An updated edition of the May 19, 2025, article.

Corporate leadership is undergoing a quiet but powerful transformation. As more women take the helm of publicly traded companies, they’re not only reshaping boardrooms but also delivering market-beating performance. From tech to healthcare, women-led firms are proving that inclusive leadership can drive innovation, resilience, and lasting shareholder value. Far from being symbolic appointments, these leaders are redefining what strong, strategic growth looks like — and in many cases, outperforming their peers. This shift isn’t just about diversity quotas or representation — it’s about unlocking new ways to foster sustainable growth and long-term profitability.

Take Accenture (ACN Quick QuoteACN - Free Report) as an example. Julie Sweet led Accenture’s $3 billion AI investment and doubled the company's AI workforce, accelerating its digital transformation. She restructured the company’s growth model to unify services and drive innovation. As the first female CEO and Chair, she strengthened talent strategy and global brand leadership. Likewise, at The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (EL Quick QuoteEL - Free Report) , Rashida La Lande was appointed as executive vice president and Global General Counsel in 2024, strengthening the company’s global legal, ESG, and compliance frameworks during a period of organizational transformation.

The financial market is recognizing the value of gender-diverse leadership, with ESG-focused funds prioritizing companies with women in executive roles. The BMJ Global Health review covering 137 studies highlighted women’s transformational and democratic leadership enhances innovation, ethics, financial performance, health outcomes, and organizational culture. Women entrepreneurs now own 42% of all U.S. businesses, employing 9.4 million workers and generating $1.9 trillion in revenues annually. 

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. Additionally, women entrepreneurs are less likely to seek financing, with only 25% pursuing loans compared to 33% of male business owners.

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 Adobe Inc. (ADBE Quick QuoteADBE - Free Report) from the software industry, McKesson Corporation (MCK Quick QuoteMCK - Free Report) in healthcare distribution, Centene Corporation (CNC Quick QuoteCNC - Free Report) in managed healthcare and Bumble Inc. (BMBL Quick QuoteBMBL - Free Report) in online dating and social networking. 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

Adobe: Lara Balazs, who joined Adobe in late 2024 as chief marketing officer and executive vice president of Global Marketing, has significantly strengthened Adobe's brand and go-to-market engine. She oversees Adobe’s iconic brand, Adobe.com, campaigns, events, communications, social media, media operations, and marketing analytics. Drawing on her proven success at Intuit, Amazon, Visa, and Nike, Balazs brings a customer-first perspective and AI driven marketing rigor that aligns well with Adobe’s strategy to scale its Creative Cloud and Experience Cloud franchises globally.

Balazs's arrival is timed to amplify Adobe’s momentum in a crucial period of enhanced financial performance. In the first quarter of fiscal 2025, Adobe delivered adjusted EPS of $5.08, up from $4.48 in the year-ago quarter, marking an impressive gain that underscores strong demand for Adobe’s offerings. This was followed by fiscal second-quarter adjusted EPS of $5.06 compared with $4.48 a year earlier, demonstrating consistent earnings leverage. As CMO, Balazs's role in articulating product value, engaging with corporate buyers, and energizing brand affinity arguably contributed to driving license growth and retention within Adobe’s monetizable user base.

Looking ahead, Balazs's track record in scaling membership programs (like Amazon Prime) and launching digital-first products (such as Apple Pay) signals potential upside. Adobe’s continued investment in generative AI—evidenced by Firefly and CDP offerings—requires sophisticated marketing to convert innovation into commercial success. Balazs’s leadership in global campaigns and insights-driven media buying positions Adobe, a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company, to sustain its growth trajectory. For investors, her contribution extends beyond marketing—it underpins brand valuation, supports margin expansion, and complements Adobe's broader strategy aimed at sustaining mid-to-high teens organic revenue growth.

McKesson: Michele Lau leads the company’s legal, compliance, public affairs, internal audit, and corporate governance functions. She was appointed as the executive vice president and chief legal officer in January 2024 after over a decade in McKesson’s legal ranks. Her elevation during a period of rising regulatory scrutiny—particularly around opioids and supply chain resilience—signals McKesson's strategic priority of fortifying its legal frameworks. By chairing a strengthened General Counsel organization, Lau has positioned McKesson to handle complex litigation and manage government and industry affairs with greater discipline, supporting enterprise-wide operational integrity.

