Hello Friends! Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting my blog, Stock Picks Bob's Advice. As always, please remember that I am an amateur investor, so please consult with your professional investment advisors prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website. I cannot be responsible for any losses generated by your trading and shall not ask for any credit!
If you are new to this website, I am happy to welcome you and hope that you enjoy your visit. My blog performs two functions: looking at a variety of stock investment possibilities, and then actually building a real portfolio and following along with those investments. I do not buy every stock that I review, in fact, I currently own 20 stocks in my "Trading Portfolio". This is a real investment portfolio and I try very hard to update my trading activity on this blog as events happen. However, at the same time I have reviewed literally hundreds of stocks since starting this blog almost two years ago. I also have a Xanga account which acts as a "mirror" site, but offers Xanga readers what I consider a more personalized website.
In order to determine how well the multitude of stock picks turned out, I use the weekend, when I get a chance, to review past stock picks with about a trailing one year period. Last weekend I reviewed stock picks from the week of February 16, 2004. This week, I shall be looking at picks from the week of February 23, 2004. Besides looking at the price performance, I also like to look at the latest quarterly result, which I believe gives us a good idea whether the stock is still a good investment at least from my perspective. If both revenue and earnings are positive, I give the stock a "thumbs-up", otherwise down goes the thumb!
By the way, this analysis, as I have pointed out previously, assumes a buy and hold strategy that I do NOT employ in practice. I practice selling my losing stocks quickly and then selling portions of my gaining stocks slowly at pre-determined sale points. That certainly would affect the performance of any portfolio that I actually owned!
On February 23, 2004, I posted Escalon Medical (ESMC) on Stock Picks at $10.60. ESMC closed on 4/8/05 at $5.22, for a loss of $(5.38) or (50.8)%.
On February 14, 2005, ESMC reported 2nd quarter 2005 results. For the quarter ended December 31, 2004, net revenue came in at $6.3 million, compared with $3.8 million the prior year. However, the company reported a net loss of $(422,625) or $(.072)/diluted share compared with net income of $820,961 or $.196/diluted share in the second quarter of 2004.
I posted Mannatech (MTEX) on Stock Picks on February 24, 2004, at a price of $9.98. MTEX closed at $20.29 on 4/8/05, for a gain of $10.31 or 103%.
On March 9, 2005, MTEX announced 4th quarter 2004 results. Net sales for the fourth quarter came in at $84.2 million, a 55.1% increase over the $29.9 million last year. Net income was $4.0 million or $.15/diluted share, a 21.9% increase over the fourth quarter of 2003.
On February 25, 2004, I picked Lipman Electronic Engineering (LPMA) for Stock Picks at a price of $44.98. LPMA had a 2:1 split on 7/2/04, giving us an effective stock pick price of $22.49. LPMA closed at $29.12 on 4/8/05, for a gain of $6.63 or 29.5%.On January 31, 2005, LPMA reported 4th quarter 2004 results. Revenue grew strongly by 78% to $65.7 million from $36.9 million last year. However, while net income grew to $9.7 million from $9.6 million last year, due to an increased number of shares, this worked out to $.35/share down from $.44/share last year.
On February 27, 2004, I posted ShuffleMaster (SHFL) on Stock Picks at a price of $41.45. SHFL has had two 3:2 splits since (4/04 and 1/05) and thus, the effective stock pick price works out to $18.42. SHFL closed at $28.15 on 4/8/05, for a gain of $9.73 or 52.8%.On March 3, 2005, SHFL reported 1st quarter 2005 results which were quite good! Revenue increased 63% to $25.4 million and diluted earnings per share increased 55% to $.17/share.So how did I "do" for picking stock picks for that week in February, 2004? Well, actually quite well for these four selections. I had one big loser (ESMC) and four very strong gainers. Thus, the average percentage gain that week was 33.6%.
Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope that you have a very good week and that you visit here often. I enjoy hearing from readers and if you have any questions, comments, or words of encouragement, please feel free to email me at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com or just go ahead and leave your comments right here in the blog!
Bob