Stocks Of The Month: AMZN, TSLA

First - a sale! Comcast (CMCSA) has been an underperformer ever since I bought it over three years ago. Additionally, inspired by this article warning of the fragility of growth via leverage (among other things), I looked at all of my stocks' cash-to-debt levels...and Comcast was by far the worst, with $5.5B in cash and a whopping $112.0B in debt. It was sold at an 18% loss (-6% annualized). Going forward, I will add cash and debt levels to my monthly tracking stats.

For the foreseeable future, I not only want to track which of my Big Five I buy in a given month - I want to track those that I don't buy.


Amazon (AMZN)

• $970.6B market cap
• no dividend
• $280.5B revenue
• 21% revenue growth
• $55.0B cash
• $77.5B debt
• $38.5B operating cash flow
• $18.8B free cash flow

Apple (AAPL)

• $1.11T market cap
• 1.2% dividend yield
• $267.7B revenue
• 9% revenue growth
• $107.2B cash
• $116.8B debt
• $73.2B operating cash flow
• $45.6B free cash flow

Microsoft (MSFT)

• $1.20T market cap
• 1.3% dividend yield
• $134.3B revenue
• 14% revenue growth
• $134.2B cash
• $87.2B debt
• $54.1B operating cash flow
• $35.1B free cash flow

NVIDIA (NVDA)

• $161.3B market cap
• 0.2% dividend yield
• $10.9B revenue
• 41% revenue growth
• $10.9B cash
• $2.6B debt
• $4.8B operating cash flow
• $3.2B free cash flow

Tesla (TSLA)

• $96.6B market cap
• no dividend
• $24.6B revenue
• 2% revenue growth
• $6.3B cash
• $14.7B debt
• $2.4B operating cash flow
• $1.5B free cash flow

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

NVIDIA (NVDA) 16.10%
Tesla (TSLA) 15.79%
Amazon (AMZN) 14.70%
Apple (AAPL) 11.93%
Microsoft (MSFT) 10.97%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 4.70%
Facebook (FB) 2.98%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 2.70%
Adobe (ADBE) 2.37%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.93%
Salesforce (CRM) 1.74%
Visa (V) 1.73%
Nike (NKE) 1.71%
Intel (INTC) 1.70%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.67%
Starbucks (SBUX) 1.20%
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) 1.12%
Waste Management (WM) 1.07%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.85%
Autodesk (ADSK) 0.68%
Union Pacific (UNP) 0.65%
Norfolk Southern (NSC) 0.57%
CSX (CSX) 0.56%
Kansas City Southern (KSU) 0.28%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.27%

Stocks Of The Month: AMZN, FB, TSLA

We're down to 30* stocks owned!

*about 5(?) more than where I think I will end up?

The most recent departure is Boeing (BA). I sold for a loss of -4% actual/-3% annualized, and has a history of underperforming the market (which is now a point of emphasis for the stocks that I own).

This month's buys are Tesla Motors (TSLA), Amazon (AMZN), and for the fourth consecutive (and probably final) month in a row, Facebook (FB). Elon Musk believes that the combined Tesla/SolarCity will be worth $1 trillion someday...and doubting Elon Musk is not a wise idea. (Even if he comes up half-way short, $500 billion is still a 15x increase.) Amazon was recently cited as having the ability to "snuff out competition", which can only be a good thing in an investing sense. And Facebook is a competition-snuffing monster in its own right.

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

Tesla Motors (TSLA) 10.88%
Apple (AAPL) 10.61%
3D Systems (DDD) 9.41%
Amazon (AMZN) 9.12%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 6.60%
Facebook (FB) 5.47%
Stratasys (SSYS) 5.30%
Twitter (TWTR) 4.96%
Under Armour (UAA) 4.96%
Baidu (BIDU) 4.21%
Nike (NKE) 3.15%
Chubb Limited (CB) 2.82%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 2.72%
Starbucks (SBUX) 2.33%
Microsoft (MSFT) 1.54%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 1.48%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.43%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.40%
Wells Fargo (WFC) 1.28%
Intel (INTC) 1.25%
McDonald's (MCD) 1.17%
American Water Works (AWK) 1.08%
Veolia Environnement (VEOEY) 1.05%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 0.98%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.90%
Autodesk (ADSK) 0.84%
Waste Management (WM) 0.79%
Ansys (ANSS) 0.78%
Coca-Cola (KO) 0.69%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.66%

Stock Of The Month: AAPL (The Fourth Quarter Dividend Edition)

Historically, I've thought of the last quarter of the year as the time to buy my favorite dividend stocks...though having searched back, I cannot find much formal evidence of this (a recurring - and not-so-reassuring - theme). So let's fix that.

