Our latest list of best stocks to buy features a slew of tech companies, from young disrupters to established stalwarts. Plus, we feature one company on top of a new trend that could soar as M&A activity heats up.
Here's a glimpse at the stocks we'll be sharing with you today:
Now for our five latest best stocks to buy now...
Any real estate purchase is loaded with risk. Natural disasters, property taxes, tenant delinquency, and infrastructure issues are just a few of the problems that can drastically affect a property's value. The inability to get reliable information on a property can stifle investment.
But one Big Data company is helping to solve that problem.
That would be CoreLogic Inc. (NYSE: CLGX), which maintains a database of more than 4.5 billion property and financial records. These cover residential and commercial spaces but also specialized properties for projects like telecommunications wiring and pipelines.
This has made CoreLogic the go-to source for financial firms looking to invest in rental properties. And there are a lot of them; financier-owned rental properties in the United States jumped 60% in 2017.
Now they can access CoreLogic's data in order to weigh risks related to credit, taxes, or flooding, or to get information on just about anything else they can think of. And it's all available instantly on the digital cloud.
We've actually liked CoreLogic for a while now. It's up 82% since Money Morning Defense and Tech Specialist Michael Robinson recommended it in August 2014, compared to just 48% for the S&P 500 in that time.
Now Michael is doubling down, saying the stock's share price will likely double within the next four years.
That's borne out by the company's earnings picture. According to FactSet, earnings per share is projected to rise nearly 50% between 2017 and 2020.
CoreLogic's price-to-book ratio of 4.0 suggests a 67% rise is in order. And its price/earnings to growth ratio for the last 12 months – for which 1.0 would represent a fairly valued stock – comes in at just 0.2349. That suggests a staggering 326% rise.
The bottom line, Michael writes, is that CoreLogic is "a great long-term Big Data way to play multiple aspects of the nation's real estate sector."
Grab it now, and it won't be long before you've doubled your investment.
Anyone who reads Money Morning regularly knows that legal cannabis is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. The North American market is set to double over the next three years. And the global market, according to Arcview Market Research, will be worth close to $60 billion within the next decade.
Perhaps even more striking is the level of use among adults in the age of legalization.
According to research by BDS Analytics, a clear majority of adults in North American jurisdictions where cannabis is legal are either consumers (have used within the last six months) or accepters (would consider using in the future).
That opens up a big opportunity for marijuana producers, of course. But it also opens up a big opportunity for law enforcement.
Cannabis might be legal in some places, but it's still illegal to drive under its influence. That's because – as a 2012 report from the EU made clear – alcohol, drugs, and prescription medications are the biggest threats to safety on the road.
But if the drug itself is legal, then simple evidence of use or possession is not enough to be a violation. States need a reliable testing apparatus to determine if a driver under the influence is criminally impaired.
That's where Cannabix Technologies Inc. (OTHER OTC: BLOZF) comes in. This Vancouver-based company has partnered with Yost Research Group and the University of Florida to develop a breathalyzer for cannabis that law enforcement officers can use to quickly gauge the level of THC in a driver's system.
Even then there's a problem: THC can stay in a person's system for days or even weeks after the psychoactive effects wear off. That's what makes random drug screening viable at workplaces and other institutions.
So Cannabix's device will specifically target THC in concentrations that would be present if someone had used marijuana within the last two to three hours – a reasonable window of time for the effects to still be present.
This is a speculative play, meaning you probably don't want to invest more than 2% of your portfolio in it. But thanks to its patented technology, Cannabix is likely to be the only game in town for a while once its product hits the market. Every new state that legalizes is going to mean a round of new contracts.
Plus, the fluctuations that come with a low-cap speculative play could work out in your favor if you buy low and sell high, according to Money Morning Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald.
"This is one of those very few stocks with enough volatility that you can repeatedly enter and exit the position," Keith says, "creating double- and triple-digit returns each time."
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While cannabis legalization may present some risks that need to be managed, that's certainly not going to stop the highly profitable Green Rush for investors.
We've talked before about the partial acquisition of Canopy Growth Corp. (NYSE: CGC) by the beverage conglomerate Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ) last year. It was the first time a Fortune 500 company had invested directly in legal weed, and virtually overnight gave respectability to the industry.
Well, now Constellation is upping its stake.
On Aug. 15, Constellation announced it would be putting another $4 billion into Canopy, increasing its share in Canada's largest cannabis grower from 9.9% to 38%.
For those of you who owned Canopy based on our earlier recommendation, congratulations on the 100% gain that followed.
Now the question is where the next similar gain in the cannabis market will come from.
One of the best bets is another Canadian company, Tilray Inc. (NASDAQ: TLRY). Just a few months after Canopy became the first cannabis company to list on the New York Stock Exchange, Tilray became the first to make its initial public offering on a major U.S. exchange.
Like Canopy, Tilray has been primarily concerned with medical marijuana – which makes sense, considering Canada's legislature is still in the process of legalizing recreational use. But there's good reason to believe a highly lucrative move into cannabis-based beverages may be on the way.
