The Dow’s industrial-era anchors are quietly outpacing the broader market. Over the past year, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA: SPY) returned 24.37%, and the Dow tracker returned 20.22%. Three “old economy” Dow components have left both benchmarks in the dust, and they share more than just a ticker on the same index.
What unites them:
- Hard-asset moats (industrial machinery and dealer networks, a global capital franchise, a national pharmacy and insurance footprint)
- B2B and cycle sensitivity (construction and power, dealmaking and trading, healthcare utilization and PBM volumes)
- Dominant market positions with steep scale barriers.
Each is also leveraging the AI buildout to drive recent earnings beats. Here is the countdown.
3. CVS Health
CVS Health (NYSE: CVS | CVS Price Prediction) shares have advanced 52.1% over the past year to $95.93. The Q1 2026 report delivered adjusted EPS of $2.57 against a $2.21 consensus, a 16.47% beat, on revenue of $100.43 billion. Aetna led the way, with Health Care Benefits adjusted operating income surging 52.6% to $3.04 billion as the medical benefit ratio improved to 84.6%.
Management raised FY26 adjusted EPS guidance to $7.30 to $7.50 and launched Health100, a health tech subsidiary built on Google Cloud AI. Aetna now processes 83% of prior authorizations in real time. The analyst consensus target sits at $103.04. Forward P/E of 13x keeps the valuation modest. Risks include pharmacy reimbursement pressure, drug pricing regulation, and a $5.72 billion goodwill impairment last year that still hangs over the Health Care Delivery unit.
2. Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) trades at $1,038.68, up 71.4% over the past year. Q4 2025 EPS came in at $14.01 versus an $11.76 estimate, a 19.13% beat, capping a year of four consecutive double-digit earnings beats. Full-year EPS was $51.32 on net income of $17.18 billion, the second-highest annual result on record.
Advisory fees jumped 41% year over year in Q4, Equities financing hit a record $2.13 billion, and AUM reached $3.61 trillion. CEO David Solomon said the firm expects momentum to accelerate in 2026, “activating a flywheel of activity across our entire firm.” The “One GS 3.0” AI productivity push, a 12.5% dividend hike to $4.50, and $12.36 billion in 2025 buybacks underscore the capital-return story. The consensus target of $947.60 is already below the current quote, and ratings skew toward Hold.
The shares may be pricing in much of the M&A revival Goldman’s own outlook flags, with a 15% expected increase in completed U.S. M&A deals in 2026.
1. Caterpillar
Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) is the runaway leader here. Shares trade at $904.28, up 159.1% over the past year and 57.9% year to date. Q1 2026 EPS of $5.54 beat the $4.64 consensus by 19.30%, on revenue of $17.42 billion (+22.2% year on year).
The engine is Power Generation, which grew 41% in Q1 on data center demand for large reciprocating engines and turbines. Jim Cramer recently called CAT “infrastructure money, construction money and data center money,” noting “CAT generators to back up the usual power sources” as a hidden data center opportunity. CEO Joe Creed pointed to a “record backlog” as a foundation for momentum. Buybacks totaled $5.0 billion in Q1 alone. The consensus target is $936.99, with 14 Buy and 11 Hold ratings. Forward P/E of 37x is rich for a cyclical, and Q4 carried $1.03 billion in tariff-driven manufacturing costs. The bull case rests on Vanguard’s projection that AI spending will add another $450 billion in investment in the coming year.
The Common Thread
The opening premise is borne out by the data. Each name pairs an irreplaceable physical or franchise moat with cycle-leveraged B2B exposure and a dominant competitive position, then layers an AI-era growth vector on top. Caterpillar sells the picks and shovels of the data center buildout, Goldman is monetizing the dealmaking flywheel while running AI through its own back office, and CVS is wiring Aetna and Caremark into a Google Cloud AI platform. Investors weighing fresh entries should respect the cyclical reversal risk, tariff drag, and healthcare regulatory pressure that still underlie these stories. These old-economy stocks are leading the market.