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Top Pick for Sept. 18th: Amazon.com (AMZN NASD)

Zach Curry, director and portfolio manager, at Greenrock Capital Partners believes that:

• inflation will continue to moderate towards central banks’ desired two per cent level…
• while unemployment rates have risen from record lows, these rates still remain low historically, and economic growth continues to be positive even if it is slowing from higher levels…
• the risk is to the downside for central banks if they lower interest rates too fast – inflation not coming down is more of a threat than unemployment rising – so they will continue to watch the data and take their time…
• investors should focus on high-quality, well-managed companies that can take advantage of their leading positions in their industries and adapt to changes in any economic environment while growing their earnings. Investments in these types of companies will reward shareholders over the longer term.

Regarding Amazon.com Curry says:

• “Amazon, with nearly 1.5 million employees, is the largest global internet retailer in the world in operating business segments spanning online retail and physical retail along with generating meaningful revenue from:
  • Prime subscription memberships, Cloud services and advertising,
  • manufactures and sells electronic devices, including Kindle, Echo and other devices,
  • develops and produces media content, and
  • provides computing, storage, database, analytics, machine learning, and other services through its Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform which 19 per cent year-over-year in the last quarter, with advertising growing at 20 per cent year-over-year and its artificial intelligence (AI) offerings could help AWS’ cloud growth continue well into the future.

Top Pick for Sept. 12th: ALPHABET (GOOGL)

“At The Stan Wong Managed Group, our strategy remains centred [centered] on identifying high-quality, secular growth companies to enhance our portfolio mandates.

• We favour [favor) such sectors as health care, consumer discretionary, financials, and technology.
• We prefer companies with strong competitive positions, reliable earnings streams, and reasonable valuations.
• …We seek to enhance returns while carefully managing risk for our clients.

A well-diversified portfolio is key to managing risk with a view toward maximizing returns, and a comprehensive financial plan is essential for navigating market volatility effectively.”

Regarding Alphabet, Wong says: “Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is the world’s unrivalled global leader in search and digital advertising with over US$323 billion in projected fiscal 2024 revenue.

• With search, Alphabet commands over 90 per cent of the global market share and thereby generates substantial cash flow from digital advertising, which in turn represents over 75 per cent of overall revenue.
• Google Cloud continues to grow rapidly along with YouTube. Hardware sales (Chromebooks, Pixel smartphones, and smart home devices) contribute to diversifying revenue streams.
• Among the major technology giants, Alphabet offers one of the more attractive values with the shares trading at a 1.2 times price/earnings to growth (PEG) ratio.
• GOOGL is forecasted to achieve an average annual earnings growth rate of more than 15 per cent over the next several years.
• The company reports its next quarterly results on Oct. 24.”