Boring Portfolio Report
Friday, May 16, 1997
by Greg Markus (TMF
Boring)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (May 16, 1997) -- The benchmark Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite indices all tumbled Friday as attention turns to the FOMC meeting on May 20 and the possibility of another increase in interest rates. The Dow lost 139 points (1.9%), while the S&P and Nasdaq fell 1.4% and 1.0%, respectively.
The Boring Portfolio lost ground, as well -- suffering only its second daily loss so far this month. Altogether, the Borefolio surrendered 0.9%, as five stocks declined, three advanced, and one -- ATLAS AIR (Nasdaq: ATLS) -- was unchanged.
Despite Friday's loss, the Boring Portfolio managed to post slightly better than a 2% gain for the week. That compares to +0.6% for the S&P 500 and +0.4% for the Nasdaq.
TIDEWATER (NYSE: TDW) announced Friday that it had completed the acquisition of O.I.L. Ltd. from Ocean Group, of the United Kingdom. The purchase price was approximately $535 million. With that transaction, Tidewater adds 100 vessels to the 650 it already had, further increasing the company's dominant position in providing marine services to the offshore oil and gas industry. Shares of Tidewater gained $3/8 to close at $40 3/4.
GREEN TREE FINANCIAL (NYSE: GNT) snapped its streak at five consecutive gains as the stock slipped $1/8 to close at $331/4. GNT was trading higher for all but the last few minutes of Friday's session, when it finally succumbed to a case of interest-rate jitters, along with financial services stocks generally. Trading in GNT was active, as it has been pretty much all month.
PRIME MEDICAL SERVICES (Nasdaq: PMSI) slipped $1/4 in light trading. On Wednesday the company announced it had acquired a 38% interest in a limited partnership that operates a mobile lithotripter in Tennessee and Georgia. The purchase price for Prime's share of the partnership was $3.47 million in cash. That works out to approximately 3.5 times Prime's portion of the partnership's annual revenues, which sounds not unreasonable to me.
ORACLE (Nasdaq: ORCL) fell $1 5/8, along with many other software stocks. The culprit -- or victim, depending upon one's point of view -- was NETSCAPE (Nasdaq: NSCP). Netscape lost 15% of its market capitalization in a matter of hours after the wire services publicized some cautionary comments the company made in its latest 10-Q filing. The fact that those caveats had already been aired in discussions with analysts appears not to have mattered much -- as noted in the Friday Fool Evening News.
Speaking of Netscape, after the market closed, Oracle and Netscape announced they would hold a joint press conference Monday at the Sofitel Hotel near Oracle's home base in Redwood Shores, Calif. The reason for the press conference was not disclosed, which will only help to accelerate the rumor mill.
Beyond that, there's precious little to say about Borefolio stocks. There was no other news I spotted on Friday, and trading in most Boring issues was light, unexceptional and, well, boring.
That suits me just fine, because -- one way or the other -- next week probably will not be.
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Stock Change Bid ATLS --- 27.88 BGP - 1/2 20.38 CSL + 1/4 30.38 CSCO -1 1/8 61.50 GNT - 1/8 33.25 ORCL -1 1/2 44.38 OXHP + 1/4 63.38 PMSI - 3/8 9.88 TDW + 3/8 40.75
Day Month Year History BORING -0.90% 4.33% 0.23% 15.33% S&P: -1.44% 3.55% 12.02% 33.48% NASDAQ: -0.95% 6.34% 3.85% 28.80% Rec'd # Security In At Now Change 2/28/96 400 Borders Gr 11.26 20.38 81.01% 5/24/96 100 Oxford Hea 48.02 63.38 31.96% 3/5/97 150 Atlas Air 23.06 27.88 20.89% 8/13/96 200 Carlisle C 26.32 30.38 15.38% 6/26/96 100 Cisco Syst 53.90 61.50 14.10% 2/2/96 200 Green Tree 30.39 33.25 9.42% 3/8/96 400 Prime Medi 10.07 9.88 -1.92% 11/21/96 100 Oracle Cor 48.65 44.38 -8.79% 12/23/96 100 Tidewater 46.52 40.75 -12.41% Rec'd # Security In At Value Change 2/28/96 400 Borders Gr 4502.49 8150.00 $3647.51 5/24/96 100 Oxford Hea 4802.49 6337.50 $1535.01 8/13/96 200 Carlisle C 5264.99 6075.00 $810.01 6/26/96 100 Cisco Syst 5389.99 6150.00 $760.01 3/5/97 150 Atlas Air 3458.74 4181.25 $722.51 2/2/96 200 Green Tree 6077.49 6650.00 $572.51 3/8/96 400 Prime Medi 4027.49 3950.00 -$77.49 11/21/96 100 Oracle Cor 4864.99 4437.50 -$427.49 12/23/96 100 Tidewater 4652.49 4075.00 -$577.49 CASH $7660.41 TOTAL $57666.66