Louie Navellier vs. Jason Bodner: Their 6 Best Stocks Right Now

Today's episode is a little different. [music] We've got two of our sharpest analysts in the same room and I'm putting them head-to-head. Three sectors, one [music] favorite stock each. They have to defend it and at the end they can only keep one. Let's get into it. Welcome back to Navellier Market [music] Buzz. You know him but properly, Louis Navellier, founder and chairman of Navellier & Associates since 1987, publishing quant research on growth stocks since 1980. And yes, this is his show. So, let's see if some home turf gives him an edge. Going head-to-head we have Jason Bodner again, the co-founder of Money Flows, tracking institutional big money buying through the Big Money Index. Jason, it's so good to have you today. >> It's great to be here. Always love being a guest. Thanks for having me. >> Let's start out with Friday's payroll report. Dad, what did you make of it and what is that doing with yields? >> It's shoving Treasury yields higher because not only was it much hotter than expected, the previous month July, which had been down, was revised up. So, yeah, this is putting upward pressure on interest rates and this will put more and more pressure on the Fed to raise rates in late September. Now, I only comment is that there's a CPI PPI report coming out. And my other comment is is crude oil prices tend to peak after Labor Day. So, world wide demand will start to drop and so we might get some relief on that front. But, the previous month's CPI was phenomenal and owner's equivalent rent finally fell only 10% which was the big bugaboo. So, there's hope but right now the prediction markets are at least 2/3 predicting that the Fed will raise rates a quarter percent. >> Yields moving is the perfect setup for the next story because there was a whole lot of subtext at the G20 and it got quite heated. Canada's finance minister told reporters after meeting with Besant, "We are going to stand up for our workers." Jason, you are a hockey expert. What is Canada's next move? >> Wow, that's a good one. I do love hockey, but Canada, I can't really speak. But what I can say is, you know, this is a David and Goliath story. Canada can, you know, protest and raise tariffs, which I think they just did on 27.6 billion dollars worth of goods to the US. But it's totally asymmetric, right? 72 of Canadian merchandise exports were into the US last year alone. So, America only turned exported 334 billion to Canada. So, we're a huge customer of theirs. So, you know, they can retaliate, but I don't see a prolonged economic fight between the Canada and US because we're 13 times bigger than them. Like, what can they do? >> Now, Besant had more to say, too. He called the world a wash in debt and said the only way out is to grow out of it. So, Dad, what is Trump's next move on Canada? >> Well, first of all, I think the same Canada is caving to the unions. Apparently, it was a truck deal. They didn't like the tariffs on big trucks. And so, they're all sucking up to unions. Also, I think uh Prime Minister Carney is trying to embarrass President Trump, maybe swing the midterm election, especially in Michigan, which is the swing state. But if I was Trump, and I said this on Fox Business this morning before I got on the show, is I would offer work visas to Canadians cuz they're going to be unemployed soon. Uh Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, is ridiculous. I'm going to stop selling electricity to America. Will he even sell it, too? It was drug current grades going to America. So, the rhetoric has to be turned down, but I would add that Scott Besant also likes to twist the knife and be a little colorful. Apparently, there was an amusement ride, and it looks like little submarines going around a Ferris wheel. And he was saying, "Well, maybe Canada will take those and invade America with those little submarines." And uh you know, it's just gotten to be ridiculous. This is clearly political. And uh they're trying to inject Quebec that we don't like Quebec. I mean you know, Quebec makes all the aluminum. You know, they have all the cheap hydroelectrics. I hope the auto industry just grabs both of them and resolves it because Trump obviously wants more onshoring in America, but long-term Canada's going to lose from this. So, again, if I was Trump, I'd offer work visas to the Canadians fast and furious and cuz Canada is shrinking as country. And obviously, if they lose their industrial base in Ontario, Quebec, they'll shrink fast. >> Losing hockey players because it's cheaper to play in the states on a tax basis. So, they're just suffering all sorts of defeat. >> That's a good hockey observation and I did understand that the higher tariffs are going to be on the hockey sticks. But then Jamie Delugash went up here, Jimmy. He corrected me. No, we make hockey sticks in Minnesota, too. So, it just shows how it's stupid the tariffs