What a stock market bear likes right now – CNBC.com

Byunknown adams, fargo, greene, health, jennet-chin, kerima-greene, markets, wells Comments Off

Adams, a senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo, expects the markets to continue to churn sideways over the next 12 months as it absorbs the impact of shifting monetary policy. She currently has a 2014 year-end target of 1,850 on the S&P.

“In this scenario, I have an underweight on all defensives sectors, as well as financials and discretionary,” Adams said on “Power Lunch.”

But bears cannot live on honey alone, and strategists will always put their paws around a few good stocks when the opportunity arises.

For Adams, that means taking a nibble out of the health-care sector.

“The single largest reason we like health care is earnings. This is a sector that just continues to beat expectations, continues to print very rapid earnings growth, and will continue to produce incredible earnings growth over the next 12 to 18 months,” she said.

And despite rising valuations, Adams considers health care the only standout sector relative to the rest of the index.

“Sector [earnings-per-share] growth blew away expectations in Q2, up 16 percent year-over-year versus forecasts for 7.7 percent, and health care has also led forward estimate revisions for the index higher over the last three months,” she noted.

So what’s the forecast going forward? Is this Wells Fargo bear really a long-term bull on health care?

“Our top-down modeled 2015 estimate for health care EPS growth is 12 percent in 2015, fastest among sectors in the index and well above index-wide growth of 9 percent,” she said.

—By CNBC’s Kerima Greene and Jennet Chin

Link:

What a stock market bear likes right now – CNBC.com

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