|
Stock picks by the pros
|
 |
September 13, 1999: 11:53 a.m. ET
Microsoft, Apple, R&B Falcon singled out as top stocks
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The nation's analysts and money managers continued the hunt for promising companies Monday, finding value in a personal computer maker, an oil driller, a Netherlands-based electronics conglomerate and others. Here are some of the stocks recent guests on CNNfn are buying and why:
Robert Robbins, market strategist, Robinson-Humphrey, is placing his bets on three stocks:
"In technology, Microsoft (MSFT), I think, is the big grower, the largest capitalization stock in the world, perhaps the most proprietary of all of the technology stocks. Clearly a core holding I think people should hold, and it's technical chart has improved significantly over the last few weeks."
In the diversified consumer cyclical area, Robbins favors Home Depot (HD), "another great growth stock that people ought to own. Again, it appears to be under massive accumulation in the last week or so, and it's experienced great earnings strength and acceleration in the recent reporting period."
And finally, for growth investors, again, is "value bias Gildan Activewear Gildan Activewear (GIL), a company growing at 30 percent a year, 10 times earnings, low PE ratio and high growth. It`s a T-shirt manufacturer that distributes to all kinds of T-shirt retailers that put final prints and designs on the fronts of T-shirts. Great growth idea."
"Apple," says Robert Morris, director of equity at Lord, Abbett & Co., "is back. I think that`s the simple story. If you look at where Apple was ten years ago, the stock is barely at a new high. So what we`re getting now is the Apple Computer (AAPL) we should have had over the last ten years but didn't, because of product that wasn`t there and some other issues that the company had. But now Apple is back and it`s one of the cheapest technology stocks going."
Morris says the price is right for shares of insurance firm Ace Ltd. (ACL).
"When you can buy a company of its quality at less that ten times forecast earnings, I'd have to call that a bargain. The problem right now is that the insurance industry is experiencing weak pricing and, as long as that fundamental is in place, the stock is going to remain cheap. But once pricing turns around -- we have a big hurricane out there -- that could take some capital out of the insurance industry very quickly. And I think, here, pricing is the key. This stock could double from this level."
Richard Dahlberg, chief investment officer of Pioneer Investments, keeps an eye on business worldwide while he's picking stocks stateside. When asked whether he'd be more inclined to hold on to U.S. companies with exposure overseas or hand pick strong European and Asian stocks, he said he'd actually "do both. If you look at the stocks that I'm recommending this morning, Philips Electronics (PHG) is a broad-based semiconductor, flat-panel display, and general consumer electronics company that does business worldwide. Very, very strong company. There was a Wall Street Journal article last Friday talking about the company, saying that if it were broken up it would be worth 50 percent more than what it`s selling for. I think that`s kind of a compelling company."
R&B Falcon (FLC) is another favorite, for another reason. "We`ve had drilling almost come to a halt over the past year, due to low oil prices. It takes a little bit of time for psychology to change in the oil companies, but we think that's going to be a pretty strong area for the next couple of years and Falcon, at its high, was in the low 40s three or four
years ago. It went all the way down to 6. It`s now back to 15. We think it has still got a long way to go."
The views presented here are solely those of the analysts quoted. They do not represent the opinions of CNNfn on whether to buy or sell shares of a particular stock.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
