The 2014 Buy List

The 2014 trading year is officially on the books. It was another profitable year for our Buy List. I want to thank everyone for your support. We again showed that a set-and-forget portfolio of high-quality stocks can do well.

Here are the final numbers. For the year, our Buy List gained 10.26%. Including dividends, we were up 11.80%.

Unfortunately, we were beaten out by the S&P 500, but it was close. For 2014, the S&P 500 gained 11.39% and 13.69% when you include dividends. The return from dividends for our Buy List was 1.39% while it was 2.06% for the S&P 500. This was the first time since 2006 that the S&P 500 outperformed our Buy List. For those who care about such things, the Buy List’s “beta” was 0.9361.

Nine of our Buy List stocks were up more than 20%. There was nearly a four-way tie for our top-performing stock of the year. Ultimately, Medtronic ($MDT) edged out Ross Stores ($ROST) 25.81% to 24.80%, while DirecTV ($DTV) and Stryker ($SYK) were right behind tied at 25.54%. Fifteen of our 20 stocks made money last year. The biggest loser was IBM ($IBM) which lost 14.46%.

Over the nine-year history of our Buy List, our total compounded gain, including dividends, is 151.28%. For the S&P 500, the nine-year total return is 99.66%.

The chart below details the Buy List’s performance. I’ve listed each stock, along with the number of shares and the starting and ending prices. For tracking purposes, I assume the Buy List is a $1 million portfolio that starts equally divided among the 20 stocks.

Stock Shares 12/31/2013 Beginning 12/31/2014 Ending Profit/Loss
AFL 748.5030 $66.80 $50,000.00 $61.09 $45,726.05 -8.55%
BBBY 622.6650 $80.30 $50,000.00 $76.17 $47,428.39 -5.14%
CA 1,485.8841 $33.65 $50,000.00 $30.45 $45,245.17 -9.51%
CTSH 990.2952 $50.49 $50,000.00 $52.66 $52,148.95 4.30%
BCR 373.3015 $133.94 $50,000.00 $166.62 $62,199.50 24.40%
DTV 724.0081 $69.06 $50,000.00 $86.70 $62,771.50 25.54%
EBAY 911.2448 $54.87 $50,000.00 $56.12 $51,139.06 2.28%
ESRX 711.8451 $70.24 $50,000.00 $84.67 $60,271.92 20.54%
FISV 846.7401 $59.05 $50,000.00 $70.97 $60,093.14 20.19%
F 3,240.4407 $15.43 $50,000.00 $15.50 $50,226.83 0.45%
IBM 266.5671 $187.57 $50,000.00 $160.44 $42,768.03 -14.46%
MCD 515.3045 $97.03 $50,000.00 $93.70 $48,284.03 -3.43%
MDT 871.2319 $57.39 $50,000.00 $72.20 $62,902.94 25.81%
MSFT 1,336.5410 $37.41 $50,000.00 $46.45 $62,082.33 24.16%
MOG-A 735.9435 $67.94 $50,000.00 $74.03 $54,481.90 8.96%
ORCL 1,306.8479 $38.26 $50,000.00 $44.97 $58,768.95 17.54%
QCOM 673.4007 $74.25 $50,000.00 $74.33 $50,053.87 0.11%
ROST 667.2895 $74.93 $50,000.00 $94.26 $62,898.71 25.80%
SYK 665.4245 $75.14 $50,000.00 $94.33 $62,769.49 25.54%
WFC 1,101.3216 $45.40 $50,000.00 $54.82 $60,374.45 20.75%
Total $1,000,000 $1,102,635.22 10.26%

Note that Cognizant Technologies Solutions ($CTSH) split 2-for-1 on March 10.

Here’s how the Buy List performed throughout the year.

image1450

Posted by on December 31st, 2014 at 7:20 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.