Music to My Ears

Is Barron's Reading My Blog?

As my faithful readers know, I have been pounding the table regarding the valuation of Genworth (GNW).  I even convinced a few readers of Ed's Talking Stock to buy it last week (I am always a little wary when someone takes my advice).  But it looks like we might all be at least getting the famed Barron's Bounce as they featured the company in a an article this weekend (Why Genworth Will Finally Reward Investors
). Pretty much the same case I have been laying out, so I will not bore people with the details (hopefully you can access the article).  But here is the punchline:

"But, this stock is a solid buy, trading at such a ridiculously low level with solid assets that more than make up for potential losses," says David Marcus co-founder of Evermore Global Advisors. He pegs the value at $18 or more.

Barron's also had a great article about Howard Marks, an investor I frankly have not read about before.  He is a deep value investor, though probably more into debt than equity.  I loved some of his quotes and the way of thinking about things:

• "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted"
• "There are old investors, there are bold investors, but there are no old bold investors."
• "If good life insurance companies can make money knowing all of their clients will eventually die, why, with sufficient diversification and higher yields, can't investors do well in junk bonds?"

 MFI Tranches

8/15 Stocks	Start	Current	Dividend	Pct Gain	R3K Gain
DLB	$34.43	$32.68	$4.00	6.5%	12.9%
KFY	$13.98	$18.18	$0.00	30.0%	12.9%
MSFT	$30.19	$28.00	$0.46	-5.7%	12.9%
NSU	$3.62	$3.93	$0.05	10.1%	12.9%
UIS	$19.96	$23.50	$0.00	17.7%	12.9%
Totals				11.8%	12.9%
11/15 Stocks	Start	Current	Dividend	Pct Gain	R3K Gain
AAPL	$537.62	$431.72	$2.65	-19.2%	16.4%
ABC	$40.21	$48.48	$0.21	21.1%	16.4%
LPS	$23.89	$24.85	$0.20	4.9%	16.4%
VIAB	$49.12	$61.91	$0.28	26.6%	16.4%
WU	$12.77	$14.63	$0.13	15.5%	16.4%
Totals				9.8%	16.4%
2/1 Stocks	Start	Current	Dividend	Pct Gain	R3K Gain
AAPL	$450.60	$431.72	$2.65	-3.6%	3.0%
GA	$6.10	$6.51	$0.00	6.7%	3.0%
STRZA	$16.06	$20.42	$0.00	27.1%	3.0%
CA	$25.07	$25.08	$0.25	1.0%	3.0%
NUS	$41.94	$41.83	$0.30	0.5%	3.0%
Totals				6.4%	3.0%

As the tables show, all three of my MFI tranches are making money.  However the first two are trailing the Russell 3000.  The first under-performance is really driven by MSFT being down 6%.  The second one is AAPL being down 19%.  I knew I should have stayed away from four letter securities!  Three (or fewer) letter securities are up 12.8% (I counted VIA.B as 3). Four letter securities are down 9.5%.  And (of course) my single 5 letter holding is up 27%!

Finally, here are my discretionary plays.  Not many of them.  GNW has really been doing well of late. Just think how I will be doing if they hit $18!!!

Row Labels	Sum of Cost	Sum of Value	Sum of Gain	Sum of Shares
GNW	87,710	118,080	30,370	12,000
GTAT	38,248	39,900	1,652	14,000
Grand Total	125,958	157,980	32,022	26,000