Register For Our Mailing List

Register to receive our free weekly newsletter including editorials.

Register

22 December 2024

Home / 389

24 hot stocks and funds for 2021

There is always doubt about the future, but 2021 will be especially challenging for investing. Equity markets are at stretched valuations as analysts build in optimism about earnings recovery and stimulus in a post-COVID world. The safety of cash and term deposits offers negative real yields, forcing many conservative investors to take on risk they would otherwise avoid. As they seek an elusive combination of defensive market exposure with reasonable yield, they see others enjoying the growth story by buying companies without profits or dividends. Time will tell who wins.

We contacted two dozen fund managers and product providers, and thanks to the following contributors for their views on 2021:

  • Shane Miller, Chi-X Australia
  • Kris Webster, Magellan
  • Sean Fenton, Sage Capital
  • Steven Bennett, Charter Hall Group
  • Tim Canham and Wik Farwerck, First Sentier Investors
  • Aaron Binsted, Lazard Australia
  • Franklin Global Growth Fund team, Franklin Templeton
  • Gemma Dale, nabtrade
  • David Bassanese, BetaShares
  • Michael Murray, Australian Ethical
  • Nandita D’Souza, Citi
  • Perpetual Investments
  • Australian Equities Growth Team, First Sentier Investors
  • Deana Mitchell, Australian Ethical
  • Roger Montgomery, Montgomery Investment Management
  • Peter Bell, Bellmont Securities
  • Jordan Eliseo, The Perth Mint
  • Alex Pollak, Loftus Peak 
  • Jun Bei Liu, Tribeca Investment Partners
  • Marcus Padley, Marcus Today
  • Orbis Investments
  • Vanguard Investments Australia 
  • Adrian Martuccio, Bell Asset Management

We allowed nominations for listed companies, funds or sectors to give a broad range of opportunities, and you should read the recommendations in that context as some people mention their own funds.

Please note, responses were received around mid-December 2020 and some prices may have changed.

Graham Hand

Download here

 

Disclaimer: Highlighting these stock picks does not constitute any offer or inducement by Firstlinks or the contributing individuals and companies to make any investment. This publication is for general information only and has been prepared without considering any person’s objectives, financial situation or needs and you should therefore consider the appropriateness of the information, in light of your own objectives, financial situation or needs, before acting.

Refer to our Financial Services Guide (FSG) for more information at www.morningstar.com.au/s/fsg.pdf.

To obtain advice tailored to your situation, contact a professional financial adviser. Past performance does not necessarily indicate a financial product's future performance.

 

5 Comments
Mic smith
January 30, 2021

Part of the problem here is that FirstLinks has given a forum to Fund Manager who want to pump the stocks they already own. These guys are doing well enough with their average 1% of assets commission plus usually 20% of benchmark "out performance". They do not need any further help from Firstlinks - or anyone else.

Graham Hand
January 30, 2021

Hi Mic, fair comments, but in the overall balance of its content, Firstlinks devotes relatively little space to stock picking as we prefer to give our readers enduring investment ideas. But the fact is that readers like stock picks, and these articles are highly popular. Little wonder some publications devote their entire content to stock picking, accepting (or ignoring) including the downside you identify of fund managers pumping up their own picks. Doesn't seem to bother them or their readers.

Mic Smith
February 14, 2021

Hi Graham,
Mic here again. Your point that readers love stock picks may well be correct. However your job is to educate readers. There is a whole "finance industry" out there, which when you look objectively, much of it is no more that a predator on the ignorant and gullible. This is what the Hayne Royal Commission was all about attempting to fix. If First Links wants to maintain a position as a genuine credible objective entity that helps the ordinary Australian with its finances, then First Links must do better. Please, start by calling out conflicts of interest.

Dane
January 07, 2021

I really like Cuffelinks but you would serve yourself well if you refrained from publishing market/asset class return forecasts, which are nothing more than guesses. A large body of evidence suggests they are close to worthless. Admittedly fundies will never day "I dont know' when asked about the future but we shouldn't be enablers. lol.

George
January 06, 2021

It will be interesting to see the winners and losers from this list in a year. So often, recommendations are made and there is no back-check. Let's hold the forecasts accountable.

