An updated edition of the Jan. 16, 2026 article.

Corporate leadership is undergoing a meaningful structural shift as more women assume top roles at publicly traded companies. This change is increasingly driven by performance, with women-led organizations showing stronger innovation, greater operational agility and improving shareholder returns across industries. These leadership appointments go beyond symbolism, as many of these executives are outperforming peers through disciplined execution, efficient capital allocation and a clear focus on long-term value creation, strengthening investor confidence in more resilient and sustainable business models.

The latest reports paint a nuanced picture: women are becoming a structural force in U.S. entrepreneurship, even as funding and systemic gaps persist. One of the clearest takeaways is scale. Women now own more than 40% of all U.S. businesses, employing roughly 12.6 million people and generating $2.8 trillion in revenue. Growth has also been faster than that of male-owned firms, with women-owned businesses expanding nearly twice as quickly between 2022 and 2025. This shift signals that female entrepreneurship is no longer niche—it is central to the U.S. small- and mid-sized business ecosystem, particularly in services, consumer, healthcare and increasingly tech-enabled sectors. The data suggests women are not just starting companies, but building durable, employment-generating enterprises, a key driver of long-term economic resilience.

Recent venture data shows a meaningful rise in participation at the high-growth end of the market. In 2025, U.S. startups with at least one female founder raised a record $73.6 billion, capturing around 27–28% of total VC deal value, the highest share on record. Importantly, female founders are increasingly present in AI and next-generation technology ecosystems, which now account for a large portion of capital deployed. This indicates a shift from traditional sectors into high-value, innovation-driven markets, positioning women at the center of future growth themes.

At the same time, capital is becoming more concentrated in fewer, larger deals—often in AI—suggesting that while top-tier female-led companies are scaling rapidly, broader participation remains uneven.

Female founders are increasingly focusing on building scalable, exit-ready businesses rather than just early-stage growth. Recent data shows their exit values have more than doubled year over year, with female-led firms accounting for about 25% of U.S. exits. This reflects a more mature approach, with greater emphasis on sustainable growth, stronger leadership teams and early exit planning. As a result, women entrepreneurs are not only creating ventures but also successfully scaling and monetizing them, improving long-term value creation.

Despite strong progress, a significant funding gap continues to limit the full potential of female founders. All-female founding teams still receive only about 1–2% of total U.S. venture capital, even though evidence suggests they often deliver higher capital efficiency and competitive returns. This imbalance highlights a structural constraint within the venture ecosystem, where access to early-stage and growth funding remains uneven. As a result, many promising female-led startups may struggle to scale at the same pace as their peers, underscoring a sizable untapped opportunity for investors willing to address this gap.

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 Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY Quick QuoteOXY - Free Report) from the oil and gas exploration and production industry, Phillips 66 (PSX Quick QuotePSX - Free Report) from the refining and midstream energy space, Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET Quick QuoteANET - Free Report) from the cloud networking and data center infrastructure industry, Casey's General Stores (CASY Quick QuoteCASY - Free Report) from the convenience retail sector, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD Quick QuoteAMD - Free Report) from the semiconductor and AI computing industry. 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

Occidental: Vicki Hollub has played a pivotal role in reshaping Occidental Petroleum Corporation over the past decade, steering it toward a more focused and cash-generative upstream model. Since taking over as CEO in 2016, she has emphasized high-return assets, particularly in the Permian Basin, while streamlining operations and improving efficiency. Her focus on cost control during the oil downturn helped transform Occidental into a leaner operator, and her strong operational expertise supported efficient production growth alongside consistent reserve replacement.

A key feature of Hollub’s leadership has been her readiness to undertake large-scale strategic moves to strengthen long-term resource depth. The $55 billion acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum in 2019 significantly expanded Occidental’s footprint in the Permian, although it also raised leverage and investor concerns. More recently, her strategy has shifted toward strengthening the balance sheet and maintaining capital discipline. This includes the $9.7 billion divestiture of OxyChem and continued debt reduction efforts, signaling a move away from aggressive expansion toward a more shareholder-focused approach centered on deleveraging and returns.

Financially, this strategy has supported steady performance despite ongoing commodity price volatility. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Occidental generated oil and gas pre-tax income of $0.7 billion, with total production reaching 1.48 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, exceeding guidance due to solid Permian output. The company has also made meaningful progress on its balance sheet, reducing debt and raising its dividend by more than 8%, with payouts doubling over the past four years. Overall, Hollub’s impact lies in repositioning Occidental as a more disciplined and asset-focused energy company, balancing growth ambitions with improved financial strength and shareholder returns. Currently, Occidental sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). 

Phillips 66: Tandra Perkins has been instrumental in reinforcing the enterprise foundation of Phillips 66 through her leadership in digital transformation and centralized corporate functions. As Chief Digital and Administrative Officer, she manages IT, procurement, real estate, innovation and enterprise services—areas that directly affect cost efficiency, capital deployment and operational reliability. Her role is less tied to production growth and more focused on building scalable infrastructure across refining, midstream and chemicals, helping the company operate more efficiently in a margin-sensitive downstream environment.

From an equity perspective, Perkins’ impact is most evident in enhancing structural efficiency and enabling strategy execution. Her emphasis on digital platforms and integrated enterprise services supports Phillips 66’s efforts to optimize refining performance, improve supply-chain visibility and advance energy transition initiatives such as renewable fuels and midstream expansion. This is particularly important as the company directs capital toward higher-return opportunities, including its $2.4 billion 2026 capex plan centered on refining optimization and NGL infrastructure, where disciplined procurement and digital integration play a key role in execution.