Welcome to the first edition of the The Fourth Quarter Dividend.

This month I will choose from the "16"s of my portfolio. (Meaning, each of these stocks are roughly target allocated for 16% of my total portfolio.) The candidate stocks are:

Amazon (AMZN)
Apple (AAPL)
NVIDIA (NVDA)
Tesla (TSLA)

AMZN and TSLA can be eliminated from consideration right away: neither pays a dividend.

Now let's compare the remaining two candidates.

AAPL: 1.3% dividend yield, 24% payout ratio, $255.3B revenue, 17% revenue growth, $73.0B operating cash flow, $41.4B free cash flow
NVDA: 0.2% dividend yield, 9% payout ratio, $11.9B revenue, 40% revenue growth, $4.9B operating cash flow, $2.5B free cash flow

As you can see, this is not a particularly close contest. Apple is one of the safest, most well-funded dividend stocks in the market, perhaps ever. It will almost certainly increase payouts year-over-year for the foreseeable future.

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

Amazon (AMZN) 15.22%
Apple (AAPL) 15.09%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 14.79%
Tesla (TSLA) 11.11%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 6.61%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 4.26%
Facebook (FB) 4.07%
Microsoft (MSFT) 3.04%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.67%
Nike (NKE) 2.29%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.27%
Visa (V) 1.87%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.80%
Intel (INTC) 1.59%
Waste Management (WM) 1.52%
Starbucks (SBUX) 1.35%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.34%
Chubb Limited (CB) 1.27%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.27%
Booking Holdings (BKNG) 1.25%
Autodesk (ADSK) 0.91%
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) 0.59%
Comcast (CMCSA) 0.58%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.53%
Norfolk Southern (NSC) 0.51%
CSX (CSX) 0.50%
Union Pacific (UNP) 0.46%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.44%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.43%
Kansas City Southern (KSU) 0.34%

Stock Of The Month: TSLA

I'm going to repeat myself from when I first bought this stock back in August of last year - and also from the 2011 Stock Recap when I said "My pick for 2012's best stock"...

Tesla Motors (TSLA)

Positives:
Pure play on the long-term trend of automobiles transitioning from gasoline to electric power.
Super-cool cars (they manufacture and sell their own brand) and technology (they supply powertrains for Daimler and Toyota).

Negatives:
Horrible fundamentals across the board (negative earnings, margins, cash flows, etc., etc.)


Here's my current portfolio. As always, I believe in all of these stocks - until I sell them.

Apple (AAPL) 18.06%
Baidu (BIDU) 9.58%
Google (GOOG) 7.50%
Southern Copper (SCCO) 5.78%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 5.66%
Ace Limited (ACE) 4.07%
Annaly Capital Management (NLY) 4.03%
BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust (BPT) 3.52%
American Software (AMSWA) 3.09%
American Capital Agency (AGNC) 3.02%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 2.86%
Apache (APA) 2.68%
The Distressed (APKT, BEBE, DNDN, EA, ESI, GSOL, HNSN, JSDA, LZB, MAKO, MSI, PCS, RBCN, RVR, SRZ, SVNT, WFC, ZIP) 2.64%
Intel (INTC) 2.63%
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) 2.55%
McDonald's (MCD) 2.46%
Prospect Capital (PSEC) 2.23%
Blackstone (BX) 2.21%
Vodafone (VOD) 2.10%
DuPont (DD) 2.09%
F5 Networks (FFIV) 1.93%
Hugoton Royalty Trust (HGT) 1.90%
Under Armour (UA) 1.73%
BreitBurn Energy Partners (BBEP) 1.63%
Amazon (AMZN) 1.48%
Chimera Investment (CIM) 1.12%
Netflix (NFLX) 0.92%

Stocks Of The Month: AMZN, CMCSA, FB, GOOGL, TSLA

"The Greater 28"

Every year, I hope against hope that I will not be selling any stocks in the upcoming year. The stock for which I wrote this just last month - "A terrible year for athletic companies" - can now be amended with "down another 29%". Under Armour (UAA) has declining revenue growth, declining earnings, more debt than cash, no dividend,...and is no longer owned in my portfolio.

