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Showing posts with label VFC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VFC. Show all posts

Monday, August 1, 2011

Jim Cramer's best Favorite Stocks

Jim Cramer is the host of CNBC's Mad Money show and the chairman of TheStreet.com. In 1987, Cramer started his own hedge fund and returned an average of 24% per year between 1987 and 2001. Cramer also authored six money management books.

During the last 30 days, his favorite buy recommendations (based on number of mentioned days) on Mad Money were as follows:

Company No. Of Times Picked First Date* Return** Excess Return (wrt S&P500)
Apple (AAPL) 7 2-Aug-10 49.9% 26.9%
Google (GOOG) 4 1-Jun-11 15.5% 16.1%
Netflix (NFLX) 4 14-Mar-11 32.7% 30.9%
Amazon.com (AMZN) 3 4-Aug-10 74.4% 47.9%
Caterpillar (CAT) 3 10-Aug-10 44.5% 21.9%
Chesapeake Energy (CHK) 3 6-Jan-11 25.9% 21.7%
Chipotle Mexican Gr (CMG) 3 29-Apr-11 21.0% 25.8%
Cummins (CMI) 3 28-Jul-10 40.5% 16.8%
ConocoPhillips (COP) 3 5-Aug-10 31.4% 11.3%
Consolidated Edison (ED) 3 11-Aug-10 17.1% -3.9%
SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) 3 7-Sep-10 28.1% 5.4%
Intl Business Mach (IBM) 3 5-Oct-10 33.4% 16.9%
McDonald's (MCD) 3 17-Mar-11 19.5% 15.9%
Annaly Capital (NLY) 3 5-Aug-10 16.3% -1.5%
VF Corp (VFC) 3 15-Nov-10 47.2% 33.4%
Average 33.2% 19.0%

*Represents latest recommendation change from sell to buy. The study interval includes only past one year.

**Includes the duration from first date till July 27.

Cramer's favorite stock recommendations returned 33.2% on average since they have been recommended. The average relative performance of these stocks against the S&P 500 is 19%. 13 out of 15 of his favorite stocks have managed to beat the market.

Cramer's most favorite stock during last 30 days was Apple. He repeated his buy recommendation of AAPL seven times during the last 30 days. AAPL has a market cap of $364.3 billion and P/E ratio of 15.5. AAPL recently traded at $392.59 and has gained 49.9% since August 2, 2010, beating the SPY by 26.9 percentage points. Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management had $633 million invested in AAPL at the end of March. (See Citrone’s top holding here.)

Cramer repeated his buy recommendation of GOOG four times during the last 30 days. GOOG has a market cap of $196.8 billion and P/E ratio of 23.7. GOOG recently traded at $607.22 and has gained 15.5% since June 1, beating the SPY by 16.1 percentage points.

On July 25, Cramer said the following about Google:

In the changing landscape of tech, right now, repeat after me: Social media, mobile, the cloud .... You've got to have all three. That's what Wall Street wants to see. Google has all three, which is why it's worth buying even up here, as it goes higher.

Chesapeake Energy Corporation produces natural gas in the United States. Cramer repeated his buy recommendation of CHK three times during last 30 days. CHK has gained 25.9% since Jan 06, 2011, beating the SPY by 21.7 percentage points. CHK has a market cap of $21.3 billion, P/E ratio of 28.4 and dividend yield of 1%. Chesapeake is also one of the 11 energy companies hedge funds are buying like crazy. Twelve hedge funds had CHK among their top 10 holdings. Hedge funds collectively own 5% of CHK’s outstanding shares. Mason Hawkins’ Southeastern Asset Management and Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital had large CHK holdings at the end of March.

On July 26 Cramer said the following about Chesapeake Energy:

If you want "steady as she goes," I want you to buy CHK ... buy, buy, buy ... which has been creeping up nicely, even though it doesn't get the credit it deserves.

