Boring
Portfolio Report
Tuesday, January 20, 1998
by Greg Markus
([email protected])
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Jan. 20, 1998) -- Now that the peak of the preseason "warnings weeks" are behind us, the flood of corporate earnings reports is bringing mostly good news. The upbeat news happened to coincide with an up day for roller-coaster Asian markets, resulting in a strong day for U.S. stocks. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq surged late in the day to close at their intraday highs. The S&P 500 gained 1.78% while the Nasdaq came in close behind, rising 1.74%.
It would take quite a day for the Boring Portfolio to top those performances, especially with 17% of its assets sitting in cash at the moment. And quite a day it was. The Borefolio zoomed 2.74%, with five of seven holdings posting solid gains.
Since I spent a good chunk of today preparing a new "buy" report for the Borefolio (see below for details), the recap of daily news will be a bit abbreviated tonight. In fact, what I'll do is point you to the relevant news, so you can read it yourself without it passing first through my keyboard.
Carlisle Companies (NYSE: CSL) rocketed $3 to $45 3/4 on triple the stocks average daily volume. I could locate no news to account for the move. It appears that someone's discovered our little secret.
Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) tacked on $1 9/16 to close at a bid of $59 3/8 -- just under an all-time high. There was a slew of news on Cisco yesterday and today. The most interesting piece I came across was news of a collaboration between the Kid and Symbol Technologies (NYSE: SBL) to provide wireless telephone service over corporate LANs using voice-over-IP technology. Fascinating.
By the way, in Friday's recap, I mentioned that a Little Rock, Ark.-based service provider had joined the Cisco Powered Network program. Unfortunately, I not only misspelled the company's name, I also provided the wrong stock symbol. Fortunately, an employee of the company graciously set me straight. It's ALLTEL (NYSE: AT).
I notice that ALLTEL's stock gained $1 13/16 today to set a record high. (I wish there were some way I could claim credit for that.)
Shares of Green Tree Financial (NYSE: GNT) grew $1/8 despite the fact that Moody's downgraded the Tree's corporate debt by a notch today. Moody's warned that such a move was likely shortly after Green Tree gave notice in November that it would take a charge in the December quarter as a consequence of higher than anticipated prepayments of certain manufactured home loans issued in 1994 and 1995.
A bullish story about oil services stocks in Barron's helped that group today, including our Tidewater (NYSE: TDW), which rose $2 11/16. Tidewater issued a press release today saying they had sold two 180-foot supply vessels to a newly-formed, minority-owned marine service company in which Tidewater also has an equity interest.
Lastly, the Borefolio is delighted to be purchasing 200 shares of Andrew Corp. (Nasdaq: ANDW) at some point in the next five trading days. The stock has risen sharply in the past two sessions since reporting better than expected fiscal first quarter earnings. Even so, we think the stock still offers attractive growth possibilities for both the short and long-term. We invite you to read our "buy" report and offer your comments.
FoolWatch -- It's what's going on at the Fool today.
Buy a Book and Get It Signed! -- Book Tour '98
Stock Change Bid CGO - 1/4 23.38 BGP +1 1/2 31.88 CSL +3 45.75 CSCO +1 9/16 59.38 FCH - 3/16 37.63 GNT + 1/8 24.00 TDW +2 11/16 49.50 |
Day Month Year History
BORING +2.74% -1.44% -1.44% 24.02%
S&P: +1.78% 0.84% 0.84% 57.43%
NASDAQ: +1.74% 1.25% 1.25% 52.75%
Rec'd # Security In At Now Change
2/28/96 400 Borders Gr 11.26 31.88 183.18%
8/13/96 200 Carlisle C 26.32 45.75 73.79%
6/26/96 150 Cisco Syst 35.93 59.38 65.24%
12/23/96 100 Tidewater 46.52 49.50 6.39%
3/5/97 150 Atlas Air 23.06 23.38 1.37%
11/6/97 200 FelCor Sui 37.59 37.63 0.09%
2/2/96 200 Green Tree 30.39 24.00 -21.02%
Rec'd # Security In At Value Change
2/28/96 400 Borders Gr 4502.49 12750.00 $8247.51
8/13/96 200 Carlisle C 5264.99 9150.00 $3885.01
6/26/96 150 Cisco Syst 5389.99 8906.25 $3516.26
12/23/96 100 Tidewater 4652.49 4950.00 $297.51
3/5/97 150 Atlas Air 3458.74 3506.25 $47.51
11/6/97 200 FelCor Sui 7518.00 7525.00 $7.00
2/2/96 200 Green Tree 6077.49 4800.00 -$1277.49
CASH $10424.47
TOTAL $62011.97