As of this summer, Tilray has struck a deal to supply Nova Scotia Liquor, a state-owned enterprise that is Nova Scotia's only licensed retailer of alcoholic beverages.
In other words, by the time cannabis beverages hit the shelves in Canada, Tilray will have a leg up on the competition. And when another multi-national corporation is looking to get in on the game, Tilray will likely be at the top of the list.
As we've already seen from Canopy, the deal that follows could send this stock through the roof.
Plus, even if that specific deal doesn't come to pass, you'll still have one of the best plays in the legal cannabis market. It's one of the top medical cannabis growers in North America. And because of its production of brands like Marley Natural – the official brand of the late Bob Marley's family – it's in a perfect position to dominate the recreational market too.
With more deals like the Constellation-Canopy merger on the way, Michael Robinson says, "You can see that cannabis stocks are poised for big gains ahead." Tilray stands to be one of the top beneficiaries.
Following Michael Robinson's mantra that every business is a tech business, our next pick is using technology to connect traditional restaurants to consumers in a new way.
Food delivery has been a staple of American life for decades. But until recently, it's been difficult for many people to find delivery options other than pizza or Chinese food.
Until the start of Grubhub Inc. (NYSE: GRUB), a web and mobile app-based delivery service started by two students at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 2004. Since then, it has grown into a $13 billion juggernaut and is a leader in this new industry.
Users can log into Grubhub and search the menus of a variety of restaurants in their area. Once they place their order – a simple click, with tip included – a third-party driver will go the restaurant and deliver the food right to the user's door. No paper menus. No phone calls. No hassle.
And Grubhub keeps the user updated via text so they'll know when the order will arrive.
As of 2017, Grubhub's active user base had grown to nearly 15 million, almost double what it was the year before. And there's still room to capture a bigger market share. According to Statista, the U.S. restaurant industry is valued at about $800 billion, with 10% of that belonging to takeout.
Grubhub is growing its sales at an astounding rate of 38% per year, and in the most recent quarter, it nearly doubled earnings per share (EPS) from a year earlier.
Michael expects EPS to continue at about 30% per year – a conservative estimate. At that pace, according to what he calls his doubling calculator, the stock should double in price within the next two years.
Again, that's a conservative estimate, all things considered.
Michael, by the way, can attest to the quality of the service. He and his wife are regular customers and are impressed enough with it to strongly recommend the stock.
"As millions of Americans join my wife and I in online ordering for takeout," he says, "the value of your holdings will keep rising for years to come."
One of the problems with investing in publicly-traded stocks is the quarterly "noise" that can get in the way of good decision-making. The intent behind requiring public companies to file quarterly reports was to increase transparency. The actual effect might be the opposite.
That's because CEOs and other execs have figured out ways to boost the short-term numbers in ways that have nothing to do with a company's long-term financial health.
The result is that it's even harder for investors to make informed decisions about which stocks to buy than it would be without quarterly reporting.
That doesn't mean you have to throw up your hands in defeat, though. You just have to know where to look. And it's not at quarterly earnings.
One of Keith Fitz-Gerald's favorite metrics to look at for a company is free cash flow yield.
Put simply, that means how much hard cash is going in and out of a company, expressed as a percentage of its market value.
It seems like an obvious metric to judge a stock by, especially since it's such a tough one for companies to manipulate. But if you're one of the relatively few who take it into account, you've got a major leg up on most investors.
Free cash flow yield isn't the only metric you want to look at, of course. You want a company that's tapped into a major growth trend, makes "must-have" products and services, has a strong track record and great leadership, and is growing its earnings over the long term.
But if it also beats its competitors in free cash flow yield, then you've really got a winner.
With that in mind, let's look at Western Digital Corp. (Nasdaq: WDC).
You probably know Western Digital for the hard drives it makes. But it also owns the ubiquitous SanDisk brand as well as the higher-end G-Technology storage products used by media professionals.
WDC is a leader in cloud storage as well as all kinds of storage solutions for business.
But a great indicator that Western Digital is a better investment than its competitors is its 14.18% free cash flow yield. That's significantly better than Seagate Technology Plc. (NASDAQ: STX) at 10.59%, and NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) at just 6.46%.
WDC's earnings per share was up 60% this past fiscal year from the year before and was up 189% from two years ago.
So, after nearly 50 years of being a top provider of data storage solutions, this company is growing like a rocket. And that's based on real, long-term, cash-based figures. Not just short-term tricks.
As Keith says, Western Digital is "properly positioned to get around the quarterly 'noise' that confuses many investors and latch onto the longer-term growth, generating the huge profits you deserve."
One tiny company is at the center of a new breakthrough technology that could one day be used by every person and business in the world.
This new tech lets companies detect and prevent cyberattacks... homeowners avoid break-ins... hospitals better monitor patients and regulate temperature conditions for storing critical vaccines...
And a single company is manufacturing the parts needed to roll out this technology ASAP. It recently inked four major deals that could spark a 466.6% revenue surge.
Early investors could reap huge fortunes. This $10 stock has the potential to deliver a 471.9% gain, turning every $1,000 invested into $4,719. And not years from now, but in just months or weeks.
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