Donald Trump's election victory in the US was a surprise, but now investors need to take considered steps to grow their portfolio.
There aren't many stocks on the ASX that could benefit from the new president, but there are a few.
One of Trump's main election promises was that he would make America great again by starting a wave of construction across the country. This could boost growth in the US and also boost the companies that would be involved with the construction.
One example of this would be the home and commercial property builder James Hardie Industries plc (ASX: JHX). It supplies a lot of building products and services.
Roughly 80% of its profits come from North America, so a big boost to construction could flow through to James Hardie Industries' bottom line.
James Hardie Industries is trading with a price/earnings ratio of 38 and a dividend yield of 2.08%.
Another business that might benefit from a construction boom is Aconex Ltd (ASX: ACX), which provides a cloud collaboration platform for the construction industry.
The Aconex software has helped create amazing buildings such as the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore and Tesla's huge battery factory. As building designs get more complex and more collaboration is needed, Aconex will be there to provide the needed software.
Aconex is trading with a high price/earnings ratio, but that could be justified as revenue is expected by management to grow between 39% and 46% this financial year to between $172 million and $180 million. There aren't many companies on the ASX offering this level of revenue growth.
The third company that could benefit from Donald Trump's win is Computershare Limited (ASX:CPU).
Computershare holds a lot of cash for clients and it invests this into low risk debt that up until now has been earning very low interest.
If Trump gets his wish and increases interest rates, then Computershare will be able to earn more money on these funds.
The share registry business has been finding it tough to grow over the last few years, but this could be the boost that it needs.
Computershare is trading with a price/earnings ratio of 15.32 and has a partially franked dividend yield of 2.84%.
Foolish takeaway
All three of these businesses had decent prospects even if Hillary Clinton had won. Donald Trump may provide an earnings jump, though it may be premature to invest just yet. He hasn't even taken office and has already backtracked on a few promises that he's made, so don't expect huge boosts for the above businesses.
Regardless of what happens in other countries, Foolish investors should continue to invest in quality companies like Challenger Ltd (ASX: CGF) that will grow regardless of whoever is president of the USA.
