John Dorfman Columns category, Page 4
John Dorfman: Four stocks with big rebound potential
A Wall Street adage warns, “Don’t try to catch a falling knife.” I do it frequently. Buying good stocks on bad news is a sound methodology, I believe. You may not catch the exact bottom, but you’re likely to find a good entry point. Each quarter, I compile a Casualty...
John Dorfman: Magnificent Seven? Consider my Regular Seven instead
Well, finally! The stock market’s advance is broadening out at last, after close to two years when most stocks didn’t do much while the so-called Magnificent Seven soared. The Magnificent Seven consists of Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Apple Inc. (AAPL), Meta Platforms Inc. (META), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Nvidia...
John Dorfman: Picking through the rubble of this year’s hardest-hit stocks
As each year draws to a close, I like to sift through the debris of the year’s worst-performing stocks. Usually I can find one or two that strike me as bargains. This year, among all U.S. stocks with a market value of $5 billion or more, the worst performers are:...
John Dorfman: Bunny Portfolio returned 44% in past year
“Still going.” That was the punchline in the Energizer battery commercials, featuring the Energizer Bunny, which kept going long after you would have expected it to stop. It’s also the idea behind my Bunny Portfolio. This hypothetical portfolio contains companies that have averaged 25% profit growth in the past five...
John Dorfman: When CEOs buy their own stock, pay attention
When chief executives buy their companies’ shares, it’s often worth considering the stock. Company insiders achieve better capital gains, on average, than the typical investor does. The effect is especially strong for chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief financial officers (CFOs). Using Guru Focus software, I screened on Dec. 3...
John Dorfman: Foot Locker, Albemarle may bounce back strong
Today’s smash-ups are tomorrow’s comeback candidates. In November and December, investors often sell their losers to reduce their capital-gains taxes. In this late-year selloff, some stocks get pushed below their fair values, which creates a buying opportunity. Here are a few stocks that have been pummeled in 2023 and that...
John Dorfman: 5 stocks to loosen your belt for
Thanksgiving is a time to loosen your belt. That’s why, each year around Thanksgiving, I loosen my stock-valuation belt a little in this column, and suggest five stocks that look good to me even though they are a little more expensive than I normally prefer. These are GARP stocks. The...
John Dorfman: Kraft Heinz, Capital One look good based on book value
I believe the value approach to investing is in the early stages of a comeback, after a decade in retreat. Roughly speaking and oversimplifying, value was usually a good stock-picking method from 1930 to 2013. Since then, growth and momentum investors have smiled, while value investors have wept. A stock...
John Dorfman: What’s up most in 2023? Cipher Mining, Carvana
Some of the biggest gainers this year are so obscure that many investors won’t have heard of them. On Nov. 4, I checked the biggest gainers year-to-date among all stocks with a market value of $1 billion or more. And the winners are…. 1. Cipher Mining Inc., up 632% 2....
John Dorfman: Markel, Pulte flaunt rapid revenue growth
For a while, revenue growth at all costs was a popular approach, and investors fell for it. Now that stocks such as AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (AMC) and WeWork Inc. (WE) have crashed to earth, investors are a little less in love with revenue growth. So now that the fad...
John Dorfman: The sweet spot between small and midsize stocks
I’m partial to small and midsize stocks, and I especially like the size that’s right on the border between them. “Large” in the stock market these days means $10 billion or more in market value, by my classification. Midsize stocks are $1 billion to $10 billion, and small stocks are...
John Dorfman: RTX, Timken, SeaWorld hit Casualty List
The harsh market climate of August and September has left quite a few stocks selling for what I consider bargain prices. Welcome to the 82nd quarterly Casualty List, featuring stocks that have been knocked around and that I think have the potential to recover and thrive. RTX Corp. I’ll start...
John Dorfman: October a special month for stock market
We are coming up on a seasonal turning point in the stock market. October is special for three reasons: • It is the month when history’s most spectacular market crashes have occurred, most famously in 1929 and 1987. • Yet it is actually, on average, a pretty good month. •...
John Dorfman: Short-selling contestants clean up betting on losses
In 20 years of running the annual Short Sellers Don’t Have Horns short-selling contest, I’ve never had a winner request anonymity. Until now. The winner, whom I will call Sam, is a 22-year-old stock analyst who recently earned a master’s degree in finance from a college in the Boston area....
John Dorfman: EOG, Livent have pleasingly plump profit margins
No one wants to hear the word “fat.” But put it together with “profit margins,” and it doesn’t sound bad. Once a year, I feature in this column some stocks that boast unusually large profit margins. These can be a sign that a company has a unique product or is...
John Dorfman: Paccar and American Woodmark show value, momentum
Most value stocks (those that are reasonably priced or cheap) are struggling to gain traction this year. Growth stocks are ruling the roost. But a few value stocks are outperforming the market. For people who relish both value and some price action, here are five stocks to consider. Each sells...
John Dorfman: These 5 stocks look enticing on cash flow
It’s a simple formula, right? A business’s profit equals its revenue minus expenses. Yet, this can be tricky. Some expenses are intangible. Say you’re a cruise company and bought some ships five years ago, paying out $30 million. You didn’t subtract the whole $30 million from your profits that year....
John Dorfman: Sane Portfolio enjoyed a good year
The Sane Portfolio wasn’t intended to burn up the track. This is a hypothetical portfolio I devised in 1999 and have refreshed almost every year since. It’s intended as a slightly conservative, middle-of-the-road collection of stocks. But in the past year it’s risen 23%. To be eligible for the Sane...
Nucor, Albemarle show value, growth
Hatfield vs. McCoy. Montague vs. Capulet. Yankees vs. Red Sox. Great feuds, each. But what about value and growth, the two main schools of investing? They don’t have to be enemies. Once a year, I write a column on stocks I believe show value and growth characteristics. For 17 columns...
John Dorfman: Investing hints from 7 investment masters
You can’t teach genius. But you can learn a lot from observing geniuses at work. Here are a few nuggets of investment wisdom from seven master investors. John Neff The manager of the Windsor Fund for three decades, John Neff was a quintessential value investor. “To us, ugly stocks were...
John Dorfman: CVS, Phillips 66 and Lear look good on this gauge
A good tool for spotting turnaround candidates is the price-to-sales ratio. Start with a company’s stock price. Divide it by the company’s sales (revenue) per share. If the number you get is less than 1.0, the stock is cheap; typically the company is straining for growth and profits. When you...
John Dorfman: Occidental Petroleum, Valero on Casualty List
Let’s postulate that the goal in stock investing is to buy low and sell high. If so, it makes sense to look at stocks that have been banged up, searching for ones that have recovery potential. That’s the goal of my quarterly Casualty List. Today, I’ll highlight two large energy...
John Dorfman: Civitas, Mueller can boast high profit, low debt
Two of the badges of corporate success are high profits and low debt. Today, I draw your attention to five stocks that excel in both regards. Each has a return on stockholders’ equity of 20% or better. On this measure of profitability, I consider 10% decent and 15% good. Each...
John Dorfman: I own these 25 stocks in my personal account
While I write about more than 200 stocks each year, I own far fewer. Once a year in this column, I discuss my holdings. Here are the 25 I own personally and for most clients now. Communications I hold the same three communications stocks I held a year ago —...
IBM, Colgate and 3 other stocks I would sell
My father owned International Business Machines (IBM) stock most of the time from the 1950s to the 1980s. Maybe your father did, too. I hope he did, because IBM shares rose well over one hundred fold in that period. Today, I think IBM and some other well-known names should be...
