Barron's Picks And Pans: Community Health, GM, JB Hunt, Uber, UPS And More

• This weekend's Barron's cover story offers seven dividend stock picks for volatile times.
• Other featured articles have picks from the Sohn Conference and examine a little-known key to better stock performance.
• Also, a disappointing initial public offering, two bargain transport plays, and soaring whiskey stocks.

This weekend's Barron's cover story, "7 Dividend Stocks for Volatile Times Ahead" by Lawrence C. Strauss suggests lower interest rates and market uncertainty make income plays like Microsoft Corporation MSFT and NextEra Energy Inc NEE more appealing now.

Andrew Bary's "Uber Starts in Reverse" points out that Uber Technologies Inc UBER shares disappointed on their trading debut. The article also asks whether other unicorns will be led to the slaughter of the public markets.

In "UPS Stock Is Poised to Deliver. Here's Why.," Andrew Bary makes a case that, with its free cash flow expected to improve and a safe dividend, shares of undervalued United Parcel Service, Inc. UPS should start to revive and this is a good entry point for investors.

Shares of the intermodal transport company J B Hunt Transport Services Inc JBHT have slumped, according to "J.B. Hunt Stock Is a Bargain Play in Intermodal Shipping" by Leslie P. Norton. But improvements in the railroad system should help increase volumes.

In Bill Alpert's "U.S. Whiskey Stocks Have Soared. Beware the Bourbon Bubble." see why Barron's believes companies such as Brown-Forman Corporation (NASDAQ: BR-A) have thrived. Do millennials get all the credit?

See Also: Bitcoin Bull Market Is Back

"General Motors Stock Looks Like a Buy — and Not Just Because of Cruise" by Al Root points out that leading U.S. automaker General Motors Company GM is executing well, but you wouldn't know it from the stock price.

In "Hedge Funds' Health-Care Picks and Pans," Avi Salzman indicates that the 2019 Sohn Conference featured buys and shorts in the health care arena, including Community Health Systems CYH, as well as lots of talk on policy trends.

Since 1990, companies that spend more on this one thing have outperformed the S&P 500 handily. So says Ben Levisohn's "A Little-Known Key to Better Stock Performance." See what that means for the likes of Juniper Networks, Inc. JNPR.

Also in this week's Barron's:

• The unexpected return of tariffs
• When index funds hurt investors
• How market darling stocks might be vulnerable
• What Facebook's cryptocurrency could look like
• Whether it is time to invest in South Africa
• Places to retire abroad on the cheap
• Closing America's skills gap