StubHub and 2 Other Eclectic New Buys With 2026 Off to Wild Start
Why I am adding Molina Healthcare, StubHub and Halliburton to my personal portfolio.
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Well, if nothing else, I think we can agree that 2026 is not going to be a boring year.
The year is not even 10 days old, and the U.S. has abducted the leader of Venezuela and continues to block oil exports out of the country, other than 30 million to 50 million barrels heading to the U.S., evidently. Rhetoric is ramping up around Greenland and tensions are rising in Minneapolis, in an eerie flashback to 2020.
There are some brighter notes out there as well. It now seems the chances of another government shutdown at the end of January are falling. Fitch boosted its estimate for both FY2025 and FY2026 GDP growth slightly on Thursday. Thanks to a substantial improvement in the trade balance, the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow doubled its projection for Q4 GDP growth to a whopping 5.4% on Thursday as well.
The equity markets have taken all of this in stride so far. They will likely continue to do so despite historically stretched valuations until something changes in the investment zeitgeist. This means I am continuing to plow new funds into the market as some of my covered call holdings expire in the money at the end of every third Friday of the month.
Given the paucity of value in the current market, I am going far and wide to find good opportunities. I am initiating new positions by executing covered call orders. I am utilizing call strike prices a bit under the current trading level of the targeted stock. In this way and by choosing equities with reasonable values, I either pick up a decent return if the stock rises or trades flat. If it falls over the option duration, I add a reasonable value at an even lower price to my portfolio.
This strategy has resulted in an eclectic slate of new holdings within my portfolio. Today, I will quickly run down some of the more recent positions in my portfolio.
I will start with Molina Healthcare (MOH) . This mundane healthcare insurance stock got a "shout out" from TheStreet Pro contributor Ed Ponsi earlier this week. The company should benefit from healthcare insurance premium hikes in 2026 and the shares trade at just over 13-times forward earnings.
I also initiated a small starter holding in Halliburton (HAL) this week. As I mentioned in my column Wednesday, the oil services sector could get a major boost depending on how the situation in Venezuela plays out. The country’s long neglected energy infrastructure could see a huge increase in investment in the years ahead depending on that outcome. The stock trades at just over 14-times profits and sports a just over 2% dividend yield.
Finally, I opened a small new position in StubHub Holdings (STUB) . The stock of this ticket purveyor has dropped 40% from its IPO price late this summer. This type of price action is not unusual and is another example of why I rarely buy IPOs when they debut. StubHub has an asset-light, high-margin business model and has a dominant position in the secondary ticket market. The analyst firm consensus sees over $2 a share of profits by FY2027 on significant revenue growth. The stock currently trades just north of $13.00.
And that is how I am navigating the market as 2026 commences.
At the time of publication, Jensen was long HAL, MOH and STUB.
