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Loading your portfolio with high-flying growth stocks and steady dividend payers can help you generate market-beating returns, but there are also unique, company-specific events that can quickly turn stocks into big winners. This month, we’ll be taking a closer look at stock spin-offs, special dividends, IPOs, mergers, buyouts and more “special situations” that can give you an investing edge.

There are a lot of things the stock market can handle.

In 2024 alone, stocks advanced more than 20% despite two major overseas wars raging, high interest rates, stubborn inflation, escalating unemployment, a toss-up presidential election in which one of the candidates changed midsummer, tepid consumer confidence, etc. That’s because, aside from Kamala Harris replacing Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate less than four months before the election, most of these potential headwinds were known. What Wall Street fears most is the unknown. And that’s why DeepSeek rattled markets on Monday.

Stocks finally took on some water last week, though the damage was minimal. Under the surface, there are a few more cracks, with the number of stocks hitting 52-week lows on the rise. Still, there’s no cause for concern yet. Just in case there is a more extended pullback in the offing, however, today we add a “boring” insurance play, but one that pays a high dividend and whose share price has been on steady uptick for the last couple months. It’s a recommendation from Tom Hutchinson to his Cabot Dividend Investor readers.

Details inside.

It is a late-summer/early-fall rite of passage on Wall Street: After Labor Day, the institutional investors and hedge fund types return from their summer vacation homes in the Hamptons and immediately start selling. They sell out of their weakest positions that have been neglected and left to rot during the summer months, in the hopes of beefing up their quarterly returns before October brings a new quarter. The result is that September is, far and away, the worst month for stocks, with an average decline of -1.17% in the S&P 500 dating all the way back to 1928. The next-worst month is February, with a mere -0.14% decline.

That’s the bad news as we enter September. Here’s the good news.

Stocks are finally showing signs of life. After a miserable six-week stretch, stocks – with an assist from cooler inflation numbers – appear to be getting in gear. How long the new rally will last may depend on things like Q4 earnings, the early days of Donald Trump’s second term, and what Jerome Powell says next week. But for now, let’s strike while the iron is hot, or at least warm, and add a growth stock whose name you might recognize since so many people use their platform these days. It’s a new recommendation from Cabot Early Opportunities Chief Analyst Tyler Laundon.

Details inside.

What a difference a week makes!

Early last week, things were looking pretty gloomy for the market, with stocks on a six-week losing streak dating back to early December and interest rates, as measured by the 10-year Treasury yield, stretching to 14-month highs. More than 300 stocks on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq were trading at 52-week lows.

Fourth-quarter earnings season is underway, and while expectations are high at an estimated 11.9% average year-over-year growth among S&P 500 companies, according to data collected by Factset, the actual numbers probably won’t matter much to the market’s short- and intermediate-term direction.

Ignore inflation numbers too. CPI and PPI – this week’s dual reports of the December results – were encouragingly cooler than expected. But in the end, what really matters is how they impact the Fed’s decision-making, which we probably won’t know until at least the end of the month.

Remote work has disrupted the employment landscape and appears to be here to stay; it’s also reshaped real estate as more and more workers are now untethered from the office. This month, let’s dive into how to take advantage of better affordability by relocating, moving for your lifestyle and not your employer, and what states will actually pay you to relocate.

We may hate to talk (or even think) about it, but we all understand the importance of proper estate planning. And if you’ve spent a lifetime accumulating assets to pass down to those you love, the next best thing you can do is to make sure you’ve taken the right steps to avoid leaving your heirs with a headache on top of their inheritance. This month, let’s explore the steps you can take right now to help make sure your wishes are honored and that your family doesn’t spend months or even years duking it out in court.

The story remains mostly the same in the market as it has for the past few weeks: The intermediate-term trend for nearly all major indexes and the vast majority of individual stocks is pointed down. That said, there also are a decent number of stocks holding up fairly well—and with earnings season starting in a major way this week, the potential is there for some leadership to develop if we see some strong upside gaps following reports. We’re all for it happening, but overall it’s best to remain cautious as the market attempts to turn the corner. Once again, we’ll leave our Market Monitor at a level 5.

This week’s list has a wide array of good-looking names, though for our Top Pick we’re going with a liquid leader that, while not in the first inning of its run, acts like it wants to go higher.

With weeks of churning action and complacent sentiment, the market was flirting with trouble for a while, and now it’s hit the intermediate-term tripwire. Thus, we mostly advise defense here—after a big run-up and the aforementioned churning, the odds favor more short-term downside testing and/or pain ahead. That said, the odds also favor a resumption of the longer-term uptrend down the road, so it’s best not to get too holed up in your bunker, either. Tonight, we’ll leave our Market Monitor at a level 6, and the main message is to hold a good chunk of cash, honor stops and be very selective on the buy side.

This week’s list is another broad mix of stocks, with something for everyone in terms of stories, sectors and setups. Our Top Pick is a reliable grower in the infrastructure area that’s pulling back toward support. Given the market, keep new buys on the small side.

Tom Hutchinson, Chief Analyst of Cabot Dividend Investor, Cabot Income Advisor and Cabot Retirement Club discusses investing for retirement.

