Ferguson Wellman Provides Their Top Five Investment Themes for 2025

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ferguson Wellman Capital Management, an employee-owned investment firm, is celebrating 50 years in 2025. To recognize their upcoming milestone anniversary, Ferguson Wellman offers self-paced resources about investing and personal finance fundamentals through their DollarSense education program to the public, for free. Education programs have been accessible only to clients prior to the company’s fiftieth year and plans are underway to distribute more broadly for Financial Literacy Month in April.

George Hosfield, CFA, Ferguson Wellman’s chief investment officer, reminds investors, “In times of rapid change and potential market volatility, we continue to advocate not making impulsive decisions based on news headlines or short-term fluctuations. Exercising patience and maintaining a steady course is the most effective strategy for achieving long-term success.” The title of Ferguson Wellman’s annual outlook to clients is, “Lessons Learned,” reflecting consistent themes for investors since 1975.

Ferguson Wellman's five themes in their “Lessons Learned” outlook include:

1. Turn down the volume: Limit exposure to market noise and focus on investing fundamentals and on long-term goals. By tuning out short-term market fluctuations and media hype, investors can maintain a clearer perspective on their long-term financial goals and make more rational decisions aligned with their goals and values.
2. Don't bet against the U.S. consumer: Recognize the resilience of consumer spending. Market fluctuations and corrections do happen, but the U.S. economy remains strong.
3. Cheap is not a catalyst: Investors can be drawn to certain investments that have either been laggards or look attractive on a valuation basis. For example, international stocks trade at a 40% discount to U.S. stocks and have lagged U.S. stocks by 30% (+55% v. 22%) the last two years. However, two years ago, international stocks were 30% cheaper than U.S. -- thus being cheaper on valuation doesn’t necessarily result in better performance. We continue to see that today, and favor U.S. large cap over international (Benchmark: MSCI ACWI ex. U.S.)
4. Stay invested: Bull markets are long; bear markets are short and infrequent. As Peter Lynch said, "Far more money has been lost by investors trying to anticipate corrections, than lost in the corrections themselves.” Trying to time the market is a fool’s errand.
5. Market to broaden: The growth of the Magnificent Seven (Mag 7) should be closer to the other 493 companies in the S&P 500 this year. As a result, we would expect the performance of the Mag 7 to be closer to the broader market.

For media looking for additional comment, Ferguson Wellman has a deep bench of media-savvy analysts who cover all sectors of the S&P 500, credit market and alternative strategies. The team can also speak to:

• Economic impact of tariffs
• The cost of a crackdown on immigration
• Magnitude of fiscal cuts to the economy
• Sustainability of the federal budget deficit
• The future of AI’s “Mag 7” dominance
• Inflation and Federal Reserve rate cuts
• Commercial real estate and return-to-work mandates
• Wealth planning strategies in the “great wealth transfer” from boomers to younger generations
• Income and estate tax policy changes
• Risk management as part of holistic wealth planning

About Ferguson Wellman Capital Management

Ferguson Wellman is an employee-owned investment advisory firm founded in 1975. The firm manages $8.9 billion for 1,026 individual and institutional clients, offering customized investment portfolios and holistic wealth planning strategies starting at $4 million. Ferguson Wellman has two divisions: West Bearing Investments for clients with $1 million investable assets and our private family office, Octavia Group for clients with assets starting at $10 million. Ferguson Wellman has been included in national rankings in 2024 by Forbes, Barron’s and CNBC. See disclosures below. For more information, visit www.fergusonwellman.com (data as of 12/31/2024).

Rankings Disclosures

Ferguson Wellman and West Bearing were named by the following companies:

• CNBC to their 2024 “Financial Advisor 100” ranking. The firm was listed at 10 of 100 companies. Source: CNBC (awarded 10/2/2024). Data compiled by CNBC based on time period from 4/1/2023-3/31/2024.
• Barron’s to their 2024 “Top 100 RIA Firms” ranking. The firm was listed at 62 of 100 companies. Source: Barron’s (awarded 9/13/2024). Data compiled by Barron’s based on time period from 7/1/2023-6/30/2024.
• Forbes to their 2024 “Top RIA Firms” ranking. The firm was listed 46 of 250 companies. In partnership with SHOOK, Forbes received 46,212 nominations, invited 25,103 to complete an online survey, performed 21,417 telephone interviews, 5,246 in-person interviews and 1,545 virtual interviews. SHOOK Research pre-determines “minimum thresholds and acceptable compliance records.” Basic requirements can be found on the Forbes website.