are. >> Now, there's a quieter fight happening around AI, too. We talked about this in our last episode that data centers are getting some backlash due to 200 bot accounts out of China. Jason, is this bigger than stocks at this point? Are we watching countries actively try and slow each other down? >> You know, I think a lot of this is political footballing. Once again, we're in peak volatility season in a presidential cycle. September, October are the worst months of the year for a midterm election cycle during a presidential term. And there's a lot of political footballing. Not in my backyard is a big one, right? The data centers, everyone's saying, "Oh, we're going to slow data center production." All that stuff. And these bots, yes, they're definitely trying to sway opinion, gum up things. But the reality is there is no slowing this train. You know, if ever there was evidence, it was last week's earnings call with Jensen Huang on Nvidia. When they came out, shattered revenue expectation, shattered earnings expectations, and then suggested they're going to grow 70% revenue next year, which is almost double Wall Street's estimates. So, while everybody's like, "Hey, the AI infrastructure's trade is going to slow, it's going to collapse, we can't have the spending." Well, Nvidia alone did it. And then you have SK Hynix, and you have Micron coming out and saying their memory bottleneck's going to last at least 2 years. Dell comes out, shatters earnings, announces record AI server orders. Like, it's a one-way train, and it's it's not slowing down. So, if anything, I think all this rhetoric is political, you know, smearing and trying to slow things down and have something to latch onto to get into a good mudslinging fight before the election. >> And on the AI race itself, they said that sales would be stronger without the memory shortage. So, Dad, when does that actually clear up? >> Yeah. It looks like it's going to be at least 2 years based on what Nvidia's guidance, Dell's guidance, despite the fact that, you know, SK Hynix and Samsung are building these huge factories to increase supply. Micron's building new factories to increase supply. Yeah, the data centers require a lot of memory. They prefer the fast Micron memory, and that's at least 2 years out. So, order backlogs remain the big story. It's not that if you beat on sales and earnings, raise your guidance. It's how big are your order backlogs getting? And Ciena was a good example. Ciena's an optical company. They did beat. It was a little awkward on the conference call. The stock sold off, but their order backlogs are ridiculous. So, Ciena would be a phenomenal buy. Of course, we did a short on that. I'm very, very excited about the data center boom. First, I thought it was to 2030. It's probably 2032 now. It's going to basically drive economic growth for a long time. And there are countries that are embracing data centers like Malaysia and guess what? They have 6% GDP growth in Malaysia. >> Yields moving at the scent betting on growth over debt. AI demand hitting a real supply wall. That is the backdrop. Let's see where Louie and Jason are actually putting their money at starting out with energy. Dad, let's start out with you. One stock, give me your ticker and your case for it. >> Well, I still like the stocks that transport energy and have seven crude oil tankers now the last I looked a dry goods shipper but the one that probably the most special is Dorian LPG. That's LNG. Uh the cutter LNG facility was damaged over the fighting. Takes a while to get that up and running. So, a lot of the shipments go to Asia, some went to Europe but Europe is now totally dependent upon America. And their inventories are very low. I know they've had a very warm summer but if they have a freezing cold winter, they're going to get a lot more gas. And Dorian is actually adding new ships to its fleet. Uh so, I really like that. We are controlling natural gas in the world and uh Dorian LPG is is my best natural gas the shipping company. >> All right, Jason, you're up. What is your stock pick for energy? >> Well, I chose NESR which is National Energy Services Reunited. That's a mouthful but basically this is not just a bet that hey, oil prices are going to surge. These guys are picking axes for Middle Eastern energy production and their growth is just off the charts. They just had revenue growth of 59% and earnings growth of 169%. So, if I look in here in the money flows portal, we have a terrific overall score. Our ideal range is 70 to 85. This is right in the sweet spot. Really strong fundamentals. You see these inflows have been persistent for the past year. It's not like you know, an AI name where you get in tons of inflows but over here this is when that research appears on our top 20 report. It's appeared three times in the last year. Already since the first one, we're up about 35%. Now, if you look at the fundamentals, phenomenal sales