The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks May 2020 12 Month Report Card

The May 2020 ThePBR25 became ThePBR23, gets an ‘A’ for its 12 Month Report Card.

By Larry C. Paxton

Welcome to The May 2020 The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks 12 Month Report Card.

As investors we count on professional stock analysts to provide comprehensive and diligent research to come up with their best take on how stocks will perform over the next 12 months. We then use that information to help us make stock buy, hold and sell decisions.

The PBR25 Premise

The premise of The PBR25 is that there is a high probability of success for stock investing when a large enough number professional stock analysts through their extensive research determine that a stock is a “Buy” and also forecasts a significant return over the next 12 months. PBRMarketTools assigns a Report Card grade based on how the stock analysts did.

Last 12 Months Influences

Since May 2020 a lot has happened that was not predicted and not part of analyst estimates at that time:

COVID-19 Pandemic. The World Health Organization(WHO) had declared an official pandemic on March 11, 2020. At the end of May 2020 WHO said the world was averaging around 120,000 new cases per day. In the US it was a little over 20,000 per day.
On May 25, 2020 George Floyd, a black man, died a very visible death with his neck under the knee of a policeman. Other similar types of incidents occurred as well. The response was a lot of civil unrest. The policeman was convicted of all charges by a jury in April 2021, but racial inequality concerns are still very present.
There was a very contentious 2020 US Presidential campaign that exacerbated how fractured the US is politically. President Biden has been in office for a few months now, there seems to be a general sense of acceptance, and certainly the political environment has become a lot less volatile.

There is a lot more that can be said, but this is not meant to be an opinions post. It is a piece focused on the review of the recommendations stock analysts came up with at the end of May 2020 and the actual results 12 months later at the end of May 2021. PBRMarketTools is calling this a Report Card.

Creating The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks List for May 2020

The starting point is the prestigious The PBR1000, produced monthly by PBRMarketTools. To be included in The PBR1000 the 1,000 companies must meet the following criteria:

The companies must be publicly traded on the NYSE, NYSE American or NASDAQ stock exchanges, with a very few temporarily trading on the Over-The-Counter market because they are transitioning from bankruptcy.
They must be headquartered in the US or have primary operations in the US.
They must have generated at least $1 billion in revenues in their most recent full fiscal year.
They must file an annual 10-K form with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in US dollars
Each of the 1,000 companies is given a primary ranking based on revenues, with the company having the highest revenue amount ranked 1(currently Walmart). There are 27 secondary rankings in The PBR1000 based on other criteria as well.

Each month the 12 month estimates and recommendations by stock analysts are updated on The PBR1000. The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks list for May 2020 was then created using the following process:

At any point in time The PBR1000 has around 15,000 stock analyst recommendations.
The PBR1000 was sorted by stock analyst recommendations.
Those stocks rated a “Buy” were then further sorted by the number of “Buy” recommendations.
For May 2020 a cut off of at least 12 “Buy” recommendations was then sorted by each stock’s weighted average, with a Buy being worth 5 points, Overweight 4 points, Hold 3 points, Underweight 2 points and Sell 1 point. The maximum weighted average is 5.00. For a stock to achieve a “Buy” recommendation its weighted average must be greater than 4.50.
The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks list was finalized by doing a descending sort by the weighted averages.

Actual Results for The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks for March 2021

One energy related company, Parsley Energy, ranked 6 on the May 2020 PBR25, was acquired in January, 2021. In July 2020 InterActiveCorp, ranked 8 on the May 2020 The PBR25, did a spin-off of its Match Group unit as a separate independent public company. Similarly, in May 2021 it also did a spin-off of its Vimeo unit. These actions and adjustments significantly altered its stock price, so it is also excluded. Therefore, this analysis is based on the 23 remaining companies.

Following is a table of characteristics and actual results for the May 29, 2020, The PBR25.

12 Month Report Card for The PBR25 Dated May 29, 2020

Total Companies	23
Low Weighted Average	4.62
High Weighted Average	5.00
Average Weighted Average	4.73
Market Capitalization Low(B$)	$3.34
Market Capitalization High(B$)	$1,375.64
Total Market Capitalization(B$)	$4,140.99
Total NYSE Companies	18
Total NASDAQ Companies	5
	29-May-20	12 Mo Forecast	28-May-21
Low Stock Price	$19.10	$23.77	$23.61
High Stock Price	$2,442.37	$2,678.00	$3,223.07
Total Stock Prices	$6,304.21	$6,927.76	$8,686.97
Total Stock Price Change		$623.55	$2,382.76
Percent Change		9.89%	37.80%
DJIA Percent Change			36.03%
NASDAQ Percent Change			44.88%
S&P500 Change			38.10%
Lowest Change		5.57%	2.07%
Highest Change		48.82%	158.19%
Total Exceeding Forecast(Out of 23)			15
Total with >0% Return			23

Conclusions, Observations, Validations and Realities

If you had bought 1 share each of The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks at the closing price on May 29, 2020, you would have achieved a +37.80% gain 12 months later at the close on May 28, 2021, nearly four times the 9.89% estimate and an excellent return. Also, it compares favorably to the returns on the DJIA, NASDAQ, and S&P500 indices. For this reason, The May 2020 The PBR25 gets an ‘A’ on its 12 month Report Card.
It is difficult to forecast out 12 months with any great accuracy, there are just too many variables and uncertainties.
However, it does demonstrate that The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks is a valid methodology and process for that particular month.
Our demonstration account, called The Charlie Fund, uses the popular “Buy & Hold with Consistent Monthly Investment Strategy” with the monthly The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks as the primary research tool. For the 12 Month Report Card period it achieved a greater than 50% return, a further validation of the methodology.
There are no guarantees! The reality is that there will always be ups and downs in the stock market and people make stocks buy, hold and sell decisions based on a wide range logical and emotional criteria, input from knowledgeable hard-working experts and well meaning friends, and if the sky is blue today. But the historical data is pretty convincing that stocks will trend up at an above average investment rate over the long haul.

Additional Information

The details of this summary, including company names and the over 200 fields of information for each company, were extracted from the updated The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks MS-Excel worksheet for May 2020, and has been distributed to The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks Subscribers for their personal use and further research
The next 12 Month Report Card will be for June 2020, and should be available between mid to late July 2021.
For characteristics of the most recent monthly The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks go to The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks information page.

We are always interested in your feedback, which you can provide on the Contact Us page.

PBRMarketTools.com provides The PBR1000, a compilation of 1,000 of the largest publicly held companies with primary operations in the US. These companies generate $15 trillion in annual revenues, more than all other US companies combined. The PBR1000 Monthly Snapshots provides these 1,000 companies in Excel format, includes 15 worksheets with 28 rankings, over 200 data/information points, hotlinks to key data, and important news items per company. The monthly The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks is a subset of the monthly The PBR1000 and is available as a separate monthly or annual subscription.

Disclaimers: The PBR1000 is compiled from a variety of publicly available resources. As such, PBRMarketTools.com is not responsible for the data itself. Any liability for the representations or decisions based on the data is solely the responsibility of the authorized user, not PBRMarketTools.com, its employees or affiliates. PBRMarketTools.com is an independent business intelligence service providing news, data, and analysis. It is not a financial advisory or stock brokerage firm and has no affiliation with such organizations. Any opinions expressed should not be regarded as recommendations or advice.

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The PBR25 Top Buy Stocks May 2020 12 Month Report Card