Our top three U.S. stocks for 2018

Article Excerpt

As our top picks for 2018, we’ve selected IBM (from our Conservative portfolio), Alphabet (Aggressive) and 3M (Income). These are the same three stocks we picked for 2017. The fact is all three continue to offer a particularly attractive combination of long-term growth prospects and a reasonable price. Moreover, new tax rules in the U.S. cut their corporate rate and make it easier for them to tap their overseas cash. We feel that will lift their shares higher in 2018 and beyond. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $165 (New York symbol IBM, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 925.8 million; Market cap: $152.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.9; Dividend yield: 3.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ibm.com) is one of the world’s largest computer companies, with operations in over 175 countries. IBM continues to see slowing demand for its traditional mainframe computers and related services. As a result, it continues to shift its focus to faster-growing fields. They include cloud computing…