Buy These 7 Stocks That Won’t Stop Going Up

Even though fear and uncertainty has returned to the market, these seven stocks have outperformed on a consistent basis so far this year. With strong and long-term macroeconomic trends fueling revenue and earnings growth, buy these stocks for years of outperformance no matter what happens in the market.

Chaos returned to the global markets on Friday. After equities rallied this Thursday on the belief that the U.K. would vote to stay in the EU, just the opposite occurred when votes were tallied. It appears this will turn out to be one of the bigger mistaken assumptions in recent memory.

Once again, the so called elite and economic pundits have not taken into account how much anger and angst permeates the electorates in developed nations across the world after a decade of slow economic growth, tepid job gains, increases in terrorist acts, major expansions of regulations, and massive interventions by the world’s central banks. Looking back with hindsight, England deciding to leave the EU seems almost logical given those cross currents.

You only need to look at our recent election primaries to see how unpredictable these forces are at the moment. This event will have ripple effects across global markets for weeks and we will see over time whether the U.K. is just a one-off event or the start of other nations reasserting their sovereignty and leaving the European Union as well.

The next potential trouble spot for our market will be second quarter earnings reports which will start to trickle in in the next couple weeks. They are expected to show the fifth straight quarter of profit decline within the S&P 500 as we continue to be locked in a “profit recession” since the early part of 2015.

However, not all sectors of the economy and market are seeing earnings declines of course. One area of strength is housing. Last week two of the largest home builders, KB Home (NYSE: KBH) and Lennar Corporation (NYSE: LENboth delivered solid results and saw their stocks rise nicely as a result.

KBH

We made a significant bet at Small Cap Gems in the second half of 2015 on housing, infrastructure, and construction plays and put a good portion of our optimized 20 stock portfolio into these areas. Although it took a bit longer than we would have liked for that theme to play out, the portfolio is now benefiting greatly from that allocation. Construction and infrastructure concerns MasTec (NYSE: MTZand Tutor Perini (NYSE: TPChave continued to build strength in recent months. These two names are not only two of the best-performing stocks in our portfolio in 2016 so far, but also two of the top performers in the market. Both are up more than 50% this year.

MTZ

Our faith in these sectors rebounding and having solid value is based on a couple of observations. First, even though housing starts posted their best levels since 2007 in 2015, they were still significantly under the average of the past 30 or 40 years on an annual basis. With household formation now above pre-crisis levels, solid job growth, the loosening of credit underwriting standards and mortgage rates near historical lows, we reasoned we should see years of improved housing activity outside a significant recession. In addition, an upcoming five-year transportation bill that was approved late last year took a lot of uncertainty away from infrastructure and construction projects after many years of approving one-off one-year budget bills in Congress.

LGIH

Although the housing market continues to improve in a two step forward, one step back basis, the trend is up with housing starts running at just under 10% above the same period last year. Average selling price growth is also solid. Many of my favorite small homebuilders are seeing even faster growth than national averages. Longtime favorite LGI Homes (NASDAQ: LGIH) has seen monthly closings jump some 35% in the first five months of the year compared with the same period a year ago. After making just under $2.50 a share in earnings in FY2015, this home builder is tracking to $3.30 a share this fiscal year. The consensus has LGI Homes making nearly $4 a share in FY2017. Even after a recent rally, the shares are too cheap at $30.

A much larger home builder that is showing good growth and sports an attractive valuation is high-end home builder Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) whose communities dot most of the nation. The company should post a 30% gain in earnings this year on back of a 20% rise in revenues. Growth is conservatively projected in 2017 to see another 15% rise in profits on a 10% increase in revenues. The stock currently sells for less than 11 times this year’s profits, a significant discount to the overall market multiple despite the homebuilder’s superior growth prospects.

TOL

Finally, Blue Chip Retailer Home Depot (NYSE: HD)continues to benefit from the uptick in housing starts as well as remodeling activity. Although somewhat pricey at 20 times this year’s earnings, the company continues to grow earnings at a 15% annual clip on a mid-single-digit rise in revenues. The stock also yields nearly two and a quarter percent in dividends. There are worse things to buy in any dip in the market than this long-term “buy and hold” stock that keeps providing good solid singles.

HD

Disclosure: Positions: Long LGIH, ...

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