On just about every measure but size, SLOT does look better than IGT, I agree. Still, passed on SLOT today. This is too nitpicky, and tells me that maybe I'm just making up reasons not to buy it, but the stock runs up 25% in advance of good news in the legislature, and then when the news breaks, the stock does nothing. If nothing else, this tells me that I don't know what moves this stock, and even if I did, it would be too late.
I did go with a few moves though, reflecting an effort to improve my portfolio management skills relative to my stockpicking. I'm not convinced they go hand in hand.
I unloaded WHX and Loews. Since I'm a bottomfisher, I try to get my ducks in a row before buying. When the market repeatedly tells me I'm wrong, well, at some point I have to stop fighting it. I don't want to follow any stock into bankruptcy, so I've set 25% fall without any new information or fundamental realization as my breakpoint. And both these just cleared that threshold. My sells (e.g. Case) have done pretty well though, so someone might want to buy these or at least take a look. Why Loews is falling so much, I don't know. No respect for asset plays, I guess.
I used the proceeds to upgrade the dividend yield on my port. Bought some UST as a rough parallel/favorable tax switch to Loews, but with a stable dividend above 6%. I like that UST has fallen so much in sympathy with Loews/MO/RN despite the renewed dividend increases and share buyback. UST has much less potential liability than the other tobaccos, and the CEO is looking for 10% earnings growth this year. I also added some more MO.
The steel money, well I really wanted to put it back into steel. Ispat, National Steel have looked like my two best ideas, but I couldn't pull the trigger on either today. So I went to the REIT sector, toyed with Public Storage then went with EastGroup (EGP). So the port of 20 stocks now yields 3.86%. Safety in a downturn, maybe. And now I'm out of steel.
Mike
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