The following video is part of our "Motley Fool Conversations" series, in which consumer goods editor and analyst Austin Smith discusses topics across the investing world.
In today's edition, Austin takes a bit of a contrarian stance on the European crisis. While the economic crisis is very much a reality and investors need to be cautious about a company's exposure to Europe, sometimes being too nervous can scare investors away from what are otherwise very strong companies. For instance, quality companies such as Ford, McDonald's, Philip Morris, Coca-Cola, and General Electric all have enormous exposure to Europe. Coca-Cola is on the low end with 22%, and Philip Morris is on the high end with 65%. Yet, over the last year a market-cap-weighted portfolio of these stocks would have returned 14.5% to the market-cap-weighted S&P 500's return of exactly zero. This isn't to say that investors should dismiss or belittle European exposure, only that you should be cognizant of how it plays into a company's bottom line and not let it scare you away from quality stocks.
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