Sunday, December 29, 2013

Testing Those Resolutions

I wrote down my investing resolutions last week.  One was to try and be less emotional about my decision-making and not allow just one negative or positive article about a stock drive my investments.  I have my first test already.  I was reading this weekend's edition of Barron's and they had an article (Hits, Misses, and Stealth Realty Plays) about "stealth" Chinese real estate stocks - meaning what companies have sizable investments in Chinese real estate that you would not expect.

What was the first stock mentioned?  GA, one of my largest holdings! I was surprised to learn that GA has $100 million invested in real estate.  Regular readers will recall that GA is in two of my MFI tranches (May and November) AND that I parked a fair amount of $$$ in them on 12/2 as they have a $11.75 buyout offer that I felt had little downside, but had some upside.

So what to do?  Should I pare that discretionary component?  Should I do nothing? Feeling confident that
the $11.75 offer is from the Chairman of the Board and he would not pay $11.75 if there was a big problem on the balance sheet.  Tough to say.  I have known Chairmen before that can drink a little too much of their own kool-aid.

I think I am likely to do nothing and stick with my resolution.  While $100 million seems like a lot (and it is to people like us), GA is a $2.7 billion market cap company with over $600 million of cash and ST investments (I am surprised that real estate investments would fall in that category).

Stocks From May 2nd

Every now and then I show how the stocks in my portfolio as of May 2nd (many sold post then) have performed.  I show this cut as May 2nd was really the day many investors woke up and smelled the coffee and recognized that the Fed at some point would start tapering.  From that point, gold, precious metals, dividend stocks, bonds, mortgage reits and many foreign equities under-performed.  One interesting thing to keep in mind that ven though this was apparent to all post May 2nd and the sell-off began there,  there was still plenty of time after May 2nd to get out of these positions (and thus avoid some of the pain).

Stock May 2nd price Dividends Current Change
NEM                       32.66                          0.80                24.39 -25.3%
O                       51.09                          1.27                39.13 -23.4%
BHK                       14.95                          0.59                13.63 -8.8%
TC-PT                       15.60                          1.23                14.33 -8.1%
ABR                          7.43                          0.38                  6.96 -6.3%
OIBAX                          6.62                          0.13                  6.21 -6.2%
NSU                          3.64                          0.14                  3.44 -5.5%
RIG                       52.33                          1.68                50.54 -3.4%
JQC                       10.38                          0.48                10.19 -1.8%
KMF                       35.15                          1.38                34.76 -1.1%
CIM                          3.29                          0.27                  3.35 1.8%
AOD                          4.17                          0.22                  4.41 5.7%
STO                       23.45                          1.16                25.15 7.3%
PGR                       25.12                              -                  27.07 7.8%
CSCO                       20.73                          0.34                22.36 7.9%
CSQ                       10.64                          0.56                11.55 8.6%
INTC                       24.11                          0.68                26.28 9.0%
CYOU                       28.00                              -                  31.59 12.8%
WU                       15.53                          0.38                17.58 13.2%
PRE                       92.48                          1.92             104.92 13.5%
SD                          5.18                              -                    5.92 14.3%
MSFT                       33.16                          0.71                38.00 14.6%
NVDA                       13.74                          0.23                15.99 16.4%
IWV                       94.88                          1.36             111.62 17.6%
KLIC                       11.08                              -                  13.22 19.3%
STRZA                       23.91                              -                  29.02 21.4%
DLB                       31.61                              -                  38.38 21.4%
BAC-WTA                          5.25                              -                    6.43 22.5%
CA                       27.23                          0.75                34.18 25.5%
CF                     183.58                          2.60             233.73 27.3%
AAPL                     445.52                          9.15             569.24 27.8%
VIAB                       67.25                          0.30                86.35 28.4%
ABC                       54.85                          0.65                70.86 29.2%
FCX                       30.34                          1.95                39.45 30.0%
LPS                       27.28                          0.30                37.73 38.3%
GNW                       10.33                              -                  15.51 50.1%
GA                          7.63                          0.65                11.92 56.2%
KFY                       15.99                              -                  26.27 64.3%
UIS                       18.60                              -                  34.34 84.6%
RDA                          9.62                          0.12                18.09 88.0%
GTAT                          3.67                              -                    8.57 133.5%
NUS                       54.28                          0.60             137.61 153.5%

3 comments:

Paul T said...

Not trying to shake your new resolutions, but I'm staying away from the Chinese markets. I got burned during the RTO garbage back a few years ago. I don't even consider any Chinese domiciled stocks (MFI or otherwise). If I want China exposure, I'll buy an ETF.

Marsh_Gerda said...

Paul T - thanks for the note. I certainly hear you. I lost more than I care to post in the RTO crud. I have been very careful in my recent Chinese picks to go with companies that I am sure are legit. They were painted with the same broad brush on the scandal and it was an opportunity in my view.

Paul T said...

Be greedy when others are fearful: right?