Zacks Investment Ideas feature highlights: Cintas, Waste Management and Meta

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 16, 2025 – Today, Zacks Investment Ideas feature highlights Cintas CTAS, Waste Management WM and Meta Platforms META.

You Don't Have to Buy Tech Stocks to See Great Returns

If there’s one thing that’s undoubtedly true over the past decade, it’s that technology stocks have been blistering hot.

And it’s been for very understandable reasons – many of these companies’ products have entirely changed the way the world behaves. People stay solely connected through digital channels such as social media, students are now taking their exams online, and consumers are even utilizing digital apps that allow for grocery delivery.

But while all that sounds fun and exciting, many have overlooked simple businesses that aren’t overly flashy. This includes companies that take care of waste management, provide staffing uniforms, and even energy drink providers, to give a few examples.

Many of these companies fall into the Consumer Staples sector, whose businesses face steady demand across many economic conditions. In other words, people will want their trash picked up no matter the state of the economy, and we all obviously enjoy our caffeine buzz.

And perhaps to the surprise of some, these non-technology companies have seen wildly strong performance, with their predictable nature able to provide nice shields against volatility.

Cintas Outperforms Meta Platforms

For example, Cintas, the company that provides uniforms and other workplace supplies to employers, has gained +810% over the last decade, compared with a +630% gain from beloved Magnificent 7 member Meta Platforms.

Cintas’ +24.6% annualized return over the period has undoubtedly excited investors. As shown below, shares have also been considerably less volatile over the last decade, largely weathering 2022 volatility with ease.

Waste Management provides collection, transfer, recycling, resource recovery, and disposal services to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers. Waste Management shares have been steadily strong over the last decade, outpacing the S&P 500’s 320% gain by a wide margin.

And like CTAS, Waste Management shares have largely weathered volatility, particularly so during the 2022 downturn.

Bottom Line

Simply put, you don’t have to buy tech stocks to see great returns. Lesser-discussed companies like Cintas and Waste Management have built consistent, dependable growth by doing the ‘simple’ things exceptionally well. Of course, they’re likely not to impress investors with innovation given their less-flashy nature, but sometimes boring is better.

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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