Fool.com: Tech Power (Workshop) November 16, 1998

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Tech Power

Burlington, VT (November 16, 1998) -- A regularly featured Workshop portfolio has been the one that features the stalwarts of the technology sector, the Bits 'n' Bytes Portfolio. It's not tracked officially, but ever since Robert Sheard came up with it, lots of us have followed along in wonderment. Its creator describes the portfolio as kind of a mini-sector fund made up of the 15 largest stocks from computer and computer-related industries. Since I've received a number of requests to keep it alive, here's an update:

Here are the fifteen largest stocks as of November 11, coming from five sector groups: Computers & Peripherals, Internet, Software, Semiconductors, and Telecommunications Equipment. They are listed in descending market capitalization (in millions):

275,951  Microsoft Corp.  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MSFT)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MSFT)") end if %>
174,196  Intel Corp.  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: INTC)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: INTC)") end if %>
146,608  Int'l Business Mach.  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: IBM)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: IBM)") end if %>
116,421  Lucent Technologies  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: LU)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: LU)") end if %>
103,672  Cisco Systems  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CSCO)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CSCO)") end if %>
 91,614  Dell Computer  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: DELL)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: DELL)") end if %>
 68,250  Hewlett-Packard  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: HWP)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: HWP)") end if %>
 58,650  Compaq Computer  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: CPQ)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: CPQ)") end if %>
 33,313  EMC Corp.  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: EMC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: EMC)") end if %>
 32,557  Oracle Corp.  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ORCL)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ORCL)") end if %>
 31,924  Motorola  Inc.  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: MOT)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: MOT)") end if %>
 31,412  America Online  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AOL)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AOL)") end if %>
 27,074  Texas Instruments  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: TXN)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: TXN)") end if %>
 24,370  Automatic Data Proc.  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AUD)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AUD)") end if %>
 24,054  Computer Associates  <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: CA)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: CA)") end if %>

Through November 11, these stocks have returned on average 74.22%, versus 15.51% for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. If you had narrowed this list to the five stocks with the best 1997 return and bought on January 1 this year, you'd hypothetically be sitting on a whopping 148% gain. The stocks would have been Dell Computer, America Online, Compaq Computer, Lucent Technologies, and EMC Corp.

As is usually done, here's the list ranked in descending order of 26-Week Total Return as of November 11:

America Online           52.36%
EMC Corp.                46.51%
Dell Computer            46.44%
Cisco Systems            30.39%
Int'l Business Mach.     29.33%
Oracle Corp.             28.85%
Microsoft Corp.          27.75%
Lucent Technologies      22.73%
Intel Corp.              22.35%
Automatic Data Proc.     20.65%
Texas Instruments        10.20%
Compaq Computer           8.34%
Motorola  Inc.           -9.62%
Hewlett-Packard         -19.13%
Computer Associates     -22.90%

The portfolio comes with the usual disclaimers of these on-the-side dalliances of the Workshop: no long-term history, no protection against a meltdown in any of these high flying ol' tech stocks. A further caution on this particular type of screen is, since it's completely concentrated in one narrow sector, a long-term downturn of the whole sector could leave one way out of the money if the sector happened to sputter when others took off. I have to say, though, the returns have certainly been impressive since we've been watching.

Have a great week!

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