The proceeds from this sale went to my four horsemen of tech; Amazon (AMZN), Facebook (FB), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Tesla (TSLA).

A new addition to the portfolio is one I never would have imagined owning, the #1 most hated company in America: Comcast (CMCSA). They have outperformed the market across every time horizon:

Comcast is also growing $80B in revenue at 9%, earnings at 16%, has massive operating and free cash flows of $19B and $8B respectively, and has a 0.8% dividend that has increased payouts for 9 years.

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

Apple (AAPL) 12.49%
Tesla (TSLA) 11.95%
3D Systems (DDD) 10.41%
Amazon (AMZN) 9.55%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 8.97%
Facebook (FB) 6.01%
Twitter (TWTR) 4.74%
Stratasys (SSYS) 3.91%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 3.55%
Nike (NKE) 2.91%
Starbucks (SBUX) 2.46%
Chubb Limited (CB) 2.38%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.36%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.33%
Microsoft (MSFT) 2.20%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 2.02%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.84%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.27%
Comcast (CMCSA) 1.17%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.16%
Intel (INTC) 1.11%
Autodesk (ADSK) 1.07%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.79%
ExOne (XONE) 0.79%
Waste Management (WM) 0.67%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.66%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.64%
ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (ULTA) 0.57%

Stocks Of The Month: AAPL, MSFT, NVDA, TSLA

If you thought my 2017 purchases (and posts) were redundant...well, 2018 is going to be more of the same.

I bought more of my two favorite stocks, NVIDIA (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA); and two of my favorite dividend-payers, Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) - the latter of which I have achieved my allocation target, so that I may concentrate in future months on the former three.

Apple might take 8 months of consecutive purchases to reach my goal. Tesla and NVIDIA, no doubt interrupted by other investment goals, might take a minimum of 2 years. (Yeah, future posts are going to get really redundant.)

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

Tesla (TSLA) 14.85%
Apple (AAPL) 12.00%
Amazon (AMZN) 11.60%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 10.23%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 8.01%
Facebook (FB) 5.65%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 3.79%
Microsoft (MSFT) 3.01%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.47%
Nike (NKE) 2.34%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.10%
Visa (V) 1.98%
Intel (INTC) 1.91%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.91%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.90%
Waste Management (WM) 1.81%
Starbucks (SBUX) 1.75%
Chubb Limited (CB) 1.72%
Priceline Group (PCLN) 1.52%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.36%
Autodesk (ADSK) 0.92%
Comcast (CMCSA) 0.84%
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) 0.63%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.63%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.54%
Norfolk Southern (NSC) 0.54%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.52%
CSX (CSX) 0.50%
Union Pacific (UNP) 0.50%
Kansas City Southern (KSU) 0.42%

Stocks Of The Month: BLK, MSFT, NVDA, TSLA

Aside from my ongoing monthly accumulation of additional shares of NVIDIA (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA), I'm continuing to add to my favorite dividend stocks to ensure they continue to be a significant portion of my portfolio. This month, I chose BlackRock (BLK) with its 2.1% dividend yield and steady outperformance of the market; and the other half of "Wintel" that I didn't buy last month: Microsoft (MSFT).

Yes, they still have the old cash cows of Windows and Office - otherwise, Microsoft has reinvented itself in the past 3 years. They make cool hardware (Surface, HoloLens). They have a significant presence in the cloud (Azure). Most importantly, their CEO is once again a geek visionary (Satya Nadella), and the stock has responded to his leadership by hitting all-time highs. With revenues of $90B growing at 13%, +$40B cash minus debt, free cash flow of $20B, and an extremely safe 2.0% dividend yield, Microsoft has room to grow.

