I am trying to build us a recession proof portfolio. The stocks at the right are the stocks I think can weather the storm and make us money in 2009. Leading the pack are education stocks.
Education is the only sector that has companies beating the street and upping profit estimates for 2009. The best of bread in this group is ITT Education (ESI) — our top holding. ESI jumped 40% since our 12/30/08 purchase. If this portfolio comes to fruition, a large portion of it will be allocated in healthcare stocks.
I divided the healthcare names into two categories — Drug Manufacturers/Distributors and Medical Equipment/Treatment. Although the stocks in these areas are doing well, they haven’t broken out as some of the education stocks have. Still, this part of the portfolio gives us a lot of certainty and good growth opportunity.
