5 Women-Run Companies Reshaping Portfolios With Consistent Growth

An updated edition of the Oct. 8, 2025, article.

Corporate leadership is undergoing a measurable structural shift as more women assume top roles at publicly traded companies. The trend is increasingly tied to performance — women-led organizations are proving that inclusive leadership correlates with stronger innovation pipelines, organizational agility and improved shareholder returns across industries ranging from technology to healthcare. These are not symbolic appointments. Many of these executives are outperforming peers through disciplined execution, sharper capital allocation and long-term value creation. The narrative has moved beyond diversity for its own sake — investors are recognizing that women-run companies are building more resilient operating models and setting a higher bar for sustainable growth.

The Progressive Corporation PGR is a fitting example. Since becoming CEO in 2016, Tricia Griffith has strengthened Progressive through disciplined growth, underwriting rigor and product bundling. Her leadership has fortified margins and positioned the company for resilient profitability and shareholder value.

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 General Motors Company GM in the automotive industry, S&P Global Inc. SPGI in financial analytics and ratings, Ralph Lauren Corporation RL in luxury apparel, Macy’s, Inc. M in department-store retail and The Gap, Inc. GAP in specialty apparel retail. These companies exemplify strong leadership and strategic vision, which position them for long-term success.

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5 Women-Run Company Stocks to Buy Now

General Motors: Under the stewardship of Mary Barra, General Motors has undergone a significant transformation — shifting its legacy-owned-automaker identity toward a more agile, innovation-oriented, and consumer-centric auto company. Having joined GM in 1980 and risen through engineering, manufacturing, product development, supply chain, and HR leadership before being named CEO in 2014 (and later Chair), Barra brought deep institutional knowledge along with a commitment to operational excellence and corporate culture reform.

Her contribution is especially evident in GM’s renewed focus on product quality, organizational accountability and long-term strategic pivots — most notably the push toward electric vehicles (EVs), flexible manufacturing, and responsive production choices. Barra’s decision-making style emphasizes transparency, direct accountability (“no more crappy cars”), and empowering employees with autonomy, fostering a culture that is more responsive to market changes and consumer expectations.

The impact of this leadership is clear in the most recent (third-quarter 2025) financials. GM posted revenues of $48.6 billion and delivered adjusted EPS of $2.80 — beating the consensus mark by roughly 22.8%. Though reported net income was $1.3 billion — reflecting headwinds (e.g., tariff-related charges and a $1.6 billion special-item impairment tied to strategic shifts) — Barra’s narrative remains that GM is investing aggressively in U.S. manufacturing and balancing EV ambition with pragmatic flexibility. Under Barra, this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company appears to be refashioning itself for long-term resilience — combining disciplined capital allocation, renewed manufacturing competitiveness and alignment with evolving regulatory and consumer trends. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

S&P Global: Martina L. Cheung serves as the president, chief executive officer, and a member of the board of directors at S&P Global. She has played a pivotal role in shaping S&P Global’s evolution from a traditional ratings agency into a diversified, high-growth financial-data powerhouse. Having joined the company in 2010, she rose through several key leadership ranks,  including vice president of Operations for the Ratings business, chief strategy officer, head of Risk Services in Market Intelligence, and president of S&P Global Market Intelligence before being named president & CEO of S&P Global effective Nov. 1, 2024. Her deep institutional memory and cross-divisional experience have positioned her uniquely to integrate the company’s disparate business lines and drive strategic expansion — especially into high-growth themes like ESG, energy analytics, private markets and AI-powered data workflows.

Under her leadership, S&P Global has articulated an ambitious growth strategy that emphasizes “essential intelligence” — offering trusted benchmarks, data and analytics to support decision-making for businesses, governments and investors navigating an increasingly complex global landscape. This strategic direction underpins the company’s recent acquisition of With Intelligence for roughly $1.8 billion, a move that significantly bolsters S&P Global’s presence in private markets data and analytics — a growing and lucrative area beyond traditional credit ratings. This acquisition highlights how Cheung is steering the company to capture new market opportunities and diversify its revenue base, aligning with medium-term goals outlined at the 2025 Investor Day.

Results to date suggest that the strategy is already bearing fruit. Under Cheung’s leadership, this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company’s third-quarter 2025 results demonstrated solid execution of that strategy — total revenues rose 9% year over year to about $3.89 billion, adjusted operating profit increased 16%, and adjusted diluted EPS jumped 22% to $4.73. According to management commentary, these results reflect not just favorable market conditions, but also disciplined cost-management, portfolio optimization, and an ongoing pivot toward high-growth data, analytics and private-markets solutions — areas where Cheung previously oversaw innovation and product development.

Ralph Lauren: As of mid-2025, Angela Ahrendts was elevated to the role of Lead Independent Director at Ralph Lauren, making her the highest-ranking woman on the company’s board. Her contribution to RL is significant and multifaceted. Drawing on her prior leadership of global luxury and retail businesses — including as CEO of a major fashion house and senior retail executive at a major technology company — she brings deep expertise in brand positioning, omni-channel retail strategy (stores + online) and global operations. As Chair of the Finance Committee and a member of the Nominating, Governance & Sustainability Committee, Ahrendts now influences RL’s capital allocation, risk oversight, board composition and long-term strategic direction.

Her elevation comes at a pivotal time. In the second quarter of fiscal 2026, this Zacks Rank #2 company reported strong performance — revenue growth was up double digits and profitability improved, driven by strength across global markets, product-mix shifts and favorable cost inputs (notably cotton), which raised gross margin. 

While Ahrendts is not part of management, her enhanced board role and oversight responsibilities help ensure that the company’s new “brand value + expansion” strategy remains disciplined — balancing growth ambitions with financial prudence, governance and long-term shareholder value creation.

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 for ensuring that closures and upgrades proceed smoothly, minimizing sales disruptions and safeguarding customer 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 #2 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.

The Gap: Katrina O'Connell, as CFO of Gap Inc., plays a central, largely behind-the-scenes role in translating the company’s strategic brand revival into financial discipline and capital-markets credibility, and her imprint is particularly visible in the company’s recent third-quarter fiscal 2025 results. O’Connell’s 25+ years at Gap, spanning finance, inventory management, brand finance, and investor relations, have given her extensive institutional knowledge across both the company’s growth brands, such as Old Navy, and legacy brands, including Gap and Banana Republic. Such a background has enabled her to lead global finance in a way that balances strategic reinvestments (e.g. brand rejuvenation, store real estate, omnichannel expansion) with disciplined cost control, inventory management and forecasting — a dual focus that underpins sustainable margin and cash flow.

In the third quarter of fiscal 2025, Gap delivered net sales of $3.94 billion (up 3% year over year) with comparable sales increasing 5%, gross margin at 42.4%, and operating income of $334 million, resulting in net income of $236 million and EPS of 62 cents. These figures reflect O’Connell’s financial stewardship — navigating headwinds, such as tariff-driven cost pressures (which weighed on merchandise margin), while preserving gross-margin integrity and sustaining free cash flow ($280 million over the first 39 weeks).

Given the challenging macro environment — inflation, tariffs and shifting consumer behavior — O'Connell’s disciplined cost structure oversight, inventory controls and capital allocation have been instrumental in allowing this Zacks Rank #2 company to meet or beat expectations. Her role helps ensure that as the company invests in marketing, brand reinvigoration, and omnichannel expansion, its financial foundations remain sound — a critical factor for maintaining long-term equity investor confidence.

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