Agrium Inc. (USA) (AGU), Discover Financial Services (DFS): 3 New Stocks on Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR) (CS)’s Focus List

A great place to look for new stock ideas is in Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR) (NYSE:CS)‘s “Focus List.” The Focus List has outperformed the S&P 500 in 6 of the past 9 years, sometimes by a wide margin.

To clarify, the Focus List isn’t simply stocks that Credit Suisse has a “buy” rating on. Much like Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)’s Conviction Buy List, the Focus List is a select small number of stocks that Credit Suisse feels most bullish about.

Here are a few names recently added to the investment banks list; according to Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR) (NYSE:CS), these stocks are worthy of buying right now.

Hungry for growth

Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR) (NYSE:CS) added Agrium Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AGU) to the focus list on March 1. This company has had a wonderful run of late. Earnings and revenue have grown and amazing 25% over the past five years for Agrium, putting them in truly selective company.

So with the incredible multi-year performance, why is now such a good time to buy Agrium? Well, the company’s growth has accelerated as of late, but it’s more than just that.

Agrium Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AGU) is a producer of agriculture nutrients and other agriculture products, so its success rides on crops. The stock price has pulled back over 25% from its 52 highs, but the long-term outlook for agriculture is still strong. Commodity prices have slumped due to unfavorable weather conditions hampering prices for crops such as corn — but that won’t last forever.

Agrium Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AGU) has shown that it can outpace other agriculture names in any market, so as the world’s population increases beyond 7 billion, this stock should perform well. The long-term trends favor this one; it could be worth buying on a dip.

Banking on returns

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) is on an absolute tear. The stock has rallied from about $5 in 2009 to nearly $50 today, but there’s still room to run. Around late 2009, Discover won a court ruling against MasterCard and Visa for damages that prohibited the aforementioned lenders from working in collusion. This, in my opinion, opened the consumer credit market to Discover and made it a three-name game. Discover is accepted nearly everywhere these days, and it’s using that increased exposure to do some very big things.