Stocks that could bloom now that spring is here
Wall Street experts offer their picks to freshen up your portfolio while the aging bull market chugs along.
Spring isn’t just about cleaning out closets or shopping for your dream home. It’s also a good time to freshen up your stock portfolio. ❚ How? By jettisoning stocks you no longer like and buying ones with potential to bloom. ❚ And with the U. S. stock market back on stronger footing after a rocky period early in February and the start of spring coming Tuesday, now’s a good time to re- energize your investments. ❚ If picking winning stocks isn’t your strong suit, consider these choices from Wall Street fund managers and stock strategists. They say these picks have good upside potential as the 9- year- old bull market, which many pundits say is entering its final stage, chugs on. ❚ The stock gurus named the following:
The Pick: J. P. Morgan Chase
The Pro: Thorne Perkin, president, Papamarkou Wellner, New York. The bank, the nation’s biggest by market value and headed by Jamie Dimon, should fare well in an aging bull, Perkin says, because at this stage the economy is gaining strength, and interest rates tend to rise. Both trends are good for J. P. Morgan’s ( JPM) profits.
The Pick: Apple
The Pro: Brian Belski, chief investment strategist, BMO Capital Markets, New York. Belski says the bull market could run 10 more years. And what better way to play it than to buy shares of Apple ( AAPL). “Apple is the premier consumer staples company,” says Belski. The key: “Cash plus innovation.”
The Pick: U. S. Bancorp
The Pro: Paul Schatz, president, Heritage Capital, Woodbridge, Conn.
The Minneapolis- based bank also should benefit from stronger growth and rising borrowing costs. Another plus, according to Schatz, is that the bank sets aside bigger reserves than it needs for bad loans. The upshot is U.S. Bancorp’s ( USB) quarterly earnings turn out to be better than promised, Schatz says.
The Pick: Lockheed Martin
The Pro: Ray Hare, director of equity research, Huntington Private Bank, Cincinnati.
The defense contractor should generate high- single- digit revenue growth over the next three years, according to Hare. Bolstering Lockheed Martin’s ( LMT) sales is the increased spending on defense to “rebuild and modernize the military” laid out in President Trump’s 2019 fiscal year budget.
The Pick: Western Digital
The Pro: Barry James, manager, James Balanced Golden Rainbow Fund, Alpha, Ohio.
Western Digital ( WDC) is an American computer data storage provider. In the fiscal year ending June 2017, its sales jumped 47% to $ 19.1 billion, according to FactSet.
The Pick: Cognizant Technology Solutions
The Pro: Robert Stimpson, portfolio manager, Oak Associates, Akron, Ohio.
Cognizant, which offers cost- effective information technology, is a perfect stock to own late in a bull run. The IT company has a diverse group of customers, from tech firms to financial companies.