Building the Bench
I spent my high school basketball career sitting on the bench. My favorite NBA player was Alex English, who sat on the bench for two years before he got his chance. He now in the Hall of Fame as the NBA’s 20th leading scorer of all time
It is important to have a good bench.
When managing a portfolio it is always important to have a group of stocks you are almost ready to buy. Presented below are a group of stocks I still need to learn more about, but are very close to being new ideas in the main model portfolio. Many ideas come from Sycamore, Barrow Hanley, or First Eagle.
If I wanted to maximize performance I would start digging into these stocks right now. For educational purposes I still want to do more industry and manager reviews.
International Flavors and Fragrances - IFF - $112 - a great business, at a decent price but the balance sheet needs work
Huntsman - HUN - $32 - a solid specialty chemical maker at 10x
M&T Bank - MTB - $156 - a conservative regional bank at 9x
Phillips 66 - PSX - $100 - refiner thinks mid-cycle earnings are $13.00/share
First Watch Restaurants - FWRG - $16 - well run breakfast restaurant
Noodles - NDLS - $6 - my favorite restaurant turnaround
Steven Madden - SHOO - $35 - lots to choose from in retail and apparel
Gates Industrial - GTES - $13 - EV’s still need belts and hoses, 12x
Plug Power - PLUG - $17 - can you really invest in green energy, let’s investigate
Astec Industries - ASTE - $44 - will benefit from more road building
MKS Instruments - MKSI - $102 - great testing company, but balance sheet needs work
Ultra Clean Holdings - UTCC - $34 - capital spending on semi’s will come back
Cable One - CABO - $790 - a well run rural cable company
Sunopta - STKL - snack maker making a turnaround
Spectrum Brands - SPB - $68 - will have cash when the sale of HHI is final
Tenet Healthcare - THC - $55 - underperforming hospital at a good price
Patterson Companies - PDCO - $30 - dental supplier
Perrigo - PRGO - $37 - over the counter drug maker, still restructuring
Pinnacle Capital - PNW - $79 - still fighting with Arizona regulators
NorthWestern - NWE - $57 - doing good things in renewables
Right now I have more ideas than time to work on them. That is much better than no ideas and plenty of time. I want to gather all my ideas before making final choices.