There are plenty of ways to prepare for a potential stock market correction while still meeting your long-term financial goals.Last Thursday, the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and Dow Jones Industrial Average all hit all-time highs, with the Dow crossing the 40,000 level for the first time in its over-125-year-old history.The stock market has overcome myriad challenges over the past six years, including the U.S.-China trade war, COVID-19 pandemic, election uncertainty, supply chain challenges, and now inflati ...

Group 1: Investment Insights - Warren Buffett's investment in Coca-Cola has proven to be highly successful, with an initial investment of $1 billion in 1988 now valued at $25.3 billion [1] - Coca-Cola reported an 11% increase in organic sales for Q1 2024, significantly outperforming Pepsi's 2.7% sales growth during the same period [5] - The company raised its revenue growth guidance for 2024 to as much as 9%, up from the previous estimate of 7% [5] Group 2: Brand Strength and Competitive Advantage - Coca-Cola possesses a formidable brand moat, being the most valuable soft drink brand globally, valued at $35 billion, which is a 4.6% increase from the previous year [3] - The brand's recognition is so strong that "Coke" is often used generically to refer to all soft drinks in many regions of the U.S., highlighting its cultural significance [3] - Pepsi's brand value increased by over 10% to $20.2 billion, but it still lags behind Coca-Cola, which requires Pepsi to spend significantly on advertising to close the gap [4] Group 3: Financial Metrics - Coca-Cola's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio stands at 25.4, which is lower than the industry average of 57.1 and PepsiCo's ratio of 27 [6] - The company is characterized as a long-term buy-and-hold investment, providing consistent, modest returns rather than high growth [6] - Buffett's firm is expected to earn $776 million in dividends from Coca-Cola this year, reflecting the stock's reliability as a blue-chip investment [6]

There are growth opportunities across every sector of the market if you know where to look.The Nasdaq-100 is the 100 largest nonfinancial companies by market cap in the Nasdaq Composite. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) like the low-cost Invesco QQQ with $248 billion in net assets have helped make the Nasdaq-100 a mainstream way to invest in a diversified portfolio of growth-focused companies.The Nasdaq-100 has consistently outperformed the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500, largely thanks to the dominance of me ...

Pfizer stock lost nearly half its value over the past couple of years, but some of the world's most successful investors bought millions of shares in the first quarter.The past couple of years haven't been easy ones to be a Pfizer (PFE -0.38%) shareholder. The windfall profits its COVID-19 products produced in the early days of the pandemic evaporated much faster than expected.Disappointed investors have pushed Pfizer's stock price down by more than half from its peak in late 2021. Perhaps sensing a bargain ...

Don't miss out on these great investments.The last several weeks have been a roller-coaster ride for many tech investors. The Nasdaq Composite declined through most of April but has come roaring right back in May. The index is now sitting at all-time highs, up 11% year to date after rallying for much of 2023 as well.Despite the strong performance of late, there are still attractive buys in the tech world. In fact, the outlook for this sector brightened following earnings updates over the last few weeks from ...

Tumbling revenue amid an inventory correction is putting a chill on the stock.Networking hardware giant Cisco Systems (CSCO -2.16%) beat analyst expectations across the board with its quarterly report last week, but the stock was punished, nonetheless. Revenue plunged 13% year over year even with some help from the acquisition of Splunk, and earnings declined by a similar amount.The inventory correction may be wrapping upCisco has been pushing to increase recurring revenue and lower its dependence on one-of ...

More than a dozen S&P 500 components sport "ultra-high yields." Two of these time-tested titans are begging to be bought by income seekers right now.Stocks have been a wealth-creating machine for investors over the long run. Though other asset classes have delivered a positive nominal return to patient investors, including gold, oil, housing, and Treasury bonds, none have come close to the annualized total return stocks have generated over the last century.While innovation is a key growth driver on Wall Str ...

Walmart continues to leverage its massive footprint and sophisticated supply chain to offset the impacts of inflation on consumer spending.Walmart (WMT -0.73%) is up more than 21% year to date and is now the second-best-performing component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2024, behind only American Express.Walmart's outperformance may come as a bit of a surprise given the mega-cap growth stock rally has driven the bulk of the market's gains over the last year-and-a-half or so. But Walmart's results h ...

With new management at the helm, this fintech leader is setting the stage for a rebound.The past few years have been a wild ride for PayPal (PYPL 0.45%). The fintech specialist gained tremendous traction in the early days of the pandemic. Business activity soared and financial results followed, bringing its share price along for the ride.However, the pandemic-related boom started slowing, leading to decreased top-line and active accounts growth. The market responded by selling off PayPal's shares. The stock ...

One analyst predicts Nvidia's data center business will see massive growth thanks to its new AI chips.This year is shaping up to be a record-breaking one for Nvidia (NVDA 2.49%) investors as shares of the semiconductor giant have already shot up more than 91%, and there is a good chance that the stock's rally could get a nice shot in the arm once Nvidia reports its first-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings on Wednesday, May 22.Nvidia is heading into its next quarterly report riding on favorable developments within ...