Editors' pick: Originally published Jan. 24.

Even for conservative CEOs, Donald Trump's policies and persona present a quandary. On the one hand, Trump's vows to reduce taxes, regulations and oversight are pleasing to corporate America and helped propel a Trump rally following his election.

Yet there's consternation in C-suites over the new president's trade protectionism, "populist" activism and unpredictability. These contradictions help explain the drop in global stocks over recent trading sessions, as euphoria over having a free-market Republican in the White House gives way to worries over the possibility of trade wars, tariffs -- or worse.

Below are the details of a shrewd investment play on these paradoxes. IBM (IBM) - Get Report has reinvented itself smartly, making some savvy acquisitions that fit within this new direction. Its most recent earnings beat analysts' expectations, and its path forward in the next quarter and perhaps beyond looks bright. It should also benefit from possible Trump measures that reduce large companies' U.S. tax burdens.

With the stroke of a pen on Monday, President Trump erased decades of bipartisan trade policy that encouraged globalization, by signing an executive order expressing his intent to pull the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Trump on Monday also reaffirmed his intention to impose taxes on foreign goods entering the country.

The problem is, globalization has been a relentless trend since the end of World War II, and corporations rely on lower cost labor to continually boost earnings, which in turn raises the stock prices of companies that are owned in millions of retirement plans.

As labor unions cheered the executive order on TPP, one wonders what individual members would say if they knew how it might affect their Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k) plans, as well as their ability to buy inexpensive flat-screen televisions made in China and sold at Walmart (WMT) - Get Report .

In addition to U.S. markets, major global stock indices fell slightly Monday on the TPP news. The German DAX fell 0.7% and the French CAC-40 slid 0.6%. The FTSE 100 in London dropped 0.7%. Most of the major world indices had risen slightly as of late Tuesday in the U.S.

One way to profit from protectionism is to invest in technology companies with huge cash hoards overseas. Companies are technically required to pay federal taxes on their global profits, but the tax on money generated overseas is only due when it's brought back to the U.S.

Trump is likely to offset the negative effects of his "America First" policy by implementing measures that encourage companies to repatriate overseas money.

The overseas tax loophole has encouraged many technology firms, notably Apple (AAPL) - Get Report , Microsoft (MSFT) - Get Report , IBM and Alphabet (GOOGL) - Get Report , to stash giant piles of cash overseas. Apple holds the most money offshore of any major U.S. company, at $181 billion. General Electric (GE) - Get Report holds the second largest offshore cash hoard, at $119 billion. Microsoft, Pfizer (PFE) - Get Report and IBM round out the top five U.S.-based companies with the most offshore cash.

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Trump plans to push for a lower domestic tax rate to entice U.S. multinational corporations to bring their offshore cash piles home, with further incentives to invest the money in ways that stimulate the U.S. economy. The likely result will be a wave of mergers and acquisitions, especially in the tech sector, as cash-rich giants gobble up smaller, innovative companies to foster "intra-preneurship."

When that money comes home, look for the tech giants in particular to start investing it to boost revenue and earnings. The four tech stocks mentioned above are all smart buys now, for their inherent strengths and as a way to capitalize on repatriation. But IBM stands to be the biggest winner.

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IBM has parked more than $65 billion in overseas markets. If Big Blue were able to repatriate its overseas cash at a special lower rate, it could further fund its remarkable turnaround.

The granddaddy of information technology is aggressively reinventing itself, by shedding its legacy mainframe business and pivoting into new growth areas, such as big data, health care information management, the Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud computing.

The Armonk, N.Y.-based colossus is spending its enormous cash reserves to pursue new, groundbreaking endeavors, such as IoT. Over the past several months, IBM has been acquiring a slew of small, entrepreneurial pioneers that control proprietary know-how. These strategic imperatives

now represent more than 40%

of IBM's total revenue and they would gather considerable steam with the help of repatriated cash.

What's more, IBM currently trades at a bargain valuation. Many tech pundits on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley continue to denigrate IBM as a technology has-been, which is a mistaken assessment. The stock's trailing 12-month price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) is only 14.2, compared to the trailing P/E of 20.9 for its industry.

On Jan. 19, IBM reported robust operating results for fourth quarter and full year 2016. The company posted earnings per share (EPS) of $5.01, beating the analyst consensus of $4.88. Revenue for the quarter came in at $21.77 billion, exceeding expectations of $21.66 billion. IBM also blew past full-year estimates, reporting EPS of $13.59.

The average analyst expectation is that IBM's EPS in the next quarter will come in at $3.17, compared to $2.95 in the same quarter a year ago. For the full year, the expectation is for EPS of $13.79, compared to $13.59 last year. For 2018, EPS is pegged at $14.16.

Those earnings growth estimates are conservative, in light of the bonanza that IBM stands to gain from Trump's tax repatriation policy. Pick up IBM shares now, before the rest of the investment herd belatedly catches on to this rare opportunity that's emerging from the initial policy changes of a new administration.

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John Persinos is an analyst with Investing Daily. At the time of publication, he owned stock in Apple and General Electric.