A recent article from Jim Jubak detailing 6 stocks to keep an eye on and look to buy later. He gives us 4 potential characteristics to look for in a company during a recession, and while they are overly general, they can serve as good starting points:
But investors can see indications of which companies will come out of this recession stronger than they went in. The signs aren’t visible — yet — in quarterly earnings reports; the economy is still too weak for that. The evidence that a company is “wheat” and will come out of this recession a winner is to be found around the edges:
News of dividends increased.
Reports of hiring.
Capital spending maintained.
Acquisitions made.
Jubak gives us 6 stocks that fall into these categories, and in my opinion MON is the most promising for the first part of 2009:
Rising Dividends – Monsanto (MON)
Hiring – Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA)
Capital Spending Maintained – Intel (INTC), BNSF Railway (BNI)
Acquisitions – US Bancorp (USB)
The sixth stock is Ericsson (ERIC), and while it doesn’t meet any of the above qualifications (unless it acquires some of the pieces of Nortel), it appears to be one of the few telecom equipment makers who could be left standing after this depression, er, recession.
Disclosure: Long USB
