Our Buy List Nearly Doubled the Market Today

Today was an excellent day for our Buy List. Of course, I stress the benefits of looking at the long-term so we shouldn’t get too excited about one good day. But it was a very good day. Our Buy List gained 1.54% today which nearly doubled the S&P 500’s gain of 0.78%.

Seven trading days into the year, we’ve opened up a small lead against the overall market. Or more accurately, we’re down but not by quite as much. Through today, our Buy List is down 4.02% YTD compared with a loss of 5.14% for the S&P 500.

Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) was our top performer today. The stock gained 6.28% in today’s session. There’s been some horrible flooding in India and Cognizant wanted to update investors on their status. The good news is that Cognizant won’t be financially impacted by the floods. The company reiterated their 2015 full-year guidance for earnings of at least $3.03 per share. That means they expect Q4 earnings of at least 77 cents per share.

“Cognizant extends its gratitude to its employees, business partners, government agencies, and others involved in recovery efforts that helped in quickly bringing our business operations back to normal,” said Gordon Coburn, President of Cognizant. “We are also grateful to our clients for their understanding of the circumstances, and their support of our Business Continuity Plan actions taken during the flood to successfully ensure continued delivery of services.”

After the closing bell, Ford Motor (F) announced a special 25 cent dividend. This is on top of their regular 15 cent quarterly dividend. The dividend will be paid on March 1 to shareholders of record on January 29. The automaker also said it expects record profits for 2015 and equal or better profits for 2016. The stock is down about 3% in the after-hours market.

Also after the bell, Stryker (SYK) narrowed its full-year range for 2015. The previous range was $5.07 to $5.12 per share. Now it’s $5.09 to $5.12 per share. This is the third revision to their full-year range. The initial guidance was for $4.90 to $5.10 per share, then it went to $5.06 to $5.12 per share. Earnings are due out on January 26.

Posted by on January 12th, 2016 at 5:02 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.