Growth Investing

If you look out into the middle of the decade, then you can make the case for increasingly robust economic growth that could fuel heady top- and bottom-line gains in a number of sectors. But we’re not there yet.#-ad_banner-# Recent economic signs point to an eventual economic brightening, though there… Read More

If you look out into the middle of the decade, then you can make the case for increasingly robust economic growth that could fuel heady top- and bottom-line gains in a number of sectors. But we’re not there yet.#-ad_banner-# Recent economic signs point to an eventual economic brightening, though there are enough boulders in the U.S. economy‘s path that could derail an economic expansion. So perhaps it’s wiser to focus on companies that are poised for solid growth in 2013. Out of all the of the companies in the S&P 500, 91 (or 18%)… Read More

If you look out into the middle of the decade, then you can make the case for increasingly robust economic growth that could fuel heady top- and bottom-line gains in a number of sectors. But we’re not there yet.#-ad_banner-# Recent economic signs point to an eventual economic brightening, though there are enough boulders in the U.S. economy‘s path that could derail an economic expansion. So perhaps it’s wiser to focus on companies that are poised for solid growth in 2013. Out of all the of the companies in the S&P 500, 91 (or 18%) are expected to boost sales by at least 10% this year. And of those firms, 72 are expected to boost per-share profits by at least 15% in the coming year.  A cluster of them reside in sectors that have already received a great deal of investor attention recently, so they can’t be seen as solid values in the context of projected 2013 results any more. Housing stocks, for example, fit into this category. Instead, value investors may prefer to focus on stocks that have solid growth prospects, but sport forward price-to-earnings (… Read More

OK, I’m always the first to admit it. When it comes to investing in Chinese stocks, I’m a bit of a skeptic.  That’s why I’ve opted to get investment exposure to China only through mega-multinational companies such as PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) or General Electric (NYSE: GE).#-ad_banner-# I’ve always sided with the bears, who contend China’s economic numbers can’t be trusted because the command-and-control nature that the government has over the economy. Read More

OK, I’m always the first to admit it. When it comes to investing in Chinese stocks, I’m a bit of a skeptic.  That’s why I’ve opted to get investment exposure to China only through mega-multinational companies such as PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) or General Electric (NYSE: GE).#-ad_banner-# I’ve always sided with the bears, who contend China’s economic numbers can’t be trusted because the command-and-control nature that the government has over the economy. However, I’m also a big fan of emerging markets and telecom stocks. That’s why I just can’t deny the relevance of state-owned China Mobile Ltd‘s (NYSE: CHL) role in this investment theme. With nearly 600 million subscribers, China Mobile holds the position as the world’s largest wireless provider by market capitalization, with a whopping $227 billion. China’s economic growth has resulted in a rising middle class and telecom providers are usually one of the first sectors to benefits from this rise. Read More

Most people think being ignored or unpopular is a bad thing. But when it comes to stocks, it’s a blessing in disguise. There are about 63,000 publicly-traded companies in the world, according to data from Bloomberg. Of these 63,000, about 15,000 are based in the United States, with about 5,000 being traded on public exchanges and the other 10,000 traded in various over-the-counter (OTC) markets.#-ad_banner-# But while many large, well-known companies such as Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) have more than 30 analysts providing coverage, the majority of… Read More

Most people think being ignored or unpopular is a bad thing. But when it comes to stocks, it’s a blessing in disguise. There are about 63,000 publicly-traded companies in the world, according to data from Bloomberg. Of these 63,000, about 15,000 are based in the United States, with about 5,000 being traded on public exchanges and the other 10,000 traded in various over-the-counter (OTC) markets.#-ad_banner-# But while many large, well-known companies such as Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) have more than 30 analysts providing coverage, the majority of public companies are being almost totally ignored by the analyst community, with little to no coverage at all. And like I said before, that’s a good thing for investors. That’s because stocks with high analyst coverage have usually already cycled through the early stages of rapid growth that produce big gains for early investors. These high levels of growth and big gains frequently trigger more interest from investors, which in turn make it much more profitable for investment research companies to create and sell research reports in high demand. On the institutional side, stocks… Read More