CNBC's Rick Santelli interviews Mark Skousen, PhD, of Forecasts & Strategies
Four favorite stocks featured at the 2018 Baron Funds Investment Conference in New York this week highlight an education technology company that partners with top universities, a provider of global, mobile voice and data services, an innovative independent investment bank and a chain of economy and mid-market hotels.
The Baron conference annually showcases four favorite stocks from its team of research analysts who seek to identify public companies that have strong long-term potential and superior management, even if patience is required to reap rewards in an investment world that often is driven by short-term profits. The chief executive officers of the four favorite stocks give presentations to an audience of more than five thousand Baron Funds’ shareholders who gather at New York’s Lincoln Center.
Baron Capital, founded in 1982 by its Chairman Ron Baron, is an asset management firm that focuses on growth equity investments. Baron takes a long-term investing approach, relies on fundamental equity analysis and views the leaders of the companies the funds invest in as a key to their business success. Baron’s mutual funds include three focused on small-caps, one mid-cap, two large-caps, two all-caps, three internationals, four sectors and one “fund of funds.”
An avowed fan of Baron’s approach to investing is Mark Skousen, PhD, who heads the Forecasts & Strategies advisory service, which has averaged double-digit-percentage returns since 2011 with its recommendation of the Baron Growth Fund (MUTF:BGRFX).
“We've been recommending the Baron Growth Fund (BGRFX) since January 2011, giving us a total return, including distributions and dividends, of 113 percent, or 15 percent per year,” Skousen told me. “It is managed by Ron Baron himself. His motto is, ‘We don't invest in stocks, we invest in people.’ It has worked well for us, and our subscribers love his annual Baron Investment Conference.”
To read the rest of Paul’s weekly investment column, please click here.
Paul Dykewicz, www.pauldykewicz.com, is an accomplished, award-winning journalist who has written for Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, the Journal of Commerce, Seeking Alpha, GuruFocus and other publications and websites. Paul is the editor of StockInvestor.com and DividendInvestor.com, a writer for both websites and a columnist. He further is the editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications in Washington, D.C., where he edits monthly investment newsletters, time-sensitive trading alerts, free e-letters and other investment reports. Paul previously served as business editor of Baltimore’s Daily Record newspaper. Paul also is the author of an inspirational book, “Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame’s Championship Chaplain,” with a foreword by former national championship-winning football coach Lou Holtz.
