Hello Stock Traders,
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If you are looking for some exciting stocks to invest in for 2024, you might want to check out these three. They all have something special going on that could make them stand out in the year ahead.
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You may have heard that Yahoo Finance crowned Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) as its 2023 Company of the Year. This Danish company makes drugs that help people lose weight, and they are selling like hotcakes. Ozempic and Wegovy are the names of these wonder drugs, and they have made Novo Nordisk the most valuable company in Europe by market value. And guess what? They could do it again in 2024.
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Novo Nordisk’s stock has soared nearly 42% this year, beating the S&P 500 by a wide margin, and leaving the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLV), down 1% this year, in the dust.
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But picking the top stocks for the next year is not easy. Sometimes, it’s a matter of luck and timing. Novo Nordisk is a good example of that.
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Who would have thought that weight-loss drugs would be such a big deal in 2023? With so many people struggling with obesity around the world, you would think this issue has been around for a long time. But somehow, it caught the attention of investors this year.
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The top stocks for 2024 are probably right in front of us, just like Novo Nordisk was at the start of 2023.
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Here are the three stocks that I think could rock 2024.
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Vanguard Long-Term Bond ETF (BLV)
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You may think bonds are boring, but Goldman Sachs thinks otherwise. The investment bank has called 2024 the “Year of the Bond.” They think the bond market will shine next year.
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Why? Because the economy is slowing down, and inflation is cooling off. That means lower interest rates, which are good for bond prices. And that means higher returns for bond investors.
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The Vanguard Long-Term Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:BLV) is a fund that invests in long-term, high-quality bonds from the U.S. government and corporations.
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The fund has 3,030 bonds in its portfolio, with an average yield of 5.2% and an average maturity of 22.6 years. That means these bonds pay well and have a long time to grow in value. While short-term bonds will suffer as rates fall, long-term bonds will benefit.
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I know BLV is not a company, but the idea behind choosing companies of the year is to give you some smart investment tips that could make a splash in 2024. I think BLV could be one of them.
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Brookfield Corp. (BN)
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Brookfield Corp. (NYSE:BN) is a powerhouse in the world of alternative assets. It owns and runs things like buildings, companies, roads, bridges, loans, and more. It has done well in the stock market this year, up nearly 22%, but not as well as the S&P 500. Over the past five years, it has fallen behind the index by 264 basis points, up nearly 93%.
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But I have a feeling that alternative asset managers could start a new wave of growth, like the one they had from March 2020 to December 2021.
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In late November, Brookfield’s credit rating got a boost from DBRS from A (low) to A.
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Brookfield’s President Nick Goodman was happy about the upgrade. He said it showed how strong their business was in good times and bad times. He also said it showed how they had a lot of different sources of income, a lot of cash flow, and a very solid balance sheet.
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He added that the upgrade was a sign of their long-term commitment to being careful with their money and having a lot of permanent capital of $140 billion.
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In the last 12 months until Sept. 30, Brookfield’s earnings that they can pay out were $5.0 billion. Per share, they went up 1.0%. That doesn’t sound amazing. But what matters more is how they can make money by buying and selling their assets.
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Over the last 12 months, they have sold $35 billion worth of assets. Most of them were sold for more money than they were worth on their books. That tells investors two things: First, they are getting a good deal for their assets, and second, they are being honest about how much their assets are worth.
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Brookfield is a great buy for the long term.
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Pinterest (PINS)
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I think 2024 will be the year that Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) rules social media. This will happen as the online advertising market starts to bounce back from its downturn over the past 12-18 months.
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RBC Capital Markets gave PINS stock a better rating on Dec. 11, from Sector Perform to Outperform. They also raised their price target to $46 from $32, 23% higher than where it’s trading right now.
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RBC said that investors were looking for new ideas for 2024, and PINS was a good way to bet on the shift of ads that target what people want to buy, chasing the $241 billion ad spending on impulse shopping. They also said that even though the number of users and the amount of ad spending go up and down, they wanted to own the big changes that Pinterest was making to its platform, according to Barron’s.
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Pinterest has a “Buy” or “Overweight” rating from 67% of the 36 analysts who cover its stock. That’s up from 56% in September.
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One of the big reasons analysts are more interested in Pinterest is the platform’s ad deal with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), which will make ads sold by Amazon show up on Pinterest. This should make Pinterest have more kinds of ads and make more money from shopping on its platform.
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In 2024, PINS could go back to the $80s, where it was in April 2021.
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–James
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Up next: Learn why a Wall Street bear has turned more bullish for 2024, thanks to the Fed’s policy change and its impact on the economy and the market.
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