Global Ship Lease (GSL) — a Top Pick for the coming year — owns and charters container ships of various sizes under fixed-rate charters to container shipping companies, suggests Tom Hutchinson, editor of Cabot Dividend Investor.

The shipping industry is very cyclical both in terms of the macro economy and itself. This is a very positive environment in both areas as the global economy recovers and demand for shipping is high and growing amidst a limited supply of ships.

Into this environment, Global Ship Lease has expanded the size of its fleet by more than 50% over the past year and has grown earnings per share over 150%. It’s future revenues are mostly secured by long term charters and expiring charters will likely be renewed at higher rates.

The company has significantly lowered the cost of debt and raised the dividend by 50% in the last quarter. As well, insiders are heavily invested in the stock.

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A Look Back at 2021's Top Performers

Tom Hutchinson selected Broadcom (AVGO) as his Top Pick for 2021; here's his update on the technology stock, which rose 38% last year.

Broadcom is a global infrastructure technology leader and an industry Goliath with $24 billion in annual net revenues. It’s an icon of the technology revolution with roots that trace back over 50 years to the old AT&T/Bell Labs. The company has many categories leading products in semiconductors and infrastructure software solutions.

Broadcom provides components that enable networks to operate together and communicate with each other from the service provider all the way the end user and device. That may sound complicated. But there are two simple reasons for buying the stock. One, it will continue to benefit from businesses moving online and into cloud-based applications. Two, it is getting a huge benefit from the 5G rollout in the near term.

The stock has recently pulled back from the high back into the buy range because of concerns about the ongoing chip shortage. But Broadcom has dealt more successfully with the shortage so far than just about any other company. Revenues were up 15% and earnings jumped 21.5% in the last fiscal year. The company also raised guidance for this year and received several upgrades in the last better-than-expected quarterly results.