Among the most broadly played investment "factors" — including value, momentum, low volatility, dividend yield — quality has dominated the market, the representative iShares MSCI USA Quality ETF (QUAL) up 25% in the past year, compared to 13% for S & P 500 value and less than 5% for the equal-weighted S & P 500.
Even within industry sectors, the stocks with higher quality scores have sped ahead ( Costco in retail, WW Grainger in industrials, etc.).
The quality label is based on strong balance sheets, high and steady profit margins, consistency of earnings growth and the like.
Sure, there are multi-year secular growth stories animating the AI innovators and weight-loss-drug developers, but most quality stocks stand out for steadiness.
Any give-back of the leading quality growth names wouldn't be easily absorbed by the broader market.
Persons:
iShares, WW Grainger, Berkshire Hathaway, Goldman Sachs, FactSet, Michael Gates, Ed Yardeni, it's, Jerome Powell
Organizations:
Costco, Nasdaq, Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Visa, Mastercard, Nike, Bank of America, Citi, Invest, BlackRock's, Yardeni Research
Locations:
industrials, Berkshire