Barron's Picks And Pans: Madison Square Garden, Cigna, Kennedy-Wilson And More

Featured stories this weekend in Barron's ponder the prospects for public sports team owner and a global health services company.

• The prospects for a commercial property owner are also examined in the wake of the Brexit vote.
• This week's cover story takes a closer look at the "world's best oil stock."

"MSG: Trophy Properties for 35% Off" by Andrew Bary makes a case for Madison Square Garden Co MSG, owner of the New York Knicks and Rangers sports teams, and the Manhattan venue in which they play, as sharply undervalued with a strong balance sheet and no debt. "Who wouldn't want to own the Knicks and Rangers?" asks one expert quoted in the article.

In "A Tempting Brexit Property Play," David Englander points out that the disdain for Britain's property market has held down Kennedy-Wilson Holdings Inc KW. That has created a buying opportunity. The Beverley Hills-based real estate investment company also has multifamily and commercial properties in the United States, Japan and elsewhere in Europe.

Related Link: Barron's: The World's Best Oil Stock

Robin Goldwyn Blumenthal's "Cigna Looks Healthy, Deal or No Deal" suggests that shares of health services company CIGNA Corporation CI could soar if its merger with Anthem is approved. However, the deal has been in regulatory limbo since July 2015. Yet even if Cigna goes it alone, Barron's still sees as much as 30 percent upside in its shares.

Barron's bullish picks may have beat the S&P 500 in the first six months of the year, according to "Barron's Picks and Pans Had a So-So First Half" by Avi Salzman. However, they collectively lagged their benchmarks.

See which ones, like Yahoo! Inc. YHOO surprised to the upside, and which, such as Apple Inc. AAPL, disappointed.

In the cover story, "Shell: The World's Best Oil Stock" Jack Hough makes the case that even without a rise in the price of oil, the makeover at Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS-A) could boost shares by 25 percent or more in a year. There is the healthy 6.6 dividend yield as well, which is double what its larger peer pays, and it looks safe until the end of the decade.

Also in this week's Barron's:

• How long markets will stay at record highs
• A gold ETF that lets you redeem shares for gold
• Where stock pickers are turning as the market hits new highs
• What could ignite a solid rally in Gilead Sciences, Inc. GILD shares
• What Pokémon GO could do for Nintendo
• Three of America's top advisory teams
• Where Line Corp LN goes next after stellar IPO
• What to expect from Big Pharma second-quarter earnings

At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.

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