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

Tesla (TSLA) 14.55%
Apple (AAPL) 11.78%
Amazon (AMZN) 11.23%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 9.67%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 8.11%
Facebook (FB) 5.79%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 4.11%
Microsoft (MSFT) 2.72%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.60%
Nike (NKE) 2.18%
Salesforce (CRM) 2.14%
Intel (INTC) 2.12%
Visa (V) 1.98%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.90%
Chubb Limited (CB) 1.89%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.85%
Starbucks (SBUX) 1.76%
Priceline Group (PCLN) 1.69%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.29%
Autodesk (ADSK) 1.11%
Comcast (CMCSA) 0.78%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.69%
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) 0.64%
Waste Management (WM) 0.56%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.56%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.52%
Norfolk Southern (NSC) 0.50%
CSX (CSX) 0.47%
Union Pacific (UNP) 0.45%
Kansas City Southern (KSU) 0.44%

Stock Of The Month: TSLA

I'm following my gut this month. Sometimes I'll look at a trading price, and get a nagging this stock is too cheap/doesn't belong here/is going higher very, very soon feeling. And when that stock doesn't abide by fundamentals, that gut feeling is all you really have anyway...


Tesla Motors (TSLA)

Positives:
Elon Musk.
Makes the best cars in the world. A truly customer-delightful company.
56% revenue growth.
Market cap ($24B) one-quarter that of the buggy whip maker it will soon obsolesce (Daimler, $101B).

Negatives:
Horrible fundamentals across the board (negative earnings, margins, cash flows, etc., etc.)


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

Apple (AAPL) 13.95%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 9.11%
Baidu (BIDU) 6.38%
Google (GOOG/GOOGL) 5.93%
3D Systems (DDD) 3.93%
Under Armour (UA) 3.89%
Twitter (TWTR) 3.55%
Amazon (AMZN) 3.42%
Ace Limited (ACE) 2.93%
Blackstone (BX) 2.73%
Southern Copper (SCCO) 2.62%
Stratasys (SSYS) 2.59%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 2.49%
Nike (NKE) 2.13%
Qihoo 360 (QIHU) 1.99%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.79%
American Software (AMSWA) 1.78%
Wells Fargo (WFC) 1.76%
Boeing (BA) 1.55%
China Mobile (CHL) 1.54%
Cisco (CSCO) 1.53%
ConocoPhillips (COP) 1.47%
Microsoft (MSFT) 1.43%
Intel (INTC) 1.36%
DuPont (DD) 1.35%
EMC (EMC) 1.12%
McDonald's (MCD) 1.11%
Alibaba (BABA) 1.11%
Starbucks (SBUX) 1.10%
Ansys (ANSS) 0.90%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.90%
American Express (AXP) 0.88%
Hershey (HSY) 0.86%
Lululemon Athletica (LULU) 0.85%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 0.83%
F5 Networks (FFIV) 0.83%
Las Vegas Sands (LVS) 0.82%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 0.82%
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) 0.79%
Coca-Cola (KO) 0.75%
Computer Programs and Systems (CPSI) 0.72%
Groupon (GRPN) 0.70%
International Business Machines (IBM) 0.59%
iRobot (IRBT) 0.54%
SolarCity (SCTY) 0.48%

Stocks Of The Month: NVDA, TSLA

Good news: for the first time in 2017, I didn't sell any stocks this month.

Better news: for the third and fourth time respectively in 2017, I've added NVIDIA (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) to my portfolio. We're going to keep 2017 as boring as possible, and keep hammering away at limited number of winning investments.

Anecdotally, my portfolio seems more top-heavy than it has ever been: Tesla (15.39%) is larger than the sum of the bottom 16 holdings (14.84%). As long as the top consists of companies destined to own the future, I'm comfortable with it.

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

Tesla (TSLA) 15.39%
Apple (AAPL) 12.88%
Amazon (AMZN) 11.23%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 8.58%
3D Systems (DDD) 8.29%
Facebook (FB) 5.98%
Stratasys (SSYS) 3.59%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 3.54%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 3.47%
Nike (NKE) 2.81%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.41%
Starbucks (SBUX) 2.39%
Chubb Limited (CB) 2.28%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.25%
Microsoft (MSFT) 2.09%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.68%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.18%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.08%
Comcast (CMCSA) 1.08%
Intel (INTC) 1.01%
Autodesk (ADSK) 0.99%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.78%
ExOne (XONE) 0.73%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.65%
Waste Management (WM) 0.65%
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) 0.65%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.63%
CSX (CSX) 0.57%
ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (ULTA) 0.54%
Union Pacific (UNP) 0.54%

Stocks Of The Month: NVDA, TSLA, ULTA

"The Great 28"

As mentioned before, we're going to keep 2017 as boring as possible, and keep hammering away at limited number of winning investments. For this month, that means adding to existing holdings NVIDIA (NVDA) and Tesla Motors (TSLA); but also, a new (hopefully winning) investment: ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (ULTA).

