Are supply chain stocks a good long-term investment?

Supply chain stocks can be great investments, but investors will have to deal with potential cyclicality since spending tends to boom when the economy is growing and is then cut back sharply when it contracts.

Who is the largest supply chain company?

If you discount Amazon as a logistics company, UPS is still the largest dedicated supply chain company.

Are there ETFs that focus on supply chain companies?

There are no dedicated supply chain ETFs listed with significant assets under management.

Do supply chain stocks pay dividends?

Yes, some supply chain stocks, such as UPS, FedEx, and Old Dominion Freight Line, pay dividends. Stocks like Manhattan Associates do not pay a dividend.

Which industries are considered part of the supply chain sector?

Logistics, warehousing, transportation, and digital technologies connected to supply chains, such as enterprise resource planning, transportation management, and AI analytics, are key components of the supply chain.

How do supply chain stocks perform during economic downturns?

They don't tend to do well in downturns because supply chains are functions of a company's economic activity. As such, companies tend to cut back on investments in their supply chains when revenue growth is stalling.

5 Best Supply Chain Stocks for 2026 and How to Invest

Each stock offers investors something different in the ever changing supply chain sector.

By Lee Samaha – Updated Jun 15, 2026 at 12:30 AM EST | Fact-checked by Frank Bass

Key Points

Supply chain stocks represent logistics, transportation, and tech firms crucial to global trade.
Global pressures like trade tariffs and geopolitical issues impact supply chain stock performance.
Top picks include UPS, CSX, and Amazon, each offering unique market positions and growth prospects.

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Ticker Information Table
Name and ticker	Current price	Market capMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.	Dividend yield
United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS)	$112.62	$95.6 billion	5.83%
CSX (NASDAQ:CSX)	$49.41	$91.8 billion	1.09%
Old Dominion Freight Line (NASDAQ:ODFL)	$227.53	$47.3 billion	0.50%
Manhattan Associates (NASDAQ:MANH)	$154.90	$9.2 billion	0.00%
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)	$245.23	$2.6 trillion	0.00%

Data as of Jul 11, 2026. Showing 5 of 5 total entries.

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UPS

Package delivery giant UPS is a key player in the logistics and supply chain industry. Both UPS and FedEx (FDX +1.23%) have faced challenges in recent years, as the COVID-19 pandemic-inspired surge in deliveries strained industry capacity.

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NYSE: UPS

United Parcel Service

Today's Change

(1.70%) $1.88

Current Price

$112.62

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$96B

Day's Range

$110.38 - $113.40

52wk Range

$82.00 - $122.41

Volume

171.4K

Avg Vol

5.6M

Gross Margin

18.32%

Dividend Yield

5.83%

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A combination of slowing economic growth and a natural correction in consumer behavior (a return to spending on travel and services rather than on products) hurt volume growth, putting pressure on margins. Additionally, the Trump administration's tariffs are creating considerable uncertainty among UPS's customer base.

UPS is addressing these issues while expanding in targeted markets such as healthcare and small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). At the same time, UPS is deliberately reducing its low- or negative-margin Amazon deliveries to focus on higher-margin deliveries within its network.

On top of that, Amazon's launch of its own supply chain services business now offers a tangible threat to UPS, not least in the SMB market that UPS covets and is focused on expanding in.

Ultimately, UPS should recover as volumes improve and the industry adjusts capacity to meet demand, leading to higher-margin deliveries. However, there's uncertainty about how Amazon's supply chain services business could undermine UPS' pricing power.

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CSX

There's been a quiet revolution in the railroad sector over the past decade. All the leading players, including CSX, have adopted precision scheduled railroading (PSR) management techniques. The strategy aims to run the same volumes while using fewer assets. PSR enhances performance by closely monitoring key metrics, including car velocity, downtime, and train length.

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NASDAQ: CSX

CSX

Today's Change

(0.12%) $0.06

Current Price

$49.41

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$92B

Day's Range

$49.20 - $49.66

52wk Range

$31.80 - $49.66

Volume

7.8M

Avg Vol

12.4M

Gross Margin

34.59%

Dividend Yield

1.09%

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Additionally, they tend to operate trains on fixed schedules from point to point, rather than the traditional hub-and-spoke model. The leading railroads have reduced their operating ratios (expenses divided by revenue), thereby increasing profit margins.

CSX and the other railroads are key players in the supply chain. However, they also help alleviate some of the problems caused by supply chain dislocations. U.S. railroads will benefit from a shift toward onshoring -- a move encouraged by the difficulties many companies have faced in securing materials and components.

As such, a combination of improving operating efficiency, growth prospects from inshoring due to tariff policy, and the business moat inherent in owning its own infrastructure (making it a de facto oligopoly in East Coast rail traffic with Norfolk Southern, (NSC +1.14%)) makes it an attractive stock for long-term investors.

Old Dominion Freight Line

Old Dominion, one of the most respected names in the trucking industry, specializes in less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping. Full-truckload (TL) shippers typically deliver a truckload to a single customer. LTL trucks can carry freight for multiple customers, a key advantage in a supply chain crisis, as customers are often willing to pay more to ensure critical components are delivered.

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NASDAQ: ODFL

Old Dominion Freight Line

Today's Change

(0.74%) $1.68

Current Price

$227.53

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$47B

Day's Range

$223.09 - $229.04

52wk Range

$126.01 - $252.03

Volume

73.7K

Avg Vol

1.9M

Gross Margin

31.53%

Dividend Yield

0.50%

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Old Dominion sports some of the highest margins in the transportation industry. The company has made impressive gains over the past decade. Margin growth was especially strong during the 2020-22 period, when Old Dominion was able to be more selective about deliveries amid surging demand.

