Goldman Sachs: Investors need to get back to stock picking
Goldman Sachs says it's a great time to be a stock picker, since the market has mostly priced in the 'macro' environment of a steady economy and dovish Fed, for now.
The S&P 500 is expected to hit 3,000 by year end, but in the next three to six months it could be flat, so Goldman Sachs strategist says hunt among stocks that are driven more by "idiosyncratic" events and have the most potential to generate alpha.
Stock pickers could find the most opportunities in the health care, consumer discretionary, and communications services sectors.
With the S&P 500 now 17 percent off its low, investors should turn to picking individual stocks to capture the best stock market returns, according to Goldman Sachs stock strategists.
Stock-picking opportunities are most plentiful among stocks in the consumer discretionary, communications serivces and health care sectors. They highlight stocks like Monster Beverage MNST , WellCare Health Plans WCG , Incyte INCY , Twitter TWTR and NVIDIA NVDA .
The stock market's move higher since the December low has been a 'macro' trade, where the whole market rose, defensives lagged and cyclicals led the way. As a result, stocks have become extremely correlated to each other and the market. Now at the 94th percentile, the correlation is the fourth largest on record, and Goldman recommends a list of stocks that have a high "dispersion" or are bucking the trend.
"We forecast a stable macro environment in the near-term, characterized by steady US economic activity and a patient Fed, which we believe has been priced in the market," the Goldman strategists wrote. They expected a limited move to 2,750 by midyear, but the strategists expect a move to 3,000 on the S&P 500 by year end.
So near term, gains should be capped, and the strategists expect the market to be flat for the next three to six months.That means stock pickers could fair better than those that buy the whole market or even sector ETFs.
"We have seen nascent signs of this rotation to 'alpha' with ETF outflows that have exceeded mutual fund outflows. Consistent with the ongoing transition from active to passive, ETFs saw inflows throughout much of 2018, while mutual funds experienced substantial outflows," they wrote. But during the month of January, as stocks gained 8 percent, investors dumped ETFs, and outflows swelled to $32 billion, compared with just $8 billion leaving mutual funds.
Goldman strategists constructed a list of stocks that have those high 'dispersion scores,' meaning stocks that are driven more by micro factors than are associated with big macro moves.
"Stocks with high dispersion scores are more likely to have heightened responses to idiosyncratic news and present the best alpha generation opportunities," the Goldman strategists wrote. "Importantly, high dispersion scores do not necessarily suggest outsized positive returns alone, but rather returns that deviate most from market returns in either direction."
Included on Goldman's list were Advanced Micro Devices, AMD UnderArmour UAA , United Continenta UAL l, Newmont Mining NEM , Best Buy, BBY Activision Blizzard ATVI , Gap GPS , Nordstrom JWN , Newell Brands NWL and Dish Network DISH .
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