Barron’s Best: Moderna, Oracle, and 3 More Stock Picks That Have Trounced the Market This Year
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Barron's stock picks have outperformed the market in 2021.
Barron’s prides itself on its stock picking. Whether we’re looking for ideas that are out of favor or outperformers that may have more room to run, we look for what others may have missed about a company that could drive its shares higher.
We’re far from perfect, and we’ll gladly admit when our calls go wrong, but we also don’t mind bragging just a little bit when they go right. So far this year, our picks have gained 7%, on average, from the day of the pick, outperforming their benchmarks’ 4.4% average gain. (We compare the stocks to the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400, and the small-cap Russell 2000 ).
Here are the five stock picks of 2021 that have gained the most since they were chosen:
Moderna (ticker: MRNA), +180%: It may be hard to remember, but when Barron’s Josh Nathan-Kazis picked Moderna on April 23, the stock had done nearly nothing since December. Of course, the stock had gained 468% in 2020, and investors were worried about how big a profit boost Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine would give the company, and what would come next.
Nathan-Kazis argued that the vaccine would offer a steady source of revenue, while also serving as a proof of concept for future vaccines. The timing was perfect, and it’s been off to the races ever since.
Atlas Technical Consultants (ATCX), +62%: Rarely do stock picks work this quickly. Selected on Jul. 30, the stock has surged in less than two weeks. Once again, the timing was perfect. Atlas is a tiny infrastructure-consulting company, and should benefit once the infrastructure package passes. Barron’s Nicholas Jasinski called Atlas an “overlooked” infrastructure play. Consider it overlooked no more.
Oracle (ORCL), +46%: Why would anyone pick Oracle? If anything, the company felt like a leftover from the dot-com boom that was destined to lag behind the tech titans of today. In his story from Feb. 19, Barron’s Eric Savitz argued that the company would elbow its way back into the Big Tech club thanks to its cloud business. So far, so good.
Welbilt (WBT), +45%: Another big winner that scored quickly. Al Root picked Welbilt on Mar. 26, citing its exposure to a potential post-Covid restaurant boom. Little did he know that the maker of restaurant equipment would get a takeover offer from rival Middleby (MDD) and then a higher bid from Ali Group. And that, as they say, was that.
Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), +42%: Selected on Feb. 1, Freeport was part of Andrew Bary’s well-timed cover story on the commodity boom. So well timed, in fact, that the stock is still up more than 40% despite a pullback in both it and the copper and iron Freeport produces. Right now, the stock looks as if it might be trying to finish its recent consolidation and potentially head higher. If it does, the stock could return to its 2021 high.
Write to Ben Levisohn at ben.levisohn@barrons.com