Hilary Kramer

US Market. Feels the market is heading towards a peak, even if you think in terms of cycles. Our last downturn was in 2008-2009. Before that it was 2000 into 2002. Before that it was 1993. The current market has risen for the most unbelievably absurd reason of all, i.e., nobody can get yield safely, or income safely by just putting your money in the bank. Everyone, in Europe, Canada and the US, have been forced into equity markets which is very dangerous. Think about what companies have been doing. They haven’t been improving their Earnings per Share quarter over quarter. It has actually been decreasing in single digits, but it has been a negative number each quarter. Companies are not making money. They have been increasing their dividend yield, and have been borrowing money and retiring stock, so it makes their Earnings per Share look better. We haven’t seen where we have had real true growth. Instead it is a lot of financial engineering.

Considers this as one of the horsemen of technology, an excellent company to buy. There is a dividend yield. They continue to readjust themselves in a Cloud-based format, rather than downloaded software. Has a recurring revenue structure. The company is excellent. Their editing programs and software have become the standard in the design world.

Dividend growth strategy? She agrees with buying this if you want dividend growth. They continue to build and grow their top and bottom line. The 100-pound gorilla in their arena. You have to be very careful about the methodology of dividend growth. It is not necessarily about buying utilities, which seem very appealing. But they’ve been bid up by everybody looking for dividend yield. You are much better off buying oddball things like Texas Roadhouse (TXRH-Q). Be careful of telecommunication companies, because they will be squeezed. A good dividend yielding stock that is off the radar is Domtar (UFS-N). (See Top Picks.)

The oldest generic drug maker in the US. They specialize in a thyroid deficiency drug called Synthroid. Thyroid deficiency is increasingly becoming a growth area. More and more thyroid issues are being uncovered because of the sensitivity of MRIs and CAT scan machinery.

Elon Musk is absolutely brilliant, and has just announced he is not going to have to tap into the debt market this quarter. Teslas are becoming more and more standard. She is sure this will become a competitive vehicle with Ford and General Motors. Most importantly, buy this and hold it for that very long run, which is batteries. The batteries are the future. The battery business is growing. As we continue to use wind and solar, those forms of energy have to be put back and sent back to the utility.

There are other companies you want to invest in, such as Citigroup (C-N). Also, J.P. Morgan (JPM-N) has the earnings behind them, and would make a lot of sense. It has a nice strong dividend yield. Wells Fargo was accused and is paying a fine for having created phony accounts for customers so that they could charge an additional fee.

This has a 6% dividend yield because it is trading at the lower end of its range. She likes the company and the management, but they are in the business of making private equity investments, which are based on people giving KKR money to invest. KKR takes the money and borrows against it, and then makes the investment. They are very, very heavily laden with debt. It can be a very dangerous environment when rates start to rise. It could also be very difficult to raise money if we go into a period of somewhat muted growth. Private equity funds have had their golden moment. They have been able to make acquisitions at practically no cost because it is so cheap for them to borrow. If you buy this for the long run and just want to hold it, why not.

Basically makes the brains of a lot of computers and handheld devices. It has a 3.2% dividend yield. This company is not going away. However, what is the impact of Samsung, which has decided to retire and discontinue manufacture of the 7. There could be some impact. Wait for the next earnings call, or for them to be warn.

An Indian IT company. A very strong company, and this would be a good time to step in and Buy it. They are like a one-step complete package, for companies that want to outsource their IT. Also, it works in very large companies which consistently use them. They have top software computer engineers which have incredible talent.

A cloud communications company. It creates platforms for communications. This has fallen quite hard, and she would stay away from something like this. Consider something like Arista Networks (ANET-N) instead. These are programmable chips that are used in the cloud-based software companies. They will get acquired. They have a technology that she believes is even stronger than Cisco’s (CSCO-Q).

She thinks this will find a buyer. At $16 a share, it could make sense for a company to step in and buy them. Twitter is the standard by which information flows about stocks, companies, opinions, etc. At $16, this is okay to step in and Buy. Investment bankers are not going to let this one go down. There is too much money to be made.

A design platform/video platform, and you could do pretty well here. The stock seems to be trading pretty richly. She doesn’t follow this is much as others, but it is a growing area, especially in the supercomputer design arena.

She likes this. It has had its hiccup’s here and there. They continue to expand and they try new areas. They have put a lot of effort into trying to develop a motorcycle for city use. Motorcycles are going to stay popular, and this one is best of breed. You can’t really go wrong with this.

Believes it is the 5^th largest bank in the US. Has a nice dividend yield of 2.7%. Very strong in commercial lending as well as business lending, and works with consumers. Has very good relationship management with communities in the Midwest. It really makes sense to buy a company like this. There will be more integration and more acquisitions within banking.

On an emotional level, this company is absolutely amazing. It has also shown itself to have great quality control. However, it is ultimately a hardware company, and hardware companies eventually see their multiples shrink and contract. Right now operating margins are amazing in the +20% range. There are probably other companies out there you should own. You are looking in the rear-view mirror buying this at $118.