2 Monster Stocks to Buy and Hold for at Least the Next 5 Years

DoorDash revenue rose from $4.9B in 2021 to $13.7B in 2025, with Q2 revenue up 36% year over year and operating profit improving from a $579M loss in 2023 to $723M in 2025. At 34x forward earnings, the company is positioned for potential upside if it achieves analysts' projected 44% annualized earnings growth, supported by DashPass, grocery delivery, and international expansion. Viking reported Q2 2026 revenue growth of 16% and operating-profit growth of 18%, while 2027 bookings were pacing 21% above the prior season; analysts expect 26% annualized earnings growth despite its 26x forward P/E premium to cruise peers.

Analysis

DASH's key equity debate is no longer gross-order growth but whether its higher-margin layers—advertising, subscription retention, and non-restaurant local commerce—scale faster than fulfillment costs. That mix shift should pressure CART most directly: grocery merchants have increasing incentive to consolidate promotional spend and order flow onto the platform with the broadest consumer frequency. UBER is the more credible competitive constraint, but its mobility profit pool gives it greater ability to subsidize Eats; any acceleration in DASH international investment would therefore be negative for near-term EBITDA conversion even if it reinforces long-run share.

The stock's multiple can hold only if incremental profit growth remains materially ahead of sales growth over the next 2-3 quarters. A deceleration in contribution-margin expansion, rising courier incentives, or evidence that DashPass frequency is plateauing would expose DASH to sharp multiple compression, particularly after its strong multi-year return. The contrarian view is that consensus may be underestimating advertising's operating leverage, but it may also be assigning too much strategic value to international markets where local incumbents and UBER can make share gains expensive.

VIK's premium to CCL and RCL is justified only while its booking curve supports both pricing and occupancy without a material rise in customer-acquisition or fuel costs. Its standardized fleet creates a real maintenance and operating advantage, but the market is likely capitalizing a benign travel cycle too far forward; cruise demand is discretionary and historically reacts quickly to recession fears, air-travel disruption, or geopolitical events. Over 6-18 months, VIK's smaller, higher-end positioning should prove more resilient than mass-market cruising, yet its valuation leaves less room for even modest guidance normalization.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Initiate a 3-6 month long DASH / short CART pair, sized beta-neutral. The thesis is relative merchant-advertising and grocery-order share capture, not a broad consumer-spending call; target 15-20% relative return and exit if DASH's next two quarterly EBITDA-margin trajectory fails to improve or CART demonstrates sustained order-growth reacceleration.
• Maintain UBER as the preferred hedge against DASH execution risk rather than an outright DASH short: long DASH / short UBER is only attractive after confirmation that DASH is gaining U.S. grocery and retail share without renewed incentive spending. If UBER signals Eats subsidy escalation or DASH guides to higher international investment, close the relative long promptly.
• Avoid adding outright VIK at a premium multiple before the next booking and pricing update. Establish a watch for a 10-15% pullback or evidence of sustained net-yield growth; absent that confirmation, the risk/reward favors a small long VIK / short CCL pair for 6-12 months, expressing premium-brand resilience while hedging cruise-cycle beta.
• For existing VIK exposure, use a downside trigger tied to forward booking pace and pricing rather than headline revenue: reduce if management signals yield compression, occupancy deterioration, or rising fuel/airfare-related customer friction. Those indicators would challenge the premium-return narrative before reported earnings weaken.