Tweaking Your Portfolio For 2016

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By Jacob Maslow

The end of the year is when investors begin to get lazy. You don’t want to make any drastic moves before the end of the year because of lax news coming out, and financial advisors are often overwhelmed with trying to adjust portfolios at this time.

The only thing that people are interested in at this time is making modest tweaks so that their portfolio could look just a little bit better in the upcoming year.

Making these tweaks comes with a lot of initial analysis of your current portfolio, and a look at the market as a whole. You don’t want to choose a bad stock or sector to invest in at this time because you’re trying to make your portfolio look better for the coming year. Think of it as a spit and polish for your portfolio.

Going into the week before Christmas, many people were dumping oil stocks and energy stocks due to the struggling industry and the supply glut.

Technology sectors saw a boost from Apple (APPL) of 1.23% despite concerns that the company may miss their sales estimates for their iPhone. Healthcare stocks also gain a boost, with Obamacare adding 6 million people that are under subsidize health insurance and 2.4 million more people insured for 2016.

Healthcare stocks are a smart choice at this time, and two stocks to be analyzing at this time are: Tenet Healthcare Corp (THC) and Universal Health Services Inc. (UHS).  THC has had a roller coaster of a year, with highs at $60 a share in July before the stock tumbled to a yearly low of $27.23 a share on December 14. The company stock rallied 11% on the 21st, and it is now sitting at $31.35 a share.

UHS has also had a roller coaster of a year, with highs of $145 share and lows of $111 a share. The company stock is currently at $119.74 a share, and has struggled on the year.

Healthcare is normally a sure bet for end-of-the-year tweaking, and both of these companies are expected to recover in 2016. You want to do your due diligence, and research all of the stocks before you make any drastic tweaks to your portfolio before the 31st.

Goldman Sachs (GS) also noted stocks that are due for huge dividend increases in 2016, including:

  • Ford Motor Company (F)
  • Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI)
  • Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG)

Many stocks have struggled in 2016, including all three of the companies listed above. All of these companies are listed as a buy because they have strong earnings despite their poor performance in 2015.

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