It’s been fifteen weeks since the marijuana sector topped, sending the Marijuana Index down 55%. But as the picture of this correction gets clearer, every day I get a little more bullish about the possibility that the sector is ready to turn up again. Most of our stocks are exhibiting typical base-building behavior, though there’s no sign of real buying power yet.

But the fundamentals of the industry remain excellent, so there’s no question that eventually these stocks will get going again.



In the portfolio today there are only two small changes. IIPR moves to Hold, and TPB moves to Sell.



Full details in the issue.

Thank you for subscribing to the Cabot Turnaround Letter. We hope you enjoy reading the June 2021 issue.

Good investing ideas can come from anywhere. One useful source is to borrow ideas from some of the best value-oriented investors. Their holdings can be found in the 13F and 13D regulatory filings which are required every quarter. In the letter, we briefly describe these filings, how we use them, and six stocks that look attractive from the many holdings we analyzed.



A slightly shocking source of turnaround ideas can come from the electric utility industry – about the last place that contrarians might look these days. We discuss three with interesting stories and strong upside potential.



Our feature Buy recommendation, Vistra Corporation (VST), comes from this illuminating search through the utility sector. Vistra is the nation’s largest independent power producer with an emerging retail business. Its shares were jolted by the winter storms yet look like an attractive turnaround situation.



We also mention our May 12th move from Buy to Sell on shares of Mohawk Industries (MHK).



Please feel free to send me your questions and comments. This newsletter is written for you. A great way to get more out of your letter is to let me know what you are looking for.



I’m best reachable at Bruce@CabotWealth.com. I’ll do my best to respond as quickly as possible.

It looks like this relentless bull market is finally stalling out. The market isn’t correcting, or really selling off in any substantial way. It has just stopped moving higher, for now. Given the returns in the past year and recent months, the market had to take a break. That pace couldn’t last.

Stock prices may be stuck in mud for the time being, but there are some fantastic income opportunities out there. Many high-dividend stocks are still well below pre-pandemic prices and offer some of the highest yields in a decade. In this month’s issue I highlight a phenomenal stock with a sky-high yield and a price that’s trending higher.

This week’s covered call idea is a company that is growing fast, and is doing the good work of helping families overcome a problem.

First, a reminder that the market is closed for the Memorial Day holiday next Monday so we’ll publish our next issue on Tuesday, June 1.

This week, the broad market continues to give mixed messages, with growth stocks as a whole lagging, but some newer stocks giving bullish signals. One of those is today’s featured stock. It came public in March and on Friday it broke out to a new high!



As for the current portfolio, there are no changes. Everything is working at the moment!

Current Market Outlook


After a couple of horrid weeks for growth stocks, we’ve seen a ray of light lately, as many found solid support with some volume beginning to show up in some stocks as they rally, an early sign that big investors are engaged. Thus, we’ll chalk it up as a nice first step, and definitely a change from the recent carnage, but we still need to see more—many indexes are now doing more chopping than rising (the overall intermediate-term trend is basically neutral at this point), and most of the action in recent days has been among stocks that took the biggest hits (and thus still have a ton of overhead to chew through). Don’t get us wrong, we’re intrigued by what we see—it could prove to be the early stages of a change in character for growth stocks after three months in the outhouse—but the bulls still have more to prove before we meaningfully increase our exposure.

This week’s list remains mixed, with lots of turnaround and cyclical situations, but with a few growth-y issues too. Our Top Pick is Analog Devices (ADI), which has come back to life after a three-month rest thanks to great earnings, huge cash flow and a pending acquisition.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Acuity Brands (AYI)	180	176-181	162-165
Analog Devices (ADI)	163	159-164	145-148
Avery Dennison Corp. (AVY)	219	215-220	197-200
Blackstone Group (BX)	91	86-89	79-81
Children’s Place (PLCE)	95	90-93	80-82
EOG Resources, Inc. (EOG)	80	78-81	70-72
EPAM Systems (EPAM)	485	465-475	425-430
Owens Corning (OC)	105	101-104	92-94
Progyny (PGNY)	59	54.5-57.5	48-50
Roblox Corporation (RBLX)	89	85.5-89.5	73.5-76.5

Big picture, this year’s growth stock correction still looks normal, and encouragingly, we are now seeing some names bounce decently after the destruction of the prior two weeks. However, just going with the evidence, there’s still a lot of work to do, with few stocks in position to breakout and little in the way of upside power.

