Many investors are bracing themselves for a tough year, with at least a mild recession looking likely. Because of the “darkening” economic environment, fund manager Trent Masters of Alphinity Investment Management told CNBC Pro Talks last week that he doesn’t own any tech stocks, which have been very volatile in the past year. Instead, he picks stocks with one key quality: earnings resilience. Masters highlighted a core stock in his portfolio that he described as having “quite exceptional performance”: luxury powerhouse LVMH. “LVMH — very, very powerful business, very strong house of brands, the performance has been quite exceptional. You have seen that organic growth running at about 20%,” he said. “And that has been with China, not really having the same level of growth they normally do because of the lockdowns that they have been experiencing.” LVMH owns companies ranging from luxury brands Louis Vuitton and Givenchy, to cosmetics names such as Fenty Beauty by Rihanna. The firm is heavily exposed to China, and is set to benefit from its reopening. “What we have seen post Covid is a real bifurcation between consumers, and this has flowed through to stronger performance among luxury brands. In inflationary times pricing power is critical and LVMH has demonstrated this,” Masters added. During the pandemic, the “upper end tended to be fairly protected,” while the middle and lower ends were more affected, he said. “Today, the performance of their business and the execution has been rock solid. And that remains a core position in the portfolio,” Masters said. Masters manages the Alphinity Global Equity Fund, which outperformed the MSCI World Index last year. LVMH’s stock is up 18% in the past year — despite the bear market. Most analysts are bullish on the stock, with 81% of analysts covering it giving LVMH a buy rating, according to FactSet, although they give it potential upside of just 2% from its current price on average. Masters predicted double-digit growth for the company over the next three years, adding that the stock has a reasonable price for such a “high quality” business. He told CNBC Pro Talks that other stocks with earnings resilience include North America’s third-largest waste management company Waste Connections and cybersecurity firm Fortinet.
