chris-preston

Chris Preston

Editor in Chief and Chief Analyst of Cabot Stock of the Week and Cabot Value Investor

Chris Preston is Cabot Wealth Network’s Vice President of Content and Chief Analyst of Cabot Stock of the Week and Cabot Value Investor .

Chris joined Cabot in 2015, where he previously served as staff analyst, web editor, and Chief Analyst of Cabot Wealth Daily, our free investment advisory, which in 2019 was named “Best Financial/Investing Newsletter or Ezine” at the SIPA (Specialized Information Publishers Association) Awards, with Chris at the helm.

Prior to joining Cabot, Chris was an analyst and assistant managing editor with Wyatt Investment Research. He has been an investment analyst for more than a decade and a professional writer/editor for nearly 20 years, picking up multiple writing awards along the way. His bylines have appeared in Forbes, The Money Show, Time Magazine, U.S. News and World Report and ESPN.com.

Chris lives in Vermont with his wife, two young kids and their golden retriever, Scout. He occasionally sleeps.

From this author

Cabot Stock of the Week

Cabot Stock of the Week Issue: April 14, 2025

Tariffs aren’t gone, but the 90-day pause has served as a tourniquet for a market that was bleeding out. Who knows what this week will bring after total extremes the first two weeks of April. But for now, relative calm has been restored. So today we capitalize on it by adding a growth stock with momentum via Mike Cintolo’s Cabot Top Ten Trader advisory.

Details inside.

April 14, 2025

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Stock Market

Answering Your Questions About Tariffs and the Market

Given the tumultuous market environment, we wanted to take some time to answer your questions about tariffs, the market, and what to do now.

April 11, 2025

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Cabot Value Investor

April 10, 2025

There have been plenty of market meltdowns over the years. Few have matched what’s happened since last Wednesday evening – so-called “Liberation Day” – when President Trump announced plans to place high tariffs on … the rest of the world. In the week that followed, stocks nose-dived by 13%, with both the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 swinging to a bear market last Thursday and Friday and the S&P 500 nearly following suit.

Until yesterday.

April 10, 2025

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Value Stocks

How to Know if a Stock Is Undervalued

With the market in the midst of a correction it’s important to know how to identify undervalued stocks and not just “cheap” stocks.

April 7, 2025

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Cabot Stock of the Week

Cabot Stock of the Week Issue: April 7, 2025

There’s no sugarcoating it: This is a historic market collapse, and it’s no fun for anyone. Volatility, fear and uncertainty are as palpable as they’ve been on Wall Street since perhaps the Covid crash in 2020. Unlike Covid, however, tariffs can be reversed, or at least mitigated, by a policy change, comment or tweet from the person who enacted them. That adds to the uncertainty. But it also means that it is very much a day-to-day, and even hour-to-hour, situation.

Given how fluid things are, it’s a good time to add as safe a stock as possible to the Stock of the Week portfolio. So this week I called upon Cabot Turnaround Letter Chief Analyst Clif Droke to offer up one of his most reliable potential turnaround stories. It’s a company that sells a lot of products that everyone needs all the time – regardless of tariffs or the state of the economy.

Details inside.

April 7, 2025

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Stock Market

“My First Stock Market Crash”

The market selloff calls to mind something that former Cabot CEO Tim Lutts once wrote about his first stock market crash. The lessons in it are as valuable as ever.

April 4, 2025

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Cabot Value Investor

Cabot Value Investor Issue: April 3, 2025

U.S. stocks remain paralyzed by tariff fears, but not energy stocks. They’re the best-performing S&P 500 sector by far this year, more than doubling the return of any other sector. And yet, they remain the most undervalued sector by virtually every measure. So this month, we add a large-cap energy stock to the Cabot Value Investor portfolio that has a yearslong history of not only outperforming the market, but blowing it out of the water. But after a slow start to the year, it’s trading at a rare discount. We think it has immediate upside – and a high dividend yield should hold us over until it gets there.

Details inside.

April 3, 2025

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Cabot Stock of the Week

Cabot Stock of the Week Issue: March 31, 2025

So much for the market rebound. Or is this a classic double bottom before the real rally begins after Wednesday’s “Liberation Day” full of Trump’s latest round of mysterious tariffs finally passes and Wall Street breathes a collective sigh of relief? I’m betting the clouds part sooner rather than later, as investor pessimism has reached levels not seen since the October 2022 bear market bottom. So today, despite saying goodbye to a few more underperforming positions, I’m betting on the upside of growth, adding a mid-cap software stock recently recommended by Tyler Laundon to his Cabot Early Opportunities readers.

Details inside.

March 31, 2025

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Magazine

3 European Value Stocks in an Uptrend

Both European and value stocks are drawing investor attention as U.S. growth stocks struggle, and these three stocks offer the best of both worlds.

March 28, 2025

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Cabot Value Investor

March 27, 2025

The last two months have felt historically volatile.