Although freight demand will naturally oscillate with the economy, Old Dominion is a high-quality operator in the LTL industry. Long-term LTL demand is likely to grow as e-commerce deliveries increase, requiring relatively small loads to be delivered as part of companies' online sales campaigns.

Manhattan Associates

Manhattan Associates develops software to manage supply chain and inventory for the retail, wholesale, distribution, and manufacturing end markets.

Retailers are increasingly selling through various channels, whether in-store, online, by phone, or other means -- a move encouraged by the lockdowns imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It's a trend likely to continue into the foreseeable future, as the share of retail from online sources is expected to increase.

As a result, supply chain management is becoming more complex for retailers and logistics operations in distribution centers and warehouses. All of this plays to Manhattan's strength. The company's long-term growth prospects appear excellent, with Wall Street analysts forecasting high-single-digit revenue growth for the foreseeable future.

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NASDAQ: MANH

Manhattan Associates

Today's Change

(-1.10%) $-1.73

Current Price

$154.90

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$9.2B

Day's Range

$152.19 - $161.26

52wk Range

$119.06 - $247.22

Volume

483.9K

Avg Vol

687K

Gross Margin

55.39%

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Amazon

Just as Amazon built one of the leading cloud businesses (Amazon Web Services) on the back of offering solutions it had developed in-house for its own purposes to third parties, it's looking to do the same thing with the supply chain services business it launched in 2026.

Amazon's logistics network is already powering its own business, and the huge numbers of small, medium, and large businesses operating within its e-commerce framework. However, it's now extending beyond that and looking to capture the non-Amazon marketplace as well. It's likely to capture new customers and also extend the scope of its supply chain services to existing Amazon marketplace sellers who sell through other channels.

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NASDAQ: AMZN

Amazon

Today's Change

(-0.73%) $-1.81

Current Price

$245.23

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$2.6T

Day's Range

$244.42 - $251.00

52wk Range

$196.00 - $278.56

Volume

1.3M

Avg Vol

50.2M

Gross Margin

50.60%

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In addition, major enterprises like 3M and Procter & Gamble have already signed up to use its services. Given Amazon's scale and market reach, its entry into the marketplace is a significant threat and should be factored into long-term investors' decisions about buying Amazon stock.

How to buy supply chain stocks

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Open your brokerage account: Log in to your brokerage account, where you handle your investments. If you don't have one yet, take a look at our favorite brokers and trading platforms to find the right one for you.
Search for the stock: Enter the ticker into the search bar to bring up the stock's trading page.
Decide how many shares to buy: Consider your investment goals and how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to this stock.
Select order type: Choose between a market order to buy at the current price or a limit order to specify the maximum price you're willing to pay.
Submit your order: Confirm the details and submit your buy order.
Review your purchase: Check your portfolio to ensure your order was filled as expected and adjust your investment strategy accordingly.

Benefits and risks of investing in supply chain stocks

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Technology is driving improvements in logistics productivity and the need for specialized providers.
Recent events have underscored the importance of supply chain resilience and the need for greater flexibility.
Supply chain companies are highly dependent on their customers' spending patterns, which are often driven by cyclical factors.
Supply chain companies can suffer if their customers' long-term prospects are in decline.

The bottom line

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Given the new era of protectionism and the fracturing of global trade patterns, investors must always consider the impacts on the global supply chain and the pressures it faces from evolving trade policies.

The tariffs imposed on certain countries (notably China) have led to significant shifts in supply chains and delivery volumes. At the same time, the wind of technological change continues to blow through the industry, whether it's smart facilities and automation at UPS, AI-assisted network scheduling at CSX, Old Dominion using telematics and RFID to improve efficiency, Manhattan's software, or Amazon's high-tech logistics network.

This marketplace dynamism is likely to create winners and losers, and the five stocks discussed here offer investors different ways to play it.

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FAQ

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Supply chain stocks FAQ

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About the Author

Lee Samaha is a contributing Stock Market Analyst at The Motley Fool covering industrials, electricals, energy, materials, transportation, and infrastructure stocks. Prior to The Motley Fool, Lee was a Civil Engineer and Investment Manager. He holds a Bachelor of Civil and Structural Engineering from Southampton University and a Certificate in Investment Management from Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment. Lee first cut his investing teeth on The Motley Fool bulletin boards (commonly referred to as the “Fool Boards,”) and he’s infinitely grateful to all of the investors he learned from in this powerful investing community.

TMFSaintGermain

@LeeSamaha

Lee Samaha has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Manhattan Associates, Old Dominion Freight Line, and United Parcel Service. The Motley Fool recommends FedEx and Trimble. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

5 Best Supply Chain Stocks for 2026 and How to Invest

Each stock offers investors something different in the ever changing supply chain sector.

Key Points

UPS

Key Data Points

CSX

Key Data Points

Old Dominion Freight Line

Key Data Points

Manhattan Associates

Key Data Points

Amazon

Key Data Points

How to buy supply chain stocks

Benefits and risks of investing in supply chain stocks

The bottom line

Related investing topics

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FAQ

Supply chain stocks FAQ

About the Author

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Supply chain stocks FAQ

Are supply chain stocks a good long-term investment?

Who is the largest supply chain company?

Are there ETFs that focus on supply chain companies?

Do supply chain stocks pay dividends?

Which industries are considered part of the supply chain sector?

How do supply chain stocks perform during economic downturns?

CSX

Manhattan Associates

Amazon

How to buy supply chain stocks

Benefits and risks of investing in supply chain stocks

The bottom line

Related investing topics

FAQ

Key Data Points

Key Data Points

Key Data Points

Key Data Points

Key Data Points

Top supply chain stocks

UPS

Old Dominion Freight Line