A 10-year investment horizon changes the way investors look at ASX 200 shares.
Short-term earnings volatility, market sentiment, and valuation swings are still important. But over a decade, the bigger question is whether a business is becoming more important to its customers, expanding its market opportunity, and building a stronger competitive position.
Two ASX 200 shares that could fit that description are listed below.
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Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX: NWL)
The first ASX 200 share to look at is Netwealth.
Netwealth operates an investment platform used by financial advisers, wealth managers, and their clients.
What makes Netwealth stand out is the way wealth management is becoming more digital, personalised, and data-driven. Advisers are increasingly expected to do more for clients, with better reporting, greater transparency, and more efficient portfolio administration.
That makes the platform layer very important. A good platform does not just hold investments. It can become the operating system that helps advisers manage client relationships, investment choices, reporting, tax information, and administration.
Netwealth has built its reputation by being nimble, adviser-focused, and technology-led. That gives it room to keep improving its offering as client expectations rise and financial advice becomes more complex.
The business will still face competition from other platforms and pressure to keep investing in technology. Market weakness can also slow funds growth. But over 10 years, a strong platform with loyal adviser relationships could become a much larger business.
Bell Potter is a fan and currently has a buy rating and $30.00 price target on Netwealth's shares. This implies potential upside of 36% from current levels.
NextDC Ltd (ASX: NXT)
Another ASX 200 share that could be worth buying and holding is NextDC.
It develops and operates data centres, which are becoming increasingly important as businesses shift more workloads to the cloud, adopt artificial intelligence tools, and store larger amounts of data.
This is not a passing trend. Digital infrastructure is becoming essential infrastructure. Companies need secure, reliable, and scalable places to house their computing power and connect to cloud providers, networks, and technology partners.
NextDC is positioned right in the middle of that demand. Its facilities serve customers that need high-performance data centre capacity, and the company has been investing heavily to expand its footprint.
That investment can weigh on near-term earnings and cash flow, so this is not a low-risk option. Data centres are capital-intensive, and expectations are high.
Even so, the long-term demand picture remains attractive. If data usage and AI workloads continue to grow, NextDC could be one of the ASX's clearest ways to gain exposure to the infrastructure behind the digital economy.
Ord Minnett is very positive on the company's outlook. It currently rates NextDC shares as a buy with a $21.50 price target. This offers 40% upside based on its current share price.
