Stocks Of The Month: NVDA, UNH

We will end 2016 with 27 stocks held. This means in two years, the number of stocks owned has gone from 49, to 35, to 27. At least one of my investing goals was met this year...though this number will jump to 30 fairly quickly in 2017, as I already have 3 great stocks chosen for addition :-)

The last sell of 2016 is Veolia Environnement (VEOEY). I like the underlying asset (water), but it has performed poorly to say the least.

VEOEY - 5 YR

VEOEY - 6 MO

Added for this month are one oldie, and one brand new to the portfolio: NVIDIA (NVDA), and UnitedHealth Group (UNH).

NVIDIA was bought all the way back in 2007, and (foolishly) sold in 2008. It was strictly a PC graphics chip business back then; now they are the leader in two critical technologies: deep learning and autonomous driving.

UnitedHealth Group is, in one word, monstrous. They are growing $181B in revenues at 12% a year, have $16B in free cash flow, and have consistently increased their dividend for 26 years and counting (currently yielding 1.6%).

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) 12.29%
3D Systems (DDD) 9.72%
Amazon (AMZN) 9.36%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 8.92%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 8.91%
Facebook (FB) 5.61%
Twitter (TWTR) 5.58%
Stratasys (SSYS) 4.04%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 3.72%
Under Armour (UAA) 3.56%
Nike (NKE) 3.24%
Starbucks (SBUX) 2.95%
Chubb Limited (CB) 2.67%
Microsoft (MSFT) 2.36%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.33%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.33%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.92%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.44%
NVIDIA (NVDA) 1.33%
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) 1.33%
Intel (INTC) 1.20%
Autodesk (ADSK) 1.03%
ExOne (XONE) 0.92%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.92%
Waste Management (WM) 0.78%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.75%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.72%

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: DDD, TWTR, XONE

We're down to 27* stocks owned!

*about 3(?) less(?!) than where I think I will end up? 30 seems like the right number...

Sold are two industrial titans of gluttony: McDonald's (MCD) and Coca-Cola (KO). Although they both pay greater than 3% dividends, they also both have negative revenue growth (-4% and -5% respectively) and some underperforming charts as well.

MCD - 5 YR

MCD - 6 MO

KO - 5 YR

KO - 6 MO

For the first time in 8 months, there is a new addition to the portfolio...sort of. ExOne (XONE) was first bought and sold in 2013-2014. I was wrong early; as I said then: "it would be quite arrogant, and very likely incorrect, if I were to act under the assumption that DDD (and/or SSYS) will the only winner(s) in the red-hot 3D printing industry."

I also added to my positions in 3D Systems (DDD) and Twitter (TWTR); rewarding the former for further rising from the abyss of earlier this year, and the latter for what is now a certain buyout offer by one of Disney, Google, Microsoft, or Salesforce.

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

3D Systems (DDD) 11.78%
Apple (AAPL) 11.61%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 9.07%
Amazon (AMZN) 8.94%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 7.89%
Twitter (TWTR) 6.72%
Facebook (FB) 5.27%
Stratasys (SSYS) 4.94%
Under Armour (UAA) 4.20%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 3.84%
Nike (NKE) 3.07%
Starbucks (SBUX) 2.53%
Chubb Limited (CB) 2.36%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.32%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.27%
Microsoft (MSFT) 2.10%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.75%
ExOne (XONE) 1.34%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.27%
Intel (INTC) 1.21%
Veolia Environnement (VEOEY) 0.99%
Autodesk (ADSK) 0.96%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.84%
Ansys (ANSS) 0.70%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.69%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.65%
Waste Management (WM) 0.64%

Stocks Of The Month: AAPL, COST, MSFT, NKE, SBUX

We're down to 28* stocks owned!

*about 4(?) more than where I think I will end up?

The most recent departure is a boring one: Wells Fargo (WFC). Sure, it pays a steady dividend, and Warren Buffett likes it, and it's the best bank in America...but that will get you less than one might think:

10 YR

2 YR

6 MO

This month's buys are what I (now) consider to be my staple dividend stocks: Apple (AAPL), Costco Wholesale (COST), Microsoft (MSFT), Nike (NKE), and Starbucks (SBUX).

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

Apple (AAPL) 11.70%
3D Systems (DDD) 9.89%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 9.09%
Amazon (AMZN) 8.84%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 8.34%
Facebook (FB) 5.66%
Twitter (TWTR) 5.19%
Stratasys (SSYS) 4.81%
Under Armour (UAA) 4.57%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 3.89%
Nike (NKE) 3.58%
Starbucks (SBUX) 2.80%
Chubb Limited (CB) 2.57%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.46%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.32%
Microsoft (MSFT) 2.22%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.90%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.40%
Intel (INTC) 1.23%
Veolia Environnement (VEOEY) 1.07%
McDonald's (MCD) 1.04%
Autodesk (ADSK) 0.97%
American Water Works (AWK) 0.93%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.76%
Ansys (ANSS) 0.76%
Waste Management (WM) 0.69%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.67%
Coca-Cola (KO) 0.61%

Stocks Of The Month: ADBE, CRM, GOOGL, ISRG

We're down to 29* stocks owned!

