Strategist lays out stock picks for the post-COVID world

The U.S. jobs data for April came in weaker than expected on Friday, but the stock market looked unbothered as the S&P 500 and Dow Jones indices closed at a record high.

Commenting on the employment report on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, Pivotal Advisors’ CEO Tiffany McGhee agreed with President Biden’s remarks on jobs being also about respect and dignity, and not just about the money. McGhee, however, pointed out that there was a missing piece – the quality of life. She said:

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“For the past year, we had time to think about our current jobs and gotten used to working from home and eating lunch with our kids and having more freedom and control over our day. In some cases, people are making more money in unemployment than when they were working. We also have major challenges with child care.”

New business applications in the U.S. were up over 24% in 2020

The chief executive went on to pick three stocks that she thought could weather the storm and continue to perform well in the post-COVID world.

McGhee recalled that the pandemic saw more and more people turn to starting their own businesses last year. New business applications were up more than 24% in 2020 compared to the previous year, representing the biggest increase on record since 2010. A matching stock that she thought would capitalize on this shift was Square Inc (NYSE: SQ), which currently enjoys a ‘buy’ rating from 26 analysts out of a total of 47.

“I love their (Square Inc) ecosystem. It helps business owners start, run, and grow their businesses. It really combines software, hardware, and financial services, to help them reach their customers and also access to financing, so I really do love that,” McGhee said.

Companies are trying to be more intentional about diversity inclusion

According to Pivotal Advisors’ CEO, many people are currently considering a job switch. They’ve had time to reflect on their current jobs, and many of them decided that they weren’t fully satisfied. On the flip side, companies have also started their search for top talent. Many of them are now trying to be more intentional about diversity inclusion.

To that end, she picked Korn Ferry (NYSE: KFY) as a promising stock with a ‘buy’ rating from 5 out of a total of 6 analysts. Korn Ferry is a Los Angeles-based company that offers leadership and talent consulting on top of executive search. Picking DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU) as her third stock, McGhee said:

“DocuSign is a lifesaver for us in our business. We’ve seen a lot of businesses adapt DocuSign, especially in financial services, where in some cases, you absolutely need that signature. The pandemic has pushed companies into using services like DocuSign to be able to do that.”