10 Stocks to Buy to Profit from Post-COVID Economic Recovery

Published June 26, 2021 at 12:55 pm EDT Updated August 19, 2026 at 5:04 am EDT

In this article, we discuss the 10 stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery.

Inflation fears and a cryptocurrency slump in recent weeks have hit some of the prospects for the post-COVID economic recovery. However, with the vaccine rollout in the United States proceeding forward at a healthy pace and international travel activities resuming, the post-pandemic boom is well and truly underway. Some of the stocks that investors can look towards in hopes of riding these growth catalysts include Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABNB), The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), and Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA).

Airbnb, Inc., the online platform that connects renters with those who need short-term lodging, can power through the coming few months with strong recovery momentum behind it. On June 21, investment advisory Baird maintained an Outperform rating on the stock with a price target of $200. Colin Sebastian, an analyst at the firm, underlined the platform improvements and focused marketing campaigns of the company that he said would enable Airbnb to capitalize through the rest of the year.

The Walt Disney Company, perhaps one of the most recognizable brands in the world, is also expected to be one of the big gainers of the year as theme parks reopen in tandem with relaxed social distancing rules and easing mask mandates. According to investment bank UBS, theme parks could be back to pre-COVID operating levels as early as the holiday season this year. However, UBS has cautioned that full-year recovery for the sector is not expected for at least another two years.

With the relaxation of lockdown rules, another stock that could benefit is Comcast Corporation, the telecom firm that owns several broadcast channels and film studios. The relaxations would allow the company to resume filming, and as cinemas reopen, another source of revenue would be added to the money pipeline that would strengthen the firm in the coming weeks and months. As the internet streaming business of the firm grows, it could rival other streaming giants in the space because of sheer capital backing.

The tilt towards internet streaming has been necessitated by the digitization of the world in recent years. The entire hedge fund industry is feeling the reverberations of the changing financial landscape. Its reputation has been tarnished in the last decade, during which its hedged returns couldn’t keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. On the other hand, Insider Monkey’s research was able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 124 percentage points since March 2017. Between March 2017 and February 26th 2021 our monthly newsletter’s stock picks returned 197.2%, vs. 72.4% for the SPY. Our stock picks outperformed the market by more than 124 percentage points (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that significantly underperformed the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 13% through November 16th. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to. You can subscribe to our free newsletter on our homepage to receive our stories in your inbox.

Photo by Mesut Kaya on Unsplash

With this context in mind, here is our list of the 10 stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery. These were selected based on the upside potential they offer as the economy reopens, the overall market ratings, and hedge fund sentiment around the companies.

Stocks to Buy to Profit from Post-COVID Economic Recovery

10. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HLT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 47

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HLT) is a company that owns and runs several hotels and resorts across the world. It is placed tenth on our list of 10 stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery. The company’s shares have offered investors returns exceeding 74% over the course of the past twelve months. The company has been investing heavily in Las Vegas in recent years, doubling its footprint in three years with plans to expand to 30 hotels in the area by the end of this year.

On June 15, investment advisory Argus maintained a Buy rating on Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. stock with a price target of $145. The investment advisory also raised the 2021 earnings per share estimate on the hotel firm to $2.6 from $2.56.

At the end of the first quarter of 2021, 47 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $5 billion in Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., down from 60 the preceding quarter worth $6 billion.

Just like Airbnb, Inc., The Walt Disney Company, and Comcast Corporation, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. is one of the stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery.

