2 Growth Stocks Worth Buying Through the Volatility and Holding for a Lifetime

Key Points

• E.l.f. Beauty continues outperforming competitors through acquisitions, international expansion, and consistent double-digit growth.

• Vita Coco dominates coconut water, combining market leadership, profitability, and significant global growth opportunities.

• Both companies possess strong brands, expanding footprints, and business models built for long-term compounding.

• 10 stocks we like better than e.l.f. Beauty ›

Not every growth story in consumer goods is about a trillion-dollar retailer or a legacy brand defending market share. Some of the most durable compounders are quieter companies with dominant category positions, expanding international footprints, and a brand identity that is genuinely becoming generational.

These tickers are worth owning through whatever the market throws at them.

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E.l.f. Beauty: The company that keeps outgrowing the cosmetics industry

E.l.f. Beauty (NYSE: ELF) has done something most consumer or cosmetic companies only manage for a quarter or two: It has delivered double-digit net sales growth for 29 consecutive quarters. That is proof that its business model actually works at scale.

What makes e.l.f. Beauty a true growth stock rather than just a popular brand is how it thinks about building a portfolio, despite a rough market. The core e.l.f. Cosmetics line — affordable, cruelty-free, on-trend — is the foundation.

Layered on top is Naturium, a high-performance skincare brand acquired in 2023, and rhode, Hailey Bieber’s skin-focused lifestyle brand, acquired in 2025 for $1 billion. The rhode deal is not just about adding revenue. It gives e.l.f. Beauty access to a different consumer entirely, one willing to pay premium prices and who has a different relationship with beauty than the Target shopper who discovered e.l.f. a decade ago. Buying culturally resonant brands at the right moment is something very few consumer companies execute well. So far, e.l.f. Beauty is doing it.

For fiscal year 2026, ended March 31, the company reported net sales of $1.64 billion, up 25% year over year, with all five of its brands growing. That 25% top-line growth is what separates e.l.f. Beauty from the legacy beauty companies it competes against. L’Oréal and Estée Lauder are fighting to hold single-digit growth in the same category. E.l.f. Beauty is lapping them.

International revenue is becoming a real engine — the company has been expanding shelf presence in Europe, Canada, and emerging markets, and rhode gives it a prestige-tier brand to push into channels the core e.l.f. line couldn’t fully access.

2. The Vita Coco Company

The Vita Coco Company (NASDAQ: COCO) is not a name that often appears on growth-stock watch lists. It sells coconut water. That’s not the kind of business that generates buzz. But the numbers coming out of this company in 2026 are the kind that draw a second look, especially when you consider that consumer spending numbers are cracking.

In Q1 2026, Vita Coco reported net sales of $180 million — up 37% year over year — beating Wall Street’s expectations by more than 22%. Volume in actual case equivalents grew 30.2%, which means the growth is not a pricing illusion. The company then raised its full-year 2026 net sales guidance to between $720 million and $735 million. Operating margin expanded from 14.7% to 18.7% in the quarter. What makes this worth holding for a lifetime is not just the quarter — it’s the structural position the company occupies.

Vita Coco holds approximately 51% to 52% of the U.S. branded coconut water market — nearly triple its nearest rival. That kind of category dominance in a market projected to grow from $5 billion today to $19 billion by 2033 is a compounding machine. The global coconut water opportunity is still early, and Vita Coco has the brand recognition, distribution infrastructure, and production scale to capture a disproportionate share of it. European retail sales grew 57% in Q1 2026 alone — a market where natural hydration is an earlier-stage trend than it is in the U.S.

The company also manufactures coconut water for major retailers’ private-label store brands. Most investors don’t realize the same company behind the branded product is also supplying the cheaper shelf alternative.

That dual presence is hard to replicate, provides scale advantages branded-only competitors don’t have, and creates a floor on volume even when branded competition intensifies. With virtually no debt, nearly $200 million in cash, and full-year guidance raised at least once already this year, this is a profitable, growing business in a category with a long runway.

Should you buy stock in e.l.f. Beauty right now?

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Micah Zimmerman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Target and e.l.f. Beauty. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.