Tax Planning Tips and Fund Picks: A Q&A With Morningstar's Christine Benz
Morningstar's Christine Benz discusses reducing the drag of taxes on a portfolio and shares some of her favorite mutual funds.
Matthew Coffina
Matt Coffina, CFA, is a portfolio manager for Morningstar’s Investment Management group and edits Morningstar® StockInvestorSM, Morningstar’s flagship stocks newsletter. As part of his role as editor, Coffina manages the publication’s two real-money, market-beating model portfolios: the Tortoise and the Hare.
Previously, Coffina was a senior equity analyst, covering managed care and pharmaceutical services companies. In 2012, he ranked third in the Food and Drug Retailers category in The Wall Street Journal’s annual “Best on the Street” analysts survey. Coffina also developed the discounted cash flow model used by Morningstar analysts to assign fair value estimates to most of the companies in its global coverage universe. He joined Morningstar in 2007.
Coffina holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Oberlin College. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.
Latest
Stock Market Outlook: A Year of Contradictions
The best-performing sectors thus far in 2016--utilities, consumer staples, energy, and basic materials--all look overvalued to our analysts.
Baidu Troubles Highlight Challenge of Investing in China
The Chinese search giant's run-in with regulators doesn't have a major impact on our view of the firm's valuation, but the incident emphasizes regulatory and stewardship risks.
Express Scripts: A Good Risk/Reward Tradeoff
Continued worries about Anthem’s lawsuit have created a buying opportunity in the pharmacy benefit manager, says Morningstar’s Matt Coffina.
Priceline's Price Is Still Accommodating
The online travel agency has hit a few recent bumps, but the firm's long-term competitive advantages are intact and shares look attractive, says Morningstar’s Matt Coffina.
Retirement Bucket Basics: A Q&A With Morningstar's Christine Benz
Harold Evensky's concept for portfolio allocation can help bring retirees peace of mind and avoid poorly timed sales, says Morningstar's director of personal finance.
Berkshire Better Positioned for Negative Rates
Morningstar’s Matt Coffina shares his takeaways from the Berkshire meeting, including how the reinsurance business is better positioned to withstand negative rates than its peers.
Oracle's Wide Moat Can Survive in the Cloud
Oracle's moat will be put to the test, but the firm has a good chance of retaining customers, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
A Wide-Moat Healthcare IT Company for Your Watchlist
A leader in healthcare information technology, Cerner has a naturally scalable business with good competitive advantages, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
Coffina: Why I Sold Coca-Cola
Our other consumer staples picks are trading at more reasonable valuations than Coke, with fewer secular headwinds, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
Coffina: Baidu Should Reject Insider Offer For Video Site
In open letter to the Baidu CEO and Board, shareholder and StockInvestor Editor Matt Coffina spells out his objections to a proposed sale of video platform iQiyi.
A Company I Own Is Up for Sale--Now What?
Utility ITC Holdings is looking for a buyer. Here's what investors should consider when a company they own is up for sale.
Winners and Losers in the Drug-Pricing War
Major pharmacy benefit managers and pharma stocks with innovative pipelines should see the most upside, while companies that rely heavily on price increases for growth will likely suffer, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
StockInvestor: 2015 Winners and Losers
Alphabet, Visa, and Novo Nordisk outperformed, while energy and basic materials were a drag on returns, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
Stock Market Outlook: Late-Cycle Behavior?
We're unenthusiastic about the valuation of the broader market, but opportunities can be found in a few out-of-favor sectors.
3 Media Stocks That Will Overcome Cord-Cutting
With their vast libraries of content and popular channels, Disney, Twenty-First Century Fox, and Time Warner are well positioned to withstand consumers' shift away from traditional viewing habits, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
Full Valuations Drive 3 Sales for StockInvestor
StockInvestor editor Matt Coffina recently sold out of Charles Schwab and trimmed Visa and Lowe's as current prices offer little margin of safety for the wide-moat names.
Coffina: Investors' Rate-Hike Fears Overblown
Stock-pickers using reasonable interest-rate assumptions can find opportunity among beaten-down utilities and REITs, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
13 New Stocks Join the Wide Moat Focus Index
Out-of-favor media and railroad names replaced several energy equities in Morningstar's index of most-undervalued wide-moat stocks, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
Stock Market Outlook: Minor Correction Not Enough to Make Stocks Cheap
We favor bottom-up stock analysis to find pockets of value amid a fairly valued market.
What's Behind 7 Stock Ratings Changes
A major beer merger, cautious investors in China, and promising data on a new diabetes drug are among the factors driving ratings changes at quarter-end, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
One of the Best Media Companies to Own Today
Time Warner is well positioned in the changing media landscape, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
Stock Market Outlook: Pick Your Spots Carefully
Interest-rate fears bring utility and real estate valuations in line, but the broader market still looks fully valued.