Lau’s legal stewardship has important financial ramifications. In fiscal 2025, her total compensation dropped sharply—to approximately $5.2 million, down 41% from $8.8 million a year earlier—driven by a significant reduction in stock awards and the absence of a prior-year bonus. This adjustment aligns her incentives with shareholder value and reflects McKesson's broader efforts toward prudent executive pay in a challenging market environment. As CLO, she helps shape the governance structures that influence executive compensation, earnings guidance, and disclosures critical to investor trust.

Lau has played a critical role as a strategic advisor in high-stakes corporate initiatives, from integrating specialty healthcare units to navigating major acquisitions and separation transactions. Her earlier tenure as SVP and Corporate Secretary saw her collaborating directly with the board and senior management on strategic projects. For McKesson’s future growth drivers—such as acquisitions, supply chain diversification, and ESG commitments—Lau’s ability to guide legal due diligence, regulatory approvals, and post deal integration is invaluable. By ensuring legal robustness in transformative projects, she underpins this Zacks Rank #2 company’s capacity to grow while maintaining margin discipline and stakeholder confidence. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Centene: Sarah M. London has played a pivotal role in transforming Centene since her appointment as CEO in March 2022. Prior to leading the company, she served as vice chairman and spearheaded strategy, technology, digital innovation, compliance, and quality operations—including standalone specialty businesses outside of core health plans. Under her leadership, Centene improved the scalability and agility of its enterprise systems, laying the groundwork for better integrated care delivery and positioning the firm to absorb complex acquisitions like Magellan Health. This strategic overhaul has strengthened Centene's capabilities to innovate across Medicaid, Medicare, and ACA marketplaces.

Financially, Centene, reporting roughly $163 billion in revenues in 2024, is marked as a Fortune 25 company and the largest U.S. Medicaid provider. Under London, the company served nearly 28 million members by the end of 2023, up from 26 million at the time of her appointment. While first-quarter 2025 revenues reached approximately $46.6 billion, Centene, a Zacks Rank #2 company, also enhanced its margin profile and operational discipline by integrating new businesses and reducing redundancies across enterprise and specialty units.

Beyond operational and financial impact, London has garnered significant industry recognition, being named one of Modern Healthcare's 100 Most Influential People in 2023 (ranking 24th) and featured among Fortune's 100 Most Powerful Women. These accolades underscore her leadership both internally and externally. Her tenure signals a disciplined shift toward data-driven, value-based care, improved integration of acquisitions, and sustainable growth. As the youngest CEO in the Fortune 500, London's strategic vision and execution remain central to Centene's trajectory and long-term shareholder value.

Bumble: Whitney Wolfe Herd has been the driving force behind Bumble since founding the company in December 2014 and has steered its vision and growth through multiple stages, serving as founder, CEO (2020–2024), executive chair, and then returning as CEO beginning March 17, 2025. Her leadership cultivated a brand rooted in female empowerment and trust—women initiate the connection—positioning Bumble as a “feminist dating app” which drove explosive early growth, reaching tens of millions of users and public recognition as the world’s youngest woman CEO to take a company public in the United States at the age of 31. This early brand differentiation under Herd’s direction established Bumble as a premium, purpose-driven entrant within a highly competitive online dating landscape.

In her roles as CEO, Herd has implemented strategic shifts aimed at balancing growth with user health and financial discipline. After stepping back in early 2024, she returned to lead a critical turnaround in March 2025 amid declining revenue and engagement challenges. Under her renewed leadership, Bumble executed a workforce reduction of approximately 30%, targeting $40 million in annual cost savings and redirecting capital toward product, technology, and trust-and-safety enhancements. These measures have already catalyzed an improved outlook: management raised its second-quarter fiscal 2025 revenue guidance to $244–249 million (versus prior expectation of $235–245 million) and lifted EBITDA projections to the $88–93 million range.

On the financial front, Bumble’s fourth-quarter 2024 results under Herd’s oversight revealed modest revenue decline (total revenue down 4.4% year over year to $261.6 million; App revenue down 3.8% to $212.4 million), but also demonstrated improved profitability—operating income of $37 million (14.1% margin) and adjusted EBITDA of $72.5 million (27.7%). Despite revenue falling 7.7% in the first quarter of fiscal 2025 to $247.1 million and earnings sliding to $19.8 million (8% margin), the stock rallied on Herd’s decisive restructuring and margin preservation actions. Herd's clear-sighted restructuring, trusted brand identity, and refocus on user experience and safety form the foundation of a potential recovery—setting Bumble, a Zacks Rank #2 company, on a path toward renewed revenue momentum, stabilized margins, and improved shareholder confidence.