Student Managed Investment Fund

Bucknell University College of Management

by

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

Read full minutes here: 1-24-12AM and 1-24-12PM

by

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

by

Industrial Sector Update

Holdings: GE, FSTR, UPS

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

 

by

September 29, 2011

Today in Class:

Stock Pitch

  • UPS (Jeff Sowell): Recommended to buy 300 shares.  UPS has very strong market share versus its competitors, it is well diversified, and has a hold in international markets.  The debt is staggered over the years so it is not overwhelming to UPS’s operations.  The SMIF portfolio is currently underweight in industrials and UPS has outperformed the S&P 500 for the previous five years. UPS also offers a dividend which can hedge against volatility.  The class decided to buy 300 shares of UPS with a limit order set at $62.51.

Access the full minutes here: 09-29