Since Donald Trump took office for a second time and immediately started handing out tariffs like they were surprise take-home prizes at an Oprah taping (“YOU get a tariff, and YOU get a tariff!”), the market has been unsettled. And indeed, from mid-February through mid-March, things weren’t simply unsettled – they were bad. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq entered correction territory – the fifth-fastest correction in the last 75 years, in the case of the S&P. Fears of higher inflation and possibly recession have come rushing back to the surface, consumer confidence is at a 12-year low, and interest rate angst is back in full force.

And yet, actual volatility – as measured by the VIX, a.k.a. the “investor fear gauge” – has been … fairly muted?

March 27, 2025

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Tech Stocks

BYD (BYDDY): My Top Pick for the Rest of 2025

My favorite stock for the rest of the year is BYD (BYDDY), a Chinese EV stock that is rapidly becoming the biggest and baddest EV company on the planet.

March 25, 2025

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Cabot Stock of the Week

Cabot Stock of the Week Issue: March 24, 2025

Calm has been restored to the stock market, at least for now. And while stocks haven’t exploded to the upside, it does appear as if a temporary bottom has been put in. With that in mind, today we add a pure growth stock – a cybersecurity play with plenty of momentum, recommended by Mike Cintolo to his Cabot Top Ten Trader audience last week. We also have no sells from our own portfolio, as many of them have been in full recovery mode the last week or two.

Details inside.

March 24, 2025

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Cabot Value Investor

March 20, 2025

March Madness starts today. It’s my favorite sporting event of the year, as the possibilities and unpredictability of a 68-team basketball tournament involving 18-to-23-year-olds never fail to deliver on its “madness” moniker. It’s messy, it’s volatile, and you never know what’s going to happen next. Sort of like the stock market in the era of Trump, tariffs and angst-ridden Fed announcements like yesterday.

March 20, 2025

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Growth Stocks

The “Mag. 7" Have Become the “Lag 7.” Are They a Buy?

The “Magnificient Seven” stocks carried the bull market for two years. Now, they’re holding the market back. Which of the newly dubbed “Lag 7” are buys at these levels?

March 20, 2025

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Dividend Stocks

Why Business Development Company Investing Makes Sense

Investing in a business development company is a high-risk, high-reward proposition for income investors. But you can mitigate risks.

March 18, 2025

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Cabot Stock of the Week

Cabot Stock of the Week Issue: March 17, 2025

Is the worst of this late-winter selloff over? Or are there lower depths still to plumb? A lot may depend on what the Fed says this week. Or the next bit of tariff news. Or who knows what. There’s a lot of uncertainty out there. And the market hates uncertainty. But after a month of almost nothing but selling, there are some encouraging signs of life.

Still, the wise move is to stick to safety, so this week we add a safe dividend stock that’s in about as reliable a business as there is: trash collection. It’s a new recommendation from Cabot Dividend Investor Chief Analyst Tom Hutchinson.

Details inside.

March 17, 2025

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Stock Market

Will the Latest CPI Report Fuel a January-Like Rally?

In January, a cooler-than-expected CPI print fueled a month-long market rally. Will the latest CPI report spark another – and possibly longer-lasting – rebound?

March 17, 2025

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Cabot Value Investor

March 13, 2025

It’s amazing what a halfway decent inflation report can do.

On Wednesday, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in both lower than expected and better than the previous month at 2.8%. Economists were looking for a 2.9% year-over-year gain, down a tick from the 3% gain in January. Instead, it’s down two ticks and up just 0.2% from January – again, a tick less than the 0.3% month-over-month gain that was estimated. So, Wall Street rejoiced, at least for a few hours. All three major indexes were up more than 1% in early Wednesday trading, a welcome reprieve after weeks of getting pummeled into either correction status (the Nasdaq) or near-correction territory (S&P 500 and the Dow). Yes, the thing that’s been feeding this forceful sell-off – tariffs, and an ever-escalating trade war with multiple countries – is still raging. But higher inflation is a big reason people fear tariffs in the first place. And for one month at least, inflation came in cooler than expected.

March 13, 2025

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Cabot Stock of the Week

Cabot Stock of the Week Issue: March 10, 2025

The market is melting down with no end in sight. The question is, does this more closely resemble the July/August carry trade/weak jobs report selling of last year, when the major indexes fell an almost identical amount to what they have in the past three weeks? Or are we hurtling toward the end of the 28-month bull market? We may know the answer soon, as the all-important February inflation prints are released later this week.

In the meantime, we’re playing plenty of defense in today’s issue, selling out of six of our positions that have completely broken down, and adding shares of a low-risk gold miner that’s been a favorite of Cabot Explorer Chief Analyst Carl Delfeld for some time.

Details inside.

March 10, 2025

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Cabot Value Investor

Cabot Value Investor Issue: March 6, 2025

U.S. markets are in a tailspin, and previously hard-charging growth stocks are leading the slide. But two asset classes that have often been overlooked in recent years are off to very good starts in 2025: value stocks and European stocks. Having just “retired” a European value stock that reached our price target in last week’s update, today we add a Dutch-based mid-cap with an almost identical profile – but at a time when undervalued European stocks are getting treated like U.S. growth stocks.

