3 Stocks That Look Just Like ExxonMobil in 1996

In the late 1990s, ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) made smart capital-allocation moves to buy back stock and acquire its peers, thus positioning itself to benefit from rising energy prices and growing production over the decades that followed. Below, three Fools make a case for First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR), C&J Energy Services (NYSE: CJ), and EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) as stocks that could offer a similar setup for impressive long-run returns.

Jason Hall (First Solar): Over the past couple of decades, two factors have made ExxonMobil a nearly six-bagger in total returns for investors: steady acquisition and consolidation of competitors to deliver per-share earnings growth, and an incredible track record of dividend growth. These two things have been built on the back of rapid global industrialization, which has required a cheap source of energy. Crude oil and natural gas have been that energy source for decades.

Oil and gas are likely to remain important energy sources, but renewables are gaining increasing market share and, I think, will be far more important than oil in the developing world in 20 years. And few companies are positioned to be major beneficiaries of that dynamic shift than First Solar.

Source: Fool.com