Mid-Year Report Card

The first half of the year is now over. Overall, it’s been an ugly time for the stock market. The S&P 500 is down -7.57% for the first half and our Buy List is down -4.00%.
To reiterate the rules of the Buy List, it’s a list of 20 stocks that I choose at the beginning of each year. Once the list is set, I can’t make any changes throughout the year. I assume the portfolio is equally weighted at the start of the year.
Here’s a look at each stock on our Buy List, the price at the beginning of the year, the price at the close of today and the profit/loss:

Symbol Buy Current Profit
AFL $46.25 $42.67 -7.74%
BAX $58.68 $40.64 -30.74%
BDX $78.86 $67.62 -14.25%
BBBY $38.61 $37.08 -3.96%
EV $30.41 $27.61 -9.21%
LLY $35.71 $33.50 -6.19%
FISV $48.48 $45.66 -5.82%
GILD $43.27 $34.28 -20.78%
INTC $20.40 $19.45 -4.66%
JNJ $64.41 $59.06 -8.31%
JOSB $42.19 $53.99 27.97%
LUK $23.79 $19.51 -17.99%
MDT $43.98 $36.27 -17.53%
MOG-A $29.23 $32.23 10.26%
NICK $6.89 $8.23 19.45%
RAI $52.97 $52.12 -1.60%
SEIC $17.52 $20.36 16.21%
SYK $50.37 $50.06 -0.62%
SYY $27.94 $28.57 2.25%
WXS $31.86 $29.70 -6.78%

Our biggest winner is Jos. A Bank Clothiers (JOSB), followed by Nicholas Financial (NICK) and SEI Investments (SEIC).
Our biggest loser is Baxter International (BAX) followed by Gilead Sciences (GILD).
Here’s how the Buy List has done compared with the market during the first half of the year. I track the Buy List as if it’s a $1 million portfolio.
image959.png
We had a great start to the year. By April 15, we were up 14.1% which was more than 5% ahead of the S&P 500. Since then, our Buy List has shed -15.88% compared with -14.93% for the S&P 500.
Including dividends, the Buy List is down -3.19% for the year while the S&P 500 is down -6.65%. Four the four-and-a-half years of the Buy List combined, we’re up 11.26% versus a loss of -9.15% for the S&P 500.
Finally, if this matters to anyone, the beta for this year is running at 0.917. Historically, our beta is 0.938.

Posted by on June 30th, 2010 at 4:38 pm


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.