Boring Portfolio Report
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (Sept. 20) -- A triple-witching Friday saw heavy volume
of 514 million shares trade hands on the NYSE. The Dow closed at 5888.46
-- up 20.72 on the day and just a fraction of a point below the record high
set on Monday. For the week, the DJIA rose 50 points.
The S&P 500 moved up 4 points (+0.59%), to set a new closing high of
687.02, while the Nasdaq tacked on 7.60 (+0.63%) to end an impressive week
at 1219.65 -- still about 30 points shy of its all-time high, set back on
June 5.
A solid 1.17% rise on Friday helped turn what was shaping up to be a pretty
blah week for the Boring Portfolio into a perfectly lovely one. The Borefolio's
+1.19% weekly gain (to crack the $57,000 mark for the first time) was not
nearly as stellar as the Nasdaq's +2.61% advance, but it easily bested the
S&P 500's (quite fine) +0.95%.
Our big winners on Friday were Borders Group (up $1 1/8) and Green Tree Financial
(up $1 3/8), with strong supporting performances from Shaw Group, Cisco,
and Carlisle.
A twenty-something from a Detroit suburb took the seat next to mine on the
flight down to Ft. La-di-da from Mo-town this morning. Once we were aloft,
I opened my Wall Street Journal and she pulled out her copy of Oprah's new
book.
She caught me glancing at the cover. It's possible that just the slightest
expression of approbation crossed my brow. Very possible.
"Hey, it's really pretty good," she said. "I'll bet they sell a million of
them."
"No doubt," I said, frantically rifling my mental file cabinets (shoe boxes
and paper sacks, is more like it) to come up with something a bit less vacuous
to say. Blank-o. "Uh, I think I saw a big stack of them at Borders the other
day." (Sheer fabrication.)
"You like Borders?" she asked. "I like Borders, too."
There. That's settled.
A few hours later, I'm driving east on Sunrise, heading for the beach, when
what should I spy on my right, all dolled up like in teals and magentas like
a scene from "Miami Vice" but -- ta-da! -- Borders. I didn't have time to
check it out today. But I'll be over there tomorrow, for sure.
All of which has absolutely nothing to do with the stock being up $1 1/8
today, but I couldn't locate any other news that might account for it, either.
Oh, except a coupla items about the latest grand openings: one in Cary, NC
and a second in Lewisville, TX. Hey, one week its a grand opening at the
World Trade Center, the next week its Cary, NC. (No offense intended, Tarheels.)
As for Green Tree, last night's Borefolio recap hit some of the high points
of two new analysts' reports on the company -- one from Merrill and one from
Lehman. Now both of those firms are involved in Green Tree's asset-backed
securities offerings, so they're not exactly unbiased. But the case they
make for the company and the stock is pretty hard to dismiss.
In particular, as Livia Asher at Merill notes, GNT has already securitized
and sold $2.3 billion of loans so far in the 3Q -- up 11% from the preceding
quarter, which was itself a record quarter. Not only that, but the spread
for GNT has fattened a bit.
It appears that I'm not the only person who is suitably impressed. Not only
did GNT grow another $1 3/8 today, it did so on monster volume of over 800,000
shares.
All in all, a solid Friday. I hope you enjoy your week-end. For me, it's
going to be a quick trip to the beach, followed by some "field research"
at Borders.
(c) Copyright 1996, The Motley Fool. All rights reserved. This material is
for personal use only. Republication and redissemination, including posting
to news groups, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent
of The Motley Fool.
Transmitted: 9/20/96
Friday, September 20, 1996
BGP +1 1/8 ...CSL + 7/8 ...CSCO + 5/8 ...GNT +1 3/8 ...OXHP - 3/8 ...
PMSI + 1/8 ...SHAW + 7/8 ...SPY - 7/64...TXI - 3/4 ...
*Scroll down or expand screen for full portfolio accounting
Day Month Year History
BORING +1.17% 6.01% 14.39% 14.39%
S&P 500 +0.59% 5.37% 10.52% 10.52%
NASDAQ +0.63% 6.85% 17.17% 17.17%
Rec'd # Security In At Now Change
4/12/96 100 The Shaw Gr 18.84 31.63 67.85%
2/28/96 200 Borders Gro 22.51 36.75 63.24%
3/8/96 400 Prime Medic 10.07 13.75 36.56%
2/2/96 200 Green Tree 30.39 37.38 22.99%
1/29/96 100 Texas Indus 54.50 61.88 13.53%
6/26/96 100 Cisco Syste 53.90 60.63 12.48%
7/23/96 100 S&P Deposit 64.15 68.64 7.00%
8/13/96 100 Carlisle Co 52.65 54.50 3.51%
5/24/96 100 Oxford Heal 48.02 47.13 -1.87%
Rec'd # Security Cost Value Change
2/28/96 200 Borders Gro 4502.49 7350.00 $2847.51
3/8/96 400 Prime Medic 4027.49 5500.00 $1472.51
2/2/96 200 Green Tree 6077.49 7475.00 $1397.51
4/12/96 100 The Shaw Gr 1884.16 3162.50 $1278.34
1/29/96 100 Texas Indus 5449.99 6187.50 $737.51
6/26/96 100 Cisco Syste 5389.99 6062.50 $672.51
7/23/96 100 S&P Deposit 6414.99 6864.06 $449.07
8/13/96 100 Carlisle Co 5264.99 5450.00 $185.01
5/24/96 100 Oxford Heal 4802.49 4712.50 -$89.99
CASH $4428.44
TOTAL $57192.50