Current Market Outlook


After a punishing month, last week’s three-day bounce qualifies as a decent first step for the market and many individual stocks and sectors—most now have some breathing room above last week’s low points, and ideally, we’ll begin to see more potential leaders strut their stuff in the weeks ahead as the situation stabilizes. But a good first step is the best description we can give the bounce at this point given that the intermediate-term trends of just about everything (indexes, sectors, stocks) remain pointed down, and the odds favor plenty of volatility (at the very least) going forward. It’s not 2008 out there, but trends are negative, so until the bulls truly retake control, defense is the name of the game. We’re leaving our Market Monitor at a level 3.

The good news is that this week’s list has many recent earnings winners that could do well once a new uptrend gets underway. Our Top Pick is Exact Sciences (EXAS), a name we’re high on and that remains perched near its highs after another excellent quarterly report.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Bilibili (BILI)	28.71	13.3-14.5	11-12
Cooper Tire (CTB)	31.50	30.5-32.5	27.5-29
Deckers Outdoor Corp. (DECK)	141.68	126-131	114-117
Exact Sciences (EXAS)	116.91	70-74	63-65.6
HealthEquity, Inc. (HQY)	70.70	90-94	81-83.5
Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP)	25.35	25-26	22.5-23.5
Omnicell (OMCL)	81.03	66-69	61.5-62.5
Starbucks (SBUX)	64.49	62-64	56-57.5
Under Armour, Inc. (UAA)	26.82	22-23.5	20-20.9
VeriSign (VRSN)	190.71	157-162	145-149

Achieving your financial dreams has more to do with how you save and invest than where you start. These tips can help you embrace a “millionaire mindset” and reach your goals.

Current Market Outlook


After establishing three bottoms in three months—with each bottom higher than the last—the broad market blasted higher last week, pushing our Market Monitor back into the green zone. But we’re not recommending indexes, we’re recommending stocks, and these stocks are not bouncing off bottoms, they’re breaking out to new highs! Furthermore, a lot of these market leaders are new names that are not familiar to investors—which means there is far more potential buying power than selling power in the stocks.

There are many great growth stories in the bunch, with many possibilities of huge long-term gains in revolutionary businesses, and our Top Pick is one of them; it’s Coupa Software (COUP), a small but fast-growing company whose spending-management software addresses a huge potential market.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
AAXN (AAXN)	87.11	51-55	45-48
Coupa Software (COUP)	262.20	51-54	46.5-48.5
Green Dot (GDOT)	85.11	70-72	63-65
Guess (GES)	0.00	23-24.5	20.5-21.5
Petrobras (PBR)	14.78	15-16	13.8-14.8
Pure Storage (PSTG)	25.64	22-23.5	19.5-20
Teladoc, Inc. (TDOC)	127.95	44-49	39-41
Tenet Healthcare (THC)	0.00	30.5-32	28-29.5
Trade Desk (TTD)	468.02	71-76	65-68
Twilio (TWLO)	183.39	50.5-55	46.5-47.5

The market is beginning to more fully anticipate a post-Covid environment and economy. As such, investors are looking to slower/normalized/sustainable growth following the bulge from the pandemic stimulus programs and pent-up demand, higher interest rates, and a relenting of supply chain issues.

What a month! Markets have had some pretty wild moves since last month, gyrating with significant volatility, and that looks like it may continue for a while. But that’s OK as the volatility is now serving up some pretty exciting discounted opportunities for investing.

Economically speaking, inflation abated somewhat, with core inflation falling to 3.2% for August, its lowest point in three years. And that sets the stage for an estimated 25 basis point reduction in interest rates when the Federal Reserve meets next week, according to the latest economist polls. The rate gurus now think that we may see a total of three rate cuts before the end of the year.

Thank you for subscribing to the Cabot Turnaround Letter. We hope you enjoy reading the September 2022 issue.



One of our more productive methods for finding attractive turnaround stocks is to see what other like-minded investors are holding. We culled the list of hundreds of positions held by our evolving list of 50 or so preferred managers, as reported in the quarterly 13F filings, and discuss three of the most promising.



We also combed through the roster of stocks trading at low prices – another great source for turnaround stock ideas – and review four that have particular appeal.



Our feature recommendation this month is Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD). While most investors view this company as a “play” on streaming, we view it as an undervalued turnaround of the poorly managed WarnerMedia assets that it recently acquired from AT&T.

We note our recent ratings change of Lamb Weston Holdings (LW) from Buy to Sell.

We have a wonderful library of investing books here in the Cabot offices and refer to them very often. Here are some of our favorites.

The market is a bit of a mess, but the selloff has created opportunities to pick up shares in high-growth small- cap names at what seems like extremely attractive prices.





Today’s recommendation is one of those names. It’s a marketplace company that is revolutionizing the outdated industrial manufacturing industry.





While the stock hasn’t been immune to bouts of market volatility it has been far more stable lately than most other high-growth names. It’s up over the last three weeks! And it offers investors exposure to an industry that is seen rebounding in 2022 and 2023.





Enjoy!