Many investors remain on the sidelines under the impression that every company has been stopped in its tracks by the financial crisis. Somehow they’ve convinced themselves there’s nothing worth owning.
The problem is it’s just not true. Companies that carry little or no debt are kicking butt and will continue to do so even if the markets stumble.
Not only are most of them tacking on solid numbers in very volatile markets, but over time these debt-free companies are proving themselves to be stable and reliable performers.
Take last year for example. The S&P 500 returned 2%. Yet, the top 15 firms as measured by the highest amount of cash and short-term investments as a percentage of total assets returned an average of 15% according to CNBC analyst Giovanny Moreano.
That’s 650% more than their debt-laden brethren over the same time frame.
So far this year, my favorite debt-free companies have tacked on average gains of 19.82% versus the S&P 500, which was up 9% as of July 3. That’s a 120% advantage over the same time period.
Going further back these same companies have done even better.
In fact, my favorite debt-free choices have returned an average of 349.16% versus a loss of -3% for the S&P 500 as a whole since the top of 2007 when the financial crisis broke.
Over the past decade that number jumps to over 2,061%. And, I’ll bet you dimes to Bernanke dollars that these same debt-free companies will pull ahead further in the years to come.
