Now that the raging bull market turned into a roaring bear market in just a month, many investors have been blind-sided by the volatility and panic selling. This also has left many investors looking for new ideas. The team at BofA Securities has been making many changes to its selected portfolios as the recession has picked up. Its key US 1 list is the company’s focus list of stocks that the firm ranks among its best investment ideas taken from its Buy-rated fundamental stock picks from BofA Global Research. Most of the companies that go on to the prized US 1 list are already rated as Buy when they are added, but that does not mean that an upgrade would immediately be followed by an addition to the prized list.
Don’t forget that no single analyst report should be used as a sole reason to buy or sell a stock, regardless of how positive or negative the calls sound.
Here we have shown the additions to the US 1 list first, as well as the stocks that were removed. Note that the stocks removed from the US 1 list did not receive formal analyst downgrades. They all were maintained with Buy ratings. The price objective from BofA Securities also has been compared to the consensus analyst target prices from Refinitiv.
Ameren Corp. (NYSE: AEE) was added to the US 1 list, and BofA has an $80 price objective. That is against a prior closing price of $74.24, and the consensus target price is $87.80.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was added to the US 1 list, and BofA has a $300 price objective (versus a $247.74 prior close). Apple has a consensus target price of $311.28.
Ericsson, or Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC), was added to the US 1 list with a $10.50 price objective, and the prior closing price was $7.40. It has a $10.16 consensus target price.
Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. (NYSE: SMG) was added to the US 1 list, and it previously closed at $102.53. The BofA price objective is $135.00, and the consensus target price is $121.40.
Thompson Reuters Corp. (NYSE: TRI) was also added to the US 1 list on Monday.The BofA price objective is $81.00. Shares previously closed at $62.21.
These are the companies removed from the US 1 list but retained their Buy ratings:
- American Electric Power Co. Inc. (NYSE: AEP)
- NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI)
- Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW)
- Baker Hughes Co. (NYSE: BKR)
As for the US 1 list’s decision process, the research committee evaluates these each week to consider adding to or deleting from the list. Each stock will remain on the list for approximately 12 months, unless the shares are given a formal downgrade or are otherwise removed by the committee. Companies added to the US 1 list also can remain on the US 1 list for another 12 months if the stock continues to meet the team’s criteria. The US 1 list generally has 20 to 30 stocks, which are all equally weighted. The list will not have fewer than 15 members at any given time.
Merrill Lynch also has its list of favorite tech stocks to own if the market retests last week’s bottom.
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