Our Best and Worst Picks of 2024 |
Our TrackStar data isn’t like anything else out there. We get unprecedented access to research trends and ideas from institutional advisers and everyday traders. But does this help us make better decisions? Yes, it does. As the year comes to a close, we wanted to look back at some of our best and worst calls of the year. #1 Palantir (PLTR) – Rated 9/10 Jan. 23rd. Would you believe that just six months earlier we gave this same company a 3/10 rating? That’s how we saw it back in June, 2023. Most momentum stocks died out over the past two years. At the time, we underestimated Palantir’s execution ability and enigmatic CEO Alex Karp. But by January, everything looked different. This is why we changed our tune. Net income flipped from negative to positive while free cash flow grew. Plus, revenue growth accelerated. The business matured and so did our rating. Shares of Palantir closed on January 23rd at $17.33. On December 19th, they closed at $74.21. That’s a nice gain of 328%, making it one of our top picks for the year. #2 Royal Caribbean – Rated 9/10 Jan. 11th. No one got beat up more during the pandemic than cruise lines. Carnival Cruiselines (CCL) and Norwegian Cruiselines (NCLH) are worth less than half of what they were before the pandemic. Meanwhile, shares of Royal Caribbean are nearly double what they were before the pandemic. We called out this undervalued play on January 11th, when shares closed at $123.42. Those same shares finished December 19th at $230.67 per share, a gain of 86.9%. |
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#3 Sunworks (SUNW) – Rated 0/10 Jan. 4th. Sometimes, the best wins are the investments you never make. Sunworks was so bad that, although we don’t recommend shorting stocks, this one seemed like a no brainer. Interest spiked in early January, as investors weighed their options. The company had positive gross margins, but was negative everywhere else, including on cash flow. While that wasn’t unusual for solar stocks, we highlighted continual capital raises as a warning flag. We expected the company to go bankrupt. Sure enough, the company filed on February 14 as it delisted from the Nasdaq. Sometimes, blood in the streets doesn’t mean opportunity. It signals a company is bleeding out. We all know the problems Boeing faces. The 737 Max faced numerous delays, quality checks kept finding problems, and total output kept dropping as rework increased. The new CEO couldn’t handle things. Back in February, and even to this day, we don’t believe Boeing will go bankrupt. That implicit backstop underpinned our 9/10 recommendation on February 5th. Shares closed that day at $206.63. It wasn’t until November that the stock finally found a bottom 33% lower. While shares have rebounded, as of December 19th, they closed at $177.04, a drop of 14.3%.
Here’s What’s Coming in 2025 A new administration takes over in Washington as inflation refuses to make that last push below 2%. The Fed rightly said they wouldn’t lower rates much more if we don’t see either the economy slow further or inflation subside. We don’t expect either to happen. Tariff policies will likely drive up costs in the short-term, while pro-growth initiatives should keep the economy humming. It sets us up for what could be a flat year after enormous back-to-back gains for the S&P 500. The AI bubble can run farther. Yet, we haven’t seen businesses, other than big tech like Google, turn it into real cost-savings. We also see the Chinese economy acting as a drag on commodity prices, along with increased energy production in the U.S. Some themes should continue including increases in power consumption, which will act as a boon for utility companies. The key is to adapt with the changes and become selective with your investments. Have a wonderful New Year! We’ll see you in 2025! |
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Proprietary Data Insights Financial Pros’ Stock Searches in 2024
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