Are supply chain stocks a good long-term investment?

Supply chain stocks can be great investments, but investors will have to contend with cyclicality, as spending tends to boom when the economy is growing and then contract sharply when it contracts.

Who is the largest supply chain company?

If you exclude Amazon as a logistics company, UPS remains 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 supply chain management.

How do supply chain stocks perform during economic downturns?

They don't tend to do well during downturns because supply chains are a function 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 Aug 15, 2026 at 2:28 AM EST | Fact-checked by Frank Bass

Key Points

UPS focuses on profitable sectors and invests in advanced technology to enhance productivity.
CSX uses precision railroading to improve efficiency and benefits from onshoring trends.
Amazon leverages its internal logistics experience to offer external supply chain services.

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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)	$105.33	$89.6 billion	6.23%
CSX (NASDAQ:CSX)	$51.28	$95.0 billion	1.05%
Old Dominion Freight Line (NASDAQ:ODFL)	$198.63	$41.2 billion	0.57%
Manhattan Associates (NASDAQ:MANH)	$223.28	$13.0 billion	0.00%
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)	$266.43	$2.9 trillion	0.00%

Data as of Aug 30, 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 -0.16%) 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

Premium Feature

Moneyball Superscore

59/100

Today's Change

(-0.33%) $-0.35

Current Price

$105.33

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$90B

Day's Range

$104.89 - $106.39

52wk Range

$82.00 - $122.41

Volume

2.3M

Avg Vol

5.2M

Gross Margin

18.30%

Dividend Yield

6.23%

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UPS' management is orchestrating a multi-year shift toward more profitable deliveries by focusing on key end markets such as healthcare, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, while eschewing lower- or negative-margin deliveries for Amazon. At the same time, management is aggressively investing in technologies such as automation and smart facilities to enhance productivity and enable it to close less productive facilities.

These plans make perfect sense, but they have not created significant challenges in a difficult trading environment. COVID-19 created a boom in e-commerce deliveries and concomitant capacity expansion across the industry, which inevitably led to significant overcapacity when demand corrected. The tariffs have also created a difficult trading environment, as its customers were forced to realign trade routes, and the so-called "glide down" of Amazon volumes in 2025/2026 has created volume challenges.

With all this going on, the last thing UPS investors wanted to hear was about Amazon's entry into the supply chain services market. Amazon poses a threat to UPS by replicating the success of its internal transportation services for external customers.

It's a lot to work through, and the market clearly has doubts that UPS' margin expansion plans will work out as planned. Still, if UPS achieves its aims, the stock could appreciate handsomely as it climbs a wall of worry.

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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

Premium Feature

Moneyball Superscore

64/100

Today's Change

(-0.50%) $-0.26

Current Price

$51.28

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$95B

Day's Range

$50.98 - $51.95

52wk Range

$31.80 - $53.60

Volume

6.7M

Avg Vol

12.1M

Gross Margin

35.27%

Dividend Yield

1.05%

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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), 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 +0.22%)) makes it an attractive stock for long-term investors.

In common with many other companies exposed to the industrial sector, CSX has struggled in recent years with the slowdown in the U.S. manufacturing sector. However, the significant improvement in 2026 has led to a volume recovery that's feeding into an increasingly positive outlook for railroad stocks.

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

Premium Feature

Moneyball Superscore

70/100

Today's Change

(-0.71%) $-1.43

Current Price

$198.63

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$41B

Day's Range

$198.25 - $203.44

52wk Range

$126.01 - $252.03

Volume

1.2M

Avg Vol

1.8M

Gross Margin

32.30%

Dividend Yield

0.57%

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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 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.

The company's management has consistently demonstrated the ability to secure pricing and improve revenue per shipment, even in declining-volume environments, making it one of the most highly respected companies operating in a profitable niche of the transportation market.

