The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down about 150 points as I peck away on my laptop. I was looking to see what stocks were holding up on a down day, and sure enough one of my favorites showed up -- Precision Drilling Services TR (NYSE: PDS), a stock I recommended two months ago.
I apologize if I seem like a cheerleader, or a play-by-play announcer, but it was only two weeks ago that I posted on what were already strong gains, and this one keeps going up (even though its business is to drill down...). From my original December recommendation at $15.47 per share, PDS has moved up to $22.61 by midday today and climbing, for a 46% gain. This is when the Dow industrials are down almost 7%.
When I first called PDS to readers' attention, it had a price to earnings ratio (P/E) near 5 and a dividend yield over 10%. The stock's appreciation has raised the P/E to 8.24 and the yield declined to 6.9% -- still very good, but not what it was.
By now, one of our frequent commenters (who claims to have bought in last December) must be dancing in the street. He and I do not always see eye-to-eye on some things, but he has been a good sounding board. I remain a buy and hold guy, and he is not. Hey Mr. Noital, did you sell your shares to book the gains or are you going to ride this one out?
UPDATE: PDS closed today at $22.80, up 0.55.
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the design and research principal for an architecture & planning firm. Disclosure: I own shares of PDS.
Why do we have a weak dollar?
Holiday hiring slow for retailers
Closing Bell: What sell-off? (AIG, ABK, EPR, MBI, JAVA, ORCL, ERTS)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-28-2008 @ 8:17PM
Mr. noitall said...
Well Sheldon, I'm not dancing in the streets yet. I didn't buy enough shares to bring on that kind of behavior. But I'm am very happy with my gains on PDS and my other buys so far this year. I still own my PDS and plan to hold on for now. I did send you an e-mail awhile back listing a few of my other buys for 2008. SLV was one of them (also doing very well). I might try to protect some of my gains with stop loss orders, that could be a good way to play it. Give me enough time and I will convince you that the "buy & hold" index funds strategy just won't work any longer.