The Daily Workshop Report
by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard)

LEXINGTON, KY. (June 30, 1997)  In Friday's column, I listed my 15 Sheard Blue Chip stocks for the next year. These stocks represent my own personal approach to Blue Chip investing, a mish-mash of fundamentals, industry leadership, brand equity, and good old intuition.

As promised, today I'll supplement that list with my 15 Thoroughbred Stocks for the July. This list is not one I'm actually investing in, but my experiment with much more aggressive stocks. To select the list I use some fundamental analysis (primarily the growth in earnings) but the real test is that the stock must be showing recent signs of price strength. So in the old tradition of our former Port Folly game, here's the list of fifteen stocks I'm choosing for July:

CKE Restaurants (CKR)
Core Industries (CRI)
Corrections Corp (CXC)
Dekalb Genetics (DKB)
Dell Computer (DELL)
Frontier Insurance Group (FTR)
Medtronic (MDT)
Michael Foods (MIKL)
Navistar (NAV)
PACCAR (PCAR)
Shopko Stores (SKO)
Smithfield Foods (SFDS)
Stratus Computer (SRA)
Timberland (TBL)
Unitrode (UTR)

I must reiterate that this is just an experimental portfolio. It's not real money and to trade a portfolio every month carries with it higher trading costs (both commissions and spreads). Before you invest in anything (even the Dow Approach stocks) do your own research and make sure you understand what you're investing in.

In the meantime, follow along with me and let's see which of my two portfolios does better: the once-a-year Blue Chips, using only the largest and most financially stable companies in America, or the Thoroughbreds, often smaller and rapidly growing companies that might just sprint ahead of the market. Look for periodic updates right here in this column.

Monthly Growth Screens
(Jan. 3 to present)
35.63%  Relative Strength  
18.33%  S&P 500 Index  
12.82%  Low Price/Sales  
 0.89%  Unemotional Growth  
-1.14%  Investing for Growth  
-6.31%  YPEG Potential  
-9.07%  EPS Plus RS  
-18.79%  Formula 90  

Annual Value Screens
(Jan. 1 to present)
19.12%  Dow Jones Ind Avg  
16.31%  Dogs of the Dow  
12.90%  Beating the S&P  
 9.33%  Unemotional Value  
 9.33%  Beating the Dow  
 6.18%  Dow Combo  
 2.21%  Foolish Four