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: BPT, HGT, PSEC

First, while I was sleeping...Tesoro (TSO) suspended its dividend indefinitely, and Terra Nitrogen (TNH) failed to pay its dividend for the current quarter...shame on them. Therefore both stocks have been sold, allowing for 3 new stocks for March.


BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust (BPT), Hugoton Royalty Trust (HGT)

Positives:
Massive 16% and 9.3% dividend yields respectively.

Negatives:
100% payout ratio (due to being trusts) equals lumpy dividends.


Prospect Capital (PSEC)

Positives:
13.9% dividend yield.
6+ year history of increased dividends.
Low forward P/E of 9.

Negatives:
Private equity / venture capital / risky financial company...buyer beware.

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

Apple (AAPL) 10.66%
Southern Copper (SCCO) 10.21%
Google (GOOG) 8.84%
Dominion Resources Black Warrior Trust (DOM) 5.90%
The Distressed (ABK, AIG, BBI, BGP, C, CRIC, ENER, ETFC, F, FNM, GIGM, JSDA, JTX, MOT, MTLQQ.PK, PALM, PCS, WFC, YRCW) 5.83%
Ace Limited (ACE) 5.03%
Frontline (FRO) 4.54%
BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust (BPT) 4.50%
Hugoton Royalty Trust (HGT) 4.43%
Prospect Capital (PSEC) 4.36%
American Software 3.89%
Blackstone (BX) 3.79%
Biovail (BVF) 3.30%
Great Northern Iron (GNI) 3.21%
Vodafone (VOD) 3.06%
Tidewater (TDW) 2.97%
Apache (APA) 2.95%
McDonald's (MCD) 2.80%
DuPont (DD) 2.46%
Annaly Capital Management (NLY) 2.43%
PDL BioPharma (PDLI) 2.30%
Cherokee (CHKE) 2.19%