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

The most recent departure is one that kind of snuck up on me: Baidu (BIDU). Once upon a time, I bought and sold this stock for 193% gain (288% annualized!). Then the stock fell down, but rebounded even higher, and I felt compelled to buy the same amount I once had, all over again. From there on, BIDU was always in the black for me...until one day, I woke up and realized that its been quietly yet consistently underperforming for half a decade:

5 YR 

2 YR

YTD

3 MO

This month's buys are 4 growth stocks that I feel that I've been ignoring: Alphabet (GOOGL), Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), Salesforce.com (CRM) and Adobe Systems (ADBE).

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

Apple (AAPL) 11.18%
Tesla Motors (TSLA) 10.78%
3D Systems (DDD) 9.46%
Amazon (AMZN) 8.89%
Alphabet (GOOGL) 8.54%
Facebook (FB) 5.57%
Twitter (TWTR) 4.91%
Under Armour (UAA) 4.63%
Stratasys (SSYS) 4.44%
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 4.05%
Nike (NKE) 2.93%
Salesforce.com (CRM) 2.75%
Chubb Limited (CB) 2.63%
Adobe Systems (ADBE) 2.27%
Starbucks (SBUX) 2.21%
Microsoft (MSFT) 1.62%
BlackRock (BLK) 1.43%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.38%
Wells Fargo (WFC) 1.23%
Intel (INTC) 1.21%
McDonald's (MCD) 1.09%
Veolia Environnement (VEOEY) 1.05%
American Water Works (AWK) 1.01%
Aqua America (WTR) 0.85%
Autodesk (ADSK) 0.85%
Ansys (ANSS) 0.77%
Waste Management (WM) 0.74%
Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.66%
Coca-Cola (KO) 0.64%

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%

Searching With My Good Eye Closed: 124 Stocks That I Don't Own, And Wish I Could

If I took you for a ride, would you take it wrong?
Or would you make it right, make it right?
Looking for a pedestal that I can put you on
And be on my way, on my way

Fun fact:  I have 12 "watchlists", broken out by sector, which in total contain 656 stocks.  These watchlists mostly consist of stocks that at some point in time made me say "wow, that is interesting", followed by me forgetting about them entirely, followed by me looking at them and saying "what is this, and why is it here?"

I also have a 13th watchlist entitled "Short List" consisting of the stocks that I actually pay attention to, and have varying degrees of intent for addition to my portfolio in the future.

I recently made the effort to update the "Short List" by combing through all 13 watchlists, looking for one particular characteristic:  the stock must have consistently outperformed the market (more on that in a post TBD), across several historical time horizons.

The following 124 stocks made the cut.  They may have questionable valuation/financials, or lack upside due to shear size, or participate in a boring business, or represent additional risks going forward; but if the point of investing in individual stocks is to beat the broader market, all of these stocks have a history of doing exactly just that...which may be the most fundamental characteristic of all.

I will track these and post a yearly update going forward.