There will be another sustained rally (or two) down the road, but right now, we’re mostly biding our time, holding a lot of cash and fine tuning our watch list for whenever the buyers retake control.



In tonight’s issue, we dive into some precedent analysis that gives us confident in the big-picture point of view, and also highlight three new-ish additions to our watch list. In the Model Portfolio, we’re standing pat, but we could nibble if things continue to stabilize in the days ahead.

Here is your May Wall Street’s Best Digest issue 841.

Earnings season is upon us! According to FactSet, this may be a quarter with the highest percentage of S&P 500 companies reporting a positive EPS surprise since FactSet began tracking this metric in 2008. So far, 91% of companies in the S&P 500 have reported, and 86% have reported a positive EPS surprise and 76% have reported a positive revenue surprise. These positive surprises were led by Consumer Discretionary stocks, whose earnings grew by 50.3%.



That’s good news for the markets—which despite a small downturn a week ago—continues to hold its own. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up about 1,400 points since our last issue. Our advisors are still cautiously bullish, and overall investment sentiment remains the same.



Job openings are up, unemployment claims are down, and Q2 GDP is forecast at a rousing 8.2%. That sounds like a strengthening economy to me!



And, as you know, earnings drive stock prices, and that bodes well for the remainder of 2021.



We begin this issue with an equipment rental company that weathered the pandemic very well, and is now in a position to see a big growth spurt as the economy gets back on track. Next, our Growth stocks include companies from the furniture, crypto, aviation, cruise line, and gaming industries. In Growth & Income, you’ll find ideas from the chemical, fertilizer, RV, consumer products, and motorcycle sectors.



Moving on to Financials, a sector that is quickly recovering, our contributors are recommending several banks, a research, and a FinTech company. In Technology, we offer a hardware, speaker components, and a semiconductor stock. Our Resources & Energy ideas include companies from the mining and production, as well as utility sectors.



We give you one Low-Priced Stock this month, heralding from the communications industry. And in High-Yield and REITs, you’ll see ideas in the communications and mortgage REIT sectors.



Lastly, our Funds & ETFs section includes some income, as well as growth ideas.



Don’t forget to register for my monthly webinars, along with Kate Stalter, my partner on the Wall Street’s Best Stocks and Wall Street’s Best ETF newsletters. The next one is June 8 at 2 p.m. And I hope to see you (virtually, at least!) at our August 17-19 Summit, entitled Smarter Investing, Greater Profits. You can register here.



Please note, our publication date for Wall Street’s Best Digest is changing to the second Thursday of the month, so please watch your inbox for our next issue in just a few weeks.



Please don’t hesitate to send me your feedback and questions. My new address is nancy@financialfreedomfederation.com.

In the May Issue of Cabot Early Opportunities we acknowledge the increasingly choppy action in the market and the unprecedented nature of the current recovery.

Similar to last month, we focus on diversifying new buys across different end markets, offering up names with exposure to everything from mobile gaming to oil services to off-road suspension, and more. In short, there’s something for everyone and, we think, enough variety to capture the upside in a wide range of spring and summer market conditions.



Enjoy!

Despite the market coming under pressure in the last several weeks, the Cabot Profit Booster portfolio continues to perform spectacularly! And heading into expiration this Friday, our five May covered calls are all in terrific shape, and potentially on track to their full profits. As is always the case, I will update you where we stand with these positions on Friday morning.

After spiking last Wednesday, the major indexes have, predictably, pulled back over the past week. The market is likely to try to shake out weak hands a few more times before starting a sustained new uptrend. I have no rating changes today, but read on for brief updates on all our holdings.

Our portfolio stocks achieved another successful quarter of results, generally pleasing Wall Street with upside surprises as opposed to earnings disappointments or news of corporate difficulties. Nevertheless, 2018 has been a difficult year for stock investors, with the S&P 500 index delivering two 10% corrections. The best of companies can easily have their share prices languish for months on end, as we’ve seen all year.

