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I recently featured a group of so-called “old economy” stocks that are thriving in the new economy. That got me thinking about all of the too often overlooked sectors that are showing promise today. Because so much of the new economy is driven by technology, many of these overlooked investments are in relatively low-tech sectors.
So, as a follow up to my recent feature on old economy stocks, here is a list of low-tech stocks that are alive and kicking in high-tech times.
The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. (NASDAQ: GT)
It’s a given that even in this age of Internet communications and virtual reality, there’s an ongoing demand for face-to-face meetings and travel which fuels the oil and gas and auto sectors.
But what about tires? As a 117-year-old company, Goodyear clearly has its roots in lower-tech times, but its business making tires for cars, trucks and buses around the world continues to grow. Shares have more than doubled in just the past two years, and Goodyear pays a 24 cents a share annual dividend.
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG)
Anyone who has ever worked in the restaurant business knows that it can be a very difficult way to make money. But Chipotle seems to have seized on a winning formula of low-priced, tasty and relatively healthy food with a scalable model.
Since its founding in 1992, Chipotle has grown to more than 1,700 restaurants. Given its more than 20% growth in revenues last year, it still has significant room to grow. Consider that McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) operates more than 36,000 fast-food restaurants.
Home Depot (NYSE: HD)
Home improvement is arguably one of the oldest and most enduring American pastimes. At a time when budget concerns as well as the popular HGTV channel have fueled interest in do-it-yourself projects, home improvement is hotter than ever.
While Home Depot faces a multitude of competitors from other big-box stores to local hardware stores, it’s consistently managed to maintain a leading market position. Now that the housing sector is slowly recovering from a prolonged slump, HD could be looking at accelerated growth.
BNC Bancorp (NASDAQ: BNCN)
Does the community bank still exist? Yes it does, and in addition to serving local customers with traditional services like auto loans, many of these stocks make decent investments as well.
BNC Bancorp hails from High Point, N.C., where it provides banking services to individuals and small- and medium-sized businesses – while paying a 20 cents a share annual dividend.
BNC is just one of several community banks that exist far from the “too big to fail” field, but which show steady growth that underscores that there’s still strong demand for this sort of business. BNC’s income has almost tripled in two years.
First Apple, now this…
On Friday, April 24th, the Apple Watch finally became available. And if history is any guide, it’s going to catapult Apple even higher—as did the iPod, iPhone and iPad before it. Now, Apple would prefer you didn’t know this…but there’s another company that’s destined to soar even higher because of the Apple Watch. Apple has long tried to keep it a secret. But you can discover it right here.