Newmont and Alphabet Boast Mile-Wide Profit Margins
Posted: September 08, 2026
September 7, 2026 (Maple Hill Syndicate) – Most investors have a pet metric. For Louis Navellier, an investment manager and pundit based in Reno, Nevada, it’s fat profit margins.
A wide profit margin is a sign that a business is a step ahead of the competition – or perhaps several steps. High profits as a percentage of sales are a hallmark of innovation, or monopoly status, or both.
Once a year in this column, I highlight stocks with unusually big profit margins. Here are five that I recommend.
Newmont
It’s a great time for gold miners. Big government budget deficits and fierce international tensions have investors scrambling for the presumptive safety of gold. One ounce was worth $4,493 on September 4. That’s down from a peak above $5,000, but more than double the average price in 2023.
At today’s precious-metals prices, mines that were uneconomic a few years ago are…well, gold mines now.
Based in Denver, Colorado, Newmont Corp. (NEM) is the world’s largest gold mining company, active in North America, South America, Africa, Australia and Papua New Guinea. Its profit margin lately has been 55% before taxes and 33% after.
The stock sells for 16 times earnings. Twenty-seven analysts cover it, 24 of whom recommend it. I usually shy away from that kind of near-unanimity. But in this case, I think the analysts are right.
Alphabet
Alphabet inc. (GOOGL) is the only member of the Magnificent Seven that I own personally. Despite some recent departures of talent from its Deep Mind unit, I believe that Alphabet is a world leader in artificial intelligence. It also owns Google, You Tube and Waymo.
Alphabet’s growth has been both spectacular and consistent. Over the past decade, its revenue has grown just over 20% a year. Last year? The figure was 20.7%.
At 17 times earnings, the stock is priced more attractively than most of the ultra-popular stocks in the Magnificent Seven.
International Seaways
Nowadays, if you hear about oil tankers, it’s usually in the context of the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz. But the world has many oil routes, and some tanker companies, such as International Seaways Inc. (INSW), are very profitable.
International Seaways, headquartered in New York City, had a pre-tax margin of more than 55% in the past four quarters. (It had some tax credits, so the after-tax margin was even higher.)
This is far from a safe bet: The company had six straight loss years through 2021. Since then, however, its net margin has never been below 36%. Only eight analysts follow the stock. Seven recommend it.
United Therapeutics
I’ll repeat my recommendation of United Therapeutics Corp. (UTHR) from a year ago. It has an after-tax margin of more than 41%. Based in Silver Spring, Maryland, it specializes in drugs for pulmonary hypertension, but is also delving into some other areas.
One thing I love about the company is that it carries no debt. The stock sells for 17 times earnings, not too expensive considering the company’s profitability. Growth, however, has been moderate. Over the past decade, both sales and earnings have grown at a pace between 6% and 7% a year.
Nvidia
Navellier calls Nvidia’s margins so good they are “ridiculous.” Since Nvidia boasts a gross margin of 65% and an after-tax margin of 33%, that might be an understatement.
With a market value of $5.6 trillion, Nvidia naturally has a huge Wall Street following. No fewer than 64 analysts follow it, and 61 of them recommend it. I like the company but don’t own the stock personally. I’m a cheapskate, and Nvidia shares are usually expensive.
However, now that the price/earnings ratio has dipped below 30, I’m getting tempted.
Performance
Over the years, I’ve written 16 columns on stocks with fat profit margins. (This is the 17th.) The average one-year return on my recommendations in this series has been 18.8%.
That compares favorably with the 16.1% average for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Total Return Index over the same periods.
Last year’s crop of recommendations did quite well, with a 56.6% average gain, versus 20.2% for the index. The biggest gainer was Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT), up 182%.
Another big contributor was Anglogold Ashanti Plc (AU), which advanced almost 84%. The one flop was Adobe Inc., down 26%. In the middle were United Therapeutics, up 24%, and Zoom Communications Inc. (ZM), up 19%.
Bear in mind that my column results are hypothetical and shouldn’t be confused with results I obtain for clients. Also, past performance doesn’t predict the future.
Disclosure: I own Alphabet personally and for almost all of my clients. I own Anglogold Ashanti for most of my clients, and some of my family members own it. I own Nvidia for a few clients.
John Dorfman is chairman of Dorfman Value Investments in Boston, Massachusetts. His firm or clients may own or trade the stocks discussed here. He can be reached at jdorfman@dorfmanvalue.com.