes blockbuster drugs like Eliquis, a blood anticoagulant for stroke patients, and Opdivo, used for the treatment of advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer.
The company trades for about 9.5 times forward earnings – meaningfully below the S&P 500’s multiple – and yields close to 5%, backed by strong free cash flow and an A-rated balance sheet. Those numbers suggest a tired, no-growth company, yet its business is clearly regaining momentum.
First-quarter 2026 revenue grew modestly to $11.5 billion. But that modest headline number masks a more important story underneath: the company’s “Growth Portfolio” — the newer drugs that must replace aging blockbusters losing patent protection — grew 12% to $6.2 billion, led by Reblozyl, Breyanzi, and Opdualag. Bristol-Myers reaffirmed its full-year guidance of $46.0 to $47.5 billion in revenue and $6.05 to $6.35 in adjusted earnings per share.
The pipeline is substantive. The FDA has accepted Bristol’s iberdomide filing for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma with breakthrough therapy designation, with a decision now scheduled for August 17, 2026.
Milvexian — a blood thinner co-developed with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) that works through a different clotting mechanism than existing drugs, with potentially lower bleeding risk — has two major trials underway: one testing it in atrial fibrillation, the other in secondary stroke prevention, with stroke data expected in the second half of 2026.
Cobenfy, the company’s schizophrenia drug with a genuinely novel mechanism, is building prescription momentum, with prescriptions are rising by about 2,400 per week. Another major opportunity for the drug lies ahead: Cobenfy could gain approval for Alzheimer’s-related disorders, with pivotal data expected by year-end. Cobenfy trials are also underway as treatments Alzheimer’s psychosis, bipolar disorder, and autism-related irritability.
Beyond these programs, Bristol-Myers’ research bench runs deeper still. Trials are advancing in lung, breast, and colon cancers, with Bristol-Myers aiming to be “first or second to market” in each. And beyond cancer, the company is exploring cell therapy for autoimmune diseases — essentially resetting a patient’s misfiring immune system — with early results in lupus and scleroderma described internally as “spectacular.” Its acquisition of Orbital Therapeutics adds technology that could eventually make such therapies “off-the-shelf,” manufactured in advance rather than custom-built for each patient.
AI and Digital Acceleration
Bristol-Myers is no longer just a drug maker; it is becoming a digital-first biomedical company. Boerner put it plainly: “We are integrating digital technology and AI across the company to drive efficiency and speed in how we discover and develop medicines.”
Bristol Myers now uses AI to help design and evaluate nearly every drug program it runs — both small-molecule medicines and most of its large-molecule projects. The idea is to catch problems before they cost real time and money. The company calls this approach “Predict First”: AI models size up how likely a candidate drug is to work, fail, or cause downstream problems before a single physical experiment runs. Virtually all of Bristol-Myers’ small-molecule programs now run through this AI forecasting step before synthesis begins, up from just 5% as recently as 2021.
Additional AI initiatives include a May 2026 collaboration with Anthropic to provide Bristol-Myers’ 30,000 employees with AI tools for research, clinical development, and manufacturing. Then, three weeks ago, Bristol-Myers expanded its three-year partnership with Nvidia, which will build the most powerful AI infrastructure owned by any single life sciences company. By deploying an Nvidia “SuperPOD” of DGX Vera Rubin NVL 72 systems, the new system platform will deliver up to 10 times more computing power per unit of energy than its predecessor. Once operational, Bristol-Myers’ hopes to accelerate research across oncology, cardiovascular disease, immunology, hematology, and neuroscience.
At roughly 9.5 times forward earnings — still meaningfully below the S&P 500’s multiple — the stock continues to trade as though this pipeline barely exists.
Stock No. 7: Birkenstock
Even though Birkenstock Holding plc (BIRK) sandals are more popular than ever, the company’s stock has fallen out of fashion. Slightly disappointing earnings results in December 2025 knocked the stock for an 11% one-day loss – 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’t often get the chance to buy a 250-year-old cult brand at a what’s-wrong-with-it valuation, especially right after it reports the best year in its history.
Birkenstock’s fiscal 2025 results not only set a record, but did so by a wide margin. What’s more, the company’s annual revenues and net profit are now more than double what they were four years ago. For the year, revenue reached approximately €2.1 billion, up 18% – 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 “broken.” It simply disappointed investors, mostly because of short-term factors like foreign exchange headwinds, tariff impacts, and capacity constraints. On last month’s 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% — 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’s the company’s limited production capacity. As CEO Oliver Reichert put it, “Our growth is only limited by our production capacity and disciplined distribution.” 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 “AI Survivor”
In early 2025, I introduced the concept of “AI Survivors” — 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 – something an AI model cannot simulate or replace. Birkenstock sells physical products that serve an essential human desire to “walk the way nature intended,” while promoting a feel-good fashion ethos. That brand equity should strengthen as “screen fatigue” accelerates.
Birkenstock’s journey from a fringe “hippie sandal” 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 “flower power” counterculture – embraced in the United States in the 1960s and ’70s by the hippie movement as a symbol of comfort, natural living, and rebellion against “the Establishment.”
If you strip the story to its essentials, you find a simple narrative: The worst of the bad news – tariffs, FX drag, and the guidance reset – 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.
Moving Forward
I’m so glad that you decided to further your journey to wealth by joining Smart Money.
While these seven stocks are sure to fortify your portfolio in 2026 and beyond, those aren’t the only benefits of this free e-letter…
Nearly every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, you’ll receive an email from me or my colleague Thomas Yeung, wherein we’ll share insights on the latest market “megatrends,” how to hedge against inflation, which stocks you should avoid, and more.
Get started by visiting your Smart Money website here.
Regards,
Eric Fry
