Auxier Asset Management President Assesses the Potential in the 2019 Stock Market

February 7, 2019

J. Jeffrey Auxier is President of Auxier Asset Management LLC and Founder of the Auxier Focus Fund. Prior to forming Auxier Asset Management in 1998, Mr. Auxier spent 16 years at Smith Barney — formerly Foster Marshall American Express, then Shearson — where he was on the Portfolio Management Advisory Board and the Chairman’s Council and was Senior Vice President of Investments and Senior Portfolio Management Director.

Mr. Auxier graduated with honors from the University of Oregon with a degree in finance and an emphasis on accounting. Mr. Auxier and his family choose to live far from the influence of Wall Street, on a hazelnut farm just outside of Portland, Oregon.

In this 3,938 word interview exclusive to the Wall Street Transcript, Mr. Auxier details his investment stance and current top picks for his investors.

“Our biggest position has been UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH) since 2010. Our original basis is around $40, and that’s up, like $275. But we really like CVS (NYSE:CVS). We actually had Aetna, and then it was bought by CVS, and then with Express Scripts, that was bought out by Cigna (NYSE:CI). So we know that space fairly well.

And right now, if you look at CVS, it’s basically trading about nine times earnings for arguably one of the leading health care service providers. ”

He has reservations about some hot sectors:

“…My fear is that the cloud has been over-invested in right now. I think too much money has already gone into that. The capital spending in that space has been running now $40 billion, $50 billion, $60 billion over the last couple of years. So I think it could end up like fiber optic. It’s a great thing, but we tend to overdo it, especially when the money has been as cheap as it’s been.”

Get all the details on J. Jeffrey Auxier’s top portfolio picks and his insight into the 2019 market in the complete 3,938 word interview, only in the Wall Street Transcript.