Saturday, August 3, 2013

Stocks Of The Month: CSCO, HSY, LVS, SBUX, WYNN (Oh, The Vices)

After selling AGNC, BBEP, and NLY last month, I needed some new, reliable dividend stocks.

Chocolate. Coffee. Gambling. The Internet. These are vices which humans just can't get enough of. As an investment idea, it seems as good as any other I've thought of.


Cisco (CSCO)

Positives:
$47B cash, "only" $16B debt.
Safe, growing 2.7% dividend yield.

Negatives:
Tepid revenue growth (5%).
$139B market cap.


Hershey (HSY)

Positives:
65% return on equity.
Seems very Heinz-ish in quality. (hey, Warren Buffett.)

Negatives:
Tepid revenue growth (7%).
More debt ($2B) than cash ($570M).


Las Vegas Sands (LVS)

Positives:
Excellent revenue (26%) and earnings (120%!) growth.
52% held by insiders.

Negatives:
More debt ($10B) than cash ($2B).


Starbucks (SBUX)

Positives:
Good profit (11%) and operating (14%) margins.
Solid revenue (13%) and earnings (25%) growth.

Negatives:
Fairly small (1.1%) dividend yield.
It is possible, maybe even likely, that someone will come along and make a better cup of coffee someday.


Wynn Resorts (WYNN)

Positives:
Outstanding earnings growth (44%).
Ridiculous return on equity (224%!!).

Negatives:
Tepid revenue growth (5%).
More debt ($6B) than cash ($2B).


Here's my current portfolio (growth, dividend, and speculative). As always, I believe in all of these stocks - until I sell them.

Apple (AAPL) 10.04%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 8.98%
Google (GOOG) 8.05%
Baidu (BIDU) 6.89%
Amazon (AMZN) 4.50%
Ace Limited (ACE) 3.90%
Southern Copper (SCCO) 3.87%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 3.11%
3D Systems (DDD) 2.62%
Blackstone (BX) 2.61%
American Software (AMSWA) 2.52%
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) 1.94%
Under Armour (UA) 1.91%
McDonald's (MCD) 1.86%
DuPont (DD) 1.83%
Qihoo 360 (QIHU) 1.79%
Apache (APA) 1.78%
Vodafone (VOD) 1.78%
Prospect Capital (PSEC) 1.74%
Intel (INTC) 1.65%
Ansys (ANSS) 1.50%
Nike (NKE) 1.44%
Cisco (CSCO) 1.39%
Starbucks (SBUX) 1.39%
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) 1.38%
Las Vegas Sands (LVS) 1.36%
American Express (AXP) 1.34%
Hershey (HSY) 1.34%
ConocoPhillips (COP) 1.33%
Wells Fargo (WFC) 1.27%
Computer Programs and Systems (CPSI) 1.25%
Coca-Cola (KO) 1.19%
International Business Machines (IBM) 1.15%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.13%
China Mobile (CHL) 1.11%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 1.09%
Stratasys (SSYS) 1.07%
ExOne (XONE) 1.05%
F5 Networks (FFIV) 1.05%
Microsoft (MSFT) 1.04%
The Distressed (BEBE, GSOL, LZB, MSI, TMUS) 0.84%