It's been almost two years since I introduced The World's Greatest Retirement Portfolio to Foolish readers. Putting my money where my mouth is, I've put at least $4,000 behind each stock.
Since I began, the market has returned 25.9%, which is pretty darn good by historical measures. Had I just invested in the S&P 500, my $40,000 would have added $10,360 in value.
That's not bad at all, but The World's Greatest Retirement Portfolio has outperformed the broader market by 4.3 percentage points, meaning that the portfolio has added $12,080 in value.
Read on to see why the portfolio had a good April, and at the end, I'll offer up access to a special premium report on one of these 10 companies.
|
Company |
Publication Date |
Change |
Vs. S&P 500 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
69.8% |
41 |
|
|
PriceSmart |
81.9% |
55 |
|
|
Baidu (BIDU 0.72%) |
(22.1%) |
(47) |
|
|
Intuitive Surgical |
22% |
(1) |
|
|
National Oilwell Varco (NOV 0.64%) |
(17.3%) |
(44) |
|
|
Coca-Cola (KO 0.31%) |
33.5% |
6 |
|
|
Whole Foods Market |
42.7% |
20 |
|
|
Amazon.com |
19.7% |
(6) |
|
|
Apple (AAPL 0.52%) |
30.2% |
5 |
|
|
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ -1.15%) |
41.9% |
14 |
|
|
Total |
|
30.2% |
4.3% |
Source: YCharts; returns include dividends. Accurate as of market open, April 29, 2013.
Baidu
Baidu released an report that fell short of both revenue and earnings estimates. But while the market decided that meant its stock deserved a 7% haircut, I have a different opinion.
As we saw with Google back in 2011, search engines have an evolution they need to go through to keep their dominant market position. That involves investing heavily right now to maintain market share and monetize on a shift to mobile searches. That's exactly what Baidu is doing, and it's collecting record numbers of online marketing partners -- now up to 416,000 businesses -- along the way.
Apple
So Apple's earnings report, on whole, was pretty ho-hum. There are two story lines here. The first is that the competition has caught up when it comes to iPhones and iPads, and that's why the company is needing to lower prices (and tighten margins) to get its products into customers' hands. These kind of moves make me wonder whether Apple still has the innovation edge.
But the other story line has to do with the transitioning appeal of the company's stock from growth-oriented investors toward value/income ones. The company's capital return program is record-breaking and a great move for any company with as much cash as Apple has.
National Oilwell Varco
This company, although it missed on both revenue and earnings expectations, is still a great investment. The main culprit for the miss was a contraction of margins in National Oilwell's two biggest segments -- rig technology and supplies.
If those contractions continue indefinitely, it's something to worry about -- but one report does not make a trend. As fellow Fool David Smith pointed out, the far more important number is the company's rig technology backlog. That figure increased to almost $13 billion, an 8% sequential increase, backed by demand from Brazil and for jack-up rigs.
Johnson & Johnson
It was pretty much good news across the board for Johnson & Johnson. The company's over-the-counter medications, especially Tylenol and Motrin, showed healthy 14% increases in sales after a few years of product quality problems.
On top of that, a bevy of prescription medications have been performing particularly well, leading to a 10.4% increase in sales from the division during the first quarter.
Coke
Finally, we have Coke. Though the company reported that earnings and revenue had fallen from last year, the stock had a nice 5% bump. That's because it beat Wall Street's lowered expectations and announced a smart, money-saving move with its bottling arrangements.
As I wrote following the announcement: "A few years ago, Coke bought back all of these rights from its smaller bottlers. Now, it is selling those rights back, but it will be keeping its ownership stake in the actual factories as it looks to develop a uniform model across the country."
