The 2010 Buy List

The 2010 trading year has come to a close. I’m happy to report that our Buy List had another good year. The 20 stocks on the Crossing Wall Street Buy List gained an average of 14.71%. In contrast, the S&P 500 was up 12.78%. This is the fourth year in a row that we have beaten the market.

Including dividends, the Buy List gained 16.62% compared with 15.06% for the S&P 500. The dividend yield for the Buy List worked out to 1.67% while it was 2.02% for the S&P 500. For the year, our beta was 0.9479.

Over the five-year history of the Buy List, we’ve gained 34.03% to the S&P 500’s 11.99%. Our annual turnover has been just 25% which means we’ve only changed five stocks per year. The five-year beta is 0.9420.

Now I’ll restate the rules of the Buy List. I choose a portfolio of 20 stocks at the beginning of the year. After that, the Buy List is locked for the year and I can’t make any changes until the following year. For tracking purposes, I assume the Buy List is a $1 million portfolio equally divided among the 20 stocks. You can check the performance of the Buy List anytime at our Buy List page.

My goal is to show investors that by choosing stocks wisely and by sticking with high-quality stocks, they can beat the market—and that’s exactly what we’ve done. I try to beat the market by a few percentage points and to do it with less risk.

We were helped this year by having a well-diversified Buy List. Fourteen of the 20 stocks rose for the year, while six stocks (mostly healthcare) saw losses. We were over-weighted in healthcare which didn’t work to our benefit. Fortunately, some strong performers helped us out.

For the second year in a row, our smallest stock, Nicholas Financial (NICK), was our biggest winner. NICK gained 48.62% for the year. The second-biggest winner was Jos. A. Banks Clothiers (JOSB) which gained 43.35%.

Stock Number of Shares 12/31/2009 Beginning
 12/31/2010 Ending
 Profit/Loss
AFL 1,081.0811 $46.25 $50,000.00 $56.43 $61,005 22.01%
BAX 852.0791 $58.68 $50,000.00 $50.62 $43,132 -13.74%
BDX 634.0350 $78.86 $50,000.00 $84.52 $53,589 7.18%
BBBY 1,295.0013 $38.61 $50,000.00 $49.15 $63,649 27.30%
EV 1,644.1960 $30.41 $50,000.00 $30.23 $49,704 -0.59%
LLY 1,400.1680 $35.71 $50,000.00 $35.04 $49,062 -1.88%
FISV 1,031.3531 $48.48 $50,000.00 $58.56 $60,396 20.79%
GILD 1,155.5350 $43.27 $50,000.00 $36.24 $41,877 -16.25%
INTC 2,450.9804 $20.40 $50,000.00 $21.03 $51,544 3.09%
JNJ 776.2770 $64.41 $50,000.00 $61.85 $48,013 -3.97%
JOSB 1,777.6725 $28.13 $50,000.00 $40.32 $71,676 43.35%
LUK 2,101.7234 $23.79 $50,000.00 $29.18 $61,328 22.66%
MDT 1,136.8804 $43.98 $50,000.00 $37.09 $42,167 -15.67%
MOG-A 1,710.5713 $29.23 $50,000.00 $39.80 $68,081 36.16%
NICK 7,256.8940 $6.89 $50,000.00 $10.24 $74,311 48.62%
RAI 1,887.8610 $26.49 $50,000.00 $32.62 $61,582 23.16%
SEIC 2,853.8813 $17.52 $50,000.00 $23.79 $67,894 35.79%
SYK 992.6544 $50.37 $50,000.00 $53.70 $53,306 6.61%
SYY 1,789.5490 $27.94 $50,000.00 $29.40 $52,613 5.23%
WXS 1,569.3660 $31.86 $50,000.00 $46.00 $72,191 44.38%
Total $1,000,000 $1,147,118 14.71%

Notes:
JOSB split 3:2 on August 19. The original purchase of 1,185.1150 shares at $42.19 became 1,777.6725 shares at $28.126666.
RAI split 2:1 on November 16. The original purchase of 943.9305 shares at $52.97 became 1,887.8610 shares at $26.485.

Here’s how the Buy List did throughout the year:

Posted by on December 31st, 2010 at 7:10 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.