ULTA has everything I am looking for: outstanding revenue (24%) and profit (23%) growth; zero debt; positive cash flows; and most importantly, an established history of outperforming the market across several time horizons.

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

Apple (AAPL) 12.08%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 10.84%
3D Systems (DDD) 10.13%
Amazon (AMZN) 9.12%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 8.74%
Facebook (FB) 5.48%
Twitter (TWTR) 4.90%
Stratasys (SSYS) 3.86%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 3.50%
Under Armour (UAA) 3.30%
Nike (NKE) 3.09%
Starbucks (SBUX) 2.71%
Chubb Limited (CB) 2.47%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.29%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.28%
Microsoft (MSFT) 2.26%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 1.97%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.85%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.34%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.21%
Intel (INTC) 1.16%
Autodesk (ADSK) 1.06%
ExOne (XONE) 0.86%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.81%
Waste Management (WM) 0.70%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.69%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.67%
ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (ULTA) 0.58%

The End Of The Innocence: Sold TSLA, NVDA, AAPL, AMD

Remember when the days were long
And rolled beneath a deep blue sky
Didn't have a care in the world

I've been meaning to write my September update for a while now, but things kept on happening...

On September 1st, I bought (more) of AGG, HYLB, PFFD, and USHY.

On September 4th, the first of my recently-established stop-losses triggered for TSLA.  I used the (substantial) proceeds from this to buy (even more) AGG, HYLB, PFFD, and USHY; and also establish a new holding in QQQ.

On September 8th, my stop-loss triggered for NVDA.

On September 11th, my stop-loss triggered for AAPL and AMD.

It is difficult to overstate how important these particular stocks have been for my portfolio.

Tesla - due to both the size of the investment, and its extraordinary performance - had an especially large importance.  The gains from TSLA alone exceeded the value of my entire portfolio through the first 19 years of my investing career.

The result of these sales is a lot of cash...now my largest holding.  I plan to use the proceeds primarily towards QQQ, AGG, HYLB, PFFD, and USHY over the upcoming months.

As if that wasn't enough, the super-secret high-conviction stock in my Roth IRA was also sold on September 3rd via stop-loss trigger.  The proceeds from this sale re-established a 50/50 split between AGG and two new high-conviction stocks.  I will soon update my Grand Unified Theory accordingly.

Boilerplate time...

As a stretch goal: for dividend income purposes, I'd like this portfolio to eventually be as much as a 50/50 split between stocks and bonds. As seen below, it is currently 66/34.

I am in no rush to flip into bonds. I would rather let my winners run forever. However, if in any given month I see no stocks that present themselves as especially good buying opportunities, I have no reservations in simply adding to my bond and/or preferred stock ETFs. It is truly a month-to-month situation (as it has always been!).

For the foreseeable future, I want to track my Big Five Two every month, whether I buy them or not.

Amazon (AMZN)

• $1.58T market cap
• no dividend
• $321.8B revenue
• 40% revenue growth
• $71.4B cash
• $91.4B debt
• $51.2B operating cash flow
• $33.7B free cash flow

Microsoft (MSFT)

• $1.58T market cap
• 1.0% dividend yield
• $143.0B revenue
• 13% revenue growth
• $136.5B cash
• $82.1B debt
• $60.7B operating cash flow
• $34.3B free cash flow

Here's my current portfolio (buy and hold). As always, I believe in all of these stocks/ETFs - until I sell them.

Amazon (AMZN) 11.90%
iShares Broad USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (USHY) 9.55%
Xtrackers USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYLB) 9.53%
iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) 9.53%
Microsoft (MSFT) 8.87%
Global X U.S. Preferred ETF (PFFD) 4.94%
Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) 3.27%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 3.20%
Facebook (FB) 2.49%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 2.07%
Adobe (ADBE) 1.92%
Salesforce (CRM) 1.59%
Visa (V) 1.14%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.13%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.06%
Autodesk (ADSK) 0.57%

Stocks Of The Month: AMZN, INTC, KSU, NVDA, TSLA

It is a busy month for the portfolio. Gone is ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (ULTA), bought in January of this year, and sold at a 12% loss.

Bought are the usual suspects in NVIDIA (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA); a recent repeat in Amazon (AMZN); a new piece on the Ticket To Ride playing board in Kansas City Southern (KSU); and the stock I really want to write about: Intel (INTC).

Last bought way back in 2010(!), Intel has quietly cranked out a 120% gain since. They are not the technological leader by raw processing horsepower anymore - NVIDIA's GPUs hold that title - but they are ubiquitous. If you need a silicon chip (and chances are that you do), Intel has a silicon chip for you. With $62B in revenue growing at 9%, and a dividend yield of 2.7%, Intel is an easy stock to own.

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

Tesla (TSLA) 17.25%
Apple (AAPL) 11.28%
Amazon (AMZN) 10.33%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 8.55%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 8.03%
Facebook (FB) 5.88%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 4.09%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.27%
Nike (NKE) 2.16%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.12%
Visa (V) 2.01%
Chubb Limited (CB) 1.98%
Microsoft (MSFT) 1.93%
Intel (INTC) 1.93%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.89%
Starbucks (SBUX) 1.82%
Priceline Group (PCLN) 1.78%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.36%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.15%
Autodesk (ADSK) 1.08%
Comcast (CMCSA) 0.90%
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) 0.69%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.68%
Waste Management (WM) 0.58%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.57%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.56%
Norfolk Southern (NSC) 0.54%
CSX (CSX) 0.51%
Kansas City Southern (KSU) 0.47%
Union Pacific (UNP) 0.47%

Stocks Of The Month: NVDA, TSLA, UNH

Another month, another purchase of Telsa (TSLA) and NVIDIA (NVDA).  Tesla is about 5% short of the goal allocation, while NVIDIA is about 10% short (yikes).

I do not want to ignore my dividend-paying stocks; so with Chubb Limited (CB) as the goal allocation of about 2% each, I bought some more UnitedHealth Group (UNH) to match.  I will be buying more of BlackRock (BLK), Comcast (CMCSA), and Intel (INTC) in future months - only Chubb is officially a buy as it is the marker for the entire dividend stock group.

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

Tesla (TSLA) 17.33%
Apple (AAPL) 12.08%
Amazon (AMZN) 10.32%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 7.93%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 7.63%
Facebook (FB) 6.03%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 3.97%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.40%
Nike (NKE) 2.27%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.18%
Visa (V) 2.00%
Microsoft (MSFT) 1.96%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.94%
Chubb Limited (CB) 1.91%
Starbucks (SBUX) 1.89%
Priceline Group (PCLN) 1.79%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.34%
Autodesk (ADSK) 1.11%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.07%
Comcast (CMCSA) 0.97%
Intel (INTC) 0.82%
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) 0.72%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.68%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.57%
Waste Management (WM) 0.57%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.56%
Norfolk Southern (NSC) 0.51%
CSX (CSX) 0.49%
Union Pacific (UNP) 0.44%
ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (ULTA) 0.36%

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: AMZN, ATVI, CSX, NVDA, TSLA, UNP (The Games, Trains, and Automobiles Edition)

"The Fundamental 30"

I sold Twitter (TWTR) this month; my evergreen thoughts of which are summarized here:

Twitter, the product: amazing.$TWTR, the company: terrible.

— Joseph Rupp (@JosephJRupp) February 9, 2017

The proceeds of this sale went to stalwarts Amazon (AMZN), NVIDIA (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), and 3 new holdings...


Activision Blizzard (ATVI)

Growing $6.6B in revenues at 49 percent, Activision Blizzard is a leader in interactive online software - which should soon transform into AR/VR leadership.

ATVI - All-time

CSX (CSX)
Union Pacific (UNP)

Along with Canadian National Railway (CNI), CSX and Union Pacific complete my Ticket To Ride playing board quite nicely. (They also yield 1.5% and 2.2% respectively.)

CSX - 6 MO

UNP - 10 YR

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

Apple (AAPL) 13.19%
Tesla (TSLA) 12.90%
Amazon (AMZN) 11.16%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 9.06%
3D Systems (DDD) 8.80%
Facebook (FB) 6.14%
Stratasys (SSYS) 3.70%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 3.67%
Nike (NKE) 3.07%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 2.87%
Starbucks (SBUX) 2.48%
Chubb Limited (CB) 2.45%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.36%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.36%
Microsoft (MSFT) 2.16%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.82%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.28%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.17%
Comcast (CMCSA) 1.13%
Intel (INTC) 1.06%
Autodesk (ADSK) 1.05%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.83%
ExOne (XONE) 0.78%
Waste Management (WM) 0.69%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.68%
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) 0.66%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.64%
CSX (CSX) 0.63%
Union Pacific (UNP) 0.58%
ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (ULTA) 0.57%

Stocks Of The Month: AMZN, NVDA, TSLA

This month I bought more of Telsa (TSLA) and NVIDIA (NVDA), and will be doing so for the foreseeable future.  Additionally, I bought more of Amazon (AMZN) after their "disappointing" quarterly results.  I'll be mixing in some of Alphabet (GOOGL), Facebook (FB), and Microsoft (MSFT) in future months as well.

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

Tesla (TSLA) 16.77%
Apple (AAPL) 11.76%
Amazon (AMZN) 10.70%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 8.03%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 7.11%
3D Systems (DDD) 6.49%
Facebook (FB) 6.04%
Stratasys (SSYS) 4.77%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 3.68%
Nike (NKE) 2.61%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.33%
Chubb Limited (CB) 2.12%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.08%
Microsoft (MSFT) 1.94%
Starbucks (SBUX) 1.94%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.35%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.12%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.09%
Autodesk (ADSK) 1.06%
Comcast (CMCSA) 0.97%
Intel (INTC) 0.86%
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) 0.71%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.69%
ExOne (XONE) 0.65%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.58%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.57%
Waste Management (WM) 0.57%
CSX (CSX) 0.50%
Union Pacific (UNP) 0.44%
ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (ULTA) 0.41%

Stocks Of The Month: AAPL, NVDA, TSLA, WM

(you already know about NVIDIA (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA))

(and Apple (AAPL) deserves some of that iPhone X money)

(but what if I told you...that one of my best stocks is...garbage?)

Waste Management (WM) has outperformed the market over the short and long term...

WM 2 yr

WM 30 yr

...while paying a consistently growing dividend (currently yielding 2.1%); growing $14B in revenue at 7%, and earnings at 26%; and showing excellent profit (9%) and operating (18%) margins, return on assets (8%), return on equity (24%), and free cash flow of $1.6B.  Simply put, WM checks all the boxes.  (or, it's some real hot trash)

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

Tesla (TSLA) 14.83%
Apple (AAPL) 11.94%
Amazon (AMZN) 11.49%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 8.96%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 7.84%
Facebook (FB) 5.57%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 3.97%
Microsoft (MSFT) 2.63%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.41%
Nike (NKE) 2.36%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.08%
Intel (INTC) 2.04%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.99%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.98%
Chubb Limited (CB) 1.93%
Visa (V) 1.92%
Starbucks (SBUX) 1.86%
Waste Management (WM) 1.83%
Priceline Group (PCLN) 1.54%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.47%
Autodesk (ADSK) 0.97%
Comcast (CMCSA) 0.89%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.71%
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) 0.59%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.58%
Norfolk Southern (NSC) 0.54%
CSX (CSX) 0.53%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.52%
Union Pacific (UNP) 0.50%
Kansas City Southern (KSU) 0.47%

Stocks Of The Month: AMZN, FB, GOOGL, TSLA

We're down to 26* stocks owned!

*about 4(?) less(?!) than where I think I will end up? 30 seems like the right number...

The final(?) sell of this sell-filled year is Ansys (ANSS). It is not a bad stock, but it is not great either.

ANSS - 5 YR

ANSS - 1 YR 

ANSS - 6 MO

The proceeds of this sale went to the "Big 4" of Amazon (AMZN), Facebook (FB), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Tesla Motors (TSLA).

Here's my current portfolio (buy, hold, and sell...wait, there are no sells...). As always, I believe in all of these stocks - until I sell them.

Apple (AAPL) 12.04%
3D Systems (DDD) 10.48%
Amazon (AMZN) 9.27%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 9.19%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 8.94%
Facebook (FB) 5.74%
Twitter (TWTR) 5.73%
Stratasys (SSYS) 4.72%
Under Armour (UAA) 3.75%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 3.60%
Nike (NKE) 3.23%
Starbucks (SBUX) 2.76%
Chubb Limited (CB) 2.63%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.52%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.40%
Microsoft (MSFT) 2.34%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.87%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.43%
Intel (INTC) 1.20%
Autodesk (ADSK) 1.07%
ExOne (XONE) 1.04%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.89%
Veolia Environnement (VEOEY) 0.87%
Waste Management (WM) 0.75%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.73%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.67%

Stocks Of The Month: TSLA, KMP

I was going to have just one stock of the month, but since I seem to enjoy portfolio churn so much, there are two.

Gone is Cherokee (CHKE), due to a declining dividend and stock price; as well as both Motorola Mobility (MMI) and STEC (STEC), due to being insignificant holdings percentage-wise.

In their place are a speculative and a dividend stock respectively...

Tesla Motors (TSLA)

Positives:

Pure play on the long-term trend of automobiles transitioning from gasoline to electric power.

Super-cool cars (they manufacture and sell their own brand) and technology (they supply powertrains for Daimler and Toyota).

Negatives:

Horrible fundamentals across the board (negative earnings, margins, cash flows, etc., etc.)

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

Positives:

High dividend yield (6.6%) and a nearly 20-year history of increasing dividend payments.

Steady, positive cash flows.

Negatives:

Revenues (+3%) and earnings (-36%) not very good.

Here's my current portfolio. As always, I believe in all of these stocks - until I sell them.

Apple (AAPL) 13.09%

Baidu (BIDU) 11.55%

Google (GOOG) 8.20%

Southern Copper (SCCO) 7.16%

Annaly Capital Management (NLY) 5.33%

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 4.60%

Ace Limited (ACE) 4.36%

Apache (APA) 3.95%

American Software (AMSWA) 3.67%

BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust (BPT) 3.57%

Hugoton Royalty Trust (HGT) 3.57%

Blackstone (BX) 2.68%

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) 2.52%

Vodafone (VOD) 2.52%

McDonald's (MCD) 2.46%

Intel (INTC) 2.38%

DuPont (DD) 2.37%

Prospect Capital (PSEC) 2.26%

BreitBurn Energy Partners (BBEP) 1.97%

The Distressed (ERTS, ESI, JSDA, LZB, MSI, PCS, RVR, WFC) 1.83%

American Capital Agency (AGNC) 1.76%

F5 Networks (FFIV) 1.70%

Chimera Investment (CIM) 1.50%

Under Armour (UA) 1.49%

Tesla Motors (TSLA) 1.44%

Netflix (NFLX) 1.18%

Stocks Of The Month: NVDA, TSLA (The Warren Buffett Wannabe Edition)

Short story: This month I bought more of Telsa (TSLA) and NVIDIA (NVDA), and will be doing so for the foreseeable future.

Long(er) story: Consider that I have observed that my portfolio has become more top-heavy than it has ever been. Also consider the portfolio of one Warren Buffett:

Kraft Heinz (KHC) 18.27%
Wells Fargo (WFC) 16.49%
Apple (AAPL) 11.48%
Coca-Cola (KO) 10.49%
American Express (AXP) 7.41%
International Business Machines (IBM) 6.95%
Phillips 66 (PSX) 3.95%
US Bancorp (USB) 2.71%
remaining 39 stocks 22.25%

It seems that I could stand to be a little more top-heavy than I am already - my top 8 holdings are only 71.27% of my portfolio. I've identified what I want to be my top 8 "buy"s going forward. Without selling out of the "hold"s, it is going to take me a few years to get to where I want to be (and I'm sure I will change course between now and then).

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

Tesla (TSLA) 15.84%
Apple (AAPL) 11.22%
Amazon (AMZN) 10.53%
3D Systems (DDD) 9.10%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 8.21%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 5.86%
Facebook (FB) 5.55%
Stratasys (SSYS) 4.96%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 3.81%
Nike (NKE) 2.57%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.30%
Chubb Limited (CB) 2.13%
Starbucks (SBUX) 2.08%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.07%
Microsoft (MSFT) 1.92%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.39%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.16%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.08%
Autodesk (ADSK) 1.04%
Comcast (CMCSA) 0.97%
Intel (INTC) 0.84%
ExOne (XONE) 0.73%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.69%
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) 0.66%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.61%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.58%
CSX (CSX) 0.58%
Waste Management (WM) 0.57%
Union Pacific (UNP) 0.48%
ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (ULTA) 0.47%