Barron's Latest Picks And Pans: Space Race Picks, Eli Lilly, GameStop, Splunk And More

• This weekend's Barron's cover story discusses ways to play the space race as the industry flourishes.
• Other featured articles offer sensible stocks for a strange market, check on how biotechs with recent initial public offerings have fared and recommend bank stocks for income investors.
• Also, the prospects for a software company late to the cloud, a cosmetic reopening play, a drugmaker with more to offer, a top meme stock and more.

"How to Play the New Space Race" by Al Root points out that total number of publicly traded companies devoted to space is growing, but the risks look large. Barron's offers its advice on which stocks to buy and which to avoid. See in which category Boeing Co BA, Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc SPCE and a host of others ended up.

Kenneth G. Pringle's "From Sputnik to Musk: The Space Race Continues" discusses how space has long led to business opportunities. See how the likes of glassmaker Corning Incorporated GLW and integrated circuit maker Texas Instruments Incorporated TXN got in line early to make money.

In "Splunk Finds Its Way Through the Clouds," Eric J. Savitz suggests that San Francisco-based software company Splunk Inc SPLK may be making a late and painful transition to the cloud but the end result of the transition could be a huge win for investors, even if they don't know it yet.

Last year's stay-at-home orders gutted demand for makeup during the pandemic, according to "E.l.f. Beauty Stock Looks Like a Buy" by Teresa Rivas. See why Barron's believes that cosmetics company e.l.f. Beauty Inc ELF should benefit from a reopening economy, as well as new products and an engaged customer base.

In Jack Hough's "9 Sensible Stock Picks for This Strange Market," Barron's says "no thanks" to crypto tokens. In the article, two Wall Street banks recommend stocks that seem appropriate for an investment world caught between sense and silliness. Stocks for consideration include Apple Inc AAPL, Citigroup Inc C and Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM. Find out why.

"Three Biotechs and a Marijuana Lender Begin Trading. Here's How They Did" by Luisa Beltran follows up on Connect Biopharma Holdings Ltd CNTB, Finch Therapeutics Group FNCH and others that made their public-equity market debuts in the past week. See which are the big winners.

See also: Benzinga's Bulls And Bears Of The Week: Comcast, Disney, Nike, Starbucks, Tesla And More

Bank stocks are finally getting their due, and that is good news for income-seeking investors. So says Carleton English's "4 Banks and 1 Bank ETF To Bank on for Yield." Find out why Citizens Financial Group Inc CFG and Comerica Incorporated CMA are among the banking securities that should do well for income investors.

In "Progress in Alzheimer's Drug Development Still Gives Reasons to Hope," Josh Nathan-Kazis makes the case that while Eli Lilly And Co LLY may have recently disappointed investors with a study's data, the approach being taken by the company and other drugmakers to treat the disease seems to be the right one.

Connor Smith's "GameStop Earnings Are Coming. Nobody Knows What to Expect" ponders why video game and electronics retailer GameStop Corp. GME has not provided an update on its numbers since mid-January, before Reddit investors took on Wall Street, and what that could mean for the stock following this week's quarterly report.

Also in this week's Barron's:

• Whether non-fungible tokens are a fad or here to stay
• Whether bond vigilantes will cause another Black Monday for stocks
• Whether cloud metrics are about to become even more confusing
• How to hedge your portfolio against a stock market plunge
• Big productivity gains as the plot hole in the Federal Reserve's forecasts
• Why investors should prepare for value funds to slow down
• Whether China's health care companies are the next big thing
• Why inflation has topped COVID-19 as an investor concern
• How the tobacco giants can survive the last smoker
• Whether investors should panic about chip shortages
• How Elon Musk responded to China's demands
• Cathie Wood's doozy of a new Tesla price target

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

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