Our #1 U.S. stock pick for 2015

Article Excerpt

In 2000, we picked Symantec as our very first #1 Stock of the Year. It was well-established as the leader in anti-virus software. We felt Internet banking and shopping were sure to fuel its growth. Symantec was slow to get going, due to the end of Internet Mania, the 2001 recession, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It fell from our initial buy price of $6.63 to as low as $4.00 in 2001. We stuck with it, and made it our #1 buy once again for 2001, and a third time in 2002. By 2004, it had soared to $34. In 2005, Symantec bought Veritas, a maker of software that protects large databases. This turned out to be a classic case of a big takeover that failed to live up to expectations. Symantec drifted downward, and stayed between $15 and $25 for most of the next decade. Now Symantec plans to spin off Veritas as a separate firm, to help unlock…