The Motley Fool: The Boring Portfolio

ANN ARBOR, Mi, Mar 25 -- The big event for the Boring Portfolio today was the acquisition of 200 shares of LCS Industries (NASD:LCSI).

Our friends the market makers greeted us this morning with a 1 1/4 gap up at the open for LCSI--just their little way of saying howdy-do. But MF Boring's hip to that game. I waited until this afternoon to place an order, managing to shave a quarter-point and get my shares for $26. LCSI ended the day at $25 1/2 (bid), which was up from Friday's close; but since we figure stocks Foolishly here (that is, taking into account the bid/ask spread, plus broker commissions), LCSI starts out around $25 in the hole in the Borefolio.

Over the week-end, news appeared regarding an impressively robust February book-to-bill for North American semiconductor equipment makers. Perhaps as a consequence, Lam Research started the day on a rare up note. The music soon soured, however, once investors turned to the lead story of this morning's Wall Street Journal, which informed us that businesses may slow down a bit this year in purchases of new capital equipment, including computer stuff. Lam slipped 1/2 by day's end.

Borders Books suffered the other decline of consequence today--down $1 1/8. The only possibly relevant news I could locate was competitor Books-a-Million's report that it planned to open 25 new superstores in the southeastern U.S. during the coming year. Perhaps folks saw this as significant competition for Borders. Perhaps they should think again. While Borders is setting new earnings records, BAMM missed its consensus earnings forecast by a penny on Friday.

The good news? Prime Medical Services continues to move into record territory, and Green Tree Financial sprouted a few new leaves.

TODAY'S NUMBERS

BGP - 1 1/8 ...GNT + 3/8 ...LRCX - 1/2
 ...LCSI - 3/4 ...PMSI + 1/4 ...TXI - 1/4 ...

                   Day   Month    Year  History
        BORING   -0.61%  -0.10%  -2.09%  -2.09%
        S&P 500  -0.09%   1.50%   4.57%   4.57%
        NASDAQ   -1.37%  -1.18%   4.43%   4.43%


    Rec'd  #   Security     In At       Now    Change

   3/8/96 400 Prime Medic    10.07     12.13    20.41%
  2/28/96 200 Borders Gro    22.51     26.75    18.84%
  1/29/96 100 Texas Indus    54.52     63.63    16.69%
   2/2/96 200 Green Tree     30.39     33.63    10.66%
  3/25/96 200 LCS Industr    26.14     25.25    -3.40%
  2/23/96 100 Lam Researc    48.02     35.00   -27.11%

    Rec'd  #   Security      Cost     Value    Change
  2/28/96 200 Borders Gro  4502.49   5350.00   $847.51
   2/2/96 200 Green Tree   6077.49   6725.00   $647.51
  3/25/96 200 LCS Industr  5227.49   5050.00  -$177.49
  2/23/96 100 Lam Researc  4802.49   3500.00 -$1302.49
   3/8/96 400 Prime Medic  4027.49   4850.00   $822.51
  1/29/96 100 Texas Indus  5449.99   6362.50   $912.51

                             CASH  $17117.60
                            TOTAL  $48955.10