The Daily Workshop Report
by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard)

LEXINGTON, KY. (Oct. 10, 1997)

Scroll to the bottom for year-to-date Growth and Value Screen results.

It's an administrative kind of day. Let's update the stocks in the Workshop database and outline the new rankings for the Investing for Growth, Keystone, and Limestone screens.

As I mentioned earlier this week, MORNINGSTAR GROUP <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MSTR)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MSTR)") end if %> has announced a merger agreement with SUIZA FOODS <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: SZA)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: SZA)") end if %>, so Value Line has dropped its Timeliness ranking this week. In addition, WESTERN DIGITAL <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: WDC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: WDC)") end if %> dropped in the Timeliness rankings, so these two stocks have fallen out of our current database as a result. The two stocks added in their place are CANANDAIGUA BRANDS 'A' <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CBRNA)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CBRNA)") end if %> and VARLEN CORP. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: VRLN)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: VRLN)") end if %>.

With the slip of Western Digital, the current Investing for Growth rankings have changed slightly, also, eliminating one of the six stocks dominating the rankings from the Computers & Peripherals group. The current order is:

Iomega (IOM)
Dell Computer (DELL)
Quantum (QNTM)
Sun Microsystems (SUNW)
Compaq (CPQ)
Dollar General (DG)
Franklin Resources (BEN)
T. Rowe Price (TROW)
Claire's Stores (CLE)
Microsoft (MSFT)

For those of you following my new screen -- the Keystone Portfolio -- here are this week's candidates, thirty stocks in all. Remember, the screening process for the Keystone Portfolio is to begin with the 100 largest American stocks (based on market capitalization), eliminate all but the stocks carrying a 1 or 2 Timeliness ranking from Value Line, and then sort them by the past six months' total return.

Dell Computer (DELL)
Compaq Computer (CPQ)
Applied Materials (AMAT)
Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER)
Computer Associates (CA)
Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB)
AirTouch Communic. (ATI)
Texas Instruments (TXN)
Int'l Business Mach. (IBM)
Schering-Plough (SGP)
Pfizer  Inc. (PFE)
Medtronic  Inc. (MDT)
Travelers Group (TRV)
BankAmerica Corp. (BAC)
Cisco Systems (CSCO)
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT)
Warner-Lambert (WLA)
Oracle Corp. (ORCL)
Bank of New York (BK)
Tyco Int'l Ltd. (TYC)
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
Norwest Corp. (NOB)
Amer. Int'l Group (AIG)
Gen'l Electric (GE)
Home Depot (HD)
Allstate Corp. (ALL)
Intel Corp. (INTC)
Freddie Mac (FRE)
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT)
AlliedSignal Inc. (ALD)

And finally, here are the rankings for the Limestone Portfolio, a variation of my Keystone Portfolio suggested by a reader this week. In the Limestone approach, one opens up the field to all stocks in the database with Timeliness rankings of 1 or 2 instead of just the largest 100, and then sorts them by the past six months' total return. For more details on this approach, please see Thursday's Workshop column.

Here are the top twenty today:

Navistar Int'l (NAV)
System Software (SSAX)
NACCO Inds. 'A' (NC)
Michael Foods (MIKL)
Dell Computer (DELL)
ICN Pharmaceuticals (ICN)
Compaq Computer (CPQ)
Corporate Express (CEXP)
Safeskin Corp. (SFSK)
Unisys Corp. (UIS)
Titan Corp (TTN)
Arkansas Best (ABFS)
Varlen Corp. (VRLN)
Nabors Inds. (NBR)
Mobile Telecom. (MTEL)
Dixie Group (DXYN)
Airborne Freight (ABF)
Kansas City South'n Ind. (KSU)
Tokheim Corp. (TOK)
Furon Co. (FCY)

Have a Foolish weekend!

Monthly Growth Screens
(Jan. 3 to present)
98.31%  Relative Strength  
41.48%  Investing for Growth  
38.91%  EPS Plus RS  
35.13%  YPEG Potential  
29.59%  Unemotional Growth  
29.27%  S&P 500 Index  
27.45%  Formula 90  
26.87%  Low Price/Sales  

Annual Value Screens
(Jan. 1 to present)
28.16%  Dow Combo  
27.19%  Dogs of the Dow  
26.66%  Unemotional Value  
26.66%  Beating the Dow  
24.77%  Dow Jones Ind Avg  
23.30%  Beating the S&P  
20.78%  Foolish Four