Details inside.

March 6, 2025

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Cabot Stock of the Week

Cabot Stock of the Week Issue: March 3, 2025

The market is in sell-off mode, with the Nasdaq down more than 7% in less than two weeks. But while growth stocks are in the dumps, value stocks are flourishing, up 5% year to date and outperforming growth by one of the wider margins in recent memory. So today, we sell out of a couple growth stocks that aren’t working and beef up our value exposure by adding the newest recommendation from Cabot Turnaround Letter Chief Analyst Clif Droke. It’s a company whose name you likely know, but a stock that was severely out of favor with Wall Street until recently – a perfect turnaround candidate.

Details inside.

March 3, 2025

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Magazine

The One Number That Will Determine Where Stocks Go Next

There’s no “cheat code” for the stock market, but following this one number will give you a ton of insight into where it might be headed next.

February 28, 2025

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Cabot Value Investor

February 27, 2025

Last Friday on the Cabot Street Check podcast I co-host with my colleague Brad Simmerman, I predicted that a 5% market pullback was forthcoming after a month of stagnation. We’re more than halfway there already: the S&P 500 is 3% off its highs entering Thursday and narrowly halted a four-day losing streak on Wednesday.

My reason for thinking a mini-correction was imminent was simple: a strong fourth-quarter earnings season had been helping to counteract all the bad news (tariffs, escalating inflation, stagnant interest rates, etc.) that’s impacted the market over the past six weeks … and Q4 earnings season is now effectively over. Sprinkle in the fact that the S&P had actually poked its head above new all-time highs just over a week ago, and a pullback of some kind seemed almost inevitable.

February 27, 2025

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Stock Market

What Is a Small-Cap Stock?

A small cap stock is a company that is just starting to gain momentum. While risk is present, their youth gives them the potential to net massive returns.

February 25, 2025

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Cabot Stock of the Week

Cabot Stock of the Week Issue: February 24, 2025

After weeks of withstanding a geyser of negative headlines – higher inflation, tariffs, slower interest rate cuts, the DeepSeek impact on AI, etc. – the market finally took on water last Thursday and Friday. Whether that’s the start of a deeper correction, we’ll likely know in the next few days. Even if it is, it’s nothing abnormal. After all, the S&P just touched new all-time highs three trading days ago. A pullback was probably inevitable.

Out of respect for the about-face in U.S. stocks in recent days, however, today we’ll turn our attention to Europe, where stocks have been outperforming their U.S. counterparts by more than 2-to-1 so far this year. Our new addition comes from Spain and is a company that’s been in Carl Delfeld’s Cabot Explorer portfolio for several months.

Details inside.

February 24, 2025

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Cabot Value Investor

February 20, 2025

The U.S. stock market is doing just fine. More than fine, in fact. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 closed at a new all-time high, and the index is up roughly 4% year to date through the first seven weeks of 2025. That comes on the heels of back-to-back years of gains in excess of 20%. And while the current bull market has been mostly spearheaded by a handful of artificial intelligence and Magnificent Seven stocks, the rally is finally starting to spread, with the Equal Weight index also up 4% this year, the Dow Jones Industrial up nearly 5%, and the Russell 2000 up nearly 3%.

February 20, 2025

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International Stocks

3 Undervalued European Stocks to Buy Amid U.S. Uncertainty

U.S. stocks are at all-time highs, but Europe is performing even better this year. Here are three undervalued European stocks worth your attention.

February 20, 2025

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Cabot Stock of the Week

Cabot Stock of the Week Issue: February 18, 2025

The market’s resilience in the face of bad headlines (tariffs, higher inflation, an increasingly cautious Fed, etc.) continues to impress. And with the major indexes currently trading near their 2025 highs despite all the outside attempts to derail them, perhaps the next big market move will be up. With that in mind, today we add to our growth stockpile in the form of a former market (and Cabot) darling that was recently recommended by Mike Cintolo to his Cabot Growth Investor audience. After a rough stretch in mid-2024, the stock is soaring again.

Details inside.

February 18, 2025

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Cabot Value Investor

February 13, 2025

On last Friday’s Cabot Street Check episode, the weekly podcast I co-host with my colleague Brad Simmerman, we welcomed on four different Cabot analysts to help us take the market’s temperature in the midst of an eventful and rather volatile start to 2025. All four of them – Mike Cintolo, Cabot’s Chief Investment Strategist; Jacob Mintz, our options trading expert; Tyler Laundon, our small-cap and early-stage stock expert; and Clif Droke, my fellow value investor who runs the Cabot Turnaround Letter – described themselves as varying degrees of “cautiously bullish.” Given all the headlines of late, that qualifies as a victory.

February 13, 2025

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Stock Market

How Long Until Dow 50,000, S&P 7,000, and Nasdaq 25,000?

After a rocky year, let’s look ahead to bigger and brighter things. Like when we might get Dow 40,000, S&P 5,000 and Nasdaq 20,000.

February 12, 2025

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