NAME	SYMBOL	MKT CAP
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.	BRK-A	353.84B Top of Form Bottom of Form
HDFC Bank Limited	HDB	340.50B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	337.92B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Pfizer Inc.	PFE	219.06B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV	BUD	205.22B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Visa Inc.	V	182.25B Top of Form Bottom of Form
The Home Depot, Inc.	HD	167.12B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Comcast Corporation	CMCSA	162.89B Top of Form Bottom of Form
The Walt Disney Company	DIS	161.63B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Cisco Systems, Inc.	CSCO	147.17B Top of Form Bottom of Form
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated	UNH	134.32B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company	BMY	125.67B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Medtronic plc	MDT	123.24B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Amgen Inc.	AMGN	121.02B Top of Form Bottom of Form
The Kraft Heinz Company	KHC	109.25B Top of Form Bottom of Form
AbbVie Inc.	ABBV	107.80B Top of Form Bottom of Form
3M Company	MMM	107.43B Top of Form Bottom of Form
CVS Health Corporation	CVS	103.90B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation	NTT	101.75B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Honeywell International Inc.	HON	90.57B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Union Pacific Corporation	UNP	76.27B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Lowe's Companies, Inc.	LOW	72.96B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Simon Property Group Inc.	SPG	67.94B Top of Form Bottom of Form
The Priceline Group Inc.	PCLN	65.99B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Broadcom Limited	AVGO	61.36B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.	TMO	60.09B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Danaher Corp.	DHR	55.69B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Kimberly-Clark Corporation	KMB	48.96B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Stryker Corporation	SYK	45.73B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Automatic Data Processing, Inc.	ADP	43.03B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Netflix, Inc.	NFLX	41.57B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Becton, Dickinson and Company	BDX	37.27B Top of Form Bottom of Form
The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.	EL	34.34B Top of Form Bottom of Form
CME Group Inc.	CME	33.49B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Constellation Brands Inc.	STZ	33.28B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Monster Beverage Corporation	MNST	32.79B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Brookfield Asset Management Inc.	BAM	32.44B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Boston Scientific Corporation	BSX	32.43B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.	ICE	30.58B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Aflac Incorporated	AFL	30.01B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Aon plc	AON	29.03B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Sempra Energy	SRE	28.47B Top of Form Bottom of Form
The Sherwin-Williams Company	SHW	28.35B Top of Form Bottom of Form
NVIDIA Corporation	NVDA	27.15B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Southwest Airlines Co.	LUV	25.89B Top of Form Bottom of Form
NetEase, Inc.	NTES	24.36B Top of Form Bottom of Form
AutoZone, Inc.	AZO	24.34B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Electronic Arts Inc.	EA	23.59B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Xcel Energy Inc.	XEL	22.65B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Dollar Tree, Inc.	DLTR	22.41B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Edwards Lifesciences Corp.	EW	22.18B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Paychex, Inc.	PAYX	22.10B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Republic Services, Inc.	RSG	18.08B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc.	DPS	18.05B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Realty Income Corporation	O	18.01B Top of Form Bottom of Form
The J. M. Smucker Company	SJM	17.94B Top of Form Bottom of Form
The Clorox Company	CLX	17.90B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Vulcan Materials Company	VMC	16.46B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Expedia Inc.	EXPE	16.28B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Equifax Inc.	EFX	15.74B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Genuine Parts Company	GPC	15.71B Top of Form Bottom of Form
ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc.	ULTA	15.66B Top of Form Bottom of Form
TransDigm Group Incorporated	TDG	14.29B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Verisk Analytics, Inc.	VRSK	14.03B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings	LH	13.85B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Universal Health Services Inc.	UHS	13.31B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Markel Corp.	MKL	13.24B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Citrix Systems, Inc.	CTXS	12.96B Top of Form Bottom of Form
CMS Energy Corp.	CMS	12.70B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Cimarex Energy Co.	XEC	11.23B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Nasdaq, Inc.	NDAQ	10.84B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Lululemon Athletica Inc.	LULU	10.51B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Total System Services, Inc.	TSS	9.92B Top of Form Bottom of Form
The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc.	IPG	9.55B Top of Form Bottom of Form
VeriSign, Inc.	VRSN	9.29B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Waste Connections Inc.	WCN	8.99B Top of Form Bottom of Form
NiSource Inc.	NI	8.40B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Sabre Corporation	SABR	7.70B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Torchmark Corporation	TMK	7.40B Top of Form Bottom of Form
NVR, Inc.	NVR	7.13B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Jack Henry & Associates Inc.	JKHY	6.93B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Chemical & Mining Co. of Chile Inc.	SQM	6.72B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Align Technology Inc.	ALGN	6.65B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Steel Dynamics Inc.	STLD	6.49B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Weibo Corporation	WB	6.41B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Zillow Group, Inc.	Z	6.39B Top of Form Bottom of Form
The Ultimate Software Group, Inc.	ULTI	6.23B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Tyler Technologies, Inc.	TYL	6.11B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Treehouse Foods, Inc.	THS	5.88B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Copart, Inc.	CPRT	5.45B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Erie Indemnity Company	ERIE	5.11B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Nordson Corporation	NDSN	4.90B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Berry Plastics Group, Inc.	BERY	4.87B Top of Form Bottom of Form
HEICO Corporation	HEI	4.44B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Columbia Sportswear Company	COLM	4.14B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Charles River Laboratories International, Inc.	CRL	4.03B Top of Form Bottom of Form
NICE Ltd.	NICE	3.82B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Universal Display Corp.	OLED	3.31B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Ubiquiti Networks, Inc.	UBNT	3.27B Top of Form Bottom of Form
B&G Foods Inc.	BGS	3.04B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Healthcare Services Group Inc.	HCSG	2.97B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Ellie Mae, Inc.	ELLI	2.84B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Proofpoint, Inc.	PFPT	2.82B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Jack in the Box Inc.	JACK	2.81B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Paycom Software, Inc.	PAYC	2.73B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Worthington Industries, Inc.	WOR	2.69B Top of Form Bottom of Form
EnerSys	ENS	2.67B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Papa John's International Inc.	PZZA	2.55B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Drew Industries Incorporated	DW	2.17B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Pegasystems Inc.	PEGA	2.09B Top of Form Bottom of Form
AMN Healthcare Services Inc.	AHS	2.05B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Granite Construction Incorporated	GVA	1.88B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Mueller Water Products, Inc.	MWA	1.87B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc.	CCOI	1.87B Top of Form Bottom of Form
CyberArk Software, Ltd.	CYBR	1.74B Top of Form Bottom of Form
American States Water Company	AWR	1.59B Top of Form Bottom of Form
NIC Inc.	EGOV	1.50B Top of Form Bottom of Form
TASER International Inc.	TASR	1.44B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Callidus Software Inc.	CALD	1.16B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Green Dot Corporation	GDOT	1.14B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Standex International Corporation	SXI	1.08B Top of Form Bottom of Form
Farmer Brothers Co.	FARM	519.91M Top of Form Bottom of Form
The York Water Company	YORW	397.02M Top of Form Bottom of Form
Organovo Holdings, Inc.	ONVO	358.48M