The Bottom Up Outlook For Stocks Remains Positive

In this edition, we discuss the results of our March 2021 survey of RBC’s equity analysts, in which we asked them to quantify their outlooks for their industries on 6 issues – performance, cash deployment, margins, valuations, fundamentals, and policy. Overall, our analysts are optimistic on performance, cash deployment, fundamentals, and margins. They are less enthused about the state of valuations and the Washington policy backdrop, and are split on the impact of inflation. Our Financials team stood out for being the most constructive on several questions, supporting our ongoing overweight on the sector. Our Consumer Staples team stood out for seeing a major, positive change in view since the start of the year, supporting our upgrade of the sector to market weight.