Use 'Best Of Breed' Stocks If You Want To Beat The Market

• Buying Bank of America’s Best of Breed (BoB) stocks could be the best way to profit in an uncertain market
• BoB stocks have consistently outperformed global equity markets
• The Q4 BoB stock screen favors technology and emerging market exposure

With the recent uptick in volatility and unpredictability in the S&P 500, Bank of America analyst Michael Hartnett thinks now is the time that traders should go “best of breed.” Bank of America’s Global Best of Breed (BoB) screen has consistently outperformed the market, and it may be the key to positive returns during this uncertain period in global trading.

The numbers
Bank of America created the BoB screen back in April of 2010, and since its inception, its 56 percent return is more than double that of the MSCI All Country World Index during the same period. In addition, BoB has outperformed in 15 of 22 quarters.


Selection
Hartnett explains that the BoB screen incorporates quantitative measures of management, balance sheets, earnings growth and margin growth potential to find the highest-quality companies with superior growth potential. “The current bearish backdrop of peaking liquidity, scarce growth, high volatility and low conviction is bullish for Best of Breed theme outperformance,” Hartnett explains.

What is BoB in Q4?
Of the 3,400 companies Bank of America covers, only 24 passed the BoB screen for Q4. According to Hartnett, this quarter’s BoB screen favors exposure to the technology sector and emerging markets.


This quarter’s BoB stocks to buy include Facebook Inc FB, The Priceline Group Inc PCLN, Qualcomm Inc QCOM, FedEx Corp FDX and U.S. Bancorp USB.

Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.