Barron's Latest Picks And Pans: COVID Booster Shot Plays, Defense M&As, Coty, Hologic, And More

• This weekend's Barron's cover story offers a look at the 100 must sustainable companies.
• Other featured articles discuss the changing vaccine industry, the history of electric vehicles and consolidation in the defense sector.
• Also, the prospects for a medical-diagnostics company, a high-tech glass maker, a beauty products company and more.

Cover story "The 100 Most Sustainable Companies" by Leslie P. Norton discusses how companies from Best Buy Co Inc BBY to Verizon Communications Inc. VZ scored in terms of taking care of all their stakeholders (employees, customers, communities and the environment) as well as investors in a tough year.

Josh Nathan-Kazis' "How the Pandemic Is Changing the Vaccine Industry" makes the case that annual COVID-19 booster shots are likely, which would lift sales. Furthermore, the crisis has enabled biotech upstarts to compete with the giants. See what that could mean for AstraZeneca plc AZN, Novavax, Inc. NVAX and others.

In "Hologic Stock Is Cheap. Time to Buy," Evie Liu points out that medical-diagnostics company Hologic, Inc. HOLX is a COVID-19-beneficiary but also a business that will benefit as life returns to normal. Moreover, the stock has gained 55% during the past year, but its valuation has dropped as well. Why it is time to buy, according to Barron's.

Corning Incorporated GLW has been around since 1851 and now serves a diverse set of markets, from smartphones to auto manufacturing to vaccine vials. So says "Corning Is Filling Its Glass With New Ideas" by Eric J. Savitz. Find out why Barron's believes this stock deserves more attention.

In Kenneth G. Pringle's "Electric Vehicles Were a Nonstarter—Until Tesla Came Along," the focus is on how the road to creating a viable electric car like those from Tesla Inc TSLA has been long and bumpy. The article shows how EVs went from an elusive dream to reality over the past 100 years.

"Coty Stock Tumbled After Earnings. It's Time to Buy" by Ben Levisohn explains that Coty Inc COTY, the parent company of Cover Girl, Kylie, Max Factor and other well-known beauty brands, has had too much debt, too little growth and too many CEOs since the start of 2020. Yet, the stock now looks poised for a turnaround.

See also: Benzinga's Weekly Bulls And Bears: GameStop, Intel, Lyft, Tilray, Twitter And More

Hot money going into the cannabis sector is making a hash of fundamental analysis, according to Jack Hough's "Pot Stocks Are Flying High. Here Are 4 on Firm Footing." Find out where Barron's believes the opportunities lie. Does Tilray Inc TLRY make the cut? Innovative Industrial Properties Inc IIPR?

In "How to Benefit From Tech's Run, Without Big Tech Exposure," Eric J. Savitz examines how, after the dot-com bubble burst, this renowned portfolio manager had the worst mutual fund in America. Two decades later, the fund is thriving, thanks to small-cap tech stocks such as Silicom Ltd. SILC.

Carleton English's "Cubic Buyout Could Signal More Deals for Defense Contractors" says that Cubic Corporation CUB has agreed to a $2.8 billion buyout, the latest in a string of mergers and acquisitions in the defense sector. Who could be next? Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc AJRD? FLIR Systems, Inc. FLIR?

Also in this week's Barron's:

• Methodology for the Barron's 2021 ranking of most sustainable companies
• How today's stock mania differs from 1999's, but that might not matter
• Whether the reasons to be hopeful about the stock market are also reasons to worry
• How much U.S. minimum wages hikes have cost businesses so far
• How much rising U.S. interest rates are worrying emerging markets
• Whether emerging markets will outperform after the pandemic
• Why companies should disclose their corporate and social impacts, just like their profits
• Who says the pandemic could be "effectively" over by April
• Who could get $12,800 in relief under Biden's stimulus plan
• The biggest questions for the pandemic-year tax season

At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.

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Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash.