Few Bright Spots Among Stocks Despite US Woes: Pimco’s Kashkari
In spite of sluggish U.S. economic growth, a handful of stocks offer value to investors, Neel Kashkari, Pimco head of global strategy, said Monday.
Across a landscape of stalled global growth and growing debt loads among major economies, Kashkari noted that certain companies — among theme Deere and Microsoft — have fundamentals that make them attractive investment bets.
Kashkari described the agricultural equipment maker in particular as "world class" with good long-term holding potential. Deere's bottom line is likely to be buttressed by surging food prices globally, he said.
"Corn prices are obviously high, there's a lot of capital to investment in the ag sector, and if you look globally (agricultural) markets are in desperate need of modernization and we think john Deere is well positioned to do that, " the portfolio manager said.
Deere "is not only a great premium brand in America, it's a great premium brand in agricultural markets around the world, " Kashkari added.
The former Treasury Department official cited a few technology names as solid investment picks. Along with Logitech — which he called "the premium brand in its segment" — Kashkari cited Microsoft as having solid growth prospects.
"We continue to think Microsoft is a very strong story with very strong cash generation, " he said. "As people move away from [personal computers] towards tablets, that may be bad for PC manufacturers like (Hewlett-Packard), but we think Microsoft can continue to do well just because the form factor has changed doesn't mean Microsoft is out of the game."
—By CNBC.com's Javier E. David
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Disclosures:
No disclosures were available for this portfolio manager.
