2 Soaring Stocks to Hold for the Next 20 Years

Sometimes, the best stocks to hold for the long term can look, in the moment, like companies that happen to be having a good year. The temptation in such cases may be to sell them, pocket your gains, and move on. That would be a mistake with the two below. One is a 103-year-old toy maker that figured out its most valuable product is a card game. The other builds and operates cruise ships for people who would rather get exposed to cultures than gamble in floating casinos. Both had a year worth framing. Both are set up for a stretch that makes this year look like a warm-up.

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Hasbro is a card company now, and that is the whole point

Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) stock has climbed more than 50% over the past year to a record high, and the reason is a game first sold in 1993. Magic: The Gathering did more than $600 million in revenue in the third quarter (another record), up 34% on the strength of one set built around The Hobbit and another called Reality Fracture. That pushed Q3's total revenue up by 15%, giving Hasbro its fourth straight quarter of double-digit percentage growth. Management also raised its full-year outlook and doubled its stock buyback target.

What makes this a 20-year story rather than a hot streak is the underlying shape of the business. Hasbro's "Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming" segment, which includes Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, earned a 49% operating margin last quarter. Toys do not do that. Cards do, because the costs are ink, cardboard, and imagination, and customers come back every few months for the next sets. CEO Chris Cocks describes an "asset-light licensing model" in which partners make the Transformers lunchboxes while Hasbro keeps the brands and the royalties. In October, the company opened a new Wizards of the Coast studio in Montreal to build the next wave of digital games.

A stock that's gaining ground thanks to a franchise that is still growing in its fourth decade is the kind of asset you can hold onto through several cycles of whatever toy is popular at the moment, and a dividend that currently yields 2.4% pays you to wait.

Viking is building ships for the next 20 years of retirees

Viking Holdings (NYSE: VIK) stock is up almost 60% over the past year and has been on a tear. It is also one of the rare travel companies whose customers book a year and a half out. As of its last report, Viking had sold 96% of its 2026 capacity and 53% of its 2027 capacity, with 2027 advance bookings running 21% ahead of where 2026 bookings stood at that point in 2025. The price per passenger-day for 2027 is tracking 10% higher than a year earlier, according to Bloomberg. Viking is selling cruises well in advance at higher prices, and people are lining up to pay.

The customer explains everything as to why I'm bullish here. Viking sells river and ocean trips on cruise ships with no casinos and no one under 18 on board, aimed at what Executive Chairman Torstein Hagen calls "the thinking person," according to an interview with high-end travel agency Stars Desk. That is a growing demographic: Every day for the next two decades, thousands of Americans will turn 65, and many of those soon-to-be retirees will reach that milestone with savings, time, and a list of places they always meant to see.

Viking spent this fall feeding its ability to cater to that list. It took delivery of a new river ship that will cruise through Egypt and another slated for trips on the Rhine, named seven river ships in one ceremony in Amsterdam, floated out its second hydrogen-powered ocean ship, and opened a 19-day Grand Nile Journey for 2028. Condé Nast Traveler readers named Viking the top river line and top ocean line for the sixth year running.

In September, the board authorized a $1 billion share repurchase, which is what a cruise company does when it has more cash coming in than it can spend to build new ships. My 20-year case for Viking as an investment is simple: The people who want these types of vacations are getting more numerous, not less, and no rival has built a brand they trust as much to deliver them.

The takeaway

Both companies are having the kind of year that invites profit-taking. In my view, that is the wrong instinct. Hasbro owns an incredibly popular game that's still growing sales by 34% in its fourth decade, and Viking has sold a majority of its 2027 capacity before 2026 is over. Buy some shares of both now, add to your positions on any dips that materialize, and let two very different sets of customers -- one doing battle with cards and one boarding ships on the Nile -- power the compounding returns for you.

Micah Zimmerman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Viking. The Motley Fool recommends Hasbro. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.