Fool Portfolio Report
Tuesday, June 24, 1997
by Jeff Fischer (TMF Jeff)
and Greg Markus (TMF Boring)

ALEXANDRIA, VA, June 24, 1997-- You may have heard of the "sixty second novelist," a man who opened shop on AOL a few years ago. Supposedly he'll write your life into a novel in about one minute (one page), and charge you some nominal fee for it. The novels are meant to read as humorous, witty...

This is the sixty second recap. In fact, Greg (TMF Boring) had sent his Boring Recap to us by the deadline, but the 3Com earnings were still being digested and the Fool recap hadn't even yet begun. Greg generously offered to write something up for the Fool, too, and that's what will shortly follow. Thanks, Greg!

The Fool did lose to the market today, no shakes about it. The portfolio rose only a fraction while the S&P soared over two percent, gaining back what it lost only yesterday. America Online and Iomega comprise 30% of the portfolio and both slipped lower. What more can be said?

3COM (Nasdaq: COMS) announced earnings after the market that met estimates, at $0.48 per share. I quickly summarized the earnings in a special collection on the event. The quarter looked fairly healthy. Gross margins remained stable, falling only 0.08%, but operating margins slipped nearly 3%. If price cuts had hurt 3Com, gross margins would have been the ones to decline. Operating margins slipped, though, not gross margins.

So price cuts didn't hurt gross margins -- contrary to what was expected. What was lost in sales was made up in volume. Meanwhile -- Randy Befumo (TMF Templr) is talking to me now -- research and development costs and sales, general and administrative (SGA) costs were all significantly higher.

If the SG&A costs were up due to the merger costs, they should return to normal levels, as the merger is complete now. Also, U.S. Robotics and 3Com merged in hopes of cutting down, together, on research and development costs, as well. If both hold true, 3Com may have "lighter" quarters ahead of itself. Good news. Finally, inventory decreased and inventory turns increased. More good news.

I've got to send this off to the cyber-printer now. Greg Markus will close this up. Greg, take it away....

Shares of AMERICA ONLINE (NYSE: AOL) slipped $5/8. AOL announced today that its network service unit, ANS Communications Inc., would partner with NYNEX (NYSE: NYN) to develop and market corporate intranet and extranets. According to a press release, Nynex will resell existing ANS services, while ANS will support intranet and extranet connections to Nynex business customers over the ANSnet Internet backbone. ANS is based in Ann Arbor, Mich., just down the road from Casa Boring and the Boring Portfolio's intergalactic think tank, by the way.

Heading in the opposite direction was ATC COMMUNICATIONS (Nasdaq: ATCT) stock. ATCT gained $ 3/8 on above-average trading volume of 532,500 shares. I spotted no specific news on ATC, but I did discover that its spiffy Java-enabled website is up for your viewing pleasure, at http://www.atct.com/.

Fool Message Boards -- what are Fools saying?
Evening News -- Big movers, up and down.
Port Tracker -- Update your portfolio daily, easily.
Daily Double -- How can you find the next double?
Daily Trouble -- Is there value in this beaten down stock?
Boring Portfolio -- Bore is on the move.
Fool Four -- These giants are... almost too big.
Fribble -- A two minute, fun lesson from readers.

TODAY'S NUMBERS
Stock  Change    Bid
----------------
AOL   -  5/8   58.13
T     + 13/16  36.94
ATCT  +  3/8   5.19
CHV   +1 1/2   74.25
DJT   +  1/4   10.13
GM    +1 1/2   56.75
IOM   -  5/8   21.13
KLAC  ---      50.50
LU    +1 7/16  72.19
MMM   +1       101.00
COMS  +1 9/16  49.75



      
    
    
                  Day   Month    Year  History
        FOOL     +0.26%   6.19%   8.93% 190.70%
        S&P:     +2.02%   5.67%  21.01%  95.54%
        NASDAQ:  +1.26%   3.72%  12.50% 101.68%


    Rec'd    #  Security     In At       Now    Change
  5/17/95   980 Iomega Cor     2.52     21.13   738.29%
   8/5/94   355 AmOnline       7.27     58.13   699.52%
  8/12/96   110 Minn M&M      65.68    101.00    53.78%
  10/1/96    42 LucentTech    47.62     72.19    51.60%
  8/11/95   125 Chevron       50.28     74.25    47.66%
  8/24/95   130 KLA Tencor    44.71     50.50    12.95%
  8/12/96   280 Gen'l Moto    51.97     56.75     9.19%
  8/13/96   250 3Com Corp.    46.86     49.75     6.17%
  8/12/96   130 AT&T          39.58     36.94    -6.67%
  4/30/97 -1170 *Trump*        8.47     10.13   -19.56%
 10/22/96   600 ATC Comm.     22.94      5.19   -77.38%

    Rec'd    #  Security     In At     Value    Change
   8/5/94   355 AmOnline    2581.87  20634.38 $18052.51
  5/17/95   980 Iomega Cor  2594.53  20702.50 $18107.97
  8/12/96   110 Minn M&M    7224.44  11110.00  $3885.56
  8/11/95   125 Chevron     6285.61   9281.25  $2995.64
  8/12/96   280 Gen'l Moto 14552.49  15890.00  $1337.51
  10/1/96    42 LucentTech  1999.88   3031.88  $1032.00
  8/24/95   130 KLA Tencor  5812.49   6565.00   $752.51
  8/13/96   250 3Com Corp. 11714.99  12437.50   $722.51
  8/12/96   130 AT&T        5145.11   4801.88  -$343.24
  4/30/97 -1170*Trump*     -9908.50 -11846.25 -$1937.75
 10/22/96   600 ATC Comm.  13761.50   3112.50-$10649.00


                              CASH  $49631.21
                             TOTAL $145351.84