John Dorfman Columns category, Page 3

Jack Hightower is a well-known guy in the oil business. His company, HighPeak Energy Inc. (HPK), based in Fort Worth, Texas, is barely known by investors. In late August and early September, Hightower spent more than $2.8 million to increase his stake in HighPeak, a company he founded. That brings...

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will clash over corporate tax rates in the next two months. As President, Trump pushed for lower corporate tax rates and got them. In 2017, Congress slashed the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%. Corporate tax as we know it today was born in...

An old joke has a chief executive asking his accountant how much the company earned in the latest quarter. “How much did you want it to be?” the accountant replies. There’s always a bit of judgment that goes into financial figures. I’m a fan of GAAP earnings — profits measured...

Some people want to invest in the stock market but don’t want to be too daring. For the slightly conservative investor, I compile a collection of stocks I think may be suitable. I call it the Sane Portfolio. There are a dozen stocks in this portfolio, and I refresh the...

If Kamala Harris becomes president, she will break the ultimate glass ceiling. Other glass already has been shattered. About a quarter of U.S. senators are women, as are roughly a quarter of the nation’s governors. Women sit in the chief executive’s chair at about 10% of the corporations in the...

Want to invest in a company that is better at generating sales than profits? On the surface, that sounds like a remarkably bad idea. But investing in a company that has robust revenues and skimpy profits can sometimes pay off. New management, new products or plain old cost cutting may...

Get ’em while they’re cold. That’s the idea behind my Casualty List, a quarterly compendium of stocks that have recently been knocked down, and that I believe will rise again. You’d never guess it from watching the market averages, but about half of all U.S. stocks were down in the...

Now that beach season is upon us, it’s time for the Perfect 10 Portfolio. This isn’t an homage to bathing beauties. It’s a collection of 10 stocks, each of which sells for 10 times earnings. That’s cheap. Over the years, most stocks have sold for about 15 times the company’s...

“Would you kindly do a piece on high-dividend stocks?” a reader asked recently. Happy to oblige. My favorite high-dividend stock at the moment is Pfizer Inc. (PFE). In my view, Pfizer saved the U.S. from the covid-19 pandemic by developing both a vaccine and a treatment for the disease. That...

If you’re an investment manager and you tout the stocks you own, it’s called “talking your book.” I try not to do too much of it in this column. But once a year I write about the stocks I own personally and for most of my clients. Here we go...

Two qualities of outstanding companies are high profitability and low debt. Let’s look at a handful of companies that can boast both. Among the largest 2,000 U.S. companies, about 27% have high profitability, as gauged by a return on stockholders’ equity of 20% or more. About 15% of companies have...

Defying bad news, several chief executive officers bought their own companies’ stock last month. Here are four cases that caught my eye. Skyworks Solutions CEO Liam Griffin spent just over $1 million to buy 11,142 shares at Skyworks Solutions Inc. (SWKS). That brings his total holding to 153,431 shares, worth...

Investors often chase stocks that have soared or plunged. They may overlook stocks that have simply held still. But there are sometimes real bargains in stocks that have done nothing for a while. Each May, I write about such stocks. I call them the Do Nothing Club. Over 20 years,...

Jerome Powell, head of the Federal Reserve, made it official a few days ago. “Higher for longer” interest rates are the policy of the nation’s central bank, and that’s likely to last for at least several months. The cost of carrying debt is biting companies harder than it did in...

The website Gurufocus.com tracks the stock picks and performance of a few dozen famous investors. In the past five years, half a dozen of them had annual returns exceeding 17%. Ron Baron leads the parade. His Baron Partners Fund had a 31.2% annual return. In today’s column, we’ll take a...

You can count on it. Every 35 to 120 minutes, Old Faithful Geyser will erupt in Yellowstone National Park. I’ve named one of my favorite stock screens after this famous geyser. It’s a simple multifactor screen, pointing to stocks that:Boast a 15% return on stockholders’ equity (profits as a percentage...

Waiting for small stocks to stage a comeback is like: (a) Watching grass grow (b) Watching paint dry (c) Watching snails race (d) All of the above The answer of course is (d). This year through April 12, large-capitalization stocks (as represented by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Total Return...

Not every stock that gets roughed up deserves it. Finding stocks that have been banged around, and that have good recovery potential, is the point of my quarterly Casualty List. This year’s first quarter saw healthy gains for most stocks, but some stocks took it on the chin. Four that...

Ever have a friend you love and hate at the same time? That’s how I feel about gold. For most of my 24 years as an investment manager, I’ve avoided gold. Unlike Microsoft or Coca-Cola, gold doesn’t generate any profits. So you can’t use standard measures like price-earnings ratios to...

The Nasdaq Stock Market has been hitting new highs this year. Nasdaq is a market with a dual personality. It’s home to most large technology companies and also the place where a slew of smaller stocks in other industries are traded. Tech stocks have been the stock market’s leaders last...

Predicting the economy is close to impossible. But we have fun trying. Welcome to the 22nd Derby of Economic Forecasting Talent, or DEFT for short. Contestants must predict six economic variables for the calendar year in progress. You can play. The winner will get a trophy, plaque or certificate. Plus,...

Many investors see only half the picture. They are like a baseball scout who looks only for hitting ability, not fielding. They focus obsessively on a company’s income statement (profit and loss), mostly ignoring the balance sheet (assets and liabilities). I believe the balance sheet is important, particularly now that...

A body in motion tends to remain in motion at a constant speed and velocity unless acted upon by an outside force, says Newton’s first law of motion. The stock market is full of outside forces. Nonetheless, the momentum effect is real in the market. That’s why, twice a year,...

If your nose bleeds when you look at the high prices of the market’s most popular stocks, you may find some bargains in mid-sized stocks. I believe mid-capitalization stocks are poised to do well in 2024. I define mid-caps as stocks with a market value of $1 billion to $10...

A Wall Street adage warns, “Don’t try to catch a falling knife.” I do it frequently. Buying good stocks on bad news is a sound methodology, I believe. You may not catch the exact bottom, but you’re likely to find a good entry point. Each quarter, I compile a Casualty...