(last updated Monday, 26-Mar-2001 20:34:57 PST)
Ok. The first thing you should know about how I pick stocks is that I suck at it. Mostly my picks go down. The exception was PCP of which I sold half my holdings after the split for a nice return.
New Strategy
Every year Money Magazine
publishes a list of the "Best
Places to Live in America". One of these is the "Best
Small City". The idea is to look up what that city is and invest
in the company that supplies homes there with electricity. Since the
city is small, there's lots of room for growth. For year 2000 that
was Sarasota, Florida. Their power
company is Florida Power and Light
which is owned by the Florida
Power and Light Group (FPL).
ENCD
- Encad
Encad makes wide-format inkjet printers. Their new printer, the 850,
looks like a winner. It competes very favorably with its HP
counterpart, with with consumables that cost half as much. In at 14
7/8, in more at 4 5/8. It remains to be seen whether Encad will be
able to make a go of it or not, but lets see what the most recent
quarter numbers are. They're not quite dead yet.
PCP
- Precision Castparts
I really like these guys. They make high-precision cast-metal parts
(hence the name) for use in such things as aircraft engines, gas
turbines etc. Cast parts have significant cost advantages over
machined parts, although there is concern that cast parts are not as
strong, hence need to be made heavier than a machined part. This is
becoming less true however. Lately PCP has been diversifying to
reduce their dependence on the aerospace industry by getting into
fluidic control devices and other non-aerospace uses of their
process. They are the market leader in their field. I like their
dominant market position, their aggressive expansion into new areas,
and the strong insider buying. In at 31 7/16 (split adjusted). In
more at 18 15/32 (split adjusted). Sold half at 39 3/16.
CLE
- Claire's Stores
Claire's sells costume jewelry and other items less than $20 to
teenage girls. They completely dominate (>95%) their competition.
Now that they are approaching American saturation they are exanding
in England, Japan and Europe. They are also branching cautiously into
the teen fashion market through strategic aquisitions. Claire's has
always been (and will remain forever I think) family owned. The
current CEO is 80+ and is passing the reigns to his daughters. The
company has minimal debt, and a ton of cash. I like Claire's because
when the revolution comes and the global economy finally goes down
the crapper, Daddy's Girl will always still have $5 to buy that
pretty new scruchie she just saw in Claires. Wall Street doesn't like
the nepotism of Claires, and of course, costume jewelry isn't nearly
as exciting as the internet, so the stock price is low. Since the
family isn't selling, they don't care, and Claires continues to have
record-breaking overall and same-store sales with great consistency.
Recently Claires bought out their last remaining American competitor,
Afterthoughts (formerly owned by Venator aka Woolworth's) at probably
a fair price. They implemented the required store closings and
reallocations accordingly. In at 22 7/16. In more at 16 13/16.
T
- AT&T
These bastards. I loved their all-inclusive broadband strategy, but
the investors were impatient and made them abandon it. Now they are
planning to split into four different companies over the next few
years. In at 41 13/16. In more at 29 5 /16. I continue to hold this
stock because I think it is currently undervalued and that the
split-apart pieces will be worth more than the one big company. We'll
see though.
FPL
- Florida Power & Light Group
In at 59.49. See the "new strategy" described above.
Other Holdings
We also have some money in a money market account, and shares in
the mutual funds Fidelity Puritan, Fidelity Select Technology, Europe
Capital Appreciation and Small Cap Stock, and in United Services
World Gold Fund. The technology fund had stupidly good returns, but
those have all gone away now of course.
GE - GENERAL ELECTRIC everyone should own this stock and put it in a drawer and forget about it. Very expensive though (but recently getting cheaper).
PLUG - PLUG POWER these guys make fuel cells which I really like. This technology is the way of energy utilization of the future. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to make a valuation for this company, so it is impossible to find an entry-point.
FDX - FEDEX makes a profit whenever someone buys stuff over the internet, unlike the actual internet vendors. :)
SCCO
- Smith-Corona
They make (or made anyway) the typewriters. SCCO came out of
bankruptcy with a plan to move into the telephony market. They gave
it a go, but it didn't work out. In at 6 3/16. Out at 1 15/16. They
re-entered bankruptcy recently, came up with a buy-out plan, got
bought out and are worth 1 cent per share now.