Smart Money Is Circling These 3 Stocks - 3/20

The turnaround bargain

Company: Grifols, S.A. (SYM: GRFS)
Plasma-medicines turnaround with improving cash flow and a cleaner balance-sheet story.

Grifols is the cheapest-looking name on this list for a reason.

The stock has been through the wringer. Currently, shares are trading around $7.83. But the operating picture has started to look a lot better than the stock chart. Grifols reported 2025 revenue of EUR 7.524 billion, up 7%, while group profit more than doubled to EUR 402 million. Free cash flow pre-M&A improved by EUR 201 million to EUR 468 million, and leverage fell from 4.6x to 4.2x. For 2026, the company said it expects free cash flow pre-M&A pre-dividends of EUR 500 million to EUR 575 million and an adjusted EBITDA margin of at least 25%.

That is not a perfect story.

But it is a repair story.

And repair stories get interesting when the business stops looking like it is fighting for survival and starts looking like it is digging its way back to normal. That is what the free-cash-flow improvement and deleveraging suggest here. Grifols also said 2025 execution helped drive rating upgrades from S&P, Fitch, and Moody’s, which matters because balance-sheet credibility is a big piece of the turnaround case.

The smart-money angle is there, too. Holder databases show Brandes Investment Partners keeping GRFS among its top holdings, while Point72 disclosed a Grifols stake in its late-2025 13F reporting. Those are very different styles looking at the same name.

That does not make Grifols safe.

But It does make it interesting.

Because when a stock is still priced like a mess, but the underlying numbers are starting to look less messy, that is usually where the upside lives.

The tollbooth business

Company: Lamar Advertising Company (SYM: LAMR)
Cash-generating outdoor-advertising operator with digital growth and steady AFFO.

Lamar is the opposite of Grifols.

This one is not a drama stock.

It is a tollbooth.

Lamar says it operates about 363,000 displays across the U.S. and Canada, making it one of the largest outdoor-advertising companies in the business. Currently, the stock is trading around $132.26.

That may not sound exciting.

Good.

Exciting is overrated when you are talking about a long-term compounder.

What matters here is the cash machine. Lamar reported 2025 net revenue of $2.27 billion, net income of $593.1 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $1.06 billion. Adjusted funds from operations, or AFFO, rose to $8.26 per share for 2025, and management guided for 2026 diluted AFFO per share of $8.50 to $8.70. CEO Sean Reilly also said momentum carried into 2026 and that pacing for the balance of the year looked promising.

That is why investors like this kind of name.

It's not selling a concept.

It's renting attention.

And attention that sits on highways, transit routes, airports, and local corridors can be a very durable business when pricing holds and digital inventory keeps growing. That is especially true when advertisers still need both local reach and national scale.

The smart-money footprint is not hard to find. Gabelli Funds boosted its Lamar stake in 2025, and portfolio trackers still show Tom Gayner with a meaningful Lamar position. That is not the same thing as a fresh buy signal today, but it does tell you this stock has stayed on the radar of disciplined, long-horizon investors.

Boring can be beautiful.

Especially when boring keeps spitting out cash.

The quality industrial

Company: Nordson Corporation (SYM: NDSN)
Precision-technology company with strong execution, rising backlog, and higher guidance.

If Grifols is the turnaround and Lamar is the tollbooth, Nordson is the quality name.

This is the stock you look at when you want a business that is already doing the right things.

Nordson is currently trading around $270.69. In its fiscal first quarter of 2026, the company posted record sales of $669 million, up 9% year over year. Adjusted EPS came in at $2.37, up 15%, and backlog entered the second quarter up about 4% from a year earlier. Management then raised full-year guidance, saying it now expects $2.86 billion to $2.98 billion in sales and $11.00 to $11.60 in adjusted EPS for fiscal 2026.

That is what quality looks like.

Not a hot story.

Execution.

Nordson also said it serves a wide mix of end markets, including consumer nondurable, medical, electronics, and industrial applications. That kind of diversification matters because it gives the company more than one engine. It is not betting the whole business on one cycle.

The smart-money connection here is less about drama and more about persistence. Portfolio trackers show Ray Dalio with a long transaction history in Nordson and still carrying a position, even if it is not a top holding. That is the kind of name sophisticated investors often keep around because it is understandable, profitable, and quietly durable.

The downside is obvious.

The stock is not cheap in the way Grifols is cheap.

You are paying for quality.

But quality has a habit of staying expensive for a reason.

So what is the takeaway?

If you want the turnaround with the sharpest re-rating potential, Grifols is the one to watch.

If you want the steadier cash-flow compounder, Lamar is the cleaner fit.

If you want the higher-quality industrial with raised guidance and less drama, Nordson looks like the strongest all-around operator.