20 Stock Portfolio-Quarter End Review

Posted by Tim

January 2, 2008

A little over 3 months ago I decided to start a stock portfolio on this blog and track the results. The portfolio accomplishes several purposes: First, I have started reviewing stocks here that I believed were good investments so I wanted to track them. Second, tracking and reviewing helps me grow as an analyzer and writer. Finally, I use the portfolio as a source of stocks for my own personal investing.

The portfolio started October with 9 stocks and 6 were added over the course of the quarter, bring the total to 15. Once I get to 20 stocks, additions and subtractions will be made to attempt to improve the results of the portfolio. For tracking purposes I am re-balancing the portfolio at the start of each quarter to equal dollar amounts. This is a little artificial, but makes the quarterly tracking easier. I am using the portfolio at MarketWatch.com to follow the status of the portfolio.

Now on to overall results: I am not very pleased with how the portfolio did last quarter, too many losers held up by a few nice gainers. However, I did manage to beat the major averages. By my calculations the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrials and NASDAQ all had negative quarters, falling 3.86%. 4.54% and 1.96%, respectively. My 20 Stock Portfolio had a total positive return of +2.93%, of which 0.95% was dividends.

So, with the positive news of positive returns, here are how the best and worst of the portfolio did, starting with the best:

Terra Nitrogen Co. L.P. (TNH: 120.15 +4.79 +4.15%) +45.8% This company was chosen as an income stock. At this point I am finding it hard to justify the valuation, but it sure makes the portfolio look good.
VeraSun Energy (VSE: 5.69 +0.16 +2.89%) +38.9%. Despite all of the negative press on ethanol, this company has great growth and profit potential.
Silver Wheaton (SLW: 11.73 +0.05 +0.43%) +21% Unique cash flow generation machine on silver prices. Best growth is still a couple years out.
Gigamedia (GIGM: 11.96 +0.47 +4.09%) +16% Up almost 50% at one time in the quarter. My favorite for long term growth.
Power Shares Global Clean Energy Trust (PBD: 25.936 +0.386 +1.51%)+10.4% In my opinion, the best of the renewable energy ETFs.

And now the dogs:

Wayside Technology (WSTG: 8.09 +0.09 +1.13%) -32.4% Constantly falling stock price in spite of reasonable numbers and dividend. Sold my personal holdings in November. Now out of the portfolio.
Thornburg Mortgage (TMA: 0.42 +0.08 +23.53%) -26.15% Reinstated dividend in December. Stock price struggles with credit crisis.
Nordic American Tanker (NAT: 35.78 +0.74 +2.11%) and Penn West Energy (PWE: 29.24 -0.24 -0.81%) -15.4% and -13.1% Income stock which, IMO, have been oversold. Should have great price plus income performance from here, I hope!

I have personal positions (long) in some of the positions in the portfolio and plan to add more. My purchases during the quarter were in the beaten down stocks, so I own a few of them at prices significantly below the quarterly starting price.I am adding 3 new stocks to the portfolio starting with the new year. (TTI: 22.26 -0.08 -0.36%) was reviewed here. (APL: 33.94 +0.30 +0.89%) and (HW: 15.48 -0.16 -1.02%) will be written up in the next few days.

I have been writing this blog since July 2007. I have learned a lot and really like writing here. I plan to add more information to help and interest readers, so come back often and see what is going on. Thanks.

20 Stocks