 

Leave a Comment:

RELATED ARTICLES

400th Edition Special: 45 of the best investment ideas

Hot stocks and funds for 2021

Firstlinks is sponsored by:
banner

Most viewed in recent weeks

Vale Graham Hand

It’s with heavy hearts that we announce Firstlinks’ co-founder and former Managing Editor, Graham Hand, has died aged 66. Graham was a legendary figure in the finance industry and here are three tributes to him.

Australian stocks will crush housing over the next decade, one year on

Last year, I wrote an article suggesting returns from ASX stocks would trample those from housing over the next decade. One year later, this is an update on how that forecast is going and what's changed since.

Avoiding wealth transfer pitfalls

Australia is in the early throes of an intergenerational wealth transfer worth an estimated $3.5 trillion. Here's a case study highlighting some of the challenges with transferring wealth between generations.

Taxpayers betrayed by Future Fund debacle

The Future Fund's original purpose was to meet the unfunded liabilities of Commonwealth defined benefit schemes. These liabilities have ballooned to an estimated $290 billion and taxpayers continue to be treated like fools.

Australia’s shameful super gap

ASFA provides a key guide for how much you will need to live on in retirement. Unfortunately it has many deficiencies, and the averages don't tell the full story of the growing gender superannuation gap.

Looking beyond banks for dividend income

The Big Four banks have had an extraordinary run and it’s left income investors with a conundrum: to stick with them even though they now offer relatively low dividend yields and limited growth prospects or to look elsewhere.

Latest Updates

Investment strategies

9 lessons from 2024

Key lessons include expensive stocks can always get more expensive, Bitcoin is our tulip mania, follow the smart money, the young are coming with pitchforks on housing, and the importance of staying invested.

Investment strategies

Time to announce the X-factor for 2024

What is the X-factor - the largely unexpected influence that wasn’t thought about when the year began but came from left field to have powerful effects on investment returns - for 2024? It's time to select the winner.

Shares

Australian shares struggle as 2020s reach halfway point

It’s halfway through the 2020s decade and time to get a scorecheck on the Australian stock market. The picture isn't pretty as Aussie shares are having a below-average decade so far, though history shows that all is not lost.

Shares

Is FOMO overruling investment basics?

Four years ago, we introduced our 'bubbles' chart to show how the market had become concentrated in one type of stock and one view of the future. This looks at what, if anything, has changed, and what it means for investors.

Shares

Is Medibank Private a bargain?

Regulatory tensions have weighed on Medibank's share price though it's unlikely that the government will step in and prop up private hospitals. This creates an opportunity to invest in Australia’s largest health insurer.

Shares

Negative correlations, positive allocations

A nascent theme today is that the inverse correlation between bonds and stocks has returned as inflation and economic growth moderate. This broadens the potential for risk-adjusted returns in multi-asset portfolios.

Retirement

The secret to a good retirement

An Australian anthropologist studying Japanese seniors has come to a counter-intuitive conclusion to what makes for a great retirement: she suggests the seeds may be found in how we approach our working years.

Sponsors

Alliances

Site Map

About Firstlinks

© 2024 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved.

Disclaimer
The data, research and opinions provided here are for information purposes; are not an offer to buy or sell a security; and are not warranted to be correct, complete or accurate. Morningstar, its affiliates, and third-party content providers are not responsible for any investment decisions, damages or losses resulting from, or related to, the data and analyses or their use. To the extent any content is general advice, it has been prepared for clients of Morningstar Australasia Pty Ltd (ABN: 95 090 665 544, AFSL: 240892), without reference to your financial objectives, situation or needs. For more information refer to our Financial Services Guide. You should consider the advice in light of these matters and if applicable, the relevant Product Disclosure Statement before making any decision to invest. Past performance does not necessarily indicate a financial product’s future performance. To obtain advice tailored to your situation, contact a professional financial adviser. Articles are current as at date of publication.
This website contains information and opinions provided by third parties. Inclusion of this information does not necessarily represent Morningstar’s positions, strategies or opinions and should not be considered an endorsement by Morningstar.