The Daily Workshop Report
by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard)

LEXINGTON, KY. (June 23, 1997) -- Last week I mentioned my personal strategy of choosing a portfolio of fifteen large-cap stocks -- Blue Chips if you will. I mentioned having helped a friend set up a portfolio last June along my guidelines (large-cap, consistent earnings growth, brand equity, industry representation, and research into individual stories -- basic fundamental research), now up approximately 50% versus the S&P 500's gain of 34%. And I mentioned I renewed my own annual portfolio in April and listed my fifteen holdings.

Today I want to add the cost per share I paid for my fifteen holdings so we can track them here through the rest of my yearly cycle. (The time of year one updates should make little or no difference.) I purchased all fifteen stocks with market orders the morning of April 24 and weighted the positions as evenly as possible. I won't list actual dollar amounts out of modesty (the modesty of the numbers, not my modesty). But since the positions were evenly weighted, the raw number of shares are immaterial.

I bought:

American Int'l Group (AIG) $122.88
Citicorp (CCI) $112.00
DuPont (DD) $52.25 (split-adjusted)
FannieMae (FNM) $40.63
Hewlett-Packard (HWP) $50.50
Intel (INTC) $149.31
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $60.25
Coca-Cola (KO) $62.25
Eli Lilly (LLY) $85.13
Merck (MRK) $89.88
Microsoft (MSFT) $117.50
Pfizer (PFE) $95.38
Procter & Gamble (PG) $126.75
Travelers Group (TRV) $52.88
Wal-Mart (WMT) $28.13

Since I purchased the stocks, five of them have paid quarterly dividends: Travelers Group, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, DuPont, and Pfizer.

When I updated prices earlier today in my spreadsheet, the portfolio and the S&P 500 were both up slightly more than 14% since April 24. (Given the market's quick decline in the last hour today, it's probably more like 13%, but with less than two months elapsed, I'm not counting each penny diligently as of yet.) It's a very short period to begin making comparisons, of course. The growth represents an annualized rate of 122%, so it's obviously been a better-than-usual two months.

I'll keep you posted on my real portfolio, and will outline a new group of 15 stocks next week as June comes to a close. Hang on to your hats today, Fools!

Monthly Growth Screens
(Jan. 3 to present)
34.25%  Relative Strength  
17.45%  S&P 500 Index  
12.56%  Low Price/Sales  
 1.30%  Investing for Growth  
 1.26%  Unemotional Growth  
-3.57%  YPEG Potential  
-8.93%  EPS Plus RS  
-18.96%  Formula 90  

Annual Value Screens
(Jan. 1 to present)
17.93%  Dow Jones Ind Avg  
16.52%  Dogs of the Dow  
11.40%  Beating the S&P  
 8.87%  Unemotional Value  
 8.87%  Beating the Dow  
 6.83%  Dow Combo  
 1.95%  Foolish Four