The list of most-loved Club stocks on Wall Street entering the new year resembles the list of 2023 winners, except for two stocks: Constellation Brands and Disney . The Mexican beer importer and media-and-entertainment giant are among the 11 Club holdings with buy-equivalent ratings from at least 75% of the analysts who cover them, according to FactSet data. The companies stand out from the nine other stocks when considering recent performance: Constellation and Disney rose just 4.3% and 3.9%, respectively, in 2023, compared with the S & P 500 ‘s 24.2% gain. The rest of the most-loved stocks either significantly outperformed the S & P 500 last year — such as Amazon , up 81% and top performer Nvidia , up 239% — or were steady advancers that set a series of all-time highs. The latter description applies to industrial gas firm Linde , which narrowly bested the S & P 500 with a 26% advance but routinely reached record peaks along the way, and off-price retailer TJX Companies , which added 17.9% in 2023 and ended the year at fresh highs. When taking Wall Street’s temperature on specific stocks, it’s important to keep in mind that being almost universally loved isn’t a clear-cut positive. In some situations, it could be a sign that a lot of the good news for a stock is already priced in. Earlier Tuesday, we trimmed our positions in six of the 11 stocks on the list — Amazon, Nvidia, Microsoft , Meta Platforms , Alphabet and Palo Alto Networks . These trims were not tied directly to a belief that analysts are too positive on the stocks; there’s still reason to believe in these companies over the long term. But with the market riding a rare nine-week win streak and this group of stocks delivering monster gains in 2023, locking in profits was the prudent action to take. Apple and Salesforce, which have buy-equivalent ratings from 61% and 69% of the analysts covering them, also were part of the Tuesday’s sales. “We took something off of every single big winner. ……
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply