Portfolio Summary Updated
The portfolio summary and quality growth screen have been updated. The Moose Pond portfolio is diversified across eight industries.
Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBBY)
SSG and PERT A (04-01-2005) | Google Stocks | Company Website
Stock Selection Guide Updated. The SSG for Bed, Bath & Beyond has been revised. BBBY remains a high quality company and is within the “buy” range up to a price of $44.90.
There is an excellent article by Mark Robertson at www.fundas.com discussing Bed, Bath and Beyond. His analysis is right on target.
On April 6, BBBY reported its year end results. Sales were up 15% and net earnings increased 26.4%. This shows very positive growth and is in line with past years. Comparable store sales increased by 5.1%.
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Berkshire Hathaway
The annual reports for Berkshire Hathaway include Warren Buffet’s letters to shareholders. In addition to discussing the state of the company, these letters contain sage investment advice applicable to all investors, including small investors. Here is an excerpt from this year’s letter.
Over the 35 years, American business has delivered terrific results. It should therefore have been easy for investors to earn juicy returns: All they had to do was piggyback Corporate America in a diversified, low-expense way. An index fund that they never touched would have done the job. Instead many investors have had experiences ranging from mediocre to disastrous.
There have been three primary causes: first, high costs, usually because investors traded excessively or spent far too much on investment management; second, portfolio decisions based on tips and fads rather than on thoughtful, quantified evaluation of businesses; and third, a start-and-stop approach to the market marked by untimely entries (after an advance has been long underway) and exits (after periods of stagnation or decline). Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful.
Recent Transactions
We sold all of our shares in Fannie Mae (FNM) at $54.23. Fannie Mae still might be a good contrarian long term investment, however, we decided to exchange the shares for a more stable, high quality bank. We bought Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) at $42.93
We purchased additional shares of Pfizer Inc. (PFE) at $26.35.
We also purchased additional shares in Commerce Bancorp Inc. (CBH) at $29.86.
Portfolio Summary Updated
The portfolio summary has been updated.
We now have more in cash to invest. Kudos to those members who are saving and investing regularly. With the recent market down trend, we should continue to purchase new shares. It’s always better to buy stocks when they are on sale.
Here are two proposals.
Proposal 1. Replace Federal Home Loan Management Corp (FNM) with Fifth Third Bank Corp (FITB), a well managed mid-west bank. Most of the literature about FITB has been very positive. See attached SSG and related reports (e.g., Morningstar, S&P and Value Line). We would sell FNM and apply the proceeds to FITB.
Proposal 2. Use the remaining funds to purchase additional shares of four of our existing stocks with the best prospects, considering both quality and projected return. We would add to our holdings of each of the following stocks: PFE, FISV, ACS and BBY. (Note there other strong candidates for reinvestment, including LOW, CBH and AMGN.)