Fool Portfolio Report
Tuesday, November 5, 1996
by Jeff Fischer (MF BudFox)
ALEXANDRIA, VA, November 5, 1996 -- The Fool voted to beat the Market today, despite heavy protest and filibuster from The Wise. The Fool led the polls, up a big 2.89%, while second and third place wanna-be's, Mr. Nasdaq and Mr. S&P 500, gained only 0.70% and 1.05% respectively. Another great victory this evening has the Fool reiterating an exciting and sweeping declaration for the entire country: "market beating returns for all!"
Meanwhile, on the eve of this country's own elections, the United States may be facing the opposite of Foolish joviality. The press ran this frightening image today, and I quote:
"Clinton was confident enough to dance the popular ``Macarena'' line dance aboard Air Force One early today. Dole, meanwhile, said, ``We've done all we can do'' as he made his way to his hometown in Kansas to vote.
It's frighteningly too easy to picture President Clinton dancing in a plane, by himself -- and dancing a line dance by himself, no less -- while possibly consuming Mcdonald's french fries and shouting to the Air Force One pilots, "We there yet?" And then we can picture Bob Dole on the ground, shaking his head, saying softly, "We've done all we can do."
All right. Let's quit politics and change topics completely, entirely, and irrefutably: let's talk about monkeys. And stocks.
While 98% of human genes are indistinguishable from monkeys and apes' genes, luckily great stocks are very distinguishable from the dogs, and you can profit handsomely by recognizing both. In Fooldom today, 3Com (COMS) rose to a new 52 week and all-time high, while Fool short Quarterdeck (QDEK) made yet another new low, even as the market moved sharply higher. That, fellow Fools, is always fun to see.
3Com touched $70 per share and closed bidding $69 1/8. The Fool bought this gem of a company about 11 weeks ago for $46 and change, to date scoring a presidential gain of 47.51%. 3Com and other networker stocks rose after US Robotics (USRX) reported strong earnings yesterday (a summary opinion of US Robotic's earnings is available in today's lunchtime news.) Further, after the market closed today 3Com's competition, Cisco Systems (CSCO), a Boring Port stock, announced strong earnings as well. Continued strong earnings of course bode well for the booming networking industry and its leaders, and shines favorably on the Fool's 3Com. Quarterdeck, meanwhile, dropped about 10% to an ask price of $4 7/16. It made a new low at $4 1/4 on the bid today.
Meanwhile, Iomega (IOMG), sometimes accused of having too much say in the political halls of the Foolfolio, made its position heard today with a strong $1 3/4 advance (7%). The good news on this fine evening is Gateway 2000. Iomega announced that Gateway is offering customers external Zip drives and/or preinstalled Jaz drives as options with certain Gateway products. Gateway is a worldwide marketer of personal computers. The Jaz drive will be preinstalled and will be as quick as a presidential veto on a tax increase during the election year -- or at least as fast as many existing hard drives.
The official Gateway news came in the late hours before the market closed, though the distinct possibility of the announcement was posted in the Fool's Iomega boards hours before. A Fool had called Gateway and asked if Jaz or Zips would be available in Gateway products. That Fool came away from the phone thinking that, yes, the drives would indeed be offered by Gateway, and offered the idea as such.
In more news, Monday night a federal judge ruled that America Online (AOL) can block junk e-mail from Cyber Promotions Inc. The judge said neither the First Amendment nor anything else allowed Cyber Promotions to send unsolicited email ads to AOL members. This is great news for AOL users. Perhaps Da Judge himself uses AOL. (So, bye bye Cyber Promotions! It hasn't been nice knowing ya. (Although I did read one message Cyber Promotions sent and, yes, I DID make $75,000 in just one day! So, thanks for that! Thanks much!)).
Last week America Online held their annual shareholders' meeting in Reston, Virginia. In the wake of the sweeping changes announced at AOL, Randy Befumo (MF Templar) wrote an excellent summary and analysis of the changes and the subsequent outlook for AOL in the 10/31/96 Fool News. The meeting itself was interesting but without great excitement. The most energetic person was Bob Pittman, which was not surprising. The company has done well to obtain such talent and the promise inherent with such talent. They aren't downplaying the man, either. On the contrary, they're counting on him for much leadership and market positioning going forward.
Often as CEO Steve Case was asked questions or presented company goals, he would say something along the lines of, "We're counting on Bob Pittman's experience to take us through that." Or, "Bob's knowledge of the market will be crucial in that matter." Bob Pittman brings to the company the experience of buliding MTV into an international power-house, and the memory of working to push cable television forward from the fringes of society to the mass market. He likened the current online world to the once just beginning world of cable television.
Steve Case said importantly: "AOL has reached critical mass." America Online has reached critical mass first and foremost in the industry, and they can afford to offer the best service and content for the lowest price. It can afford to offer the most, but for less cost. That's the advantage of being largest and most successful in your business. Bob Pittman says AOL is the most exciting company in the world right now -- working to become a multi-media powerhouse. I've thought about that statement the last few days, and tried to think of a company currently more exciting than AOL, but really couldn't.
I've got to run and see who my next top, top, top, top, top, top, top Boss is: Bill or Bob. So, as the country collectively holds its breath for the stunning results, remember...
Be Foolish!
TODAY'S NUMBERS
Stock Change Bid ------------------- AOL - 3/8 25.25 T + 1/2 34.25 ATCT - 5/8 16.75 CHV - 3/4 64.38 GM + 1/4 55.88 IOMG +1 3/4 22.75 KLAC + 3/4 26.13 LU + 7/8 50.00 MMM +1 1/2 77.00 QDEK - 5/16 4.44 COMS +1 3/8 69.13
Day Month Year History FOOL +2.89% 1.27% 46.94% 174.38% S&P 500 +1.05% 1.26% 15.94% 55.79% NASDAQ +0.70% 0.62% 16.82% 70.66% Rec'd # Security In At Now Change 5/17/95 2010 Iomega Cor 2.52 22.75 803.15% 8/5/94 680 AmOnline 7.27 25.25 247.18% 8/13/96 250 3Com Corp. 46.86 69.13 47.51% 9/27/96 -890 Quarterdec 7.08 4.44 37.36% 8/11/95 125 Chevron 50.28 64.38 28.02% 8/12/96 110 Minn M&M 65.68 77.00 17.24% 8/12/96 280 Gen'l Moto 51.97 55.88 7.51% 10/1/96 42 LucentTech 47.62 50.00 5.01% 8/12/96 130 AT&T 39.58 34.25 -13.46% 10/22/96 600 ATC Comm. 22.94 16.75 -26.97% 8/24/95 130 KLA Instrm 44.71 26.13 -41.57% Rec'd # Security In At Value Change 5/17/95 2010 Iomega Cor 5063.13 45727.50 $40664.37 8/5/94 680 AmOnline 4945.56 17170.00 $12224.44 8/13/96 250 3Com Corp. 11714.99 17281.25 $5566.26 9/27/96 -890 Quarterdec -6304.75 -3949.38 $2355.38 8/11/95 125 Chevron 6285.61 8046.88 $1761.27 8/12/96 110 Minn M&M 7224.44 8470.00 $1245.56 8/12/96 280 Gen'l Moto 14552.49 15645.00 $1092.51 10/1/96 42 LucentTech 1999.88 2100.00 $100.12 8/12/96 130 AT&T 5145.11 4452.50 -$692.61 8/24/95 130 KLA Instrm 5812.49 3396.25 -$2416.24 10/22/96 600 ATC Comm. 13761.50 10050.00 -$3711.50 CASH $8801.62 TOTAL $137191.62