3 brilliant women in finance share their 5 must-watch stocks

This International Women’s Day, Livewire is shining a spotlight on Future Generation Women, featuring a stellar team of female investment managers and investing for change. This year’s theme is Accelerate Action – and arguably the team at Future Generation are doing all they can to move for change.

Best-in-class investment returns and a goal of promoting economic equality and opportunities for women and children may sound like lofty goals, if not impossible ones.

After all, investors are used to the old myth that you have to accept a loss in return for ethical or sustainable investing. Future Generation Women turns that on its head. This is not your parents’ version of not-for-profit investing.

Future Generation Women is the third fund offered under Future Generation’s unique and highly successful approach to not-for-profit investing and was launched in late 2024. In fact, all the fund managers involved in Future Generation Women are well-known to Livewire’s audience and stand out as top-performers in the industry.

The lineup is shown below:

Caroline Gurney, CEO of Future Generation, notes that “our Australian equity managers have all beaten their benchmarks since the funds they manage were first launched. That compares to a recent Morningstar analysis into active and passive investment styles in Australia, which found that the odds of picking an active fund that would beat the benchmark is roughly 50%.”

The global equity managers in the suite are equally impressive. For example, Qiao Ma’s strategy returned 62.1% for the 12 months to 31 January 2025.

Impressed yet?

To understand more about this fund and its high-calibre fund managers, I spoke to Future Generation CEO Caroline Gurney, along with a few of the fund managers involved with the Fund – Magellan Financial Group’s Nikki Thomas, Minotaur Capital’s Arms Rosenberg and Munro Partners’ Qiao Ma. They also shared some of the high conviction investments they use in their strategies.

Putting the returns back into not-for-profit

“The Future Generation model allows us to make a significant social contribution – without compromising shareholder returns,” says Gurney.

In its unique model, fund managers waive their usual fees, with the portfolio investing into the fund managers’ existing strategies. Rather than the standard performance or management fees to investors, instead 1% of the net assets of the fund are donated to not-for-profits.

“Like Future Generation funds, Future Generation Women gives investors access to top-tier boutique fund managers. But, what sets Future Generation Women apart is that it is an unlisted trust and is managed entirely by women portfolio managers,” Gurney explains.

It will be donating to not-for-profits that are working to advance economic equality and opportunity for women and their children. The selection process will open later this year, with any charity welcome to submit an expression of interest. 

The team is looking for charities focused on three key areas:

1. Combating harmful gender norms
2. Promoting financial literacy and capability for women and their children
3. Improving access to work for women, particularly those most affected by economic inequality, such as older women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and regional and rural women.

Gurney also highlights that the fund managers involved in the portfolio have committed to progressively incorporate a gender lens into their investment decisions, such as board composition or equal pay.

“It really is an exciting, unique opportunity for investors who want to get great returns, while supporting economic equality in Australia,” says Gurney.

No guarantee of selection

As with any other investment, fund managers for Future Generation Women went through a rigorous selection process run by an investment committee.

And, just like the fund managers, the investment committee itself reads like a who’s who of finance – the likes of AMP’s Anna Shelley, Minderoo Foundation’s Bruce Tomlinson, QIC’s Alison Hill, JANA’s John Coombe, CareSuper’s Suzanne Branton and Wilson Asset Management’s Geoff Wilson AO (also the founder of Future Generation).

It meets quarterly to assess and monitor the portfolio. It uses a tool called BARRA to help compare optimal configurations of the strategies for the portfolio, considering risk characteristics like growth, value, earnings per share, momentum, and size.

As part of the selection process, fund managers were invited to put together a proposal covering their process, philosophy and performance history, along with their approach to diversity.

It is telling that Gurney recounts, “Nobody said 'no' when we approached them with this opportunity.”

“In my experience, women are keen to get their finger on the capital and there’s definitely a hunger among investors for women-led funds to shine. It’s just about creating the right space for them,” she adds.

It’s a view backed by Rosenberg, who wants young aspiring females from different backgrounds to see the possibilities.

“I’m proof that women from ethnic backgrounds (I’m Indonesian) and poor socio-demographic areas can make it in this industry,” Rosenberg says.

Her invitation to submit a proposal came in an unexpected way, when she commented on an X post made by Geoff Wilson on the empirical studies demonstrating that female fund managers outperform on average. He gave her a call to invite her to submit for Future Generation Women and “of course, I said yes”.

Ma was already involved with another of the Future Generation funds, but, similarly to Rosenberg, loved the concept that the fund could encourage girls and women to aspire to investing.

“We wanted to get involved with Future Generation Women because we aim to ultimately encourage more female stock pickers to join the industry and to inspire young females to think about money and investing from an early age. If they can see it, they can believe it,” she says.

Like Ma, Thomas was also involved in Future Generation already and pitching for Future Generation Women was "driven by a desire to support a terrific initiative, expanding Future Generation's charitable scale, while empowering women and fostering a broadening of equality."

Invest like a woman

Given the credentials of the managers in Future Generation Women, it’s hard not to ask for a few sneaky stock picks. Ma, Rosenberg and Thomas kindly shared some of their high conviction picks for the next few years.

Qiao Ma

Wix (NASDAQ: WIX)

Founded in 2006, Wix addressed a critical pain point for businesses: the difficulty and expense of creating effective websites. Before Wix, entrepreneurs were often faced with a choice between complex platforms like WordPress, requiring specialised skills, or costly professional web developers. Wix disrupted this model by offering user-friendly, drag-and-drop tools that enabled anyone to build professional-looking websites without coding.

Today, Wix is further enhancing its platform with generative AI, allowing users to effortlessly generate logos, craft compelling product descriptions, and optimise their websites for search and social media through simple English prompts. 