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. However, like many other software companies, Manhattan has faced disruption due to the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

At the same time that Manhattan is obliged to embed AI into its solutions to fend off larger competitors, it still needs to demonstrate tangible benefits for its customers, such as improved return on investment. That's not always easy in a highly complex industry with customers who may have multiple data silos, making it difficult for AI agents to collect and work with clean data.

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NASDAQ: MANH

Manhattan Associates

Premium Feature

Moneyball Superscore

79/100

Today's Change

(-0.21%) $-0.48

Current Price

$223.28

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$13B

Day's Range

$222.60 - $226.32

52wk Range

$119.06 - $227.03

Volume

568.3K

Avg Vol

799.3K

Gross Margin

55.22%

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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. The company already delivers more than 13 billion items a year and has built up substantial supply chain expertise and a highly efficient network.

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

Premium Feature

Moneyball Superscore

90/100

Today's Change

(3.97%) $10.17

Current Price

$266.43

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$2.9T

Day's Range

$257.78 - $267.56

52wk Range

$196.00 - $287.20

Volume

49.5M

Avg Vol

49.2M

Gross Margin

50.77%

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In addition, major enterprises like 3M (MMM -2.51%) and Procter & Gamble (PG +0.45%) 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.

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Benefits and risks of investing in supply chain stocks

Technology, including AI, 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. It remains an essential part of the global economy.
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.

Methodology: How these stocks were chosen

These stocks were chosen because they offer investors a wide range of options with varied market exposures and risk-reward profiles. Railroads own their infrastructure and have extremely high business moats, making CSX an attractive stock for conservative investors.

UPS' network also gives it a moat, but Amazon's entry into the marketplace and the overcapacity built up during COVID-19 are illustrations that the package delivery market is competitive. At the same time, Old Dominion continues to demonstrate an ability to operate in a niche market within the industry.

Manhattan Associates illustrates the critical importance of technology to the industry. While it's easy to think of supply chain logistics simply as transporting goods, it's actually a highly complex industry requiring real-time decision-making across multiple parties that must integrate seamlessly.

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 effects 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 winds of technological change continue 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 (which is increasingly embedding AI), 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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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

Methodology: How these stocks were chosen

The bottom line

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Supply chain stocks FAQ

Are supply chain stocks a good long-term investment?

Are supply chain stocks a good long-term investment?

Who is the largest supply chain company?

Who is the largest supply chain company?

Are there ETFs that focus on supply chain companies?

Are there ETFs that focus on supply chain companies?

Do supply chain stocks pay dividends?

Do supply chain stocks pay dividends?

Which industries are considered part of the supply chain sector?

Which industries are considered part of the supply chain sector?

How do supply chain stocks perform during economic downturns?

How do supply chain stocks perform during economic downturns?

About the Author

Read Next

Stocks Mentioned

Motley Fool Stock Advisor’s Latest Pick

Premium Investing Services

UPS

Key Data Points

CSX

Key Data Points

Old Dominion Freight Line

Manhattan Associates

Key Data Points

Amazon

Key Data Points

How to buy supply chain stocks

Benefits and risks of investing in supply chain stocks

Methodology: How these stocks were chosen

The bottom line

8 Best Defense Stocks for 2026 and How to Invest

Best Airline Stocks to Buy in 2026 and How to Invest

4 Best Transportation Stocks for 2026 and How to Invest

6 Best Shipping Stocks in 2026 and How to Invest

Supply chain stocks FAQ

Are supply chain stocks a good long-term investment?

Are supply chain stocks a good long-term investment?

Who is the largest supply chain company?

Who is the largest supply chain company?

Are there ETFs that focus on supply chain companies?

Are there ETFs that focus on supply chain companies?

Do supply chain stocks pay dividends?

Do supply chain stocks pay dividends?

Which industries are considered part of the supply chain sector?

Which industries are considered part of the supply chain sector?

How do supply chain stocks perform during economic downturns?

How do supply chain stocks perform during economic downturns?

Key Data Points

Top supply chain stocks