In its Q1 2021 investor letter, LRT Capital Management, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HLT) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Hilton is the second largest hotel company in the world after Marriott International (MAR). The company owns a portfolio of brands from the low end (Hampton Inn, Hilton Garden Inn), through the mid-tier (DoubleTree, Hilton, Curio, Embassy Suites, Homewood Suites), to the luxury high end (Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, LXR). Hilton’s portfolio is almost perfectly balanced between the three categories, while the majority (73%) of the company’s EBITDA geographic exposure is in the United States with Asia Pacific and Europe each contributing another 10%. Hilton today is almost exclusively a manager and franchisor of hotels, not a hotel owner. The company owns 61 hotels, manages 715 and franchises 5,702 – in total 6,478 properties with over 1 million combined rooms.8 Like all franchise based businesses Hilton requires very little capital to grow as it utilizes the investment capital of its hotel-owners/partners to expand. Hilton currently faces a difficult operating environment due to the covid-19 pandemic and uncertainty about the future of business travel. However, the company is an excellent operator with a somewhat leveraged capital structure – if pent-up demand for travel materializes post-Covid, as we expect it will, the company will quickly go from losing money to raking in profits.

Hilton last reported earnings on February 17th, with both top and bottom line disappointing investment analysts’ expectations. However, these poor results are not indicative of the company’s long-term outlook. In normal times, Hilton generates prodigious free cash flow which we expect will resume once travel demand returns. Over the longer term we expect Hilton to grow its topline at least twice as fast as GDP due to rising revenues per room and the growing number of rooms. Most importantly, the industry continues to consolidate with chain branded hotels taking market share from independent operations. With the superior marketing and loyalty programs offered by hotel chains (Hilton Honors has 112 million members) driving demand, independent hotel owners see the benefits of signing up with one of the dominant hotel chains (Hilton, IHG and Marriott). Furthermore, the company’s main growth opportunities remain abroad, as hotel chain penetration remains much lower outside the United States. Shares are up 9.34% year-to-date. We believe the shares are undervalued at 31.72x forward earnings.”

9. LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (NYSE: LYB)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 47

LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (NYSE: LYB) is a Dutch firm that makes and sells chemicals. The company has operations throughout Europe, North America, Asia, and other places. The company is expected to benefit from the surge in demand for chemicals and oil as the economy reopens following the lockdowns of 2020. It is ranked ninth on our list of 10 stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery. The stock has returned 62% to investors over the course of the past year.

LyondellBasell Industries N.V. is a solid option for income investors as the firm pays a regular and healthy dividend. On May 28, it declared a quarterly dividend of $1.13 per share, up more than 7.5% from the previous dividend. The forward yield was close to 4%.

Out of the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, New York-based investment firm Eagle Capital Management is a leading shareholder in LyondellBasell Industries N.V. with 2.9 million shares worth more than $308 million.

Just like Airbnb, Inc., The Walt Disney Company, and Comcast Corporation, LyondellBasell Industries N.V. is one of the stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery.

8. Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 86

Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) is placed eighth on our list of 10 stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery. The company’s shares have returned 121% to investors in the past year. It is an online travel firm based in Washington. The firm recently beat market expectations on earnings per share and revenue for the first quarter of 2021, reporting a 14% year-on-year increase in bookings on the platform that are set to increase further as the vaccine rollout allows for more business operations to resume.

On June 10, investment advisory Wells Fargo gave Expedia Group, Inc. stock Overweight rating and placed the company in an attractive value and high momentum target list for investors in the consumer discretionary sector.

At the end of the first quarter of 2021, 86 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $6.1 billion in Expedia Group, Inc., up from 76 in the previous quarter worth $6.5 billion.

Just like Airbnb, Inc., The Walt Disney Company, and Comcast Corporation, Expedia Group, Inc. is one of the stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery.

In its Q1 2021 investor letter, ClearBridge Investments, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Several of our better performers in the first quarter were purchased while their business models were under stress from COVID restrictions or the macro environment the pandemic created. What gave us confidence in purchasing Expedia were the actions the company took to extend out their balance sheets until travel resumed. It should benefit as a broader vaccination rollout prompts cruise lines to resume operations and consumers to start traveling again and are positioned to deliver better margins and gain pricing power as the economy normalizes due to the cost controls implemented during the downturn.”

7. Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE: DAL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 50

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE: DAL) is one of the biggest airline carriers in the United States. As a travel boom follows the reopening of the economy, the company has been attracting positive reviews from analysts at investment advisories Jefferies and MKM. Jeffeires has a Buy rating on the stock and MKM has named it among its top picks for the travel recovery. The company is ranked seventh on our list of 10 stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery. The stock has returned more than 65% to investors in the past twelve months.

On June 21, news platform CNBC reported that Delta Air Lines, Inc. was considering hiring close to 1,000 new pilots within the next twelve months as travel demand picked up around the world and business increased.

Out of the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Chicago-based investment firm Citadel Investment Group is a leading shareholder in Delta Air Lines, Inc. with 4 million shares worth more than $195 million.

Just like Airbnb, Inc., The Walt Disney Company, and Comcast Corporation, Delta Air Lines, Inc. is one of the stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery.

In its Q2 2020 investor letter, Miller Value Partners, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE: DAL) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) declined -1.38% over the period after the initial hit to the stock in 1Q following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company reported 1Q results with EPS of -$0.51, in-line with consensus. The company guided for June revenue to be down 90% YoY and announced another $1B cut to capital expenditures (CAPEX) for a total cut of $3B so far this year. The company ended the quarter with $6B in liquidity and they expect to end the June quarter with $10B in liquidity. Delta held its annual shareholders’ meeting where it noted that it expects to finish the 2nd quarter with over $15B in liquidity with a daily cash burn of $30M getting to breakeven by the end of the year.”

6. Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE: SPG)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 31

Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE: SPG) is a real estate investment trust that primarily focuses on investments in shopping malls. It is placed sixth on our list of 10 stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery. The company’s shares have returned 111% to investors over the past year. The firm has a lot to gain as shopping malls reopen after more than a year in lockdown and shoppers, eager for some time outside and a return to normal after a horrid 2020, take to public places to regroup and relax.

Simon Property Group, Inc. is another great option for early retirement as the firm pays a sizable dividend. On June 21, the company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.4 per share, up 7.7% compared to the previous dividend. The forward yield was close to 4.5%.

At the end of the first quarter of 2021, 31 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $506 million in Simon Property Group, Inc., down from 32 in the previous quarter worth $353 million.

Just like Airbnb, Inc., The Walt Disney Company, and Comcast Corporation, Simon Property Group, Inc. is one of the stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery.

5. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: LYV)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 37

Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: LYV) is an entertainment company that manages ticket sales for different kinds of live events. Over the past few weeks, the stock has climbed close to 17% as concerts resume and bring in much-needed revenue for the company after a disappointing 2020. The firm is ranked fifth on our list of 10 stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery. The stock has offered investors returns exceeding 117% over the course of the past twelve months.

On May 14, investment advisory Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. stock with an Outperform rating and a price target of $97 on the back of expectations of strong growth as the economy reopened following the pandemic.

Out of the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Virginia-based investment firm Akre Capital Management is a leading shareholder in Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. with 5.4 million shares worth more than $462 million.

In its Q4 2020 investor letter, Oakmark Funds, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: LYV) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“In 2006, we initiated our position in Live Nation, the global entertainment company that handles promotion, venue management and ticket sales for live events. Live Nation was spun out of the former Clear Channel Communications in late 2005. In our view, spinoffs often represent attractive opportunities because investors frequently undervalue the new company. We believed this was the case with Live Nation, especially given its initially small market capitalization. As well, when spinoffs are freed from their parents, they typically benefit from intensified management focus and more flexible capital allocation policies. In Live Nation’s case, the spinoff helped make possible the merger with Ticketmaster in 2010, which materially improved the business franchise. Although these factors alone might have made Live Nation a good holding for the Fund, an unexpected technology helped to boost the company’s fortunes: streaming. As the advantages of streaming convinced consumers to reduce or even eliminate their purchases of media, such as CDs and DVDs, artists began to tour more, thereby providing a tailwind to Live Nation’s operations. This accelerated growth in the company’s intrinsic value per share, which in turn generated numerous increases in our sell target for the holding, enabling us to continue to own the shares in the Fund for 14 years. We typically target a three- to five-year holding period for our equity investments, but we love opportunities like Live Nation, which achieve unanticipated intrinsic value growth.”

