The Daily Workshop Report
by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard)

LEXINGTON, KY. (July 11, 1997)  It's time for an update on the Sheard Blue Chip Fund. For those of you who haven't heard of this portfolio before, I began tracking a model portfolio including 15 Blue Chip stocks I felt would be good investments at the beginning of July last summer.

It's not a purely mechanical model like the other Workshop screens, but I look at fundamental factors like earnings growth, solid balance sheets, brand-name equity, market leadership, and good-old fashioned intuition (not the most reliable factor always).

When the year concluded for my original group of 15 stocks, I renewed the list and started the second year for the model with closing values on June 30.

Since July 1, 1996, the annualized return for the Sheard Blue Chip Fund has been 48% versus the annualized gain for the S&P 500 of 36%. (Returns are for capital gains only. No dividends, trading costs, or taxes have been included.)

Here are the new 15 stocks I chose for the year from July 1, 1997 through June 30, 1998:

Intel                 INTC    8%
Citicorp               CCI    6%
Procter & Gamble        PG    5%
Eli Lilly              LLY    5%
Wal-Mart               WMT    5%
Amer. Int'l Group      AIG    4%
Pfizer                 PFE    3%
Gillette                 G    3%
Coca-Cola               KO    3%
Microsoft             MSFT    3%
DuPont                  DD    0%
Merck                  MRK   -1%
Johnson & Johnson      JNJ   -2%
Philip Morris           MO   -2%
Abbott Labs            ABT   -4%

Portfolio        2%
S&P 500          4%

For those of you following the Investing for Growth model, here's this week's current order:

Helen of Troy (HELE)
Western Digital (WDC)
Dell Computer (DELL)
Quantum (QNTM)
Compaq Computer (CPQ)
Dollar General (DG)
Price (T. Rowe) (TROW)
Franklin Resources (BEN)
Robert Half Int'l (RHI)
CDI Corp (CDI)

And on a final note, both CATERPILLAR <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: CAT)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: CAT)") end if %> and INTEL <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: INTC)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: INTC)") end if %> are slated to split 2-for-1 Monday morning. Enjoy the weekend, Fools.

Monthly Growth Screens
(Jan. 3 to present)
43.54%  Relative Strength  
22.55%  S&P 500 Index  
15.44%  Low Price/Sales  
12.33%  Unemotional Growth  
10.45%  Investing for Growth  
-0.72%  EPS Plus RS  
-1.13%  YPEG Potential  
-13.07%  Formula 90  

Annual Value Screens
(Jan. 1 to present)
22.85%  Dow Jones Ind Avg  
19.14%  Beating the S&P  
17.80%  Dogs of the Dow  
14.26%  Unemotional Value  
14.26%  Beating the Dow  
11.75%  Dow Combo  
 2.82%  Foolish Four