The Motley Fool: The Foolish Workshop, Monday, March 30, 1998

Monday, March 30, 1998

The Daily Workshop Report
by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard)

LEXINGTON, KY. (March 30, 1998) -- Last year one of the informal portfolios we followed in the Workshop was a miniature sector-fund of computer technology-related stocks -- a portfolio we ended up calling Bits & Bytes. Since it's not so much a strategy as an industry group, I didn't include it in our official models for 1998, but I get occasional requests for a list of stocks that would qualify.

The requirements to be a Bits & Bytes stock are very simple. I just identified the fifteen largest stocks in the appropriate industry groups and "held" them for a full year. Last year was terrific for most stocks, technology stocks in particular, so the Bits & Bytes group returned some colossal sum (better than 60 percent I believe). Having Dell <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: DELL)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: DELL)") end if %> in the group back then would have made the number even more obscene. (Dell wasn't big enough to qualify until after last year's huge gains.)

There's always some gray areas about what sectors to include in such a group, so today I'm going to list 25 of the biggest stocks in related sectors. If you're interested in a regular large-cap technology component in your research, I'll leave it to you to decide which of these stocks to exclude and which to include. But for our purposes today, they're ranked only in order by their market capitalization (stock price times the number of outstanding common shares):

Microsoft Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MSFT)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MSFT)") end if %> 
 Intel Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: INTC)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: INTC)") end if %> 
 Int'l Business Mach. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: IBM)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: IBM)") end if %> 
 Lucent Technologies <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: LU)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: LU)") end if %> 
 Cisco Systems <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CSCO)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CSCO)") end if %> 
 Hewlett-Packard <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: HWP)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: HWP)") end if %> 
 Dell Computer <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: DELL)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: DELL)") end if %> 
 Compaq Computer <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: CPQ)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: CPQ)") end if %> 
 Motorola  Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: MOT)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: MOT)") end if %> 
 Oracle Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ORCL)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ORCL)") end if %> 
 Computer Associates <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: CA)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: CA)") end if %> 
 Electronic Data Sys. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: EDS)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: EDS)") end if %> 
 Texas Instruments <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: TXN)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: TXN)") end if %> 
 Automatic Data Proc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AUD)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AUD)") end if %> 
 EMC Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: EMC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: EMC)") end if %> 
 Sun Microsystems <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SUNW)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SUNW)") end if %> 
 First Data Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: FDC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: FDC)") end if %> 
 America Online <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AOL)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AOL)") end if %> 
 Applied Materials <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: AMAT)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: AMAT)") end if %> 
 3Com Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: COMS)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: COMS)") end if %> 
 Tellabs  Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: TLAB)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: TLAB)") end if %> 
 PeopleSoft <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: PSFT)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: PSFT)") end if %> 
 Computer Sciences <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: CSC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: CSC)") end if %> 
 Parametric Technology <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: PMTC)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: PMTC)") end if %> 
 BMC Software <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: BMCS)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: BMCS)") end if %>

On another note, tomorrow brings our next monthly purchase date for the five Dozens portfolios. For the models using Workshop screens, the choices are already fixed based on Friday's current rankings, and the Dow Dozens stocks will be determined by the final rankings at tomorrow's close. Check back again tomorrow and I'll write up those portfolio additions. In the meantime, Go Kentucky!

Check out the latest file updates for the Workshop:
New Rankings | 1998 Returns | New Database

[Robert Sheard is the author of the forthcoming book, The Unemotional Investor, due out from Simon & Schuster on May 12. To pre-order your copy, please visit Amazon.com, where it's available at a discounted price.]