Here at StreetAuthority, we spend a great deal of our research efforts digging through hundreds of investment ideas, SEC filings, earnings reports and analyst reports so we can identify what we believe are the best investment opportunities for our subscribers.

We wouldn’t continually waste our efforts if it didn’t prove fruitful.

Over the years our hard work has delivered some incredible gains for our premium readers. And perhaps no single piece of research we do has been more profitable for more people than our annual Top Ten Stocks report for the following year.

This report, which is produced by the Top Stock Advisor research team, has proven to be one our most anticipated pieces of research we produce each year.

When we first started this ambitious project in 2003, our stocks beat the market by twelve percentage points. Then in 2004… 2005… 2006… 2007… we trounced the market.

In the market crash of 2008, we saw losses like everyone else. But we still made fantastic gains, like Panera Bread, which soared 45.8%.

In fact, if you had invested with us over the past three years, you would have DOUBLED the stock market each year.

We’ve bagged winners like the 64.3% return from Mastercard (NYSE: MA), 44.3% from Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), 38.9% from Deere (NYSE: DE) and even 101.8% from Skyworks Solutions (Nasdaq: SWKS). So it’s easy to see why this has become one of StreetAuthority’s most popular reports.

And I’m happy to announce that this year’s report — The Top 10 Stocks For 2018 — has just been released.

Some of the names you’ll see in this report are companies you’ve likely heard about before. But there are others that we’d be surprised if they are on the radars of most investors.

From one of the most reliable businesses in the world that takes a cut from one out of every two retail purchases in the U.S. to a little-known company that collects revenue from nearly 20,000 locations each day and pays a 12.6% dividend… No matter what their story is, they all have one common thread: We think each one has the potential to beat the Dow… the Nasdaq… and the S&P 500 in the coming year.

Of course, there aren’t any guarantees, but when you read the profile of each pick, it’s easy to see why we’re excited about this exclusive group of 10 investments. Again, these are our top picks for 2018 that we think offer investors some of the best chances for positive returns in the coming years.

The Secret To Our Top Ten Report’s Success

One of our guiding principles at StreetAuthority is that investing doesn’t have to be hard… or stressful… or akin to gambling.

In fact, after years of research we found that companies with a few basic characteristics are the ones that can make you a lot of money over the long term.

Sure, we spend over $1 million a year on a research team and tools to find the best stocks in the market. But the bottom-line is that it doesn’t take complex formulas, intricate options strategies, day trading, algorithmic trading, black-box trading systems… or any other method that only a Ph.D. math quant can understand in order for us to derive our picks.

Instead, we simply like to focus on companies with the following characteristics…

  1. Companies that enjoy huge, long-term, advantages over their competition.
  2. Companies that produce goods and services necessary for everyday life.
  3. Companies that pay investors by growing dividends or buying back massive amounts of their own stock.

Sounds pretty simple, right?

But the thing is, there are hundreds of stocks that have one or two of these individual traits. And many of them have beaten the market over the years. But if you want to stop taking chances, and stop gambling with your money, then you need find those rare companies that sport all three qualities.

Again, we’ve found — after years of research — that companies with these three qualities can make you the most money over the long term.

Now, of course, we can’t reveal all of the names of these picks in today’s issue. For one thing, we simply don’t have the space. For another, it simply wouldn’t be fair to our Top Stock Advisor subscribers.

That being said, we do want to share one of the stocks we’ve selected this year, just to give you a taste of what we’re talking about.

Top Stock #1: Revealed

​Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) may not strike you as a stock to watch in 2018. After all, it’s a major multi-national company with a $170 billion market cap. Its revenue already tops $48 billion per year, and the company boasts nearly 73,000 employees.

When you see a company of that size and scope, it’s natural to think its stock will simply float alongside the market.

But if you think that way about Cisco, then you’re not getting the whole story…

Cisco, as you likely know, is a major player in the technology field. It specializes in networking equipment — the tools and software that help people and computers connect with one another. In addition to routers and switches, the company is active in a number of other fields, including commercial network storage, video conferencing software and hardware, business telephones, video delivery and internet of things.

But believe it or not, it’s not the ins-and-outs of Cisco’s business that makes the stock most interesting as an investment.

What’s important to know is that Cisco is a dominant company in its field, which is also a high-margin business. It owns the number 1 or number 2 position in nearly every market it serves — including a 50% global market share of its primary market. That means as much as half the world’s Internet users are using this company’s product.

Thanks to this dominance, it has accumulated more than $70 billion in cash… and generates massive amounts of cash flow every quarter. And it is doing everything it can to use that cash to increase returns for investors.

Since it started paying a dividend in 2011 it has grown its dividend at a compound annual growth rate of 30%, and has paid out more than $23.5 billion to shareholders via dividends alone… and that doesn’t even account for the $26.8 billion worth of shares its repurchased over the last three years.

And considering that the company has consistently churned out free cash flow in excess of $10 billion every year since 2010, it’s likely that Cisco will continue showering shareholders with increasing dividend payments.

On top of its dominance in its high-margin business, Cisco has continued to build-out and capitalize on “The Internet of Things” market — a major growth catalyst. This trend which aims to increase the overall connectedness of people and things is expected to bloom into a $267 billion industry by 2020, according to the Boston Consulting Group, and Cisco is in the driver’s seat to become a market leader — thanks to its stranglehold on several key markets.

As more and more people connect to the internet — and utilize the Internet of Things trend — around the globe, you can bet they’ll be doing so with the help of one or more of Cisco’s products and services. We expect this company to continue setting a new bar each year in its financial performance.

— Jimmy Butts

The Top 10 Stocks for 2018 [sponsored link]

Remember, Cisco is just one pick out of 10. And while Cisco is a household name, we expect big things from it in 2018. But some of the other picks in this report will be less familiar to you. And, while nothing is certain, we’re convinced — based on our cumulative decades of experience and expertise — that these stocks are your best bet for building wealth in 2018 and beyond.

You’ll find all the details of every one of our 10 picks in this brand-new report. And we’d like to share it, with absolutely no risk to you. All we ask is that you try a 90-day, no obligation trial membership to our monthly service, Top Stock Advisor, just to see if you like it (even if you don’t you can keep the report as a free gift). You can follow this link to learn more.

Source: Street Authority