Financially, her contributions underpin resilience during periods of refining margin volatility. Recent results reflect this dynamic—fourth-quarter performance faced pressure from weaker refining margins, but gains in renewable fuels and operational efficiencies helped offset the impact. In stronger margin environments, the company has demonstrated meaningful earnings leverage, with refining and midstream segments delivering solid results. Within this framework, Perkins’ role is to drive consistent cost discipline, scalable digital capabilities and enterprise-wide efficiency, all of which are critical to sustaining cash flows and shareholder returns across cycles. Currently, Phillips 66 sports a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Arista: Jayshree Ullal has been central to transforming Arista Networks from a niche data-center switching vendor into a leading force in cloud and AI networking. Since taking charge in 2008 as founding CEO and now serving as Chairperson, she has led a software-driven strategy centered on Arista’s EOS platform, enabling scalable, high-performance networking for hyperscale data centers. By focusing early on cloud giants and high-performance computing workloads, Ullal positioned the company at the forefront of the AI infrastructure cycle, allowing it to gain significant share in high-speed Ethernet switching. This strategic direction has set Arista apart from legacy peers, supporting a higher-margin, innovation-focused business model.

In recent years, Ullal’s leadership has been defined by aligning Arista with the rapid expansion in AI and cloud capital spending. The company has broadened its footprint beyond core data centers into AI networking, campus solutions and routing, creating multiple growth avenues. Management has outlined a path to scale AI networking revenues beyond $3 billion in 2026, supported by strong co-design partnerships with hyperscalers and AI infrastructure players. This reflects Ullal’s strategy of embedding Arista in mission-critical, high-bandwidth environments where performance and software integration are essential, strengthening customer stickiness and pricing power over time.

Arista’s financial performance highlights the success of this approach. In 2025, the company generated $9 billion in revenue, marking a 28.6% year-over-year increase, while GAAP net income rose to $3.5 billion, with gross margins holding near 64%. Fourth-quarter 2025 revenue climbed nearly 29% year over year to $2.49 billion, and non-GAAP net income surpassed $1 billion, demonstrating strong operating leverage. Overall, Ullal has delivered a combination of rapid growth and sustained profitability, positioning Arista as a key beneficiary of AI-driven network investments while maintaining superior margins and cash generation compared with peers. Currently, Arista carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Casey's: Ena Williams has been instrumental in reinforcing the operational foundation of Casey's General Stores, helping position the company for scalable expansion across its growing store network. As Chief Operating Officer, she leads key areas including store operations, fuel supply, real estate, construction and continuous improvement—functions that directly impact same-store sales, margin performance and execution consistency. Her appointment in 2020 aligned with Casey’s broader effort to streamline operations and advance its multi-year strategy, particularly through centralized procurement and improved efficiencies that support margin resilience in a competitive convenience retail landscape.

Her impact is most visible in driving operational scale and enhancing store-level productivity. With nearly 3,000 stores across multiple states, Williams has focused on standardizing processes, strengthening supply-chain efficiency and expanding the high-margin prepared food business, a core earnings driver. Drawing on her experience at large retail organizations, she has introduced disciplined execution across merchandising, logistics and workforce management, enabling Casey’s to integrate acquisitions smoothly and pursue organic growth while maintaining consistent service quality and customer engagement.

These operational improvements have supported steady top-line performance despite volatility in fuel markets. Casey’s generated roughly $4.6 billion in revenues in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, reflecting strong year-over-year growth driven by network expansion and in-store sales momentum. While fuel margins and traffic trends remain cyclical, Williams’ emphasis on efficiency and prepared food growth has helped sustain profitability and cash flow. Overall, her contribution centers on building a scalable, execution-focused operating model that supports long-term expansion, margin improvement and earnings stability across cycles. Currently, Casey’s carries a Zacks Rank #2.

Advanced Micro Devices: Lisa Su has been the key architect behind the turnaround of Advanced Micro Devices, transforming it from a PC-focused, underperforming chipmaker into a broad-based leader in high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. Since taking over as CEO in 2014, she has reshaped AMD’s strategic direction toward data centers, gaming and adaptive computing, while tightening operational discipline and execution. Her early emphasis on high-performance CPUs and GPUs—led by EPYC server processors and Ryzen chips—helped AMD regain competitiveness against larger rivals and significantly expand its presence in both server and PC markets.

In the past few years, Su’s most important contribution has been aligning AMD with the rapidly expanding AI infrastructure opportunity. She has accelerated investments in data center GPUs, open AI software ecosystems and large-scale computing platforms, including next-generation accelerators and rack-scale solutions aimed at competing with established industry leaders. At the same time, partnerships with hyperscale cloud providers and AI-focused enterprises, along with a steadily improving software stack, have strengthened AMD’s position in AI workloads. This strategic pivot is particularly important as AI spending is expected to remain a long-term growth driver across cloud, enterprise and sovereign deployments.

The benefits of Su’s strategy are clearly reflected in AMD’s latest financial performance. The company delivered record results in 2025, with data center revenue rising 32% year over year to $16.6 billion, while fourth-quarter data center sales reached a record $5.4 billion, driven by strong demand for EPYC processors and Instinct GPUs. AMD exited the year with record overall revenue and earnings, supported by growth across AI, client and gaming segments. From an equity standpoint, Su’s consistent execution and AI-focused strategy have reshaped AMD’s growth profile, shifting investor perception from a cyclical semiconductor play to a structurally driven, next-generation computing story. Currently, AMD carries a Zacks Rank #2.