Union Pacific: A Good Bet for the Long Haul
Coal headwinds should only be temporary for wide-moat Union Pacific, which gives it an advantage over other rail companies, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
New Wide Moats in Banks and Software
We recently upgraded a few banks and enterprise software firms to wide moat status, and raised our fair value estimates on health-care REITs.
4 Companies Leading the Next Wave of Cancer-Drug Innovation
First movers and firms that provide combination therapies represent the best investment opportunities in the immuno-oncology market, says Morningstar's Damien Conover.
Which Utilities Benefit From New Emissions Regulation?
Companies operating in constructive regulatory environments as well as those with cleaner and more efficient energy production will be better positioned, says Morningstar's Charles Fishman.
Buffett: Interest Rates Key to Understanding Stock Valuation
In our mid-meeting update, Morningstar's Matt Coffina discusses Buffett's view of stock valuations, cost-cutting, and more.
PBMs: Health Care's Hidden Gems
Pharmacy benefit managers aren't household names, but recent consolidation in the industry is proving out the power of scale for these firms, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
3 Qualities Investors Need to Pick Active Management
Active management isn't for everyone, but engaged and disciplined stock investors with long time horizons can achieve good results, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
Stock Market Outlook: Proceed With Caution
We've adjusted our cost of capital and energy price assumptions, but we see little margin of safety and few opportunities in current stock prices.
The Future Looks Bright for This Wide-Moat Utility
ITC boasts much higher returns on capital and significantly lower risk than other utilities thanks to its friendlier regulatory situation, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
New Energy Outlook Brings Fair Values Down
After lowering our forecast for oil and gas prices, fair values across the energy sector have generally dropped, but some E&P and midstream names are reasonably valued, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
Notable Stock Rating Changes
Hear about Morningstar's latest take on energy stocks, the cost of equity, and real estate portals.
Why Dividends Trump Buybacks
Though both are preferable to accumulating cash, paying dividends is a better method for preserving shareholder value, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
Slower Earnings Growth Likely in 2015
The robust earnings growth of recent years is unsustainable and will probably slow to 4% to 6% over the long run, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
Priceline May Be Just the Ticket
This narrow-moat online travel agency should expand much faster than its competitors and currently looks attractively priced, even given the headwinds, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
Coffina: Expect Less From Stocks
Starting from current valuations, stocks simply aren't capable of delivering double-digit annualized total returns, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
The Winners and Losers in a Changing Mortgage Market
Increased regulation could advantage high-tech disrupters and firms with economies of scale, says Morningstar's Jim Sinegal.
Approach the Mining Sector With Caution
A likely slowdown in Chinese real estate will mean weaker demand for commodities such as iron ore and copper, but a few firms with sustainable low-cost positions should weather the storm.
Our 2014 Big Pharma Pipeline Rankings: Who Came Out on Top?
Merck's reinvigorated pipeline and Sanofi's minimal patent-loss exposure placed them atop our rankings this year, while GlaxoSmithKline joined Pfizer toward the bottom.
Stock Market Outlook: Volatility Creates Pockets of Opportunity
Adventurous investors may find opportunities in out-of-favor energy and basic materials stocks, but the valuation of the overall market still leaves little margin for error.
Opportunities in Internet Stocks
Focused on sustainable competitive advantages and sensitive to valuation, Morningstar StockInvestor's Matt Coffina sees potential in a handful of Internet stocks today.
Oil's Slide Is Causing Slick Investing Conditions
The sharp decline in oil prices reinforces the importance of purchasing stocks at a reasonable margin of safety, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
Reasons to Be Cautious on Midstream MLPs
After his recent sale of Energy Transfer Equity, StockInvestor editor Matt Coffina says investors should consider more conservative MLPs whose current valuations are less dependent on future growth.
Coffina: How to Handle 5 Risks in the Market Today
Morningstar strategist Matt Coffina discusses how he views interest rate, geopolitical, regulatory, currency, and valuation risk when managing the StockInvestor portfolios.
6 Key Concepts to Stock Investing Defined
From moats to fair value to stewardship, we explain the key pillars of our approach to equities.
12 Sources of Risk in Your Portfolio
Forget about minimizing risk. Instead, make sure that you are adequately compensated for the risks you're taking on, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
Sell-Offs Haven't Made Many Bargains
Investors have started to pay attention to risk again, but market valuations overall don't offer much margin of safety, says Morningstar's Matt Coffina.
2 Stock Picks in IT Services
Moaty Accenture and Cognizant are well-positioned to meet growing demand for end-to-end services and global delivery capabilities.