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ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.barrons.com/articles/6-stocks-on-the-buy-list-of-a-templeton-disciple-1427797447\n6 Stocks on the Buy List of a Templeton Disciple\nJohanna Bennett\nAs a pupil of investing legend Sir John Templeton, Alan Lancz is never afraid to go against the grain and tell investors when to take money off the table.\nAs U.S. stock indexes were bouncing off record highs in recent weeks, the founder and president of the Toledo-investment advisory firm Alan B. Lancz & Associates told his clients to take profits on high-flying stocks and look for beaten-down bargains. He sees challenges ahead, from depressed oil prices to a strong U.S. dollar and political turmoil abroad. So he kicked off 2015 recommending that investors sell utilities and redeploy that cash into European equities and defensive, high-yielding stocks in the telecommunications and consumer staples sectors. Market sentiment soon turned in Lancz’s direction, as European stocks rallied sharply and the Stoxx Europe 600 flirted with an all-time high. So once again he’s shunning the popular and looking for the unloved. His buy recommendations include Baxter International (ticker: BAX), Huntsman ( HUN ) and Harsco ( HSC ).\n“You want to buy shares on weakness,” says Lancz. “You never want to chase them.”\nIn business since 1982, Lancz manages $200 million in assets for high-net-worth clients. In the early 1980s, Lancz was one of several money managers to attend a meeting with Templeton to talk about investment ideas, and the two stayed in touch. In fact Lancz met annually with the pioneer global investor for more than 20 years to spitball investment ideas.\nManager’s Bio\nName: Alan B. Lancz\nTitle: Founder and president of Alan B. Lancz & Associates, director of research for LanczGlobal.com\nEducation: B.A. in psychology, University of Toledo\nHobbies: Travel, tennis and skiing\nLancz’s methodology is fairly straightforward: Look for underappreciated or oversold names with strong management, good cash flow and upside potential that, according to his analysis, is three or four times bigger than the downside risk.\nThe approach has yielded a number of winners in recent years. After suggesting that clients sell Apple ( AAPL ) in September 2012 when the stock had hit a split-adjusted $100, Lancz reversed course around six months later, after the stock had lost 40%. Since then, Apple has roughly doubled in value. Lancz also went against the grain profitably when Facebook ( FB ) was out of favor, and bought the stock in the high teens. It is now trading above $80. Lancz is also known for having suggested aggressive selling in 2007, a few months before the Standard & Poor’s 500 index hit an all-time high and proceeded to fall by half.\n“Everyone thinks contrarian means going against the crowd when it is really all about taking advantage of extreme valuations,” Lancz says. ”Investors like to buy when markets are up and sell in reaction to negative comments. Avoiding that sort of short-term mentality, knowing what to buy and having faith in research make all the difference.” Today, Lancz advocates allocating 66% of portfolios to U.S. stocks, parking 14% in international equities and leaving 8% in cash.\nThat leaves just 12% for fixed income; Lancz favors municipal bonds because they offer better after-tax yields than long-term Treasuries. He steers clear of high-yield corporate debt because he worries about defaults by debt-laden small energy companies.\nLancz recently talked with Barrons.com about his view of the market, and which stocks look undervalued now. Below are some excerpts from our conversation.\nBarrons.com: The S&P 500 hit a new record high in March, and some strategists see it climbing even higher this year. What makes you more cautious?\nLancz: We are trying to be proactive. Investors have swung the pendulum too far, and it makes sense to take profits. We don’t suggest selling across the board, but rather taking profits in some high-flying names and sectors and redistributing that money. Given the volatility we anticipate in the second half of the year, investors will get another chance to buy those stocks.\nLancz’s Top Stock Picks\nBaxter International BAX\nHuntsman HUN\nHarsco HSC\nDiscovery Communications DISCA\nWilliams Cos. WMB\nMagellan Midstream Partners MMP\nSource: Alan B. Lancz & Associates\nQ: Where do you see the market at year end?\nA: A lot will depend on whether the market has a year-end rally, as it did in 2014. That’s when we see interest rates starting to rise. Our challenge for the year is to deliver returns in the high single digits. Because interest rates are low, investors have pushed into stocks in search of returns. As rates rise in 2016 and 2017, stocks will look less attractive, putting investors with big exposure to momentum stocks at risk.\nQ: How do you predict when a stock or market has peaked or has hit bottom?\nA: If there were some magic bullet, life would be very easy. There are certain red flags: For instance, if a prime sector becomes more than 20% of the S&P 500. Don’t sell across the board, but as that pendulum swings into overvalued territory, take some money off the table. Also, look at historic norms for price-to-earnings ratios, profit margins, earnings growth, cash flow and debt levels. That’s how you can assess extremes and determine if a company is valid on a fundamental basis or if sentiment is driving the stock price.\nQ: What are the biggest challenges facing the market today?\nA: As long as oil prices don’t completely collapse, I am more concerned about the dollar, how the market will handle an interest rate hike and political pressures in the Middle East and Russia. Altogether, these issues are why we became a tad more defensive as stock valuations rose at the end of last year. It’s not like it was back in 2007 when the stage was set for a collapse because of declining fundamentals. If the Federal Reserve can avoid raising interest rates too quickly and the economy continues to grow and fundamentals catch up to valuations, then 2016 could be a good year for U.S. stocks.\nQ: What are your top stock picks?\nA: Going into 2015, we led with defensive, high-yielding names and recommended buying into Europe. My five top picks were Verizon Communications ( VZ), Unilever ( UN), Eastman Chemical ( EMN), GlaxoSmithKline ( GSK ) and LyondellBasell Industries ( LYB ). These five names have all appreciated, and at current levels, we will not be adding to our positions. The companies we now like are trading near their lows, and include the drug maker Baxter International, the chemical company Huntsman, the media company Discovery Communications ( DISCA ) and Harsco. We are also making an entrée back into energy with the pipeline companies Williams Cos. ( WMB ) and Magellan Midstream Partners ( MMP ).