Stock price when the opinion was issued
He is avoiding staples right now. They are trading very, very rich. This company has had a negative earnings revision and are really struggling in some of their core categories with pricing pressures and volume. Not a lot of positive things to say about this. He would be moving on to a different sector, on the view that we will be seeing higher rates. This is not a “Growth” story, it is a “how do we save the ship” story.
The problem is that following a multi-decade interest rate decline, a rise in interest rates going forward will impact this as it is viewed as a bond proxy. It is an interest rate issue. This is not the time to step in right now.