Boring Portfolio

Boring Portfolio Report
Friday, February 13, 1998
by Greg Markus ([email protected])


ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Feb. 13, 1998) -- The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Borefolio closed modestly lower on Friday the 13th. For the week, the Borefolio gained 0.96%, the Nasdaq rose 0.95%, and the S&P 500 picked up 0.75%.

The big Borefolio event this week was Atlas Air's (NYSE: CGO) upside surprise earnings report and upbeat view of the company's prospects in 1998 and beyond. On Wednesday morning, Atlas announced that it earned $0.41 per share on record revenues of $121 million in the December quarter -- easily topping analysts' consensus forecast of $0.35, as reported by First Call.

Looking forward, Atlas sees nothing but blue skies now that the five troublesome freighters leased from Federal Express (NYSE: FDX) have been returned, to be replaced by two Boeing (NYSE: BA) 747-200s that Atlas had leased to Philippine Airlines and by five -- five! -- shiny new 747-400 aircraft slated for delivery during the next three quarters. Inbound and outbound freight traffic to Asia is expected to remain strong, as is traffic in the rest of the world.

Not surprisingly, Atlas's stock climbed sharply in the aftermath of this news. For the week, CGO rose more than 21%, to $29 1/16.

With Atlas's announcement behind us, the Borefolio team gets a bit of a breather until the next flurry of quarterly reports. The next scheduled report will come from Borders Group (NYSE: BGP), probably around the middle of March.

Since Borders announced on January 15 that it expects to post fiscal year profits of $0.97 to $0.98 per share, the company's earnings report is unlikely to provide any great surprise. What will be of far greater interest will be any update Borders can provide regarding the imminent launch of its Website for selling books, music, and videos.

Elsewhere in the Borefolio, shares of Carlisle Companies (NYSE: CSL) rose $1/8 to $49, ending a week in which the stock established an all-time high and crossed the $50 mark, if only briefly.

Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) stock also set a new high of $66 3/8 during the week, following the company's report of its quarterly results the week before. CSCO eased fractionally Friday, ending the week at a bid of $64 7/8.

Finally, telecommunications equipment provider Andrew Corp. (Nasdaq: ANDW) dipped $5/16 Friday. The company announced today that their 3.7-meter Ku-band earth station antenna has received E-2 INTELSAT and ASIASAT-2 approval. Hooray!

Uh, right?

You bet. This approval means that customers can bypass costly field-testing and related red tape when they integrate the antenna into their communications systems. It also makes Andrew's 3.7-meter antenna the smallest E-2 type approved earth station antenna in the world.

If you want to read more fascinatingly Boring stuff about Andrew Corp., check out their latest 10-Q on the Web, filed earlier this week with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission and available through the SEC's wonderful EDGAR site.

Those 10-Qs are ideal for passing the time during delays in the Alpine skiing events, or while those whacky judges roll the dice to come up with their scores for the figure skaters.

FoolWatch -- It's what's going on at the Fool today.


TODAY'S NUMBERS
Stock  Change    Bid 
 ANDW  -  5/16  27.94 
 CGO   +  5/8   29.06 
 BGP   -  1/16  32.44 
 CSL   +  1/8   49.00 
 CSCO  -  5/16  64.88 
 FCH   -  1/2   36.13 
 
                   Day   Month    Year  History 
         BORING   -0.18%   3.47%  -0.09%  25.72% 
         S&P:     -0.40%   4.06%   5.12%  64.10% 
         NASDAQ:  -0.23%   5.62%   8.92%  64.31% 
  
     Rec'd   #  Security     In At       Now    Change 
   2/28/96  400 Borders Gr    11.26     32.44   188.17% 
   8/13/96  200 Carlisle C    26.32     49.00    86.14% 
   6/26/96  150 Cisco Syst    35.93     64.88    80.54% 
    3/5/97  150 Atlas Air     23.06     29.06    26.04% 
   1/21/98  200 Andrew Cor    26.09     27.94     7.08% 
   11/6/97  200 FelCor Sui    37.59     36.13    -3.90% 
  
     Rec'd   #  Security     In At     Value    Change 
   2/28/96  400 Borders Gr  4502.49  12975.00  $8472.51 
   8/13/96  200 Carlisle C  5264.99   9800.00  $4535.01 
   6/26/96  150 Cisco Syst  5389.99   9731.25  $4341.26 
    3/5/97  150 Atlas Air   3458.74   4359.38   $900.64 
   1/21/98  200 Andrew Cor  5218.00   5587.50   $369.50 
  
   11/6/97  200 FelCor Sui  7518.00   7225.00  -$293.00 
  
                              CASH  $13182.97 
                             TOTAL  $62861.10