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4 Hot Stocks For A Brand-New Investing Strategy

The tide is turning. Goldman Sachs is now calling an end to an investing strategy it first recommended two years ago.

“For the past two years we have consistently advocated buying strong balance sheet stocks, but we believe the risk-reward has shifted in favor of closing this recommendation,” Goldman Sachs’ equity strategist David Kostin wrote on February 8. “We no longer recommend strong balance sheets.”

These ‘strong balance sheet’ stocks include major names like Facebook (FB), Alphabet (GOOGL) and Costco (COST). So far this strategy has done very well for investors. Goldman Sachs’ basket of 50 strong balance sheet stocks outperformed weak balance sheet stocks by 25 percentage points since early 2017.

However the Fed’s recent dovish commentary indicates that the hiking cycle may have come to an end. This should ease pressure on corporate balance sheets- and led Kostin to make the following observation: “Our recent research showed that strong balance sheets are among the worst performing factors during the 12 months following the end of Fed hiking cycles, when U.S. Treasury yields typically also decline.”

Plus the firm’s optimistic outlook for the economy is also a boost to weaker balance sheet stocks. Investors tend to rotate to strong balance sheet stocks in times of weak or decelerating economic growth.

So which stocks should you be looking at now? Here are four stocks that all have a comparatively weaker balance sheet. Plus we used TipRanks’ market data to ensure that these stocks also boast bullish Street sentiment. As you will see, that means a ‘Strong Buy’ analyst consensus based on all ratings from the last three months.

Let’s take a closer look now:

Delta Airlines (DAL– Research Report)

Despite the government shutdown costing DAL $25 million in revenue for January, this stock still gets the thumbs up from the Street.

The airline carrier recently reported fourth quarter earnings that beat expectations thanks to strong travel demand. Delta’s total revenue rose to $10.74 billion during Q4, up 5% year-over-year.

As Tigress Financial’s Ivan Feinseth (Track Record & Ratings) notes, a strong economy, low unemployment and increases in consumer spending are driving record levels of airline travel.

That’s reflected in the company’s ‘Strong Buy’ consensus and 26% upside potential.

View DAL Price Target & Analyst Ratings Detail

AT&T (T– Research Report)

AT&T is a leading provider of IP, broadband, video, and wireless services. And through its recent Time Warner acquisition it is now a top four producer of content globally.

2019 is about positioning for better services growth in 2020 and beyond says Oppenheimer’s Timothy Horan (Track Record & Ratings). Horan, like most of the Street, currently has a buy rating on T stock. That’s with a $41 price target for 38% upside potential.

T has the ability to integrate its services in unique ways, with substantial room to use virtualized technologies to greatly reduce operating and capital expenditures. “We believe that combined with TWX, FCF/share could grow 6% per year” writes the analyst.

View T Price Target & Analyst Ratings Detail

CBS Corp (CBS– Research Report)

This mass media stock is gearing up for its earnings report, set for after the close on February 14. Ahead of the results, top Barrington Research analyst James Goss (Track Record & Ratings) has reiterated his CBS buy rating with a $72 price target. That indicates compelling upside potential of 49%.

According to Goss, CBS has a robust pipeline of original content lined up for its OTT platforms, Showtime and CBS All Access.

Indeed the success of its OTT platforms in attracting subscribers is now pacing a year ahead of schedule, with the estimated eight million subscribers by the end of 2019, instead of 2020.

“In addition to having better ad monetization capabilities through improved targeting and data capabilities, the company also monetizes those consumers on a much more attractive rate compared to traditional linear distribution” Goss writes.

View CBS Price Target & Analyst Ratings Detail

General Motors (GM– Research Report)

“Motoring into 2019” cheers RBC Capital’s Joseph Spak (Track Record & Ratings). He made the comment following the company’s solid 4Q18 earnings results.

The details of the quarter – which were strong – should lead investors to have more confidence in 2019 EPS says Goss. For example, management guided tax rate to 16-18%; versus the expected 20%.

Plus the analyst continues to view GM’s transformation as underappreciated. “Recent restructuring actions that should lead to ~$4.5bn savings run-rate in 2020 significantly improves GM’s positioning” he writes.

And it seems like the Street agrees. If we zero in on top-performing analysts, we can see GM holds only buy ratings right now:

View GM Price Target & Analyst Ratings Detail

Enjoy the Research Report on the Stocks in this Article:

AT&T Inc (T) Research Report

CBS Corp (CBS) Research Report

Delta Airlines (DAL) Research Report

General Motors (GM) Research Report

Here we looked at recommendations from just one firm. But TipRanks tracks over 5,000 analysts from across Wall Street. This means you can get the latest stock picks from analysts with the strongest track record on a daily basis. Which stocks are the top-performing analysts recommending right now? Go to the Analysts’ Top Stocks Tool now

Harriet Lefton
Harriet Lefton, originally from the UK, began her career as a journalist specialising in the niche world of metal markets. She graduated from the University of Cambridge before becoming a qualified UK lawyer. Now she has turned her attention to the world of financial blogging, covering US stocks, analysts and all manner of things finance-related.

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