Priceline.com Inc (PCLN) & More: A Trio of Picks from GAMCO’s Howard Ward

Deere is a play on agriculture

Ward likes agricultural machinery giant Deere on a long-term basis. Shares are up 5% in the last year, but have still badly underperformed the broader market.

Ward sees this underperformance as providing an opportunity to get in — he notes that shares continue to trade at a discount relative to other industrial names. No doubt, John Deere remains an iconic brand, and Ward believes this brand image is important to the company’s future.

Commodities guru Jim Rogers has long been bullish on agriculture, often repeating that farmers are the ones poised to drive the Lamborghinis in the future. It seems like Ward would agree; he cites growing food demand for his bullish Deere call.

Yet, despite rising to record levels in recent years, commodity prices have been coming down. As analysts at UBS noted when they downgraded the stock back in March, corn prices are expected to fall. In a corn bear market, Deere should perform poorly.

Ward’s track record

I wrote about Ward’s picks last time he was on Bloomberg, roughly a month ago. His picks then have proven to be a mixed bag: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is down about 10%, QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) is near flat (but will likely drop over 5% Thursday), and Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM) and Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) have both rallied near 5%.

There are some interesting trading ideas here, but investors should never blindly follow the picks of experts.

The article 3 Growth Picks from GAMCO’s Howard Ward originally appeared on Fool.com.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.