and earnings growth, expanding profit margin, but what I really like over here are the forward estimates. You know, here we can see they surprised earnings last four quarters in a row, and their sales trend year-over-year growth is looking excellent. We're all being told right now how strategically important the Middle East is. The US obviously just signed this great deal with Venezuela. We're shoring up our energy independence and strength on the Western Hemisphere, which allows us to go confidently into the Eastern Hemisphere, dust up Hormuz, and get a resolution, but uh there's going to be long-term investment needed to maintain that uh capacity and even expand it in the Middle East, and I think NESR is a beneficiary of that. >> Second bill. Uh we own NESR and I don't know management. We also recommend our newsletter. So, yeah, it's a great oil service pick. They obviously have to rebuild the Middle East because of all the infrastructure damage. >> Energy still needs some cooperation from oil in the economy, but if the sense right that the world's awash in debt, there's an asset that's been sending a louder signal already, and that is gold. Gold's had a serious run. Dad, what is your favorite way to play it, and why now? >> Well, I like the miners. I have trimmed my gold stocks, but I've held the big miners Barrick Hecla uh Kinross uh are examples of some of the gold money stocks I still own. It's very simple. When rates go up, and they're going up around the world, so that's Japan, Britain, France, even Germany selling more debt, their rates are going up. And Americans' rates go up, a lot of the central banks lose money on their treasury operations cuz as yields go up, prices decline. So, the only way to offset those losses is to have gold reserves. And France had to do that. They lost money in their treasury operations, but they took their profits from gold so that they looked more fiscally responsible. So, worldwide central banks own about 10 trillion US Treasuries, but they own a lot more gold. So, a year ago the gold buying was hot and heavy. It was distorting our trade deficit because we were exporting a lot of it. It slowed down a bit, but picked up recently with China buying a lot more gold. And China has a lot of deflation in their economy, and gold's very necessary to to shore up the yuan. So, I like mostly the gold miners versus the actual metal. I do expect gold to go up. I think Gardini's projecting it to go up quite a bit from here. >> You mentioned three gold stocks, but if someone just wanted to pick one, which one would you recommend? >> Kinross, KGCM. >> All right. Now, Jason, you're up. What is your gold pick for this week? >> Yeah, Louis just mentioned you've been reducing your gold exposure, and that's obviously because gold has had this monster run, right? So, it's not necessarily that I'm interested in one particular gold stock. I want to pick the highest quality of the bunch. For me, that is Agnico Eagle Mines, AEM. Again, if we look in our money flows portal, we got a great score, great solid technical, great fundamental. You know, think about this. They are producing gold for roughly $1,460 an ounce, and they're realizing nearly $4,500. I mean, that type of spread just turns them into a cash machine provided gold even just stays around here or even drifts down. So, you know, this is a company that's been executing. We've recently got a lot of inflows. A lot of that obviously is with the Iran scuffle, you know, intensifying. Gold is a safe haven asset. But you look over here, um yeah, we had some distribution as gold drifted down. Again, uh the war sort of recycled interest in and You had a lot of top 20 appearances. Well, let's look at why. Because this is a superior fundamental stock. Uh phenomenal one-and-three-year sales and earnings growth. A huge profit margin at 37.5%. I just explained why. They do it with hardly any debt. And again, if we look at the forward estimates here, they've surprised the last four quarters. I love it when companies have a strong surprise history. And you look at the sales trend year-over-year growth 28.1% 43.7% for 1 year. And uh the last quarter was 35%. So, I know if gold drifts down, we might not expect to continue to see the same level of margin expansion. But man, what a great story. I like the best of breed and AngloGold Ashanti mines. I was also looking at Franco-Nevada, but for me, AEM won out. >> So, energy's got the commodity story. Gold's got the macro story. One last sector hasn't gotten nearly the same attention, which might be exactly why it's worth a look. Healthcare. Why compared to everything else this year? Dad, what is your favorite name and why now? >> That's pretty simple. It's Lilly, LLY. They dominate GLP-1s. You know, GLP-1s have had a evolution. First, there was one element that helped you lose weight. Now there's two. Then it'll be going to three. So, even in America will eventually be