4. The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 134

The Walt Disney Company is placed fourth on our list of 10 stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery. The company’s shares have returned 62% to investors in the past year. The firm, an entertainment and mass media conglomerate, was able to weather the COVID-19 impact better than competitors as it had an internet streaming platform, named Disney+, to offset some of the pandemic losses. As the economy reopens, and theme parks welcome visitors again, the company can benefit a lot from the increased activity.

On May 26, investment advisory maintained a Buy rating on The Walt Disney Company stock with a price target of $215, implying an upside potential of over 20%. UBS also named Disney among the high conviction picks with strong growth potential in the coming months.

At the end of the first quarter of 2021, 134 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $12.5 billion in The Walt Disney Company, down from 144 in the preceding quarter worth $16.4 billion.

In its Q4 2020 investor letter, Harding Loevner, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“One of the original constituents of the Nifty Fifty holds a place in our portfolio today. When we bought Disney three years ago, we wrote that “we view Disney theme parks in the US, Europe, and China as resistant to online substitution.” We did not reckon on a pandemic, which closed all of them, and sent all of usto our couches. Disney, however, wasready for us, brilliantly illustrating the importance of management foresight and change management. Or, as Louis Pasteur said, “chance favors the prepared mind.

A century after its founding in 1923, Disney is in the middle of a bold shift from its legacy media networks & entertainment model—with cable TV, theme parks, and theater films dominating its earnings—to a direct-to-consumer streaming media model. The keys to Disney’s transition: matchless storytelling, coupled with financial strength. The company reliably creates content that people all over the world are eager to consume. It also hastened spending on original content to attract subscribers to its new streaming platform. These factors have allowed Disney to weather the pandemic having expanded its direct engagement with customers. Such connections yield a rich harvest of insights used to customize offerings on a mass scale, reinforcing that engagement in a virtuous circle and thereby raising the lifetime value of each customer. Subscribers to Disney+ reached 86.8 million one year after launch, compared to the 60 – 90 million management projected to reach in 2024. To be sure, Netflix, Apple, and Amazon remain formidable competitors in new-era streaming entertainment (mind what we said about everyone standing up at once), but there’s fight left in this old dog.”

3. Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 88

Comcast Corporation is a telecommunications firm with significant stakes in the broadcast and entertainment businesses. It is ranked third on our list of 10 stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery. The stock has returned 45% to investors in the past year. The firm recently launched the Peacock internet streaming platform which has already signed a deal with Amazon Fire TV for distribution. Comcast has a market capitalization of over $250 billion.

On April 20, investment advisory Oppenheimer upgraded Comcast Corporation stock to Outperform from Perform with a price target of $75 on the back of growth outlook for the firm as the COVID-19 pandemic waned.

Out of the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, New York-based firm Eagle Capital Management is a leading shareholder in Comcast Corporation with 38 million shares worth more than $2 billion.

In its Q1 2021 investor letter, Nelson Capital Management, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Comcast is the Largest cable provider in the U.S. and is the dominant internet access provider in the markets it serves. Though Comcast will likely see further declines in cable subscriptions due to ongoing cord-cutting, it should be able to off set that lost revenue by growing internet access customers and instituting higher pricing. The pandemic has increased the importance of a fast internet connection, with more content streaming to homes at increasingly higher quality. Comcast made significant upgrades early on, allowing it to quickly deploy new technology and increase speeds to meet the evolving needs of its customers.”

2. Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABNB)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 52

Airbnb, Inc. is a vacation rental firm based in California. It only made its stock market debut late last year and could not fully capitalize on the promise it offered to investors as the COVID-19 restrictions prevented the company from registering noticeable growth. However, as the economy reopens, the firm can expect record growth. It is placed second on our list of 10 stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery. The company’s shares have returned over 3% to investors in the past twelve months.

