Hypergrowth Stocks: A New Asset Class or a High-Stakes Bet?

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – March 26, 2026 – A boutique investment firm is making a bold push to carve out a new corner of the market, armed with 15 years of data and a starkly simple definition: any company growing its revenue by 40% or more is a 'Hypergrowth Stock,' and it belongs in its own asset class.

Golden Eagle Strategies, a Delray Beach-based Registered Investment Adviser, today released its first Hypergrowth Trend Report, a document that serves as both a research summary and a manifesto. The firm argues that these rapidly expanding companies—regardless of their industry—represent a distinct, powerful, and historically overlooked investment category that has consistently outperformed all others.

The concept isn't entirely new. The term 'hypergrowth' was popularized in a 2008 Harvard Business Review article examining the meteoric rise of companies like Google and Apple. It gained further credence in 2016 when the World Economic Forum helped standardize the definition as companies achieving sustained annual revenue growth above 40%. Golden Eagle now seeks to transform this academic concept into a formal, investable asset class.

"We believe many investors are unaware of the potential in Hypergrowth Stocks and remain underrepresented in this powerful asset class," said Robert Zuccaro, CFA, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of the firm. "Our research has shown that the Hypergrowth Stocks asset class has historically outperformed all other asset classes on an annualized basis between 2009 - 2025."

Forging a Category from Data

To back this claim, Golden Eagle says it has spent a decade and a half acting as "stock scientists." The firm analyzed approximately 250,000 individual stock periods from U.S. listed companies between 2010 and the present, building what it calls one of the most comprehensive datasets on the performance of companies meeting its 40% revenue growth criteria.

Previous reports citing the firm's research indicated that stocks in this hypergrowth phase produced an annual weighted average return of 37% between 2009 and 2022, significantly outpacing the S&P 500's 13% return over the same period. The core of the firm's strategy is a proprietary screening process that systematically evaluates thousands of stocks daily, focusing purely on sales growth dynamics rather than traditional metrics like earnings, as many high-growth firms are not yet profitable.

This approach, detailed in its new report, aims to identify a constantly changing roster of market leaders. Golden Eagle insists this is not just another name for tech investing.

"Hypergrowth is a multi-sector phenomenon that continues to be overlooked as a discrete category," explained Marc Zuccaro, a Portfolio Manager at Golden Eagle. "These companies can emerge across any industry—from AI and software to energy and metals—and are constantly shifting with market conditions."

This idea of a "dynamic, rotational force" is central to the firm's thesis. It suggests that leadership in hypergrowth moves between sectors as innovation, capital flows, and macroeconomic trends evolve, making it a distinct challenge to track and invest in without a dedicated strategy.

From Theory to Trading: The HYP ETF

Golden Eagle is putting its research into practice with the Dynamic Hypergrowth ETF (NASDAQ: HYP), an actively managed fund launched in September 2025. The ETF aims to provide investors with targeted exposure to this strategy, typically holding a portfolio of 60 to 80 stocks that meet the 40% revenue growth threshold. The portfolio is rebalanced monthly to adapt to the fast-changing nature of its target companies.

Since its inception, the fund's performance has been notable, with an annualized return of 22.88% and a year-to-date return of 9.4% as of its report's release. However, translating a compelling theory into a successful investment vehicle comes with challenges. The ETF's expense ratio of 0.85% is considerably higher than the average for its Large Growth category, a premium for its active management and specialized screening.

Furthermore, with assets under management hovering around $29 million, HYP remains a small player in a vast ETF market. Independent analysis from services like InvestingPro has assigned the fund a "WEAK" Financial Health Score, citing concerns over weak gross profit margins among its holdings. This highlights the inherent risk in focusing on top-line growth, where profitability may be a distant prospect.

To help investors navigate these complexities, the firm has also launched an educational platform, InvestingInHypergrowth.com, alongside its new report.

A New Paradigm or a Volatile Niche?

The push to formalize hypergrowth investing places Golden Eagle in a competitive and crowded field. The market is saturated with growth-focused ETFs, from broad, passive index funds like the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) to thematic funds centered on "disruptive innovation," such as those managed by ARK Invest. Golden Eagle's differentiator is its strict, quantitative focus on the 40% revenue metric across any sector, arguing this uncovers undervalued leaders beyond the well-known mega-cap tech stocks that dominate many conventional growth funds.

However, the strategy's success hinges on an investor's appetite for a highly active, rotational approach that demands constant vigilance. Sector rotation is a notoriously difficult strategy to execute consistently, requiring precise timing and a deep understanding of macroeconomic shifts. While an ETF structure simplifies access, it also asks investors to place their faith in Golden Eagle's proprietary model to navigate these turbulent waters successfully.

Critics may argue that "hypergrowth" is simply a new label for high-risk, high-volatility investing, packaging speculative companies under an academically appealing banner. The sustainability of 40%+ revenue growth is, by nature, temporary for any company. The challenge for Golden Eagle will be to prove that its model can consistently identify the next wave of leaders before their growth inevitably slows, while avoiding the companies destined to flame out.

With the release of its first trend report, Golden Eagle Strategies has fired the starting gun, officially asking the market to recognize a new way of classifying stocks. Now, the firm faces the long-term challenge of convincing a skeptical financial world that its data-driven vision is not just a fleeting trend, but a durable and superior way to invest.