Heading into next year, there are some businesses that look like they should perform better than they have in 2022. Two of them are Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) and Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV). Since October, shares of both companies are up over 20% (the S&P 500 has risen 10% over this period) as investors have begun buying up these stocks. And with promising growth prospects for 2023, they could be even hotter buys next year.

It hasn't been a bad year for Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, and its shares have risen 15% in 2022. But things could go even better for the business next year. That's because its promising weight-loss drug Wegovy has seen strong demand -- and if not for supply issues, its sales could have been much greater this year. Through the first nine months of 2022, Wegovy's sales have totaled 3.7 billion Danish Krone ($524 million), which is more than six times what it generated a year ago.

However, analysts expected the company to generate more than $2 billion over the past two years from the treatment. CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen admits the company underestimated demand and Novo has since increased capacity, which should enable it to fulfill all of its orders in 2023.

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Source Fool.com