Top 4 Women-Run Companies Delivering Market-Beating Returns

An updated edition of the Aug. 14, 2025 article.

Corporate leadership is experiencing a subtle yet significant shift as more women step into top executive roles at publicly traded companies. These leaders are not only transforming corporate cultures but also delivering strong business performance across sectors from technology to healthcare. Women-run firms are demonstrating that inclusive leadership fosters innovation, adaptability, and enduring shareholder returns. Far from token appointments, these executives are setting new benchmarks for strategic growth and operational excellence, often surpassing their industry peers. This shift is about more than meeting diversity targets — it’s about finding new ways to grow sustainably and stay profitable over the long term.

Take Accenture plc ACN as an example. Julie Sweet, Chair & CEO of Accenture, has driven the firm’s pivot to cloud, digital and AI, while restructuring operations and reskilling talent. She emphasizes inclusion, pay equity and transparent communication, helping Accenture sustain growth and remain a global leader in digital transformation. Likewise, Maria Black, who became president and CEO of Automatic Data Processing Inc. ADP at the start of 2023, has leveraged her deep institutional experience (having joined ADP in 1996 and served in multiple leadership roles) to steer the company toward a more insight-driven, human-centric future. She emphasizes using ADP’s unique data and analytics to empower employers and employees with foresight into workforce trends, while simplifying and modernizing service delivery across its global HCM (human capital management) portfolio.

The Capstone Partners’ Women Entrepreneurs (WE) Study highlights how female founders are increasingly shaping the U.S. business landscape, both in creating new ventures and planning long-term growth and exits. According to Wells Fargo’s 2025 Impact of Women-Owned Businesses Report, highlighted in the WE study, the number of women-owned firms grew 44% faster than male-owned businesses between 2019 and 2024. Many are leveraging growth capital—20% accessed debt and 32% equity funding in the past year—to scale operations. This has translated into real momentum, with 56% of women entrepreneurs surveyed reporting higher revenues in 2025 compared to 2024, and 66% expecting growth in 2026 despite macroeconomic uncertainty.

Despite this progress, securing adequate funding remains a primary obstacle for women entrepreneurs. Research indicates that women-led startups receive only about 2% of venture capital funding in the United States and Europe. This disparity is partly due to biases in the investment community, where investors often pose "prevention-oriented" questions to female entrepreneurs, focusing on potential risks, whereas male entrepreneurs receive "promotion-oriented" questions that highlight opportunities.

Despite funding challenges, women-led companies continue to drive innovation and resilience, making them attractive investment opportunities. If you want to capitalize on it, our Women Run Companies Screen will help you spot high-potential stocks in this space. 

Investors looking to capitalize on this growing sector should consider Phillips 66 PSX in the energy and refining industry, The Progressive Corporation PGR in insurance, Macy's, Inc. M in the retail sector and General Dynamics Corporation GD in the aerospace & defense sector. These companies exemplify strong leadership and strategic vision, positioning them for long-term success.

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4 Women-Run Company Stocks to Buy Now

Phillips 66: Julie Bushman plays a pivotal oversight role as Chair of the Human Resources & Compensation Committee, and as a member of the Nominating & Governance, Public Policy & Sustainability, and Executive committees. Her background—36 years at 3M, culminating in her role as EVP of International Operations, brings depth in global talent management, transformation, IT and operational discipline. In this capacity, she is centrally positioned to steer executive compensation, talent succession, board refreshment and the alignment of incentive structures with long-term shareholder value and ESG priorities.

In the most recent quarter, this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company reported strong results. It reported second-quarter 2025 net income of $877 million and adjusted earnings of $973 million ($2.38 per share) versus an adjusted loss in the prior quarter. The company also returned $906 million to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. Given this performance, Bushman’s responsibilities are critical in ensuring that compensation policies and human capital strategies reward this execution, retain and attract the right leadership, and maintain alignment between management incentives and shareholder interests. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Moreover, Bushman is actively engaged in investor relations and governance dialogues. In SEC filings, she and other board leaders conduct shareholder engagement, bringing investor feedback on governance, board refreshment, and strategic oversight back into board deliberations. In the context of rising activism (e.g. Elliott’s recent push for changes in governance and strategic focus), her ability to integrate stakeholder views into compensation and board policy is a meaningful stabilizer. Overall, while she is not in day-to-day operations, her influence on how the leadership is structured, rewarded and held accountable has a material bearing on Phillips 66’s long-term value creation.

