2 Stocks Built to Thrive If Inflation Refuses to Fade

Summary

With ongoing geopolitical tensions keeping inflation stubbornly high, investors have been hunting for businesses that don't just survive a higher-cost environment but actively benefit from one. It's a harder search than it sounds, because most companies are hurt by persistent inflation, whether through squeezed margins, rising input costs, or nervous consumers reining in their spending. A small handful, though, are built differently. Two names in particular stand out as businesses whose entire models are arguably strengthened when prices stay elevated longer than the market expects: warehouse-club giant Costco Wholesale Corp. NASDAQ: COST and waste-collection leader Waste Management Inc. NYSE: WM. Each offers a very different kind of inflation protection, but both are built for exactly the environment investors are starting to worry more and more about.Get Waste Management alerts:Sign Up Costco: Where Inflation Sends Shoppers Hunting for ValueThe bull case for Costco rests on a simple behavioral truth. When household budgets tighten, shoppers don't stop spending; they just get more deliberate about where they spend. That tends to push them straight toward the kind of bulk-buy value Costco is built around.Costco Wholesale MarketRank™ Stock AnalysisOverall MarketRank™89th Percentile Analyst RatingModerate Buy Upside/Downside13.3% Upside Short Interest LevelHealthy Dividend StrengthStrong News Sentiment1.08 Insider TradingSelling Shares Proj. Earnings Growth10.19% See Full Analysis Analysts at Bernstein recently leaned into exactly this logic. The team there raised its price target on the stock last month on the view that sticky inflation will keep pushing consumers toward warehouse-level prices. At $1,194, they're targeting around 30% upside from where the stock is currently trading. The basis for that bullish view is a dynamic that plays directly into one of Costco's greatest competitive strengths, its membership model. The company earns a solid chunk of its revenue,...