Rick Stuchberry's Top Picks: January 24, 2022
BNN Bloomberg
Top picks from Rick Stuchberry, portfolio manager, Wellington-Altus Private Wealth
MARKET OUTLOOK:
The markets are absolutely torn over two possible outcomes - the inflation trade or the deflation trade. In these times of uncertainty, the market seldom goes higher, it will simply sit and wait for more knowledge, and once it knows, it will move.
We think 2022 will have a slow start and that most of the returns will come in the back half of the year and that the inflation numbers will subside as we will be comparing to 2021 not 2020. Once this stability is in place, we should be more comfortable to move higher.
Looking forward into 2022, we will continue to focus the portfolios on capital preservation, growing businesses and blue-chip dividend producers. Buying good businesses is a long-term winning strategy, despite periods of market change and volatility.
During 2021, our growth companies continued to deliver solid revenue growth, and our income companies gave us over 10 dividends hikes in 2021. Many of our large companies are also doing significant share buybacks, reducing the amount of shares available and driving up the price over time.
As for the companies’ safety, very few have any meaningful debt, and many are net debt free and therefore financially more sound than our governments.