my portfolio – stock performance update

here’s how my guys are performing:

Barrett Business Services (NASD:BBSI) – 1.78%
Motorola (NYSE:MOT) – (12.58%)
Companhia de Saneamento Basico (NYSE:SBS) – 37.50%
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) – (14.25%)
Hansen Natural Corp (NASD:HANS) – 16.31%
Alcoa (NYSE:AA) – 19.90%
Marsh & McLennan Co. (NYSE:MMC) – 9.42%
Senior Housing Properties Trust (NYSE:SNH) – (14.64%)
Waste Industries USA (NASD:WWIN) – 27.70%

all in, I’m about 7.59% up, which isn’t horrible, but it isn’t great either. the fluctuations on MOT, AMD, and SNH have been killing me – having that said, i’m very confident that all three of these businesses are fundamentally sound and will recover nicely (and SNH pays a kick-ass dividend!).

buffet’s letter to shareholders

always a pleasurable and insightful read, you can find here buffet’s annual letter to shareholders.

a few buys…

senior housing properties trust (NYSE:SNH), alcoa inc. (NYSE:AA) & marsh & mclennan (NYSE:MMC). of these three, the first two fully fit my investment criteria; marsh & mclennan on the other hand is trading above 11x ebitda, so it doesn’t fit my cheapness parameter – but i used to work for them, so i understand their business very well; and i just have a hunch that they’ve turned the corner.

hansen natural soda

just picked up 200 shares of hansen natural soda (NASD:HANS) at $37.54 per share – it was down over 10% today because some analysts at jp morgan and goldman sachs downgraded the stock – that was the reason it dipped 10%…ummm, yeahhhh. other than that, the company has grown at a very impressive clip this year, and has signed some major distribution deals with both anheuser-busch and pepsico. besides that, their raspberry soda is just fucking delicious. good product, solid growth, decent business sense – and a 10% drop over a few analysts’ downgrades. my kinda buy…

cheap valuable stocks….wah?

here are some simple tenets i follow when buying stocks:

1. i make sure they are cheap. usually, i’m aiming for a enterprise value/ebitda ratio < 7ish (i.e., the stock is trading at 7x earnings)
2. i make sure i understand the businesses i buy – i ain’t touchin’ the nanotechnology surgical robotics company. sewage treatment? now you’re talking my language
3. i buy on a down day – as a matter of principle, i simply will not pick up a stock on a day when it has made a gain
4. i invest in companies i believe in

few stock buys today

market took a hit and here’s why: people that invest money in the market had hopes that the cost of borrowing money would come down (i.e., the fed would drop the interest rate). some statistics released today showed positive job growth, which made the people that invest their money worry that they were not going to get what they want. the bottom line is that when shit in the market turns sideways because of something like this, buy, buy, buy.

i picked up 100 shares of MOT and 100 shares of SBS.