Latest Trades and News - 2010 Q2 Earnings

07/16/2010 Trades and News:
We are updating the table to be ready for the 2010 Q2 earnings reports.

Latest Trades and News - 2010 Q1 Earnings

04/14/2010 Trades and News:
We have updated the table to be ready for the 2010 Q1 earnings reports.

Latest Trades and News - 2009 Q4 Earnings

02/24/2010 Trades and News:
GRMN reported excellent earnings. See the table. We purchased enough GRMN to start it a about 2.9% of our portfolio.

02/19/2010 Trades and News:
BUCY reported excellent earnings. See the table. Nevertheless, we sold our entire position. Its price is up to $61 from where we bought it a $47, and its P/E is up to 15. It is getting a little rich for us. 01/28/2010 Trades and News:
A number of companies reported earnings. See the table. We purchased BMY, DLX and NE which now represent about 2.2%, 2.1% and 2.7% of our portfolio.

01/21/2010 Trades and News:
Goldman Sachs (GS) reported excellent quarterly earnings of $8.20 compared to $5.20 expected by analysts, an a loss of $4.97 for the year ago quarter.

We were already long GS, and purchased more. It now represents about 11% of our portfolio.

12/16/2009:
Apogee Enterprises Inc. reported earnings of $0.39 compared to $0.21 expected by analysts, and $0.63 for the year ago quarter.

Latest Trades and News - 2009 Q3 Earnings

12/16/2009, Trades:
We sold all of our BMY which represented about 8% of our portfolio. Its P/E has risen to about 14. We purchased our shares at an average price of 18.59, and sold today at 25.69. BMY's spin off of MJN was not a factor. See our blog.

11/23/2009, Trades:
This morning we purchased enough GLD to start a position at about 2.08% of our portfolio. GLD is an ETF which follows the price of Gold. We continue to be concerned that the current recovery will flatten out or reverse into a second recessionary dip. Last week, in an interview with Fox News's Major Garret, President Obama indicated that he wanted to make sure the country did not have double dip recession. This is a sure sign that his economic advisors are warning him that the recession may have a second dip. He is lowering expectations.

11/19/2009:
Buckle Inc. (BKE) issued a fair earnings report of $0.71 compared to $0.70 expected by analysts and $0.62 for the year ago quarter. We will continue to watch it.

11/16/2009, Trades:
After further reviewing the balance sheet of WTW, we decided that the investment was too risky even though the company has good earnings. It has negative net worth, and negative current assets less current liabilities. So ... we sold 100% of our WTW.

11/10/2009 and 11/11/2009, Trades:
After the close, Weight Watchers International (WTW) issued a good earnings report of $0.68 compared to $0.64 expected by analysts and $0.67 for the year ago quarter.

At the 11/11 open, we purchased enough WTW at $27.32 to start it at about 1.23% of our portfolio.

11/03/2009:
Rockwell Collins (COL) issued a fair earnings report of $0.84 compared to $0.87 expected by analysts and $1.13 for the year ago quarter. We did not buy any yet.

After the close, World Fuel Services Corp (INT) issued an excellent earnings report of $1.04 compared to $0.81 expected by analysts and $1.37 for the year ago quarter. On the plus side, the earnings were much higher than analyst's expectations. On the minus side, earnings were much less than the year ago quarter, and the P/E is up to 13 or so. We decided not to buy.

10/29/2009:
SnapOn Tools (SNA) issued an good earnings report of $0.44 compared to $0.28 expected by analysts and $0.94 for the year ago quarter. We continue to hold SNA. We did not buy more because it P/E is around 13, and it already represents about 3% of our portfolio.

10/23/2009, Trades:
Based on a good earnings report and a P/E of about 12, we purchased enough Bucyrus (BUCY) at $47.18 to start it at about 3.3% of our portfolio. The P/E is a little high, but the positive earnings surprise was big.

10/22/2009, Trades:
Based on a good earnings report and a low P/E, we purchased enough Noble Corp. (NE) to start a position at 2% of our portfolio. We also sold our entire position (about 4% of our portfolio) in Tupperware Brands (TUP) because its P/E has increased to around 17, and that is too rich for us. We bought TUP at about $25 in May, and sold it today at about $43. We still love TUP, and hope to buy it back some time at a lower P/E.

10/22/2009:
Noble Corp. (NE) issued a good earnings report of $1.63 compared to $1.54 expected by analysts and $1.42 for the year ago quarter. We bought. See above. DO, RX, BMY, CSH and DLX also reported earnings around expectations. See the tables at the right. We are not buying DO or RX. We continue to hold BMY, CSH and DLX.

