Pro: Beat the street with airline stocks

Pro: Beat the street with airline stocks

Portfolio managers at Hennessey Cornerstone Growth Fund may be beating the street with a focus on companies with small market capitalization and airline stocks.

The fund is up by 18 percent in the last year while the benchmark it competes with, the Russell 2000, was up only 1.5 percent over the same period.

Brian Peery of Hennessy Funds told CNBC's " Closing Bell " on Wednesday that he is looking for "market caps above $175 million, increasing earnings on a year-over-year basis and positive momentum over the three-, six- and 12-month periods."

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This particular portfolio includes mostly smaller to mid-size market caps although it does have some of the big airline companies making up a smaller percentage of the holdings.

Peery's airline picks are Southwest (NYSE: LUV), United Airlines (NYSE: UAL) and JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU).

"I think the airlines are all doing exceptionally well, and the lower oil is really going to benefit them long term," he said. "There's some cost cutting involved with the airlines that we really like, and I think in terms of a sector over the next 12 to 24 months, we really like the group."




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