3 Tech and Telecom Stocks to Buy if Marco Rubio Is Elected President

No other candidate has outlined such an unabashedly tech-friendly economic agenda.
By Tobias Burns ,

Marco Rubio wants to be the tech sector's presidential candidate, plain and simple. While Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton both made early campaign visits to Silicon Valley to pledge fidelity and drum up support, Rubio has long been giving special attention to the Valley crowd. Rival candidate Donald Trump went so far as to call Rubio "Mark Zuckerberg's personal senator" -- or at least his Web site did.

Does this mean you should buy Facebook (FB) - Get Report if Rubio wins the election? If you're long on Facebook, then consider a Rubio presidency a reason to go longer. No other candidate has outlined such an unabashedly tech-friendly economic agenda, especially toward social media. In 2013, Rubio even met with Zuckerberg at Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, where they discussed immigration reform, presumably among other topics, suggesting Rubio and Zuckerberg see eye-to-eye on more than just the tech-industry.

"If the first 14 years of this century have been any indicator, much of our groundbreaking innovation will take place in the vast, still unexplored realm of digital media, particularly with devices and services related to the Internet," Rubio said in 2014.

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Facebook shares are up 41% year-over-year to $106.82, from $75, having all but hovered over the widespread market volatility of late August and early September. The consensus target from analysts is $125.32, and the stock is set to get much cheaper on an earnings basis, according to analysts: Forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) is 40.98, while trailing 12-month P/E is 107.83.

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In a 2014 press release, the Florida senator spelled out exactly how he thinks the federal government should handle the tech sector, which was basically not at all. Rubio gave a thumbs-up to the loosely defined Internet governing body ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which is distinctly non-governmental in its operating procedures, although its ultimate overseer is the U.S. Department of Defense.

He also said he'd make "more spectrum and bandwidth" available "to the private sector," which he believes will spur job growth. This could bode well for the major telecom operators including Comcast (CMCSA) - Get Report , which some analysts are particularly bullish on. Wall Street sees Comcast as having a fundamentally stable customer base with infrastructure and ability to scale quickly.

"With yet another solid quarterly report that provides us with confidence in the outlook for the company we continue to rate the stock with a BUY rating and a $73 target price," analysts Gregory Miller and Matthew Kahn of Canaccord wrote in an October 27 note.

Comcast is up 15% from a year ago to $61.01 from $52.95 with a forward 12-moth P/E of 17.24.

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Rubio's tech-forward agenda goes beyond the scope of public companies. His enthusiasm for taxi cab-ouster Uber and DIY hotelier service Airbnb and the "sharing economy" or "gig economy" that underpins them is unambiguous. Rubio's book, "American Dreams," even contains a chapter called "Making America Safe for Uber."

Besides keeping an eye out for an Uber IPO under Rubio's tenure, which is likely a way off anyway, think about investing in Amazon (AMZN) - Get Report , which is already capitalizing on the gig economy with its Mechanical Turk service, which the Seattle-based company describes as an "on-demand, scalable workforce."

"Workers select from thousands of tasks and work whenever it's convenient," the Mechanical Turk web site says, affirming its temporary, gig-oriented conceit.

Amazon's blockbuster stock is up 114% in the year-over-year to $653.13 from $305.11. The success of the Mechanical Turk itself is a bit harder to pin down, with estimated sales volumes for the service ranging from $10 million to $150 million. But if there's any company you can expect to develop new platforms in order to stay lean and exploit the proliferation of the Internet, it's Amazon. And if there's any candidate who wants to make sure Silicon Valley can do that, it's Marco Rubio. 

The next Republican Presidential debate starts at 9 p.m. ET this Tuesday, 11/10. Join TheStreet.com for live coverage of the event, starting with the under-card debate at 7 p.m. Tune in for stories, videos, and more, and make sure to follow us at @TheStreet on Twitter for live commentary by TheStreet Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Kanige during the debate.

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