Author: Robert Freedland
Disclaimer: Robert owns CHD, CL, MCD, MMM, SYY, T and TJX in his Covestor Buy and Hold Value model.
October 4, 2010: September was a good month for the market as well as a good month for my own account. Seemingly climbing a wall of worry about renewed real estate foreclosures and concerns about the implementation of healthcare reform, and seemingly endless government red ink, the market found the S&P opening up at 1049 on September 1st and closing at 1,141 by the end of trading on September 30th. This marked the best September in over 50 years for stocks.
In my own account Church & Dwight (CHD) had a reasonably strong month after a period of consolidation, moving higher from $61.70 on the first of September to close the month at $64.92. My own consumer goods investment appeared to be a timely place to place money after it was announced late in the month that Unilever (UL) would be purchasing Alberto Culver (ACV) for $3.7 billion in cash.
My latest purchase, and other consumer products company Colgate-Palmolive (CL) spent much of the month of September treading water. CL opened the month at $74.74 and closed September $77.89.
McDonald’s (MCD) stayed strong opening the month at $73.92 and closing on September 30th at $74.97. The company continued to post strong sales results and announced an 11% increase to its dividend to $2.44/share with an approximate yield of 3.2% as of October 4, 2010.
3M (MMM) had a very strong month along with the rest of the market opening at $79.51 and closing September at $86.21.
Sysco (SYY) had a bit of a ‘roller-coaster’ ride in September starting off the month at $27.26 reaching as high as $30.10 on September 24th before closing the month at $28.84 after selling off when earnings came in a penny shy of expectations.
Meanwhile AT&T (T) which opened up the month at $27.24, finished with a strong performance reaching $28.60 by month-end after it appeared that the recurrent Verizon (VZ) iPhone rumor seemed to be losing steam for the time being with T continuing its long-time exclusive arrangement for the iPhone with AAPL.
Finally TJX Companies (TJX) resumed its price climb after a couple of months in the doldrums. The stock opened up at $40.16 on September 1st and reached $44.63 by the end of the month. The company during the month reported steady sales growth with 2% same store growth reported.
Overall the month was a solid performer for me as my portfolio climbed 3.57%, under the S&P performance for the month but not too shabby a return in light of the fact that I remained 40% in cash.
Some of the stocks that I view as potential purchases include IBM, Medtronic, Home Depot, and Smucker, names that I have grown comfortable with over the years and companies that I believe remain reasonably valued relative to potential price appreciation in the future.
Meanwhile, I continue to be following my own disciplined approach and haven’t been trading in and out of stocks but have instead waited patiently for my own stocks to dictate those moves. I look forward to October as I believe it may offer me an opportunity to expand my portfolio towards my eventual goal of 20 holdings.
