Boring Portfolio

Boring Portfolio Report
Monday, August 11, 1997
by Greg Markus (TMF Boring)


ANN ARBOR, Mich. (August 11, 1997) -- Friday's selloff continued for most of Monday, but afternoon bargain hunting pushed the Dow and S&P 500 into positive territory. The Nasdaq closed well above its intraday low, but still finished down 0.74%.

For its part, the Boring Portfolio fell 0.60%. Losing holdings outnumbered gainers five to four.

PRIME MEDICAL SERVICES (Nasdaq: PMSI) lost $1/4 in fairly light trading. The company issued a press release this morning officially announcing the creation of a new division to provide practice management service to urologists. William Walsh heads the new division. Among its first clients is New Jersey Uronet, Inc., a network of 46 urologists in southern NJ. This "news" had been discussed a couple of weeks ago in Prime's quarterly conference call, and thus it appears to have had little impact on the stock today.

CISCO SYSTEMS (Nasdaq: CSCO) lost $1 5/8, possibly hurt by news of slow sales in July for rival ASCEND COMMUNICATIONS (Nasdaq: ASND), which fell 10% today. Perhaps some folks have forgotten that Cisco has already reported its results for the quarter and fiscal year ending July 26 -- and that both sales and bookings in July were solid.

A summary of Cisco's post-earnings conference call, held last week, is available in The Motley Fool's "Conference Calls" section.

TIDEWATER sank $1 1/16 along with a weak offshore drilling and services group.

BORDERS GROUP (NYSE: BGP) lost $3/4 ahead of the company's quarterly earnings report on Thursday. The Motley Fool will cover the follow-up conference call and provide you with a timely synopsis.

Did you know there's a Borders on the island of Kauai, Hawaii? Unfortunately, it's on the other side of the island from where I stayed last week while on vacation, so I wasn't able to add it to the list of Borders superstores I've visited as part of my, uh, investor research activity. (I did make it to the Waldenbooks in Kapaa, however.) Perhaps I can convince Fool HQ that Borefolio duties require that I travel back to Kauai -- on the Foolish expense account, of course -- to research the superstore at a later date ... say, around January?

No, huh?

On the upside, GREEN TREE FINANCIAL (NYSE: GNT) grew $5/16 as the bond market recovered a bit today.

An excerpt from a research report on Green Tree appeared in Barron's this weekend. Chicago-based ABN AMRO issued a "buy" on July 25 citing Green Tree's "impressive financial performances," which have included growing EPS "at a compounded annual rate of more than 40% over the last six years" and "an extremely strong balance sheet." The analyst believes that Green Tree "is positioned for several years of EPS increases of 20% or more" and regards it as "one of the best-managed companies in the industry."

After gaining $1 5/16 on Friday, CARLISLE COMPANIES (NYSE: CSL) rose $1/4 today on trading volume in excess of 100,000 shares -- a big day for Carlisle. The company was featured in an article in Monday's edition of Investor's Business Daily.

The article quotes analyst Elaine Thomson at Merrill Lynch as saying that Carlisle's "above average, stable earnings record is the result of its strong niche positions in a variety of industrial businesses, plus its successful acquisition record."

The Motley Fool's archive of conference call summaries provides further information on Carlisle.

Finally, ATLAS AIR (Nasdaq: ATLS) climbed $1 1/16. There's no news that I could find to account specifically for the stock's rise.

Drip Portfolio-- Criteria for long-term buys, part 2.
Fool Message Boards -- Speak your mind!
Evening News -- Risk v. Reward.
Daily Double
-- Grupo Radio Centro.
Daily Trouble -- Value in this butchered stock?
The Fool Portfolio -- Fool Port tied with Boring.
Fool Four -- 23% annualized.


(c) Copyright 1997, The Motley Fool. All rights reserved. This material is for personal use only. Republication and redissemination, including posting to news groups, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of The Motley Fool.


TODAY'S NUMBERS
Stock  Change    Bid
ATLS  +1 1/16  27.00
BGP   -  3/4   23.13
CSL   +  1/4   43.25
CSCO  -1 5/8   75.44
GNT   +  5/16  44.50
ORCL  -  7/16  56.94
OXHP  +  1/4   74.25
PMSI  -  1/4   11.00
TDW   -1 1/16  50.00
                   Day   Month    Year  History
        BORING   -0.60%  -3.17%  19.58%  37.61%
        S&P:     +0.37%  -1.81%  26.50%  50.74%
        NASDAQ:  -0.74%  -0.44%  22.90%  52.43%

    Rec'd   #  Security     In At       Now    Change
  2/28/96  400 Borders Gr    11.26     23.13   105.44%
  8/13/96  200 Carlisle C    26.32     43.25    64.29%
  5/24/96  100 Oxford Hea    48.02     74.25    54.61%
   2/2/96  200 Green Tree    30.39     44.50    46.44%
  6/26/96  100 Cisco Syst    53.90     75.44    39.96%
   3/5/97  150 Atlas Air     23.06     27.00    17.09%
 11/21/96  100 Oracle Cor    48.65     56.94    17.04%
   3/8/96  400 Prime Medi    10.07     11.00     9.25%
 12/23/96  100 Tidewater     46.52     50.00     7.47%

    Rec'd   #  Security     In At     Value    Change
  2/28/96  400 Borders Gr  4502.49   9250.00  $4747.51
  8/13/96  200 Carlisle C  5264.99   8650.00  $3385.01
   2/2/96  200 Green Tree  6077.49   8900.00  $2822.51
  5/24/96  100 Oxford Hea  4802.49   7425.00  $2622.51
  6/26/96  100 Cisco Syst  5389.99   7543.75  $2153.76
 11/21/96  100 Oracle Cor  4864.99   5693.75   $828.76
   3/5/97  150 Atlas Air   3458.74   4050.00   $591.26
   3/8/96  400 Prime Medi  4027.49   4400.00   $372.51
 12/23/96  100 Tidewater   4652.49   5000.00   $347.51

                             CASH   $7890.00
                            TOTAL  $68802.50