The market’s volatility is a relatively normal correction. But for now, my plan is to keep making incremental moves to try to limit risk and pursue opportunities. Hopefully that will mean a number of positions move back to buy in November but there is one exception noted in today’s update.

The Cabot Emerging Markets Timer is heading in the direction of a new buy signal, but isn’t there yet.

The market has rallied since the last update; all sectors except for utilities are higher over the last five days. Materials, energy, financial and consumer discretionary stocks have led the rebound. While it’s certainly possible that the end of October marked the end of the correction, most corrections don’t end that neatly. No changes to the portfolio, but we do have plenty of good candidates lined up for when the market continues its advance.

The market has finally gotten off its knees, but our two main trend-following indicators are bearish and most stocks are still in rough shape. I advise you to remain patient and defensive but we could nibble on a stock if the market continues to power ahead. Since we sold a position on Monday, no rating changes to the portfolio tonight.

As we continue marching through earnings season, we’ve had 15 companies report thus far, with only one missing consensus estimates by any appreciable amount.

The market hates uncertainty and it is getting it by the bucket-full right now. If you need a simple explanation for this volatility, that’s it.

The Cabot Emerging Markets Timer is solidly negative, and the U.S. indexes have joined in the decline.

After a mixed performance last week, the market opened significantly lower yesterday, and the Dow and S&P 500 both hit their lowest level since the start of October. One of Cabot’s long-term market timing indicators just turned negative, which tells us it’s time to get more defensive. As a result, we are doing some selling today and moving two position to Hold.

I’m moving another five stocks from Strong Buy to Hold. It’s a normal seasonal pattern in the market that any stock that’s trading at its low point for the year during the fourth quarter will then remain low through the very last days of 2018 due to tax-loss selling. And unfortunately, the stock market has decided to present us with another correction, so most stocks are down in recent weeks.

The big news this week is that we: (1) recovered some of last week’s losses and (2) have a notable acquisition in the small cap cloud software space.

Coverage of the shares of this pharma was just initiated by SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, with a ‘Buy’ rating.

One portfolio stock reports good earnings and another moves to Hold.

The top five holdings of this fund are: Googl Call Usd 1275 15/Nov/2019 (7.84% of assets); Fidelity National Information Services Inc (FIS, 7.16%); Microsoft Corp (MSFT, 4.27%); IHS Markit Ltd (INFO.PA, 4.14%); and Air Liquide SA (AI, 4.00%).

This entertainment/media company beat analysts’ estimates by $0.12 last quarter, and five analysts have recently increased their EPS forecasts for the company.

This media and internet company is considering a major spin-off, with the remaining company being the most attractive investment.

I’ve made my contempt for the media rather clear in my weekly commentaries at Cabot Undervalued Stocks Advisor, and in my frequent radio appearances.

The top five holdings in this fund are: Nestle SA (NESN, 2.27% of assets); Roche Holding AG Dividend Right Cert. (ROG, 1.47%); Novartis AG (NOVN, 1.30%); Toyota Motor Corp (7203, 1.11%); and HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBA.L, 1.06%).

There’s been a lot going on lately as earnings season has heated up. With many of the stocks covered in the September and October Issues of Cabot Early Opportunities we have a few updates to get into.

Two more portfolio stocks report good earnings.

The top three sectors in this Value fund are: Technology (22.69% of assets), Healthcare (13.25%) and Financial Services (12.44%).

Three more portfolio stocks report good earnings.

Three portfolio stocks report third-quarter results.

A few Cabot Options Trader subscribers have asked me about ways to protect gains in their portfolios, so I thought I would write to everyone with a couple of strategies using options to hedge your portfolio.

A subscriber recently asked me if I keep a journal of my trades. Many traders keep journals so they can look back at their trades and evaluate what they did right and what they did wrong.

Want to know how the big institutional investors use options? Here is an example of how one trader spent $132 million on three technology stocks.

Options trading has its own vernacular. To know how to do it, you need to know what every options term means. Here are some of the basics.

Our Cabot Top Ten Trader’s market timing system consists of two parts—one based on the action of three select, growth-oriented market indexes, and the other based on the action of the fast-moving stocks Cabot Top Ten features.