With global awareness on gender diversity, the number of female corporate leaders has gone up in recent years. After dropping to 21 in 2016, the number of women CEOs on Fortune 500 increased more than 50% to a record 32 at the start of 2017. However, the number declined to 27 as of January 2018 and will drop further down to 24 by April. Despite this, women hold 21% of board seats at S&P 500 companies per Catalyst, a group researching women and work.
Several researches show that the companies led by women have outperformed the market. According to analysis by the bank Nordea, companies with a woman in the chief executive or chairperson role have performed far better than a major global index over the past eight years. Annualized returns for female-led firms, based on an equal weighting, was 25% since 2009, compared with just 11% for the broader market — the MSCI World Index.
The U.S. stock market is turning nine on Mar 9, representing the second-longest bull run in history after the 1990s rally that ended when the tech bubble burst in 2000. With regard to this, it is worth shedding light on the women leadership over this nine-year period and the outperformance of companies having female employees in top brass.
The list of women CEO in the S&P 500 is still small at nearly 5% of the total. This does not, however, stop us from highlighting five stocks that are headed by women and have easily crushed the nine-year bull market. All these stocks have a solid Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), suggesting their continued outperformance.
Ulta Beauty Inc. (ULTA – Free Report)
Based in Bolingbrook, IL, Ulta Beauty is a beauty retailer primarily in the United States and the premier beauty destination for cosmetics, fragrance, skin, hair care products and salon services. The company saw an exceptional surge in its revenue and net income growth to $5.5 billion and $487 million (as of Oct 2017), respectively, from $1.1 billion and $25 million at the start of 2009. As such, the stock skyrocketed 4470% over the trailing nine-year period.
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