January 22, 2014

Top Picks for 2014

Written By Nancy Zambell

When we asked our contributors for their 2013 Top Picks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had just closed out 2012 at 13,104.10. By the beginning of 2013, the DJIA was trading at 16,576.66—a 26.5% gain.

It was a tremendous year for the stock markets—and more than double the average annual historical gain of 10%. But our advisors did even better! Their 2013 Top Picks averaged a 31.27% return.

Their selections represented a wide variety of industries and investment instruments, with something to offer all types of investors. The best performer—MGIC Investment Corp. (MTG), which gained 194.08%—was chosen by George Putnam III of The Turnaround Letter. In second place was Datawatch Corporation (DWCH), picked by David Covas of The Oberweis Report, which returned 148.25% to shareholders. The third top gainer was Illumina (ILMN), recommended by Nate Pile of Nate’s Notes, which rose 111.09%.

For 2014, we’ve once again asked our advisors for their single favorite investment idea. And they submitted a nice range of recommendations—including technology, energy, finance, biotech, healthcare and infrastructure.

We’ve also included a few other recommendations that were sent in since our last issue.

We hope these selections will help you get started with another profitable year in investing.  .  …read more