Hot Stocks: 3 Sleeping Giants Set to Dominate Their Sectors

Some stocks fly under the radar of investors, even as they quietly dominate the industry they operate in. These hidden stocks rise to the top by developing a competitive advantage. This allows them to take market share from competitors and achieve strong financial results.

Wall Street analysts who cover specific sectors of the economy and their competing stocks may notice a particular company dominating. But retail investors often miss it. The lack of media coverage and attention given to certain stocks allows them to go unnoticed. And this can happen even when their stock price is steadily rising.

Let’s take a look at three such hot stocks that are sure to dominate their sectors.

Corning (GLW)

Specialist glass manufacturer Cornwall (NYSE:GLV) doesn’t attract much attention. However, its shares are up 12% on the day of this writing after the company raised its guidance ahead of its second-quarter financial results, which are due July 30. Corning said it expects revenue of $3.6 billion, down from its previous guidance of $3.4 billion in second-quarter sales.

On the earnings side, Corning is now forecasting EPS at the “high end” of its range of 42 cents to 46 cents. Corning added that it is seeing sales growth as demand for new optical connectivity products designed for artificial intelligence increases (Artificial intelligence). Although still best known for its CorningWare line of cookware, the company divested its consumer products business in 1998.

Today, Corning is a technology company that produces specialty glass that is used in technological and scientific applications. In practice, Corning produces glass for large-screen TVs, mobile phones, such as Apples (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone and fiber optics. GLW shares are up 41% year-on-year.

Eli Lilly (LLY)

If Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE:LLY) doesn’t yet dominate the pharmaceutical industry, but it looks like it will soon. As of July 1, the company has received regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will begin selling its blockbuster Alzheimer’s drug. LLY also announced it is buying a biopharmaceutical company Morphic Holding (NASDAQ:MORF) for $3.2 billion.

Morphic Holding develops treatments for chronic diseases, particularly inflammatory bowel disease. The deal is expected to help Eli Lilly continue to expand its medical specialty of gastroenterology. Last fall, the FDA approved Eli Lilly’s drug Omvoh, which is used to treat ulcerative colitis. The approval of the Alzheimer’s drug Donanemab and the purchase of Morphic come as Eli Lilly struggles to meet global demand for its weight-loss drug Zepbound, another blockbuster drug.

Given all the positive developments, it’s no surprise that LLY shares are up 102% in the past 12 months, making it one of the best-performing pharma stocks.

UBS (UBS)

In the banking sector, the Swiss financial giant UBS Group (NYSE:UBS) seems to be in a more dominant position after completing the merger with its former rival Credit Suisse July 1. UBS agreed to acquire Credit Suisse in 2023 for $3.2 billion after that bank collapsed. The Credit Suisse takeover left Switzerland, arguably the world’s most famous banking center, with a single global bank whose balance sheet is twice the size of its economy.

If nothing else, the Credit Suisse acquisition gives UBS enough size to better compete with large international lenders like JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) in the USA and HSBC Holdings (NYSE:HSBC) in the U.K. Furthermore, the completion of the transaction gives UBS a near-monopoly as the only full-service depository bank in its native Switzerland, which has a population of just under nine million. UBS shares are up 52% ​​in the past 12 months.

On the date of publication, Joel Baglole held a long position in LLY. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

On the date of publication of this article, the editor in charge did not hold (directly or indirectly) any interests in the securities referred to in this article.