2016 Stock Recap: The Departed

A tradition unlike any other...

For the fifth time in the past six years, my portfolio underperformed the S&P 500, losing -0.5% vs. gaining 12.0%.  It is my worst year vs. the S&P 500 since 2001.

And yet, I achieved some major goals this year:  reducing my number of stocks held to 27; achieving a savings return of 20%; and increasing my net worth to an all-time high.  (Finance is more than just picking stocks, no?)  We're going to keep 2017 as boring as possible, and keep hammering away at limited number of winning investments.

Here's a look at all the stocks I've sold in the past year, from best to worst - based solely on 2016's performance, while mostly ignoring any intra-year volatility:


F5 Networks (FFIV)
Year-opening price: $96.96
Sold: Feb @ $96.98 (0%)
Year-closing price: $144.72 (49%)
Evidently, they finally figured their business out, after I sold.

Lululemon Athletica (LULU)
Year-opening price: $52.47
Sold: Apr @ $66.97 (28%)
Year-closing price: $64.99 (24%)
Too volatile/doesn't have a clear path for success.

Southern Copper (SCCO)
Year-opening price: $26.12
Sold: Apr @ $27.10 (4%)
Year-closing price: $31.94 (22%)
Owned for over 11 years.  Good for a dividend, and not much else.

DuPont (DD)
Year-opening price: $66.60
Sold: Jan @ $65.12 (-2%)
Year-closing price: $73.40 (10%)
Sold on first trading day of 2016 due to pending merger with Dow Chemical. Returned 101% (12% annualized).

Boeing (BA)
Year-opening price: $144.59
Sold: Jun @ $127.08 (-12%)
Year-closing price: $155.68 (8%)
Flat revenues, suspect dividend.

American Express (AXP)
Year-opening price: $69.55
Sold: Jan @ $53.18 (-24%)
Year-closing price: $74.08 (7%)
Sold after lousy quarterly results; bounced back thereafter.  Still not interested.

Qihoo 360 (QIHU)
Year-opening price: $72.81
Sold: Jan @ $72.15 (-1%)
Year-closing price: Jul @ $76.92 (6%)
Sold on first trading day of 2016 due to pending privatization at $77/share. Returned 22% (8% annualized).

McDonald's (MCD)
Year-opening price: $118.14
Sold: Sep @ $114.69 (-3%)
Year-closing price: $121.72 (3%)
Days are numbered for "fast food" as we know it.

Wells Fargo (WFC)
Year-opening price: $54.36
Sold: Aug @ $50.75 (-7%)
Year-closing price: $55.11 (1%)
Irreparably damaged goods.  Not interested in financial stocks going forward.

American Software (AMSWA)
Year-opening price: $10.18
Sold: May @ $9.63 (-5%)
Year-closing price: $10.33 (1%)
Hasn't moved significantly in nearly a decade.

Ansys (ANSS)
Year-opening price: $92.50
Sold: Oct @ $91.73 (-1%)
Year-closing price: $92.49 (-0%)
Need more upside in a tech stock.

Coca-Cola (KO)
Year-opening price: $42.96
Sold: Sep @ $42.21 (-2%)
Year-closing price: $41.46 (-3%)
Not sure where it goes from here.  Probably not the next "big tobacco".

Blackstone (BX)
Year-opening price: $29.24
Sold: Apr @ $27.74 (-5%)
Year-closing price: $27.03 (-8%)
Should be printing money; instead, a loser 2 years in a row.

Baidu (BIDU)
Year-opening price: $189.04
Sold: Jul @ $161.01 (-15%)
Year-closing price: $164.41 (-13%)
Irrelevant outside of their local market.

Veolia Environnement (VEOEY)
Year-opening price: $23.59
Sold: Dec @ $16.65 (-29%)
Year-closing price: $16.95 (-28%)
Great assets, lousy management and execution.

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%