Progressive: Since her appointment as President & CEO in July 2016 (and election to the board), Tricia Griffith has transformed Progressive’s positioning through a disciplined growth framework that emphasizes operational rigor, margin resilience, and innovation. Having risen through Progressive’s ranks—from claims functions, HR leadership, customer operations, to personal lines COO—she has combined deep technical domain experience with cultural continuity. Under her leadership, the company has leaned into product bundling, leveraging cross-sell opportunities to deepen customer relationships and diversify risk exposure.

Her strategic stewardship is evident in Progressive’s recent operating and financial metrics. In the June 2025 quarter, net premiums written were $20 billion in the quarter, up 12% from $17.9 billion a year ago. Net premiums earned grew 18% to $20.3 billion. More broadly, in the second quarter of 2025, Progressive delivered an EPS of $4.88, increasing 84.1% year over year. The outperformance underlines management discipline in underwriting, pricing, and expense control even amid competitive pressure. Her emphasis on customer experience, claims efficiency, and leveraging digital channels supports better loss control and operating leverage.

Griffith’s ability to balance growth and underwriting discipline has fortified the firm’s margins in a cyclical sector, reducing downside risk relative to peers. Going forward, continued success will hinge on sustaining combined-ratio discipline, optimizing capital deployment (dividends or buybacks), and navigating macro and climate risks. In that context, Tricia Griffith remains a pivotal force behind this Zacks Rank #1 company’s ability to deliver durable profitability and shareholder value.

Macy’s: Barbie Cameron’s elevation to Chief Stores Officer underscores her leadership over Macy’s entire physical footprint, from flagship and small-format stores to call centers. With nearly four decades at Macy’s—rising from sales manager to senior executive—she brings deep institutional knowledge at a pivotal point in the company’s “Bold New Chapter” turnaround. Her mandate centers on modernizing the in-store experience, raising operational standards and enhancing both customer and colleague engagement as Macy’s works to reposition its brick-and-mortar network for a digital-first era.

Cameron’s role is especially critical as Macy’s restructures its store base. The retailer plans to close about 150 underperforming locations while channeling investment into higher-performing assets and remodels. Her operational oversight is essential to ensuring closures and upgrades proceed smoothly, limiting sales disruption and safeguarding traffic. A disciplined rollout of these initiatives gives Macy’s one of its clearest levers to stabilize comps and preserve relevance amid broader retail headwinds.

This Zacks Rank #1 company’s second-quarter 2025 results highlight why execution at the store level matters. Macy’s reported net sales of $4.8 billion and adjusted EPS of 41 cents, exceeding expectations. Comparable sales rose 0.8% on an owned basis and 1.9% on an “O+L+M” basis (owned, licensed, and marketplace). Importantly, remodeled “Reimagine 125” locations outperformed, with 1.1% comp growth, signaling early success from Cameron’s initiatives. Cameron holds one of the most strategically significant roles below the CEO. Her leadership in store operations directly influences Macy’s turnaround, with remodeled stores already showing traction. As Macy’s navigates closures, remodels and evolving consumer habits, her execution will be central to restoring sustainable growth and shareholder value.

General Dynamics: Since assuming the dual role of Chairman and CEO, Phebe Novakovic has instilled a sharper focus on capital discipline and margin-driven execution. She has aligned General Dynamics’ diverse businesses under clearer performance frameworks, improving coordination across segments and enhancing accountability. This structural discipline has reinforced transparency and investor confidence in GD’s ability to deliver on large, multi-year defense contracts. At the same time, Novakovic has prioritized backlog expansion as a strategic differentiator, securing long-term revenue visibility and reducing exposure to shorter demand cycles.

Financially, her tenure continues to show resilience. In second-quarter 2025, GD posted revenues of $13 billion, up 8.9% year over year, with operating earnings of $1.305 billion. EPS rose 14.7% to $3.74, supported by operating margin expansion to 10%. Cash generation remained robust, with $1.6 billion in operating cash flow—158% of net earnings—enabling the company to trim total debt by nearly $897 million. Importantly, backlog closed the quarter at a record $103.7 billion, with total estimated contract value reaching $161.2 billion, strengthening long-term earnings visibility.

Still, challenges persist under her leadership. Backlog depth is only as valuable as GD’s ability to execute, which hinges on operational discipline and supply chain stability. Marine Systems illustrates both the opportunity and the risk: segment revenues surged 22.2% to $4.22 billion in the second quarter, with operating earnings of $291 million, yet management acknowledged ongoing supply chain and quality issues disrupting workflow. Further, GD’s reliance on U.S. defense budgets leaves results tied to procurement priorities and fiscal cycles. Even so, Novakovic’s stewardship has entrenched a culture of discipline, backlog-driven growth, and accountability—strategies that are translating into tangible shareholder value of this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company.

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