The Motley Fool: The Foolish Workshop, Monday, February 02, 1998

Monday, February 02, 1998

The Daily Workshop Report
by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard)

LEXINGTON, KY. (Feb. 2, 1998) -- Now that Tom Gardner's made his first selection in the Cash-King Portfolio -- Microsoft <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MSFT)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MSFT)") end if %> -- I'd like to follow up on our recent discussion about applying the Flow Ratio to the kind of mega-large-cap stocks I prefer with my Keystone Approach. For those of you coming in on the discussion in midstream, you can read in some detail about this ratio in the introductory material to the Cash-King portfolio.

Today I screened the Value Line database for the 100 largest American stocks and then used fiscal year-end data for each stock to calculate the Flow Ratio [(Current Assets - Cash) / Current Liabilities]. Eighteen of the stocks don't have the requisite data to calculate this ratio (financial and insurance stocks).

Of the remaining 82 stocks, 37 had flow ratios of less than 1.00. I'll list them here with the disclaimer that this is simply one factor among several that Tom uses for his Cash-King selections. Keep in mind that he looks at the larger picture for each stock and only uses this Flow Ratio as one guideline. Use the list, perhaps, as a source for further research of your own as Tom is making his additional selections for his new portfolio.

0.30  Amer. Express <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AXP)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AXP)") end if %> 
 0.36  McDonald's Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: MCD)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: MCD)") end if %> 
 0.39  Microsoft Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MSFT)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MSFT)") end if %> 
 0.52  Campbell Soup <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: CPB)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: CPB)") end if %> 
 0.53  Ameritech Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AIT)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AIT)") end if %> 
 0.54  SBC Communications <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: SBC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: SBC)") end if %> 
 0.57  Coca-Cola <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: KO)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: KO)") end if %> 
 0.58  U S West Communic. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: USW)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: USW)") end if %> 
 0.58  Kellogg <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: K)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: K)") end if %> 
 0.60  Atlantic Richfield <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: ARC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: ARC)") end if %> 
 0.62  Bell Atlantic Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: BEL)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: BEL)") end if %> 
 0.68  GTE Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: GTE)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: GTE)") end if %> 
 0.68  WorldCom Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: WCOM)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: WCOM)") end if %> 
 0.70  Lilly (Eli) <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: LLY)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: LLY)") end if %> 
 0.70  Schering-Plough <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: SGP)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: SGP)") end if %> 
 0.71  Chevron Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: CHV)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: CHV)") end if %> 
 0.78  AirTouch Communic. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: ATI)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: ATI)") end if %> 
 0.79  BellSouth Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: BLS)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: BLS)") end if %> 
 0.79  Mobil Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: MOB)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: MOB)") end if %> 
 0.81  Gen'l Electric <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: GE)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: GE)") end if %> 
 0.84  Dell Computer <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: DELL)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: DELL)") end if %> 
 0.85  PepsiCo Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: PEP)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: PEP)") end if %> 
 0.86  Pfizer Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: PFE)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: PFE)") end if %> 
 0.87  MCI Communications <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MCIC)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MCIC)") end if %> 
 0.87  Exxon Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: XON)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: XON)") end if %> 
 0.89  Du Pont <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: DD)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: DD)") end if %> 
 0.90  Chrysler <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: C)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: C)") end if %> 
 0.92  Computer Associates <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: CA)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: CA)") end if %> 
 0.94  Amoco Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AN)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AN)") end if %> 
 0.94  Kimberly-Clark <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: KMB)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: KMB)") end if %> 
 0.95  Eastman Kodak <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: EK)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: EK)") end if %> 
 0.96  Int'l Business Mach. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: IBM)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: IBM)") end if %> 
 0.96  Anheuser-Busch <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: BUD)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: BUD)") end if %> 
 0.97  Sprint Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: FON)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: FON)") end if %> 
 0.98  Heinz (H.J.) <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: HNZ)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: HNZ)") end if %> 
 0.98  Lucent Technologies <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: LU)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: LU)") end if %> 
 0.98  Procter & Gamble <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: PG)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: PG)") end if %>

Fool on!

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