Watch Out Above!

I am in the Financial District of New York this morning.  I am enjoying a bagel from Leo's.  If you are ever here, I would highly recommend you enjoy one.

My third largest holding, CSCO, reported earning last night.  The numbers looked pretty solid (Cisco results beat Street; CEO sees challenge in Europe), but Chambers did warn that areas of the world are still sluggish.  They sold off a bit after the bell, but in my mind it is no big deal.  he is just under-promising a little bit. To me, CSCO remains one of the great American companies.  I have no trouble holding long term and collecting my 56 cents in dividends per year.

A Funny Thing Happened....

I was looking at my three MFI tranches, and they are actually doing pretty well.  The most recent one was helped by STRZA and the first one is riding the UIS/KFY wave:

8/15 Stocks	Start	Current	Dividend	Pct Gain	R3K Gain
DLB	$34.43	$31.54	$4.00	3.2%	10.5%
KFY	$13.98	$17.77	$0.00	27.1%	10.5%
MSFT	$30.19	$28.03	$0.23	-6.4%	10.5%
NSU	$3.62	$3.87	$0.05	8.4%	10.5%
UIS	$19.96	$24.17	$0.00	21.1%	10.5%
Totals				10.7%	10.5%
11/15 Stocks	Start	Current	Dividend	Pct Gain	R3K Gain
AAPL	$537.62	$467.01	$2.65	-12.6%	13.9%
ABC	$40.21	$46.64	$0.00	16.0%	13.9%
LPS	$23.89	$25.22	$0.10	6.0%	13.9%
VIAB	$49.12	$59.55	$0.28	21.8%	13.9%
WU	$12.77	$14.17	$0.13	11.9%	13.9%
Totals				8.6%	13.9%
2/1 Stocks	Start	Current	Dividend	Pct Gain	R3K Gain
AAPL	$450.60	$467.01	$2.65	4.2%	0.8%
GA	$6.10	$6.16	$0.00	1.0%	0.8%
STRZA	$16.06	$18.48	$0.00	15.1%	0.8%
CA	$25.07	$25.00	$0.00	-0.3%	0.8%
NUS	$41.94	$42.92	$0.00	2.3%	0.8%
Totals				4.5%	0.8%

If we dig a little deeper, my most recent four tracking portfolios are also beating the Russell 3000.  It isn't a rout, but it is (perhaps) a start. I do stick with my theme that if M&A heats up in 2013, that will broadly help the MFI index as that will be a catalyst to unlock value.

Three Favorite Words

On the morning of Valentine's Day, I would be remiss if I did not mention that I heard my three favorite words yesterday, "Raising Our Dividend".  One of my MFI stocks listed above, NUS, is raising their dividend by a snappy 50% (Nu Skin Raises Quarterly Dividend 50%)!  That will take their yield to about 2.7%.  Not bad, not bad.