These are our top picks for 2019

Article Excerpt

For 2019’s Stocks of the Year, we’ve once again selected one company from each of our portfolios—Conservative, Aggressive and Income. All three stocks have attractive growth prospects for 2019 and, quite frankly, for several years beyond that. UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORP. $117 (New York symbol UTX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 863.4 million; Market cap: $101.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.6; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.utc.com) recently completed its acquisition of Rockwell Collins (New York symbol COL). It paid $30 billion in cash and stock for this leading maker of aircraft components such as cabin interiors, computerized flight controls and air-to-ground communications equipment. The purchase gives the company more clout with big aircraft makers. To secure approval in the U.S. and other countries for the takeover, it will sell some of Rockwell Collins’ smaller businesses. United Technologies now plans to spin off its Otis (elevators) and Carrier (heating and air conditioning) operations as separate companies. The remaining firm will focus…