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January 24, 2012
Today in Class: We discussed the online presence of SMIF (on Twitter, Facebook, and this website), heard the accounting report, discussed filling out sectors with ETFs, and presented additional Buy/Hold/Sells.
Accounting Report, click here for full report. Notably we were called out on AFL and EBAY and are currently holding over 55% of the portfolio in cash.
Buy/Hold/Sells
- EMB by Tom: Hold
- VTR by Alec: Hold
- AAPL by Arvi: Hold
- AXP by Vince: Hold
- FSTR by Ryan: Hold
- TIP by Brendan: Hold
- BMY by Oliver: Hold
- DEO by Stefanie: Hold
- INTC by Jordan: Hold
- KO by Erin: Hold
- LVS by Erin: Hold
- BLK by Lindsay: Hold. The class also decided to sell (20-0-1) April $195 calls.
- UPS by Jeff: Sell. The class voted to sell (21-0) all shares at $74.98. This decision was reached due to worries about Europe and Asia, influenced in part by the IMF’s recent forecast of growth cuts globally.
- GLD by Will: Hold
- SCCO by Will: Hold
October 4, 2011
Today in Class:
The layout of the Fall 2011 Newsletter was discussed and the publish date was set for November 1, 2011.
Sector Reports
- Healthcare (Holdings: CELG, TEVA, BMY) – BMY and CELG are both out-performing the S&P 500, yet TEVA is struggling. Healthcare consumption has been rising every quarter in the past few years, however we see possible political risk present in several lawsuits that are challenging President Obama’s Healthcare bill. Overall, we judge this sector to be risk averse, not volatile, and presents opportunities for high dividend yields. The class has decided to overweight this sector. See full sector report here.
- Industrial (Holdings: GE, FSTR, UPS) – Industrials has been under-performing the S&P 500 but due to a 1.4% increase in construction spending in August and a full point increase in the PMI, we feel that it is best to stay neutral with the S&P 500 sector weighting. See full sector report here.
- Information Technology (Holdings: EBAY, IBM) – IT is a sector SMIF is very interested in, but we are wary of negative returns in the short run. As spending is tied to global demand, we feel increasing our weighting and holdings would be ill-advised. As such, we feel it is best to stay neutral. See full sector report here.
- Telecoms (Holdings: VZ) – Telecoms have high dividend yields and we will investigate diversifying our holdings, but will remain neutral with S&P sector weighting. See full sector report here.
- Utilities (Holdings: ED) – While the sector’s performance has been exemplary, we feel that prices are inflated and increasing in our position in utilities would result in future losses. We will remain neutral with the S&P 500 sector weighting. See full sector report here.
Read the entire class minutes: 10-04-11 Minutes
Industrial Sector Update
Industrials has been under-performing the S&P 500 since mid-summer. We feel this slowdown is temporary and expect a positive long-term trend by Q2 2012. Until recently, the Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI), a measure of the health of the manufacturing industry, has been trending downwards below 50, however there was news yesterday that PMI increased an entire point and construction spending was 1.4% higher in August.
We have identified that there is a large need to diversify and increase our holdings in the sector so that more large cap industrials are part of our portfolio.
Given our research, we feel that the best course of action is to stay neutral with the S&P 500 weighting.
Access the full report here: Fall 2011 Industrials Sector Report
September 15, 2011
Today in Class:
New procedures for taking and approving minutes were implemented to increase value for our stakeholders. The accounting committee presented that the beta of our portfolio was 0.61 compared to the S&P 500.
Buy/Hold/Sells
- Andrew Van Valkenburg – JPM: hold to price target of $41, possibly into 2012.
- Jordan Donaldson – GE: hold to price target of $18, possibly purchase more at $15.
- Ryan Tomasello – FSTR: hold to watch litigation.
- Mark Ayoub – GIS: motion to purchase 200 additional shares.
- Monica Wu – TEVA: hold due to uncertainty about company operations.
Download full class minutes: 09-15
September 6, 2011
In Class Today:
The Accounting committee reported that the fund currently was overweight financials and due to the current market conditions this position was inadvisable. The BWX discussion from the previous class concluded with the analyst’s recommendation to sell the holding. Gajendra, Will, and Ryan presented their Buy/Hold/Sell’s, respectively, hold Consolidated Edison (ED), sell iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (EEM), and hold Foster (FSTR).
Access the full class minutes here.