To millennials who haven’t started investing in stocks yet: it’s about time to start.
Picking individual stocks can be risky and confusing for those who have never ventured into the investing world before. Taking a broader look at the economy can help millennials identify what market sectors are performing better than others, which provides a snapshot of what group of stocks they should consider buying.
These three market sectors that experts recommend can give millennials a good starting point when they begin to invest in stocks.
Finance
The combination of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates and the rollback of Obama-era regulations should equal good news for financials.
Banks and other financial institutions, especially digital payment platforms such as Action Alerts PLUS holding PayPal, should benefit the most from these government actions, experts say.
“In a rising interest rate environment, banks are able to charge more on their lending, so they make more money on their lending practices because people are paying more interest,” Levi Sanchez, co-founder of Millennial Wealth LLC said. “Rising interest rates typically mean financials or bank stocks will perform better.”
The rollback of the Dodd-Frank Act that eased banking regulations will also have a trickle-down effect throughout the sector that should excite young investors, Sanchez said.
“Because these regional and smaller banks are able to less strict lending practices then they will lend to small business owners and businesses which will help spur economic growth, and that in turn can help the banks grow as well,” Sanchez said. “It will help spur economic growth in theory.”
Tech
Millennials have grown up in the tech age where social media and new trends take a paramount interest in their lives. This alone should be a good indicator of why the tech industry is a savvy investment choice, Sanchez said.
The potential for growth for tech companies is huge, and it’s evident in our everyday lives. Companies are using cloud technology to become more efficient, driving is about to become a thing of the past with the advent of autonomous vehicles on the horizon and society is becoming more digital.
The tech industry can be volatile though, but that should not necessarily be a deterrent for millennials looking to invest, Sanchez said. He suggests young investors to look at trends within their own generation to get ideas about which companies are on the rise and which ones seem to be out the door to get a good idea of where to invest their money.
“You value technology companies a little differently,” Sanchez said. “You have to look outside of the numbers and understood their impact on their customer base and how their customers view their products and services.”
Millennials have changed the way companies are valued by the market. Profit margins and return on investments are not the only barometers of a company’s performance that people care about these days. Leadership, a company’s vision and whether it is socially conscious are all almost as important, and the tech industry is a leader in all three, according to Barry Mione, CEO of Kapitall, an online investment platform for millennials.
“Millennials really have a mentality of can they believe in it?,” Mione said. “If it’s a product that they can get behind, they’ll buy, and they’ll stick with it.”
Healthcare
Investing in any sub-sector of healthcare requires patience and an appetite for risk. New drugs can take years before they hit the market and the results of medical trials can make or break companies.
But for millennials who have the time and perseverance to weather the possible volatility, the payoff could make healthcare an attractive option, experts said.
“It’s not a sector you just want to blindly invest in, but the flipside is if you can afford to take some risk, there’s potential for tremendous upside,” Corey Davis, managing director at Seaport Global Holdings LLC said.
Even with the shadow of Amazon looming over the healthcare industry, the fundamentals that form the base of the sector don’t seem to be going anywhere soon, Davis said.
“People are always getting sick, we still haven’t cured that many diseases so there’s still plenty of science to advance in terms of making people better,” Davis said.
Pharmaceuticals and biotech, two of the more exciting healthcare industries, make up just a small fraction of all the different subsectors millennial investors can park their money in.
“It’s a stock picker’s paradise,” Davis said. “Look at the sector and pick specific stocks based on stories, the drugs, the numbers and the potential for new data to come out.”
Watch what Cigna’s CEO David Cordani just told TheStreet about the future of healthcare.
