Nice Start To The Week - 2nd Five

Back To Work!

Well, I got back to work today after missing 7 straight days as I recuperated from the ACL surgery. It was actually nice to be back.  I also started my physical therapy today, which was not as bad as I feared.

My portfolio was up about 80 basis points today.  I did sell a little more LMNS, should be gone by the end of the week.  It is actually a difficult stock to sell, trading volume is pretty light.

KERX had a great day.  They are now up 4.9% since I bought them. I am really unsure whether to hold them through the upcoming FDA ruling or sell for a quick profit.

Taking Stock

Over the weekend, I profiled my 5 largest holdings and scored them from 1 to 4, with a 1 being buy more today and a 4 being sell asap!

Stock	Avg Cost	Current Price	Dividends	Gain per Share	Pct Gain	Pct of Portfolio
RPXC	16.36	16.08	-	(0.28)	-1.7%	4.0%
PM	78.60	85.77	0.94	8.11	10.3%	3.7%
NTC	12.01	12.59	0.23	0.81	6.7%	3.7%
ATVI	17.39	20.35	0.20	3.16	18.2%	3.6%
FGL	20.69	20.30	0.05	(0.34)	-1.6%	3.5%

The table above shows stock #6 to 10.

RPXC - This is a very unique company.  They have a portfolio of patents, which they are continually evolving and they help (for a premium) companies fight patent legislation.  At first I loved this company, but in their past couple of ERs, it seems to be costing them more to buy up new patents than before - so margins are eroding. Maybe they will turn things around, but my view is that they are not growing earnings anymore.  They are in 3 of my MFI tranches, so I will hold, then sell. Rating: 3.

PM - The international arm of Philip Morris.  I really wrestled whether to buy them or MO or RAI.  Still not entirely sure I made the right choice, but PM has hung in there pretty well for me. The 4.4% yield is nice, and I believe the stock has moderate upside, though +$5 from here would be pretty good.  Rating: 2.

NTC - It frankly does not get more boring than NTC.  This is a closed end fund of Connecticut-based municipal bonds.  Thus they are tax free to me.  My plan is never to sell and just keep reinvesting dividends (yielding 5.4% as they use leverage) until I actually need the income. They have actually gone up 60 cents, which stuns me as I did not expect an interest rate reversal. But they would have to get a LOT cheaper, before I put some actual additional cash to work. Rating: 2.5.

ATVI - I really like this company.  It is a great example of interests being perfectly aligned. They spun off from Vivendi and Senior Management has taken a substantial stake with their own money. They aappear to have solid pipeline of products and are going more and more mobile. Rating: 2.

FGL - what a disappointment. I have chronicled here before how I felt FGL was not as transparent as they should have been showing their year end book value in their first earnings report.  Shame on me for not catching it, but shame on them for not showing a pro-forma book value per share.  They are not a bad value, but in my view, nor are they a great value right now.  I should probably just sell them and move funds into LNC or MET, which I view to be better options. Rating: 3.