In the spirit of World Cup competition, we're holding our own tournament in search of the Better Stock Today. We're pitting 32 companies against each other, and you, the reader, will determine the winner.
Pfizer takes on Tesla Motors for this first round-robin match up in our search for the better stock today.
Motley Fool health-care analyst David Williamson thinks Pfizer (PFE -1.05%) should advance to the next round for one big reason -- it isn't afraid to think big. Pfizer has gone through a radical transformation. Gone are nutrition and animal health, and off-patent drugs may be next. Pfizer was unable to pull off a merger with AstraZeneca to dramatically lower its tax rate, but that doesn't mean its financial engineering is done. Expect Pfizer to spend the money on shareholder-friendly actions like increasing the dividend and ramping up share buybacks.
Motley Fool Supernova analyst Matt Argersinger thinks Tesla Motors (TSLA -1.06%) deserves to win this match for one simple reason: Elon Musk. The CEO and co-founder is the brains behind many technology and business success stories, most notably PayPal. Musk is also the CEO and chief rocket designer of SpaceX and the chairman of SolarCity.
At Tesla, Musk created not only the first commercially successful all-electric vehicle in the Model S, but also one of the automotive industry's highest-rated vehicles ever. And as if being a technological genius and a proven value creator weren't enough, Musk is also Tesla's largest individual shareholder, owning 23% of its outstanding shares, worth roughly $6 billion.
Some of the greatest business and investment success stories of our time are derived from visionary founders and CEOs with large personal stakes in their own company. That reason alone should be enough to make Tesla a market-beating investment at today's price.
Vote here to determine the winner of this match, and sound off in the comments. Check back to Fool.com to see who advances in the tournament.