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 remember to consult with your professional investment advisors prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website.

One of my weekend tasks that I try to address is the review of past stock picks on this blog. For ease of evaluation, I use a "buy and hold" assumption of past picks.  In reality, I advocate and employ a disciplined buying and selling strategy with all of the stocks that I choose to own.  This of course would affect the ultimate price performance of any investment.

Since I have again missed a couple of weeks in this review process, my trailing 52 weeks is getting closer to a trailing 65 weeks!  In fact, I did review the week of March 28, 2005,  but there weren't any stocks "picked" that week.  My previous full review was on June 24, 2006 when I reviewed past picks from the week of March 21, 2005.  Thus, I am now up to the week of April 4, 2005, which was a busy week for me on the blog!  Let's take a look at those stock picks and see how they would have performed if we had purchased equal dollar amounts of the selections.

  On April 4, 2005, I posted Jos A. Bank (JOSB) on Stock Picks Bob's advice when it was trading at $31.88.  JOSB had a 5:4 stock split on 2/16/06, making my effective pick price actually only $23.88.  JOSB closed on 7/21/06 at a price of $25.64 giving me a gain of $1.77 or 7.4% since "picking" the stock.

On June 8, 2006, JOSB announced first quarter 2007 results.  For the quarter ended April 29, 2006, sales increased 17.7% to $113.7 million as compared with $96.6 million in the same quarter last year.  Comparable store sales grew 4.7% during the period and combined catalog and internet sales climbed 25.0%.  Net income, however, declined to $5.9 million or $.32/share, down from $6.7 million or $.38/share the prior year.

 
On April 5, 2005, I posted Greif Inc. (GEF) on Stock Picks Bob's Advice when it was trading at $74.06.  GEF closed at $67.97 on 7/21/06, for a loss of $(6.09) or (8.2)% since posting. 

On May 31, 2006, GEF announced 2nd quarter 2006 results.   For the quarter ended April 30, 2006, net sales grew 1% to $620.1 million from $613.0 million in the same quarter last year.  GAAP net income came inat $28.7 million or $.97/diluted Class A share and $1.49/diluted Class B share, compared to GAAP net income of $16.8 million or $.57/diluted Class A share and $.88/diluted Class B Share in the prior year.

On April 7, 2005, I posted Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY) on Stock Picks Bob's Advice at a price of $40.80.  BBBY closed at $32.62 on 7/21/06 for a loss of $(8.18) or (20.0)% since listing.

On June 21, 2006,  BBBY reported 1st quarter 2006 results.  For the quarter ended May 27, 2006, net sales were $1.396 billion, a 12.2% increase from net sales of $1.244 billion in the same quarter in 2005.  Net earnings for the quarter came in at $100.4 million, or $.35/diluted share, up from $98.9 million or $.33/diluted share the prior year.  During the quarter, the company reported comparable store sales growth of 4.9%, better than the 4.4% same store growth in sales reported last year.

 Finally, on on April 8, 2005, I posted Buckle (BKE) on Stock Picks Bob's Advice when the stock was trading at $35.60.  Buckle closed at $37.90 on 7/21/06 for a gain of $2.30 or 6.5% since posting.

On May 18, 2006, Buckle reported 1st quarter results.  For the quarter ended April 29, 2006, sales came in at $109.6 million, up from $105.5 million.  Income increased to $9.4 million or $.47/share, up from $8.6 million or $.40/share in last year's same quarter.  However, same store sales, a better indicator imho of the long-term potential of a retail firm, declined (1.3)%.  Thus, even though sales overall grew, this result  was influenced by new store openings and results were not quite as encouraging taking into consideration the shrinkage of same store sales results.

So how did I do for that week in April last year?  Well, the average performance of the four stocks listed came in at a loss of (3.6)% with two stock losing and two stocks gaining....but the loss in BBBY biased the entire group into a losing result.

Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting!  If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them on the blog or email me at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com.  Also, please be sure to stop by and visit my Stock Picks Bob's Advice podcast website!

Bob