I was out all morning and returned to my desk to find employment and retail numbers sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling down 345 points today. That made me think it was important to check out how stable my stable stocks -- stocks with the ability to ride out this bearish run -- were doing in bad times.
This update is a spot-check of my earlier post Serious Money: Five stable stocks for troubled times, to see how my picks are holding up so far. Closing prices are for today.
The standard for comparison is the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, which closed on June 30, 2008 at 1,280.00. The S&P closed today at 1,236.82, down 3.37%. The percentage gains do not include dividends. Four out of five of my picks beat all the indices; CB was close.
1) Johnson and Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) -- when recommended the stock closed at $64.34 and paid a 2.89% dividend yield. It finished at $70.45 -- up 9.5%
2) Teva Pharmaceuticals ADR (NASDAQ: TEVA) -- when recommended the stock closed at $45.80 and paid a 1% dividend yield. It finished at $47.92 -- up 4.63%.
3) Chubb Corp. (NYSE: CB) -- when recommended the stock closed at $49.01 and paid a 2.64% dividend yield. It finished at $47.13 -- down 3.83%.
4) Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) -- when recommended the stock closed at $20.07 and paid a 4.81% dividend yield. It finished at $20.28 -- up 1%
5) Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) -- when recommended the stock closed at $31.20 and paid a 1.11% dividend yield. It closed at $31.54 -- up 1%.
I reviewed about 600 stocks before settling on these five, generally looking for potential growth in low beta stocks. The average yield of the five is 2.49%, which is higher than the average stock fund.
So far so good for the pursuit of stability, a relief after seeing the finance page.
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. DISCLOSURE: I currently own shares of JNJ.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-04-2008 @ 6:29PM
william lindblad said...
You neglected MBIA. Off a bit, but still a 3 month substantial.
You are doing one hell of lot better than Cramer and he gets to be on TV
Keep it up, If Lou R. were still with us you might eventually get an "elf" hat.
(not an insult)
9-04-2008 @ 7:59PM
Sheldon L said...
Bill,
MBIA - up 228% in 5 weeks was in yesterdays story: Chasing Value: Financials risky but up 26%
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/09/03/chasing-value-financials-risky-but-up-26/
Thank for your kind comments
9-04-2008 @ 10:39PM
JK said...
Why even bother asking the headlines of the stocks helping to boost the "Obamanation" high taxes economy the media being left wing-i.e. Socialist Commentator "Christopher Robbins"Matthews, just licks that right UP! ---Do I HEAR ....PROPAGANDA?!!