On May 27, investment advisory RBC Capital Markets gave Airbnb, Inc. stock an Outperform rating and named it as one of the best players amid the hot demand trend for travel in the post-COVID economy.

At the end of the first quarter of 2021, 52 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $2.4 billion in Airbnb, Inc., down from 68 in the preceding quarter worth $1.6 billion.

In its Q4 2020 investor letter, Blue Hawk Investment Group, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABNB) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“We typically avoid new issues, with ABNB being a rare exception. ABNB fits right into our wheelhouse as a leader in a promising industry, with a disruptive business model, unique company culture, massive addressable market, and a name synonymous with a category (“got an Airbnb for the weekend”). Towards the end of the year, the narrative of the hot IPO/SPAC environment we found to be fitting, with exception. We believe grouping ABNB into this category is a mistake. The IPO was botched, but the mistake was the initial offering price being far too low in this case. We believe the reason for this initial mispricing was the proximity of the IPO to the vaccine effectiveness data release. The data turned out to be much better than anticipated, a blue-sky result, causing a drastic change in the outlook for travel and lodging, the industry in which ABNB operates. Bayes Theorem in action, people typically have a bias when incorporating new information, in that they do not adjust their view as quickly as they should, and the vaccine data release required an almost complete reversal of views.

Back to the company, we started buying on day one and continued to build a position into the $120s and $130s. A founder-led firm, we believe the company has an excellent management team, a very attractive growth profile with many levers at their disposal, and embedded optionality due to their attractive position in the travel ecosystem (and minimal reliance on Google). The most underappreciated aspect of the story is the attractiveness of the financial model. Not many IPOs come along that get us excited, but we believe the future is bright for this young company. We will reveal more details about our thesis in future letters.”

1. Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 26

Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) is a global energy company. It is ranked first on our list of 10 stocks to buy to profit from post-COVID economic recovery. The stock has returned 82% to investors in the past year. After a torrid 2020, with oil prices at record lows, the firm has bounced back as travel resumes and oil prices pick up again, with further growth expected as airlines resume operations and international borders reopen.

Hess Corporation posted earnings for the first quarter of 2021 on April 8, reporting earnings per share of $0.82, beating market predictions by $0.47. The revenue over the period was close to $2 billion, up 40% year-on-year.

Out of the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Washington-based investment firm Fisher Asset Management is a leading shareholder in Hess Corporation with 3.3 million shares worth more than $235 million.

In its Q2 2020 investor letter, Massif Capital, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“We took a short position in Hess (HES) during the first quarter due to what we believed to be a weakness in their assertion that the Bakken would serve as a cash engine, along with their Gulf of Mexico assets, to pay for the development of their offshore Guyana fields. Our analysis suggested that not only was their fracking in the Bakken unprofitable but that it was unlikely ever to be so. The market very quickly told us that although we might be right in our analysis of the fundamentals, it did not care. We suspect that much of this has to do with the fact that Hess had hedged nearly 100% of their production in 2020 during the relatively high priced 2019 period, but we cannot be certain. Since we closed out the position, the stock has rallied a further 45%. We take this as directional evidence (perhaps) of a good decision. Hess contributed -0.19% to the portfolio during the quarter.

We have mostly avoided shorting oil companies in the last few years. The opportunity is appealing but extremely tricky to evaluate. Hess remains an interesting short. We have little confidence in the long-term viability of operations in the Bakken, and Hess remains a large player. Yet as the firm moves further along in their development and monetization of assets in Guyana, the weight of the Bakkens failure to play a meaningful role in producing positive free cash flow becomes increasingly difficult to determine by looking at the financials and perhaps less significant to the market. One thing that seems increasingly true of the environment we are investing in is that bad capital allocation by management teams can be easily forgiven if there is plenty of liquidity, even if access to liquid capital imperils long-term solvency.”

You can also take a peek at 10 Companies that Benefit From Crypto Mining and 10 Best Nickel Stocks to Buy Now.

Follow Insider Monkey on Twitter