The Daily Workshop Report
by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard)

LEXINGTON, KY. (August 6, 1997) -- If you have been reading along here in the Workshop in recent months, I announced my own portfolio of fifteen large-capitalization stocks that I purchased on April 24 and planned to hold a full year. (That will probably be extended to eighteen months now, to take advantage of the new lower capital-gains tax rate.)

This real portfolio uses the same strategy I've written about in this column under the Sheard Blue Chip Portfolio name. That's the model portfolio I've tracked now for thirteen months, since July 1, 1996. Since then, the portfolio sports an annualized gain of 50% versus the S&P 500's annualized gain of 38%. To choose these fifteen stocks, I don't use a set formula, although I look at such typically Foolish factors as market cap, long-term earnings growth, financial strength, sector leadership, and brand equity.

Since April, my fifteen stocks (excluding dividends) have gained 24%, equaling the S&P 500's gain. It's been a terrific fifteen weeks for most stocks, so I wouldn't expect a marked out-performance or under-performance versus the market index. (If only it could sustain this pace, an annualized 112%, but it can't.) I'll continue to keep you posted on the progress of both the model portfolio I updated in July and my own real portfolio, which I updated last in April. In the meantime, here's the breakdown of the individual positions and the returns since I purchased them on April 24.

39% Hewlett-Packard (HWP)
36% Wal-Mart (WMT)
36% Eli Lilly (LLY)
34% Intel (INTC)
32% Travelers Group (TRV)
31% DuPont (DD)
25% Citicorp (CCI)
25% American Int'l Group (AIG)
22% Microsoft (MSFT)
21% Pfizer (PFE)
17% Procter & Gamble (PG)
13% Merck (MRK)
11% FannieMae (FNM)
9% Coca-Cola (KO)
3% Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)

Monthly Growth Screens
(Jan. 3 to present)
62.93%  Relative Strength  
29.65%  Investing for Growth  
28.39%  S&P 500 Index  
23.45%  YPEG Potential  
19.58%  EPS Plus RS  
19.57%  Low Price/Sales  
16.75%  Unemotional Growth  
 3.25%  Formula 90  

Annual Value Screens
(Jan. 1 to present)
28.09%  Dow Jones Ind Avg  
24.84%  Beating the S&P  
24.01%  Dogs of the Dow  
19.61%  Dow Combo  
19.01%  Unemotional Value  
19.01%  Beating the Dow  
 9.42%  Foolish Four