Netflix has gained 32.7% since March 14, beating the SPY by 30.9 percentage points. Leonard Brecken predicted that Netflix (NFLX) is going to fall 70% within 12 months. He was on CNBC’s Fast Money and told viewers that Netflix is playing accounting games and that content costs are skyrocketing. Blue Ridge Capital’s John Griffin had $125 million invested in Netflix shares at the end of 2010.

CMG has a market cap of $10.1 billion and P/E ratio of 55. CMG recently traded at $325.2 and has gained 21% since April 29, beating the SPY by 25.8 percentage points. CMG plans to open 135 to 145 new restaurants in 2011, bringing the total restaurant count to roughly 1,220. CMG’s revenue for the first quarter was $509.4 million, up 24.3% from the prior year period. Net income for the first quarter of 2011 was $46.4 million, compared to $37.8 million in the first quarter of 2010. Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies had the largest positions in CMG. Manatuck Hill Partners was the second best performing hedge fund during second quarter. by Insder Monkey

Saturday, February 7, 2009

S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats: Past, Present and Future


The S&P 500 Index includes some of the biggest and best known companies in the world and most pay dividends. A few years ago, S&P wanted to pull out those with the best track records for not only paying dividends, but increasing dividends over the years. They set a tough standard to filter out the best. Each company was required to have a minimum of 25 consecutive years of paying higher dividends. While the number of companies fluctuate a little from year to year, about 60 (roughly 11%) are currently S&P Dividend Aristocrats. Most have track records of 30, 40 or even 50+ consecutive years of paying higher dividends annually.

Since each company has an outstanding long term track record of paying dividends, this group can be used to obtain investment ideas. Such help is more important than ever after the pummeling virtually all stocks have taken in recent months.

However, care is always needed when selecting investments, even in this elite group, Of the seven banks in the group in 2005, only two remain. The most famous was Bank of America (BAC), which bragged in annual reports about its track record of raising dividends over the prior 30 years. Last year in Q3, instead of increasing the dividend, BAC merely mentioned declaring a regular dividend. In Q4, the dividend was cut in half. This year, on greater fears about the company and its dividend, sellers took the stock into single digits. The fears proved correct when BAC just cut their quarterly dividend to only one penny.

A few other companies have had their streak of higher dividends come to an end, but their numbers have been limited. One example, ConAgra (CAG), cut the dividend a couple of years ago. However, the stock has not sold off as badly as others in the recent market decline.

A few stocks in the group are facing difficulties. The most prominent is General Electric (GE), selling at a 15 year low. After recent problems in its businesses, especially the financial ones, General Electric has been talking about only maintaining the dividend, not increasing it. Earnings will be reported later this week. Fears of dismal earnings have caused the stock to sell off to under 14.

Pfizer (PFE) and Eli Lilly (LLY) are drug companies facing patent expiration on important drugs shortly, which could impair their ability to increase dividends. Masco (MAS) may see its 50 year track record of higher dividends come to an end in 2009 as their business selling to the housing industry is not earning the dividend. These companies have extraordinary yields of 6-9%, reflecting doubts about future.

But most companies have healthy balance sheets and good cash flows with excellent track records for increasing dividends. Just a few of the big names in the group that I like for no particular reason include:

3M (MMM)
Coca Cola (KO)
Exxon Mobil (XOM)
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
Kimberley-Clark (KMB)
McDonald's (MCD)
McGraw-Hill (MHP)
Procter & Gamble (PG)
Stanley Works (SWK)
VF Corp (VFC)
Walgreen (WAG)
Wal-Mart (WMT)
The recent fall in the stock market reinforces the age old advice "investigate before you invest," even for this very special group. The strong should survive and thrive over the long term. For example, I bought KO for my IRS 15 years ago. The stock has more than doubled the original price and reinvested dividends bring the total investment to almost triple. Almost 10 years ago I bought VFC which, again, has doubled the original price with reinvested dividends, bringing the total to almost triple. And today's valuations are held back because they are based on depressed market prices. Let Dividend Aristocrats provide helpful investment ideas for very smart investing.

Avi Morris

http://www.verysmartinvesting.blogspot.com/