"With strong founder-led leadership and a reputation for excellent customer service, Wix is poised for substantial growth. We anticipate a potential 15% revenue CAGR, translating to 25% earnings and free cash flow growth over the next few years," Ma says.

At under 20x projected 2025 free cash flow, Wix offers a compelling valuation for its growth potential, making it a current key holding in the Munro Global Growth Small and Mid-Cap Fund.

Armina Rosenberg

IperionX (ASX: IPX)

IperionX is a titanium metal disruptor whose patented technology produces titanium products at lower cost and with better environmental credentials than incumbent processes. While titanium metal's superior properties (high strength, light weight, corrosion resistance) make it ideal for aerospace and automotive applications, its broad adoption has been limited by high production costs and difficult workability. 

"The company has recently received a substantial amount of grant funding from the US Government for the purpose of re-shoring domestic titanium production (it manufactures in the US)," Rosenberg says.

"This was a competitive process and the company beat out several large incumbent titanium companies that have multi-billion dollar market caps due to their superior product offering. We see strong growth prospects for this company."

As an added bonus, 50% of its board is female, as are 33% of its key management personnel.

COVER Corporation (5253 JP)

COVER is a Japanese company at the forefront of digital entertainment through its VTuber talent management business. The company has demonstrated extraordinary growth, scaling revenue from A$1 million to A$360 million in just five years. It offers an innovative blend of talent management, similar to the K-pop industry, and interesting character creation, like you see in the WWE.

COVER has strong revenue drivers beyond streaming (which is now only 24% of revenue), like concerts (16%), merchandising (46%) and licensing (15%). Revenue per VTuber has grown from A$400,000 in 2020 to over $4 million today. 

The company also has an exceptional CEO in Motoaki "Yagoo" Tanigo, whose talent-first approach has resulted in industry-leading retention rates and rapidly growing audience bases. It trades on a forward P/E of 23 times, and has guided to a more than 40% uplift in net profit growth (which we believe is conservative). 

It is also moving into Western markets, so there is further potential for growth as that continues to gain traction. As another added bonus, COVER offers female streamers the ability to keep themselves safe as having an avatar instead of your actual face gives you anonymity.

Nikki Thomas

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI)

Mercado Libre is Latin America’s eCommerce and fintech leader listed in the US with a market Cap of US$105b. The company operates across e-commerce (MercadoLibre), Fintech (Mercado Pago), Logistics (Mercado Envios), and has its own loyalty scheme (MELI+).

Supported by an integrated product and services ecosystem, it is well positioned to persistently gain share of retail and can expand its marketplace monetization through rising penetration of value-added services including advertising and logistics. Its fintech business should grow volumes across core payment processing and mobile wallet verticals, as well as expanding its credit business.

In 2024, the commerce business grew 48% to $12.2B revenues on $52B gross merchandise sales. Its logistics business added 10 fulfilment centres and 49% of Mercado Envios’s deliveries were completed same or next day. 

Its fintech business, Mercado Pago, grew revenues 25% to $8.6B with total payment volumes reaching almost $200B, up 34%. While cash flow measures are impacted by fluctuations in the utilisation of its credit card and loans made to merchants and consumers enabling e-commerce, at its heart, MELI is a capital light, technology led company with an innovative and inclusive culture.

Latin America has a population of over 600m, twice the size of the US, with over 200m in Brazil and 100m in Mexico. 

"At end of 2024, Mercado Libre has over 100m annual unique buyers, and while large, it is just 16% of its addressable population. Fintech monthly active users reached 61m and continues to expand rapidly," Thomas says.

"Ecommerce is estimated to be around 15% of retail sales in Mexico and approaching 10% in Brazil, with Meli the most used platform. This penetration is about a decade behind the US and less than half what China has seen, with estimates expecting over 50% growth in the next 5 years, giving MELI a vast runway to grow its revenues."

MELI’s rich first party data and huge reach puts it in an outstanding position to grow in retail media advertising, a market segment that could more than double in coming years. While around three-quarters of Latin Americans have a bank account, under 50% are banked in Mexico. Credit card penetration remains low across the region at 28% and as a leading fintech firm, Meli is improving financial inclusion.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)

As markets pullback, driven by the heightened uncertainty around Trump Administration policy dynamism and a shift in sentiment around the dominant technology stocks as big capital spending agendas play out, an opportunity to buy Microsoft at a discount is appearing. 

It is delivering double digit growth in revenues and profits even as it executes on a significant investment in supply for the future utilisation of Generative AI. The magnitude of this investment, at ~$80B this year with ~$60B its own capital and the rest via leases, is weighing on free cash flow generation right now, but we expect demand will come in the future, accelerating Microsoft’s growth as it monetises the opportunity. 

This investment is pivoting toward shorter life technology needs from the build out of datacentre facilities in 2026, a positive for generating returns on the spend, while evidence of rising adoption and utilisation of its CoPilot products continues. 

It's worth noting that even after all of the spending, Microsoft will generate ~$60B annual surplus cash flows at the peak of its spending and has ~$75B of net cash on its balance sheet with a $60B stock repurchase programme in place.

Get inspired

While at this stage, Future Generation Women is only open to sophisticated and wholesale investors, Gurney explains the intent would be to “open it to retail investors if there is enough demand – which we believe there will be.”

You can find out more about Future Generation Women here.

To finish with the spirit of International Women’s Day and ‘accelerate action’, here are Gurney’s lessons from her own career to spur your own.

“Always say yes to an opportunity. Then figure out how you are going to do it! Secondly, capital conveys power. It is corporates and money markets that will drive real change. And finally, diverse thoughts lead to better outcomes. For this reason, ensure that there is diversity in every room, and around every table, where decisions are made,” Gurney shares.

And those are lessons you can take to any aspect of life, regardless of your gender or age.