Another week, another all-time high for the S&P 500. That's a fitting birthday present for the big stock market index, which turned 60 over the weekend.
With all the talk of a possible top in the stock market lately, it's worth noting that new highs aren't a red flag for stock market investors--they're the normal mode for the S&P over the long-term. Since 1982, almost half of S&P 500 trading days have closed within 5% of all-time highs.
That means it makes sense to think about which stocks are predisposed to rally higher in March. To figure out our buy list, we're turning to a new set of Rocket Stocks worth buying this week.
In case you're not familiar, Rocket Stocks are our list of companies with short-term gain catalysts and longer-term growth potential. To find them, I run a weekly quantitative screen that seeks out stocks with a combination of analyst upgrades and positive earnings surprises to identify rising analyst expectations, a bullish signal for stocks in any market. After all, where analysts' expectations are increasing, institutional cash often follows. In the past 389 weeks, our weekly list of plays has outperformed the S&P 500's record-breaking run by 73.94%.
So, without further ado, here's a look at this week's Rocket Stocks.
Facebook Inc.
Up first on the list is social media outperformer Facebook Inc. (FB) . Facebook has been a stellar stock to have in your portfolio in 2017; since the calendar flipped to January, Facebook has rallied more than 19% higher, leaving the rest of the broad market in its dust. And shares aren't showing any signs of slowing as we move deeper into the year ...
Facebook is the most-visited website on the internet, with more than 1.6 billion monthly active users. That gigantic userbase translates into a large number of views that the firm can monetize through its advertising network. Because this social platform is built around knowing users' interests and friend networks, Facebook automatically owns a deeply valuable database of user stats that it can use to sell incredibly targeted ads at higher rates. As Facebook continues to build out its ecosystem of applications, the firm should continue to become increasingly valuable to advertisers.
The most recent presidential election was an important proof-of-concept for the value of Facebook's user data outside the typical display ad context--as more big data firms become eager to apply Facebook's deep user information database to their clients' marketing efforts, the value of Facebook's biggest proprietary asset could scale dramatically higher. Meanwhile, the firm is working hard to monetize its conventional ad business.
Currently, North America contributes around half of sales despite making up a much smaller proportion of overall web traffic--as other regions begin to see monetization rates approach those of the U.S. and Canada, Facebook has substantial green fields ahead of it.
