Bet on value stocks in 2016 as interest rates rise: Traders

Value stocks are poised to outperform growth names as interest rates move slowly but steadily higher next year, analysts told CNBC on Wednesday.

This year has been a good one for just a few growth investors as growth stocks like Amazon, Netflix and Facebook rocket higher, said Patrick O'Shaughnessy, principal at O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. But a reversal is in the cards if history is any predictor of the future, he said on "Squawk Box."

The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates from the current near zero to 1 to 1.25 percent over the next year. Value stocks have outperformed in 14 of the last 17 rate tightening periods, O'Shaughnessy said.

"This year has been the opposite story, where high-flying, high-expectations, very expensive companies have done well," he said. "If anything, next year during a period of rising rates, we would recommend people reposition towards value stocks."

The leadership of a few growth stocks this year has also made the broader market more expensive, and U.S. stocks now look pricey by historical norms, O'Shaughnessy said.

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Andrew Slimmon, senior portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, said he believes value stocks are entering the final stretches of selling as investors offload shares to offset tax losses at year-end. With a rate hike on the horizon, Morgan Stanley expects cyclical stocks to rebound as well.

Slimmon said he anticipates a "modestly better" year for U.S. equities in 2016, in large part because earnings will not see the same negative impact from the energy sector, which tumbled as crude prices declined about 60 percent from their peak last year.

The S&P 500 energy sector is down about 23 percent this year for the biggest decline among 10 sectors.

The low oil price "hasn't transmitted to better spending, and that's been the big surprise. We had this big destruction to earnings estimates from the oil sector, but people haven't gone out and spent the extra money in consumer discretionary. The result is that earnings for the year are flat," he told "Squawk Box."

Slimmon said he expects S&P 500 earnings to reach $125 to $126 next year, compared with a full-year estimate of $118 for 2015.

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