Fool Portfolio Report
Monday, January 29, 1996
**David and Tom Gardner will be signing books Tuesday at the Barnes & Noble in Walnut Creek from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. They will also be appearing at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park from 7:30 to 9:00 pm. Bring your family! Bring your friends! Bring random passersby!**
(FOOL GLOBAL
WIRE)
by MF Bogey (David
Forrest)
--(Cranston, RI, Jan. 29)-- Greetings Fools! As David and Tom continue to schmooze, I'm playing middle relief tonight, trying to mop up after Tom loaded the bases with nobody out! How did our stallions and mares do today? Patooey! That's what I think of the performance of the Fool Port today. Stinky, plain and simple.
After all, it's our stated goal to crush the market averages, or at least beat them by 10 percentage points a year, depending on which Gardner sibling you speak with. For those who may be new to the Fields of Folly, we strap on our contrarian headgear every day and spar with the "establishment". Today, we came in second place, only barely edging out the Nasdaq.
The establishment, obviously, is the existing group of folks on Wall Street that depend on your fear of risk, and your willingness to pay for underperformance and ignorance. The "ignorance" I refer to isn't yours, dear reader. Nay! It's the ignorance of that same establishment that continues to invest your money for you and continues to underperform the market averages.
Speaking of ignorance, I assume we all saw Senor Abelson wield his poison pen this weekend. Again, he pointed his pestilent prose at our beloved Iomega. I'm beginning to think it's time for Alan to take a vacation.... a looooong vacation.
His reckless and irresponsible reporting are getting a little bothersome. I don't have a problem with negative press, but only when it's based in fact! Abelson's assumptions that bad debt reserves, as a total of trade receivables in the 3rd quarter, were 6.1% is, to say the least, lacking in due diligence, to say the most, fiction! Check out posts by MF Chiros, MF Robert, and Rev Shark for a factual representation of bad debt reserves.
Pure and simple. Weak, weak, weak. And you know the worst thing? He'll never correct himself and admit the mistake. And if he does, it'll take at least a week. Such is the power of the online medium that we can bring you this vital information, NOW. Iomega closed down $1 5/8 to $46 3/4.
The Fool Port has a new stock!!! --(Trumpets please)-- Medicis Pharmaceutical (MDRX) found its place in the Fool Port today at $27 3/4. This maker of dermatology products is our newest addition and answers the question throughout Folly lately "What are ya gonna do with that cash?" For a much more in depth report on Medicis and its prospects, check out the Hall's front page.
How did our other Nasdaq stocks do? A little good, a little not so good. On no news, other than some more rumblings from the Micron Tech. camp, our semiconductor steeds each fell. Applied Materials (AMAT) was off $1 1/8 to $35 7/8, and KLA Instruments (KLAC) fell $1 1/4 to $28.
America Online (AMER), on the other hand, was the only Nasdaq stock up during the day. Prudential started coverage with a Buy rating. Now, it would be hypocritical for us to wave the Prudential flag and give a cheerleading "rah, rah" session for Prudential as we don't pay much attention when they say bad things, we shouldn't pay much when they say good. Fair? Suffice to say, we were pleased to see our shares in AMER rise $1 1/2 to $42 3/4.
There was no news on the Gap today. And the price was unchanged. Zzzzzzzzz.
Our large-cap, multi-gazillion dollar companies, also known as BTD, came in two up, one down. We love Sears (S) despite the fact that they own a pretty good sized chunk of Prodigy : ) Today, Citibank announced intentions to form an online banking alliance with Prodigy. Sears rose $7/8 to $40 5/8.
When I looked at the stories for Chevron on the news wire today, there must have been 12 stories!!! I read 'em and still don't know what to make of it all. There was stuff in there about chemical companies, mergers, and Indonesian tax laws! It all sounded pretty icky, too. Chevron was up $ 1/8 to $52 5/8 on the "icky" news. Go figure.
Finally, General Electric (GE) weighed in at $74 7/8, down $ 5/8 on zero news. All in all, a funky day, with lots to talk about, but little ground gained.
That's it from this side of the bleachers. Have a great night!
AMER +1 1/2 AMAT -1 1/8 CHV + 1/8 GE - 5/8 GPS --- IOMG -1 5/8 KLAC -1 1/4 MDRX - 1/4 S + 7/8
Today's Numbers
Day Month Year History FOOL +0.22% 4.29% 4.29% 94.74% S&P 500 +0.42% 1.35% 1.35% 36.17% NASDAQ +0.15% -0.92% -0.92% 44.76% Rec'd # Security In At Now Change 8/5/94 680 AmOnline 7.27 42.75 487.80% 5/17/95 335 Iomega Corp 15.11 46.75 209.32% 8/5/94 165 Sears 28.93 40.75 40.88% 4/20/95 155 The Gap 32.55 43.63 34.02% 8/11/95 95 GenElec 57.91 74.88 29.29% 8/11/95 110 Chevron 49.00 52.63 7.40% 1/29/96250 Medicis Pha 27.75 27.50 -0.90% 8/24/95 130 KLA Instrm 44.71 28.00 -37.38% 8/24/95 100 AppldMatl 57.52 35.88 -37.64% Rec'd # Security Cost Value Change 8/5/94 680 AmOnline 4945.56 29070.00 $24124.44 8/24/95 100 AppldMatl 5752.49 3587.50 -$2164.99 5/17/95 335 Iomega Corp 5063.13 15661.25 $10598.12 8/5/94 165 Sears 4772.65 6723.75 $1951.10 4/20/95 155 The Gap 5045.25 6761.88 $1716.63 8/11/95 95 GenElec 5501.87 7113.13 $1611.26 8/11/95 110 Chevron 5389.99 5788.75 $398.76 1/29/96250 Medicis Pha 6962.49 6875.00 -$87.49 8/24/95130 KLA Instrm 5812.49 3640.00 -$2172.49 CASH $12147.13 TOTAL $97368.38
