Great investing debate: Growth or value stocks post-rate cuts?

It’s an age-old question among investors: which is better, growth investing or value investing? After the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut this week kicked off a highly-anticipated easing cycle, Catalysts hosts Seana Smith and Madison Mills spoke with a panel of experts about how the two investment strategies could play out in the months to come.

Vontobel portfolio manager Markus Hansen and Greenwich Wealth’s CIO Vahan Janjigian join Catalysts to lay out their investment thesis.

Vahan favors value over growth — but says he’s not a strict value investor. “What I really favor is stocks that are undervalued,” he says, “and in many cases, that can be growth stocks.” In terms of investments, Vahan notes he’s leaning toward traditional value stocks, like IBM (IBM), Verizon (VZ), and Pfizer (PFE).

And in the wake of the Fed’s latest rate cut, Vahan sees small caps (IWM) as benefitting from changes to the yield curve. “I think as things normalize, we’ll get back to what’s considered normal. And that means value stocks outperform growth stocks and small cap stocks outperform large cap stocks.”

Markus and his team at Vontobel are quality growth focused. He says post-rate cut, he expects dividends will get a lot of love from investors. That’s why he’s favoring “good old fashioned names” like Coca-Cola (KO), Walmart (WMT), Home Depot (HD), and PepsiCo (PEP) for their sustained dividend growth.

Luxury is also a sector he finds compelling for its wide economic moat. “It requires time to build that heritage, and to be the top brand,” he says, and that longevity makes companies like Hermes (RMS.PA), Ferrari (RACE), and Richemont (CFR.SW) compelling.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Catalysts.

This post was written by Kathleen Welch