Serious Money: Williams second to Apple; still leads Berkshire, Google & Microsoft

Posted Aug 31st 2009 12:30PM by Sheldon Liber
Filed under: Good news, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Serious Money, Williams Companies (WMB)

In early May, I wrote about why I thought Williams Companies Inc. (NYSE: WMB) would outperform four other, more popular stocks. I compared it to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.B).

It was May 11 that I last followed-up on my series of posts, and since then, for about half that period WMB indeed outperformed all four stocks. Since then, however, it has fallen back to second place, behind AAPL.

The following lists the starting point and the current "leader-board."

In Alphabetical order from the original story

Apple (AAPL): $123.90, 35.5% off its high of $192.24
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B): $2910, 38% off its high of $4700
Google (GOOG): $389.49, 35.3% off its high of $602.45
Microsoft (MSFT): $20.91, 34.9% off its high of 32.10
Williams Companies (WMB): $13.77, 66.2% off its high of $40.75

In order of highest percentage gain:

Apple (AAPL): from $123.90 to $170.05 for a 35.25% gain
Williams Companies (WMB): $13.77 to $16.80 for a 22% gain
Google (GOOG): from $389.49 to $464.75 for a 19.32% gain
Microsoft (MSFT): from $20.91 to $24.68 for a 18.03% gain
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B): from $2,910 to $3,307 for a 13.64% gain

Previously Williams had outperformed the other four companies' combined gains. Not so any more. Those who have favored Apple have done well, as it now stands out as the top performer to date.

All five stocks have nice gains and I suspect BRK will continue its upward trend, especially now that "my pal Warren's" bet on Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has paid off with huge gains. For the record, GS gains would have matched Apple's as the top pick if it were included, as the financial stocks have come roaring back.

Since my last post I have acquired a few shares in MSFT, but I still like the Williams Co. better, with less competition and little effort required to keep its cash flow going. These are the two stocks that pay a dividend: WMB at a 2.62% yield, and MSFT with a 2.11% yield. Although the market has been extremely hot lately, it is anybody's guess where we will be in six months, when I hope to update this story again.

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 own WMB and BRK.B, & MSFT.

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