Fool Portfolio Report
Monday, September 25, 1995
My apologies for a late report tonight.
Despite having four stocks up and four stocks down today, The Fool Portfolio---like Monday's NASDAQ---got beat about the head. We were off .67%, vs. similar stuff from our over-the-counter rival (off .69%) and a tiny gain for the overall market (as measured by the S&P 500: up .01%).
KLA Instruments provided the greatest percentage drag, off $2 3/4 to $87. . . the stock is now back in the red for us. KLA announced a marketing partnership today with Defect and Yield Management (DYM---a private company), a software company whose product---which will be marketed under the name KLA Quest---detects and analyzes problems in the semiconductor manufacturing process. One of the things that has attracted us to KLA is that it dominates the market for equipment that enables semiconductor manufacturers to automate and expedite the manufacturing process. The goal here, as you'll know if you've read the KLA writeup in our Hall of Portfolios listbox, is for semi companies to MAXIMIZE their "yields," the harvest of fabricated chips. DYM's product is just the latest in KLA's integrated suite of yield management solutions for its billion-dollar customers.
Why the heck that would result in a drop of about three bucks a share on the stock today is anyone's guess! But maybe the next paragraph will shed some light on this unfortunate result. . . .
This one's for the guys over at KLA: Guys, let's clean up our press releases a bit. The jargon in your latest was just too much. How dare you print sentences like this one: "It [the software] provides comprehensive defect data correlation to various possible causal mechanisms"! Someone should lose his job for that sentence alone. Why not just say (as I did above), "The software detects problems and analyzes them," or "As it analyzes manufacturing problems, the software runs through a database of potential causes to locate the most likely culprit"? Whatever. We may not be in England, I grant you, but let's still make some half-baked pretense toward writing English.
Part of the reason that many individual investors have a difficult time understanding what semiconductor companies do is because they write like that.
As a part of its announcement today, KLAC also revealed that it had reorganized its WISARD division to create a separate Analysis and Review unit to focus exclusively on the analysis of wafer defects.
OK, so what else went wrong today? Well, America Online lost a point, unable to break into new-high territory. Ride Inc. DID, but was unable to hold it. Having closed last week at an all-time high of $20 1/2, our shares zoomed forward to a new high of $21 3/4 just this morning, but then fell hard to a closing bid of $20 1/8. Boo hoo. Can't win 'em all.
Our Dow stocks saved the day, the primary reason we edged out Il Nasdacchio this afternoon. GE, looking more and more like the Fool Dow horse to watch this year, spazzed out again Monday, up another $1 3/8. GE stock is now up over 11% for us since the purchase last month. Further, both Sears (up to a bid of $36 1/8---a fraction short of a new high) and Chevron (up $1/4) propelled Folly further today.
Despite having lost 500 bucks it was kind of a fun day, looking back on it. Were it not for having been jilted by our snowboard stock, we'd be gloating. Instead, we wiped out.
Dude.
---David Gardner, September 25, 1995
Transmitted: 95-09-25 22:01:25 EDT
AMER -1
AMAT + 3/4
CHV + 1/4
GE +1 3/8
GPS ---
IOMG - 1/2
KLAC -2 3/4
RIDE - 3/8
S + 5/8
SNIC ---
Day Month Year History FOOL -0.67% 7.41% 55.57% 72.73% S&P 500 +0.01% 3.55% 26.68% 26.92% NASDAQ -0.69% 2.55% 39.12% 45.26% Rec'd # Security In At Now Change 8/5/94 340 AmOnline 14.55 71.75 393.27% 5/23/95 510 Ride Inc. 9.91 20.13 103.14% 5/17/95 335 Iomega Corp 15.11 25.13 66.24% 8/5/94 165 Sears 28.93 36.13 24.89% 8/11/95 95 GenElec 57.91 64.38 11.16% 4/20/95 155 The Gap 32.55 35.63 9.45% 8/11/95 110 Chevron 49.00 49.25 0.51% 8/24/95 65 KLA Instrm 89.42 87.00 -2.71% 8/24/95 50 AppldMatl 115.05 100.75 -12.43% 12/23/94 340 SonicSol 14.48 10.75 -25.77% Rec'd # Security Cost Value Change 8/5/94 340 AmOnline 4945.56 24395.00 $19449.44 5/23/95 510 Ride Inc. 5052.44 10263.75 $5211.31 5/17/95 335 Iomega Corp 5063.13 8416.88 $3353.75 8/5/94 165 Sears 4772.65 5960.63 $1187.98 8/11/95 95 GenElec 5501.87 6115.63 $613.76 4/20/95 155 The Gap 5045.25 5521.88 $476.63 8/11/95 110 Chevron 5389.99 5417.50 $27.51 8/24/95 65 KLA Instrm 5812.49 5655.00 -$157.49 8/24/95 50 AppldMatl 5752.49 5037.50 -$714.99 12/23/94 340 SonicSol 4924.18 3655.00 -$1269.18 CASH $5927.47 TOTAL $86366.22