\nQ: Why are these names attractive?\nA: It will take a long time for oil prices and the energy sector to recover. But master limited partnerships pay robust dividends. Also, revenue depends on the volume of oil and natural gas that travels through the pipeline and not the commodity price itself. Williams and Magellan have good balance sheets and are leaders in the industry. Harsco is a periphery energy play. One of its five subsidiaries is an energy company, which fueled the stock’s decline. But Harsco is a better alternative for investors to gradually re-enter the energy sector than, say, an exploration and production company. Baxter, meanwhile, is spinning off its faster-growing biopharmaceutical business this year, and deserves a higher valuation. With Huntsman, investors overreacted on the downside amid concerns about the impact of falling oil prices on earnings. The U.S. economy will chug along, and the company will perform better than Wall Street expects. And finally, Discovery is an asset play. Whenever you can buy a company with strong assets at historic low valuations, patient investors will be well-rewarded. We like management and believe that Wall Street has not yet credited Discovery for its overseas opportunities.\nQ: What areas are you avoiding right now?\nA: With the exception of a few MLPs, we are avoiding energy companies such as ExxonMobil ( XOM), the offshore drillers and the services companies. In terms of fixed income, we are steering clear of long-term Treasuries and high-yield corporate bonds, which we sold off last summer. We do, however, like municipal bonds. Sometimes munis are improperly priced, and we look to take advantage of widening spreads. With interest rate hikes on the horizon, we favor shorter-term bonds – 10 years or less.\nQ: How do you feel about utilities given the pullback by the sector?\nA: We will selectively get back into utilities as investors overexaggerate their selling.\nQ: What is your opinion on Apple?\nA: Apple remains our largest position in managed accounts, but we have not bought the stock in some time due to valuation. It is a great company, but we wouldn’t buy unless the stock falls below $95. I am more likely to sell into strength than buy into weakness on this one. The stock could reach between $150 and $175.\nQ: How do you feel about Facebook?\nA: Like Apple, Facebook is no longer a bargain. We would buy the stock if it dropped below $50 and sell it in the high $80s or high $90s.\nQ: Thanks for your time.\nCorrection: An earlier version of this story misidentified the ticker for Magellan Midstream Partners in the Top Picks box above. The correct ticker is MMP.\nComments? E-mail us at editors@barrons.com"

ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.barrons.com/articles/under-armour-stock-likely-accounting-probe-51572893980\nUnder Armour Stock Likely Will Remain Stuck\nNov. 4, 2019 2:00 pm ET\nUnder Armour stock fell sharply on Monday. Photograph by Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg\nStock in sports apparel maker Under Armour was plummeting in Monday afternoon trading, down almost 17%, near the lows of the day. The shares will likely struggle to recover from here, as long as investors’ questions about an accounting probe remain unanswered.\nUnder Armour (ticker: UAA) management cut full-year sales guidance when it reported third-quarter numbers Monday morning. But the stock was down before earnings were even released because The Wall Street Journal reported the Justice Department was looking at the company’s accounting. The earnings conference call—begun at 8:30 a.m. eastern—offered investors no relief because management said very little about the investigation.\n“Before we turn it over the call to the operator for Q&A, “I’d like to break from our typical company policy of not discussing any regulatory or litigation matters and briefly address an article published yesterday regarding an investigation by the SEC and the U.S. Department of Justice,” CFO David Bergman said on the conference call. “We have been fully cooperating with these inquiries for nearly 2.5 years. To this effect, we began responding back in July of 2017 to their requests for documents and information. We firmly believe that our accounting practices and disclosures were appropriate.”\nAnd that was it—89 words. That is a pretty short response for an issue that has cost the company $1.5 billion in market value in less than a day. During the remainder of the conference call, Wall Street analysts focused on sales and earnings issues. Under Armour provided Barron’s an emailed statement that closely mirrored the earnings call comments.\nOf course, the full-year sales guidance was disappointing. Management said full year sales growth would be 2%—instead of more than 3%—because of foreign currency and e-commerce woes. But what has the shares stuck is the lack of clarity on the Justice Department probe.\nThe Journal says the accounting probe started in mid-2017 and centers on sales. The company experienced a sharp deceleration in sales at the end of 2016, which hit shares sharply and could have potentially caught regulators’ attention.\nA lot has changed for the company in the past 2.5 years. It has spoken about inventory issues as well as its struggles in overseas markets. (Under Armour is far more U.S.-centric than other sports apparel brands.) Bergman started as CFO in 2017. Founder and CEO Kevin Plank is still at the company, but is transitioning to executive chairman and “brand chief.” Patrik Frisk is taking over as CEO in 2020.\nBarron’s wrote positively about Under Armour shares roughly a year ago, when it traded at $18.20. We believed that Under Armour was too cheap relative to sports apparel peers, such as Nike (NKE) and Adidas (ADS.Germany). After Monday’s shock, shares are a little cheaper at $17.58.\nSince October 2018, when the Barron’s article first appeared, shares have been volatile, reaching almost $28 in July 2019. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, by comparison, is up 10.5% over the same period.\nOf course, the accounting inquiry is a new risk, but sales weakness is probably a much bigger deal in the long run than fines if past accounting issues are found.\nStock in sports apparel maker Under Armour was plummeting in Monday afternoon trading, down almost 17%, near the lows of the day."