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I don’t anticipate any major changes in our portfolio leading into earnings as I’d prefer to hear what’s new and then go from there. That said, we have a couple of minor adjustments based on stock price action.

After stumbling last Wednesday, the market is back on its feet, with the major indexes all hitting new highs in recent days. Technology stocks have led the way, a reversal of the Dow outperformance we’d seen over the past two weeks.

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

With the stock market continuing to reach record highs, and with most stocks either participating in the rally or facing structural, fundamental challenges that they won’t likely overcome, finding new ideas can be a challenge. As contrarians, we want to look for stocks in places which others find too unconventional or uncomfortable, as bargains may be found there. One such place is in stocks with low share prices, generally under $10. We discuss five interesting turnarounds among this group.



Real estate investment trusts, or REITs, have surged since Pfizer announced on November 9, 2020 that they had developed an effective Covid vaccine. Yet some REITs haven’t fully participated. We review six laggards that have quite favorable risk/return traits.



Our feature recommendation is Dril-Quip (DRQ). This company manufactures highly-engineered drilling and production equipment for offshore oil and natural gas projects. The shares are heavily out-of-favor yet offer considerable upside, backed by a solid company with a large cash hoard and zero debt.



We mention our April 1st price target increase for Mohawk Industries (MHK) from 180 to 220. As several companies continue to show strong fundamental improvements, we are raising our price targets on Adient (ADNT), Western Digital (WDC) and Wells Fargo (WFC), while moving Jeld-Wen (JELD) to a HOLD. Also, we update our article from last month on high yield bonds.



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.

Trading remained muted this week, with markets closed Monday for New Year’s Day. Wall Street began to return to work yesterday, and got the New Year off to a good start with solid gains in all the major indexes. On the flip side, some conservative high yield investments, like utilities and preferred shares, declined.

There’s a new worry in the market – recession. Just when the Fed is finally chilling out, investors are moving on to the next bummer. The market still stinks, just for different reasons.


Until a couple of weeks ago the main concern was a more hawkish Fed. But the banking situation has mellowed the Fed, and the Central Bank just indicated it is nearly done hiking rates. It’s a relief on the Fed front but the economy could be a problem now.

After a strong first seven months of the year, stocks retreated in August. Is this a normal consolidation or the start of a bigger correction after Labor Day?


Anything is possible. On the one hand, such pullbacks are normal and healthy after a strong run higher in the market. The economy still appears nowhere near a recession. There is still an enormous amount of cash on the sidelines. It’s near the end of the rate hike cycle. And artificial intelligence is triggering a new tech boom.

The surprisingly strong market of 2023 has been sputtering. The S&P 500 moved lower in August and is lower so far in September. But there’s no alarming selloff. The index is 3.6% lower than it was at the end of July. It’s mostly just a pause so far.

Explorer stocks gained or held their ground this week as the so-called “Mega-Cap 8” stocks dominate a narrow market for now.

China has become the 20% market – 20% of world GDP and 20% of multinational total revenue. This explains the steady stream of CEOs to China while Washington and Beijing top officials traded insults at a Singapore defense forum.

The market is testing key levels, as are many indicators, but today’s bounce is a small positive. Today’s bulletin is about Shift4 (FOUR), which cracked support on huge volume two weeks ago and hasn’t been able to bounce at all since. We’re going to sell one-third of our position today and see what earnings brings tomorrow. Our cash position will be around 38% after the sale.

Overall, cannabis/marijuana stocks still look fine, even though the stocks were generally soft yesterday, so I’m not doing a full update, but there has been action, both good and bad, in a few stocks worth mentioning.

Intel was once a superb investment. If you had bought $10,000 of INTC at the end of 1974, the year Craig Barrett joined the company (three years after the IPO) you would have had about $18.5 million at the stock’s peak in 2000 ... or nearly $4 million today.

The overall market continues to look healthy—though we still haven’t yet received an “all-clear” signal from our long-term timing indicator—and our stocks, in general, continue to reward, with many hitting new highs in recent days as the economic outlook improves.

Long-term, the prospects for the economy and market have improved, but short-term, the relative elation of recent days has brought numerous growth stocks to what seem like unsustainable heights—so I’ve lowered the ratings on three of our positions to Hold, and if you’d like to take partial profits, that’s fine with me.



As for today’s recommendation, it’s a very unusual one for me. But the chart is strong and the story has some validity, so we’ll give it a shot!



Full details in the issue.

ESG investing is a way to invest without sacrificing certain morals or ethics. But can you make money investing that way?

Out of the 14 women on Forbes’ list of female billionaires, seven have made their fortunes in China