Lewis Hamilton has just won his third Hungarian Grand Prix (GP) in a row and S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) investors should be paying attention.
Why? Because in the words of The Motley Fool Co-founder David Gardner, "winners win".
For those of you who don't follow Formula One, Hamilton is one of the most successful drivers ever with 6 world championships under his belt. He currently drives for Mercedes, which has won the last 6 constructors' championships. Prior to that Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing won 4 championships in a row.
When investing in ASX 200 shares, I think investors can draw inspiration from Hamilton's Hungarian GP win. Although prior performance is not a guarantee of future returns or success, companies and athletes that win tend to have a competitive advantage. Even if a company's share price has appreciated faster than the share market in the past, if the total addressable market or optionality of the business allows, that advantage can mean a stock can continue to deliver outsized returns for investors.
2 ASX 200 shares that can keep winning
Altium Limited (ASX: ALU)
If Hamilton has won 3 Hungarian GPs in a row, Altium has won 10, at least. The printed circuit board software company current trades at around 57x earnings and pays a dividend on a yield of 1.16%. That's quite a lofty valuation, but it is deserved. Over the last decade, the Altium share price has risen at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 64.33% per annum, including dividends.
Just like the book makers had Hamilton on extremely low odds to win, investors have pushed up the valuation of Altium on the expectation it will continue to deliver results. I think this expectation is deserved, as Altium continues to deliver as a business and as an investment. Altium management has a long-term focus on dominating its industry.
NextDC Ltd (ASX: NXT)
As an innovative data centre-as-a-service provider, NextDC has been growing its number of data centres in strategic locations across Australia. The NextDC share price has had a stellar year, going from $6.53 to $10.95 at the time of writing. Look back 5 years, and the stock has grown at a CAGR of 35.66%.
One reason for the recent NextDC share price growth is that the company has benefitted from the digitisation trend caused by COVID-19. The shift towards digitisation isn't over though, COVID-19 or not. Over the long-term, the shift towards cloud computing will increase the demand for NextDC data centres.
Although building data centres can be capital intensive, the strong industry tailwinds should provide investors with strong returns if the business is able to manage its balance sheet and allocate capital well.
Foolish bottom line
These ASX 200 growth shares are slowly maturing. In my opinion, they are still small enough, in large enough addressable markets, to continue growing (and compounding) for years.
