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.
It is the weekend and for me, that means a time to stop looking for new stock picks and instead a chance to review past selections. This analysis assumes a buy and hold approach to investing which is not what I employ in my own investment portfolio. In fact, I sell stocks that decline (which is NOT infrequent) quickly, and sell stocks that gain (also NOT infrequent!) slowly. But for the sake of reviewing what happened to these stocks, "buy and hold" works just fine. Also, some people think that I am reviewing stocks that I actually have purchased. In fact, most of the stocks that I review, the great majority in fact, I have never purchased! You can view my current "Trading Portfolio" elsewhere on this website. I am a bit behind updating the list, but those are stocks that I have actually purchased!
On March 15, 2004, I posted Toro (TTC) on Stock Picks at a price of $58.96. TTC had a 2:1 split on 4/13/05, with a resultant adjusted stock pick price of $29.48. TTC closed at $42.86 on 5/6/5 for a gain of $13.38 or 45.4%.
On February 22, 2005, Toro reported 1st quarter 2005 results. Sales jumped 10.6% to $346.9 million from $313.6 million the prior year. Net earnings came in at $11.2 million, up from $9.3 million, or $.47/diluted share this year, compared with $.36/diluted share the prior year. 
On March 17, 2004, I posted Autobytel (ABTL) on Stock Picks at a price of $12.93. Autobytel (now listed as ABTLE), closed at $4.79 on 5/6/05 for a loss of $(8.14) or (63.0)%.
On April 1, 2005, ABTLE announced a request for an extension on filings of financial statements. The company is busy restating results, many officers have resigned, litigation is pending, and it will take a lot to clear this one up! An unfortunate pick for the blog!
Finally, on March 17, 2004, I selected VCA Antech (WOOF) for Stock Picks at $34.69. WOOF had a 2:1 stock split on 8/26/04 making my effective "pick price" only $17.35. WOOF closed at $23.55 on 5/6/05, for a gain of $6.20 or 35.7%.On April 26, 2005, WOOF announced 1st quarter 2005 results. Revenue increased 30% to $186.9 million from $144.4 million the prior year same quarter. The company earned $17.5 million or $.21/share in the quarter, up from $14.7 million or $.18/share the prior year. In addition, the company raised outlook for the remainder of 2005!So how did we do for that week a year ago? Well, of the three stocks "picked", two had solid gains and one just fell apart! Averaging the three selections still gives us an average gain of 6.03%. Not too bad, and would have been even better if we were stopping out that ABTLE at the (8)% loss level!
Thanks again for stopping by! Remember that I AM an amateur, so please consult with your professional investment advisors prior to using this website for investment decisions. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them here on the blog or email me at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com.
Bob