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December, 2014: 6 7 14 22
Disclaimer - IMPORTANT - Read this first!
| Investor's Journal is a diary focused strictly on investments and personal finance issues, primarily from a contrarian and retiree point of view. Follow along with an average guy's failures and successes as he learns, by trial and error, the fine art of value investing. |
12/6/14-Since the last entry, there have been no sales or sell signals among stocks or portfolios followed here.
Time for a bit of humble pie. Last month I mentioned the advantages of buying stocks with low price to sales ratios. Since then the three stocks I had bought that qualified have gone down significantly, while the market has on average been up. What gives? I did a little more looking into the low price to sales record and learned back-tests of such strategies do not necessarily support the theoretical gains one would expect from this type of value investing. On a risk-adjusted basis, they may do a lot worse than other value techniques. (One of the best strategies, for instance, combines relatively high dividends and relatively low price to earnings ratios.) So, though my P/S method had barely gotten off the ground, I'm now casting it aside.
I shall, however, hold the three assets bought with low P/S, hoping in each case for an eventual turnaround for its contribution to our nest egg, but will not tout this approach here or keep following such a hypothetical portfolio in our quarterly reviews.
Since my Low P/S shares of KBAL and CSH still have relatively low P/Bk, I'll add them to our Low Price to Book Value portfolio's record of open positions.
And since WSTG, the third low P/S asset I had bought, still has a good dividend, I'll add those shares to our Dividend Value portfolio record of open positions.
Alphabetically, my current top-five Low Price to Book Value equities are: NE; REGI; SCX; SHOS; and TX.
My new featured Low Price to Book Value security is Noble Corp. (NE) (recent price $16.38). NE meets Benjamin Graham's bargain stock value and safety criteria.
Noble Corp. will be added to our nest egg at its market price in early morning trading on Monday, 12/8/14.
12/7/14-There have been no new sell signals and no sales of assets followed here.
Alphabetically, my current top-five Dividend Value equities are: IQNT; OXY; SSL; UFS; and WSTG.
My new featured Dividend Value security is Sasol, Ltd. (SSL) (recent price $37.89). SSL meets Benjamin Graham's bargain stock value and safety criteria.
Shares of Sasol, Ltd. will be added to our nest egg at its market price in early morning trading on Monday, 12/8/14.
12/14/14-There have been no new sell signals and no sales of assets followed here since the prior entry.
The lately renewed market volatility has created more strict Ben Graham value bargains than had been recently apparent. Below are eight suggested assets which appear to be cheap. Hopefully some of them also would be acceptable to that pioneer value investor. There are five each for our two main portfolio genres. Happily, a couple fall into either category.
Alphabetically, my current top-five Low Price to Book Value equities are: CSH; KBAL; SCX; TGA; and TX.
My new featured Low Price to Book Value security is The TransGlobe Energy Corp. (TGA) (recent price $2.86). TGA looks to me like a Benjamin Graham bargain stock, based on value and safety criteria.
Shares of TransGlobe Energy Corp. will be added to our nest egg at its market price in early morning trading on Monday, 12/15/14.
Alphabetically, my current top-five Dividend Value equities are: FF; SSL; TGA; TNH; and TX.
My new featured Dividend Value security is Ternium, S. A. (TX) (recent price $16.83). TX seems to meet Benjamin Graham value stock bargain criteria too.
Shares of Ternium, S. A. will also be added to our nest egg at its market price in early morning trading tomorrow.
12/22/14-There have been no new sell signals and no sales of assets followed here since the prior entry.
I do not have new Low Price to Book Value or Dividend Value assets to suggest today but am closing in on our 2014 target level of total book value by purchasing what apparently good value assets I can find and wanted to mention again the following, shares of each of which I'll likely be buying before the end of the year:
1. In the low price to book category - CSH and TX.
2. Among higher than average dividend stocks - RDS/A; TGA; and TNH.
In my view, all of them represent Ben Graham bargains at this time.
In addition, I may, before the close of trading on 12/31/14, be buying shares of other low price to book value or dividend value stocks already cited (in the 10/11/14 through 12/14/14 entries), if they appear at the time of purchase to still (or again) represent good price to value ratios.
Disclaimer and Disclosure Statement
Neither I nor Investor's Journal will be responsible for losses by anyone who obtained ideas from this site.
This diary is intended for personal interest and general information only. You are advised to do your own research (as well as to consult highly compensated professionals) before spending money on anything.
I know of no reason anyone should take my financial musings seriously. At best I am a dedicated amateur providing a bit of investment-related insight and entertainment, at worst an amusing diversion.
My wife, Fran, and I may at times own shares of some of the assets mentioned here. But neither of us receive any benefit from reference to them, unless you count the mutual misery when we get it wrong, or the opportunity to gloat when we get it right.