Certain automotive companies have held up surprisingly well in the current environment, and that’s especially true with companies that supply automotive parts. The high interest rate regime was supposed to crush automotive companies across the board, and early tariffs specifically targeted countries that produced the most automotive parts for the U.S.
Even then. These stocks have done well since high interest rates have made it difficult for low-income consumers to buy new cars. Instead, they have opted for repairing their existing vehicles, which has been a tailwind for automotive parts companies for the past two years. The average age of vehicles was already at a record 12.6 years in 2024, so this tailwind isn’t going away anytime soon.
Customers who have higher incomes have kept on buying new vehicles. It is mostly because of them that consumer spending has held up across the board. Here are the biggest winners from this trend.
Even during bear markets, there are pockets of the market that perform exceptionally well. For example, I identified 15 Financial Services Stocks that are up the Most in 2025 in another article.
A worker assembling parts in an automotive factory for an autonomous vehicle.
Methodology
For this article, I screened the best-performing vehicles & parts stocks year-to-date.
I will also mention the number of hedge fund investors in these stocks. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
15. Ferrari NV (NYSE:RACE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 37
Ferrari NV (NYSE:RACE) designs and manufactures high-performance luxury sports cars and competes in Formula 1 racing worldwide.
Ferrari’s stock has seen significant growth in 2025, primarily due to its strong financial performance and strategic commercial policy updates. In March 2025, Ferrari announced an update to its commercial policy regarding import tariffs on EU cars into the USA.
The company decided to maintain unchanged commercial terms for orders of all models imported before April 2, 2025, and for three specific model families (Ferrari 296, SF90, and Roma), regardless of import date. For other current models, Ferrari implemented a maximum 10% price increase in coordination with its dealer network. Despite these tariff challenges, Ferrari confirmed its financial targets for 2025, noting only a potential risk of 50 basis points reduction in profitability percentage margins.
The company reported outstanding financial results for 2024, with CEO Benedetto Vigna highlighting “quality of revenues over volumes” as the driving factor behind their performance. Ferrari experienced a strong product mix and growing demand for personalizations, which contributed to robust growth. The company expects to reach the high-end of most of its profitability targets for 2026, a year ahead of schedule.
The consensus price target of $481.6 implies 4% upside.
RACE stock is up 9.74% year-to-date.
14. AutoZone Inc (NYSE:AZO)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 56
AutoZone Inc (NYSE:AZO) retails and distributes aftermarket automotive replacement parts and accessories through over 6,500 stores in the United States, Mexico, and Brazil.
AutoZone’s stock performance in 2025 has been driven by several key factors. In its second quarter fiscal 2025 results released in March, the company reported revenue of $4 billion, exceeding analyst expectations of $3.98 billion. This represents a 2.4% year-over-year increase in total sales. While earnings per share of $28.29 missed forecasts by $0.77, investors responded positively to the strong revenue performance.
The company’s domestic same-store sales grew by 1.9% in Q2 2025, but more impressive was the international same-store sales surge of 9.5% on a constant currency basis.
This international growth has been a significant driver of investor confidence. AutoZone has bought back $330 million of stock in the quarter.
The EPS miss of $28.29 versus a forecast of $29.06 did not dent investor enthusiasm, given the strong revenue beat.
The consensus price target of $3,814.9 implies 1.57% upside.
AZO stock is up 17.31% year-to-date.