Bucryus International (BUCY) issued a large positive surprise earnings report of $1.21 compared to $0.86 expected by analysts, and $0.85 for the year ago quarter.

10/21/2009:
Tupperware (TUP) issued a quarterly earnings report of $0.55 compared to $0.42 expected by analysts and $0.43 for the year ago quarter. TUP is up a whopping 87% to $48 from where we bought it at $25.68. We continued to hold it, but did not buy more on its great earnings report, TUP's P/E is now up to 17, so we are watching it closely, and may have to sell soon.

10/20/2009:
Pfizer (PFE) issued an unsurprising quarterly earnings report of $0.51 compared to $0.48 expected by analysts and $0.62 for the year ago quarter. We currently have about 6.8% of our portfolio in PFE.

10/19/2009, Trade:
We put an additional 1.7% of our portfolio into GS, increasing our total holdings to 4.19% of our portfolio.

10/15/2009:
Goldman Sachs (GS) issued a great quarterly earnings report of $5.25 compared to $4.25 expected by analysts and $1.18 for the year ago quarter. We currently have about 2.3% of our portfolio in GS and are considering buying more.

Latest Trades and News - 2009 Q2 Earnings

09/18/2009:
Every stock which we purchased in mid to late July is up. All 3 had better than expected quarterly earnings reports, and fairly low P/Es. CSH is up 18% from $25.30 to 29.89. DLX is up 5% from $16.53 to $17.39. GS is up 21% from $159.69 to $183.18. In addition, TUP, was up a whopping 56% from $25.68 to $40.06. We continued to hold it, but did not buy more on its great earnings report, TUP's P/E is now up to 16, so we are watching it closely, and may have to sell soon. Note, GS's P/E is 41, but that is due to a loss of $4.97 in 2008 Q3. We are holding it, assuming it will continue to earn about $4.00 a quarter which would give it a P/E of 11. Still, we are watching it closely, and will sell at any sign of weakness. We do not think we will have to sell soon.
We have posted a new group of stocks which we will be watching for for the next set of earnings reports for 2009 Q3 in mid to late October.

08/06/2009:
Windstream Corp. (WIN) issued a fair quarterly earnings report of $0.21 compared to $0.32 expected by analysts and $0.23 for the year ago quarter.

07/31/2009:
Snap-on (SNA) issued a good quarterly earnings report of $0.65 compared to $0.58 expected by analysts and $1.15 for the year ago quarter. We hold about 3.2% of our portfolio in SNA. We did not buy more. Too bad. It was up over $2.00 on a flat day for the market. SNA's P/E is holding around 10, but it will head up if earnings do not improve soon.

Chevron (CVX) issued a poor quarterly earnings report of $0.87 compared to $0.95 expected by analysts and $2.90 for the year ago quarter.

07/24/2009 trade:
Purchased enough Deluxe Corp (DLX) at $16.53 to start it at about 1.65% of our portfolio. For a $100,000 portfolio, that would be about $1,650 or 100 shares. For a $1,000,000 portfolio, that would be about $16,500 or about 1000 shares. DLX's consistently good earnings performance have outweighed our concern over their high Debt/Equity ratio, and our fears of a bad economy.

07/23/09 trade:
Leftovers anyone? Tupperware (TUP) issued a delectable earnings report of $0.86 per share compared to $0.75 a year ago, and $0.61 expected by analysts. We would love to buy more, but the stock was up around $2 before we could pull the trigger. Perhaps we should have pulled the trigger anyhow since the stock is up almost $4 as of 10AM. Well, we do have about 3% of our portfolio in TUP, so we will just have to be satisfied with that for now.

07/23/09 trade:
We put an additional 1.2% of our portfolio into Cash America International (CSH). They issued a decent quarterly earnings report of $0.52 per share compared to $0.67 a year ago, and $0.52 expected by analysts. We now hold about 3.7% of our portfolio in CSH.

07/14 and 07/15 /2009 trade:
We purchased a small amount (about 2.3% of our portfolio) of Goldman Sachs (GS) for an average price of $151.69. Based on a total portfolio of $100,000, we would have purchased about 15 shares for about $2,334. Based on a total portfolio of $1,000,000, we would have purchased about 150 shares for about $23,340.

7/22/2009:
Pfizer (PFE) came out with a decent earnings report of $0.48, compared to $0.55 for the year ago quarter, and compared to $0.47 which analysts were expecting. We are holding a substantial position in PFE (about 6.6% of our portfolio), and continue to hold it for now.