Stocks Of The Month: AAPL, DDD, FB, UA

On my continuing quest to own less stocks, two more have been sold (these will get tougher to get rid of as we go on):

• Lululemon (LULU) has been bought and sold for the second (and final) time. It was one of the lesser holdings in my portfolio, and has no dividend and "only" 14% growth...which is not awful, but I think I can do better elsewhere.
• Southern Copper (SCCO) has been in my portfolio since 2005! However, it has been dead money since April 2007, and during that time the dividend has shrunk from $1.50/share to $0.03/share.

The proceeds from these sales went towards four stocks I already own: Apple (AAPL), 3D Systems (DDD), Facebook (FB), and Under Armour (UA).


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

Apple (AAPL) 12.33%
3D Systems (DDD) 11.03%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 10.99%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 7.04%
Amazon (AMZN) 5.76%
Stratasys (SSYS) 5.34%
Under Armour (UA) 5.20%
Baidu (BIDU) 4.83%
Nike (NKE) 3.37%
Chubb Limited (CB) 2.65%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 2.54%
Starbucks (SBUX) 2.53%
Blackstone (BX) 2.27%
Twitter (TWTR) 2.25%
Facebook (FB) 2.01%
Microsoft (MSFT) 1.64%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 1.39%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.38%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.37%
Wells Fargo (WFC) 1.31%
American Software (AMSWA) 1.28%
McDonald's (MCD) 1.24%
Intel (INTC) 1.18%
Veolia Environnement (VEOEY) 1.18%
Boeing (BA) 1.10%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 0.97%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.93%
Autodesk (ADSK) 0.89%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.85%
Ansys (ANSS) 0.78%
Coca-Cola (KO) 0.72%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.69%
Waste Management (WM) 0.69%

Stocks Of The Month: AMZN, TSLA

One of my recurring themes is that I own too many stocks. Well, here I currently sit at 35 stocks, which I mostly like (some days more than others)...and a couple things have become apparent:

• Owning so many "good" stocks, in the name of "diversification", has inevitably dragged down my portfolio returns towards (and under) broader market indices.
• Maybe, just maybe, in a stock market of ~5300 publicly traded companies, only a handful are actually difference makers?

So the thoroughly mediocre F5 Networks (FFIV), at the bottom of my portfolio with an annualized return of 1.82% over five-plus years and no dividend, was sold; the proceeds were used towards the purchase of more Amazon (AMZN) and Telsa Motors (TSLA). If 2016 and beyond goes according to plan, only the best stocks I know of will be purchased...over and over again.

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

Apple (AAPL) 11.48%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 9.33%
3D Systems (DDD) 8.29%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 7.58%
Amazon (AMZN) 6.28%
Baidu (BIDU) 5.04%
Under Armour (UA) 4.78%
Stratasys (SSYS) 4.50%
Nike (NKE) 3.90%
Chubb Limited (CB) 2.90%
Starbucks (SBUX) 2.78%
Twitter (TWTR) 2.71%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 2.61%
Blackstone (BX) 2.59%
Southern Copper (SCCO) 2.15%
Microsoft (MSFT) 1.75%
American Software (AMSWA) 1.50%
Wells Fargo (WFC) 1.50%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.49%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.48%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 1.44%
McDonald's (MCD) 1.28%
Veolia Environnement (VEOEY) 1.26%
Intel (INTC) 1.25%
Boeing (BA) 1.16%
Facebook (FB) 1.13%
American Water Works (AWK) 1.02%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 1.01%
Autodesk (ADSK) 0.93%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.93%
Ansys (ANSS) 0.83%
Lululemon Athletica (LULU) 0.79%
Coca-Cola (KO) 0.75%
Waste Management (WM) 0.75%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.72%

Stocks Of The Month: DDD, TWTR, WM (The Figurative And Literal Garbage Edition)

The stock market has been off to such a horrible start in 2016, I didn't even bother to post about it. Here's what happened in January:

• Bought: Adobe Systems (ADBE), Autodesk (ADSK), Facebook (FB)
• Bought more: 3D Systems (DDD), Stratasys (SSYS), Twitter (TWTR)
• Sold: American Express (AXP), DuPont (DD), Qihoo 360 (QIHU)
• Lost: a ton of money

Hey, you're all caught up! For this month I bought two highly disliked stocks that I already own (DDD and TWTR), and one new dividend stock that is a real haul of junk...


Waste Management (WM)

Positives:
2.9% dividend yield.
Positive operating/levered free cash flows ($2.5B each).
24% earnings growth.
Solid profit (8%) and operating (15%) margins, ROA (6%), ROE (20%).

Negatives:
Negative revenue growth (-7%).
$0.1B cash vs. $9.1B debt.


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

Apple (AAPL) 11.97%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 8.41%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 8.38%
3D Systems (DDD) 6.49%
Under Armour (UA) 5.03%
Amazon (AMZN) 4.95%
Baidu (BIDU) 4.76%
Nike (NKE) 4.27%
Stratasys (SSYS) 3.86%
Starbucks (SBUX) 3.03%
Chubb Limited (CB) 3.01%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 2.71%
Blackstone (BX) 2.66%
Twitter (TWTR) 2.64%
Southern Copper (SCCO) 2.32%
Microsoft (MSFT) 1.88%
American Software (AMSWA) 1.68%
Wells Fargo (WFC) 1.57%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.55%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.51%
Veolia Environnement (VEOEY) 1.50%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 1.46%
McDonald's (MCD) 1.43%
Intel (INTC) 1.31%
Boeing (BA) 1.29%
Facebook (FB) 1.26%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 1.09%
American Water Works (AWK) 1.06%
Aqua America (WTR) 1.04%
Autodesk (ADSK) 0.92%
Ansys (ANSS) 0.92%
Lululemon Athletica (LULU) 0.86%
Coca-Cola (KO) 0.80%
Waste Management (WM) 0.76%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.73%
F5 Networks (FFIV) 0.68%