Though we’re on opposite sides of the Kinder Morgan (KMI) tug of war, I find that the editors of Barron’s and myself tend to sing from the same songbook. We both tend to be contrarian value investors who ignore hype—often to our own detriment. Had I bought the hype and piled into bubbly momentum names like Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN) and Netflix (NFLX) this year, I’d be a lot richer.

Such is life.

At any rate, Barron’s announced its 10 Favorite Stocks for 2016 over the weekend, and I’m going to pick through the portfolio for potential gems.

10 Favorite Stocks for 2016

Stock Ticker 2016E P/E Div Yield AMC Networks AMCX 14.4 N/A Apple AAPL 11.7 1.8% Celgene CELG 18.7 N/A CVS Health CVS 16.0 1.5% Delta Air Lines DAL 8.4 1.1% Discover Financial DFS 9.7 2.0% Electronic Arts EA 21.9 N/A Foot Locker FL 13.5 1.6% General Motors GM 6.6 4.1% Mohawk Industries MHK 15.5 N/A

Overall, this is a portfolio I’d be happy to buy and hold for the next year. It’s diversified across industry sectors and, for the most part, very reasonably priced.

That said, there are parts of the portfolio I like a lot better than others. I’m not bearish on AMC Networks (AMCX), but the stock doesn’t strike me as particularly cheap and it doesn’t pay a dividend. It’s also almost entirely dependent on a single show franchise, the Walking Dead. I’d also be reluctant to put any serious money into Celgene (CELG) for similar reasons. A disproportionate share of its revenues come from a single drug. And frankly, that’s a criticism of the entire biotech sphere and a reason why I tend to shy away from the sector in retirement portfolios.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email