Boring Portfolio Report
Friday, February 2, 1996

The Boring Portfolio has completed it's first week, one that I would characterize as, well, boring!

We began on Monday with two purchases: 200 shares of Kulicke & Soffa (bought at 23 3/4) and 100 shares of Texas Industries (bought at 54 1/4). This morning we added 200 shares of Green Tree Financial, purchased at 30 1/4.

The week for K&S certainly included some interesting events. On Tuesday evening, the company reported quarterly earnings per share of $0.82, beating consensus expectations by a nickel. Wednesday morning, KLIC's share price leaped in celebration. After the mid-morning conference call, however--or *during* it, to be more precise--the stock sold off when management raised the prospect of order "push-outs" from the second quarter until later in the year.

K&S stock recovered a fair amount of lost ground on Thursday and Friday, as more positive elements of the company's story began to sink in. Thursday evening, Reuters reported that CEO Scott Kulicke had reiterated to an Emerald Asset Management seminar that he saw "significant strength in the second half of the year" and anticipated "meeting the estimates of $3.20 or $3.30 for the year." Altogether, KLIC ended the week pretty much where it started it, closing at 22.75 (up 1/4 for the day) on Friday.

As for Texas Industries (TXI), the stock moved steadily upward over the entire week, finishing Friday at 58 7/8--nicely above my Monday morning purchase price. Other than the appointment of a new VP in charge of scrap operations at TXI's majority-owned Chaparral Steel, there was no real news to account for the unusually strong activity in the stock--not unless you count the, uh, earth-shaking revelation that the Borefolio was acquiring an interest in TXI!

That brings us to Green Tree Financial (GNT). Green Tree specializes in offering financing for a motley pool of consumer and commercial purchases--everything from manufactured homes to snowmobiles, Harleys, horsetrailers, and pianos. GNT ended Friday at 29 1/8, up 1/8 from its previous close--but down 3/4 from the intra-day high of 30 1/4, which is precisely where I managed to pick up my 200 shares. No big deal. I expect that Green Tree will bear plenty of fruit for the Borefolio in the months ahead. And besides, this way no one can complain that I managed to cherry-pick a great price for my buy!

Have a great weekend.

--Greg Markus (MF Boring)

Today's Moves

GNT   -1 1/8*
KLIC  +  1/4
TXI   +  3/8

*GNT Move based on the acquisition price, not yesterday's close