skinny. Despite the fact that we have barbecue and eat a lot of carbs. I'm telling you the GLP-1 craze is here to stay and Lilly dominates it. >> Dad, is that a company-specific catalyst or a bet on a broader rotation? >> No, it's company-specific. Obviously, healthcare as an industry grows because the population's getting older and we all need new things. I mean, I already got a hip. I'll eventually need a knee. And you know, so I'll go in to get my new body parts every now and then. And I'm not the only one. But, you know, the GLP-1s are the growth engine of healthcare at this time. >> Sorry, Jason. You're up. What is your favorite healthcare pick for this week? >> Well, like Louis, I started to think about large caps and, you know, the safety factor in there. What I'm seeing is healthcare has seen capital rotating into it for now 11 weeks. It seems to attract capital as we head into that midterm volatility. What I suspect will happen will be a quick resolution in the Middle East. Yields will compress. Growth stocks will catch their mojo. And even if healthcare comes in, I picked a really strong growth candidate, Nektar Therapeutics. And basically, they're an oncology company. They have a core drug called cabozantinib, which right now is is massively contributing to their revenue. Their revenue guide for full year 2026 was around 2 and 1/2 billion. This is a Excel gives us exposure to the rising healthcare sector, attracting institutional capital, and all that great growth. Again, in the money flows portal, phenomenal scores here. Let's quickly look at the flows. You can see great inflows. We call that the stairway to heaven, lifting the share price higher with unusual institutional accumulation there. And then over here, it's been a top 20 name for a while. Took a little pause while we got a little consolidation. Now the stock's trading at new highs. Look at the fundamentals. Excellent 1 and 3-year sales and earnings growth at great profit margin of almost 34. Very low debt-to-equity ratio. I like that, especially if we get rising rates. Companies with high debt-to-equity will get punished because the perception will be that they have to refinance their debt at higher rates. It's going to impact their bottom lines. But when you don't borrow a lot, it's not a big deal. The forward PE is 16.8. Again, let's go over here. They beat the last four quarters in a row. That's a great pattern to lean into for next earnings. And again, the year-over-year growth. So, sales trend for the last 3 years growing at 13%. 1 year 7%. The last quarter is an uptick at 10.6%. I really like the growth feature and I like the exposure to healthcare with Exelixis. >> Well, with that being said, six stocks started on the board. I'm taking four of them away. You each get to keep one. Dad, which stock survives for your picks in this video? >> Yeah, if you make me pick one stock of the ones I mentioned, it has to be Lilly, LLY. They very dominate GLP-1s and GLP-1s will be getting more and more popular and they lead the charge. >> And Jason, for you, which stock will still survive for your picks? >> So, out of those three picks, I'm going to have to go with Exelixis. One thing I failed to mention is the franchise cabozantinib, is an oncology franchise that's spinning off half a billion dollars of revenue for them. They have one in the pipeline called zanzalintinib, which is a mouthful, but if approved, that could be another major blockbuster franchise for them. Give them growth. Again, spinning off 2 and 1/2 billion of guided revenue on a $14.7 billion company. I like that growth feature. AEM is very levered to gold, obviously, and our energy pick NESR is is levered to oil, which is a volatile space right now. Both of them, I like the the pure growth feature of Excel. >> So, there you have it. Six stocks, three different sectors. We have two left standing. Drop in the comments which one you'd own or if you own them already. Louie and Jason, thank you so much for joining us. If you guys enjoyed watching these two go at it, you can catch both of them live at The Money Show. It's starting October 4th and their session will will October 5th. That link will be in the description below. Thank you both so much for joining me today. >> Thanks for having me. Yeah, and on that October 5th session, it's me and Louie teaching a 2-hour masterclass, what our stock picking secrets are, how we arrive at them, how we can help you become a better investor. So, be sure to make it for that. >> And most importantly, where we overlap cuz investors want to make sure both systems are identifying the stocks. So, that's we do overlap on a lot of good stocks. >> Yeah. It'll be fun. >> Thank you all so much for watching. If you enjoyed today's video, please give it a like and subscribe to our channel for more content. Let us [music] know in the comments if you have any questions for us, but we'll see you this Wednesday for a midweek update.