We wanted to review 10 investments that I’ve written about on GuruFocus.com over the last several months. Some of these ideas have done well and others not so much.
The first is a high flyer, Impala Platinum (IMPUY, Financial). The volatile South African platinum miner did as promised – jumped up and down on a daily basis. At the time of the article, the stock traded at $3. Today, it trades at $4.36. The price of platinum has done well with other precious metals this year. We wrote about Impala on March 4.
The next is office retailer Staples (SPLS, Financial). We wrote about Staples on July 27 and claimed that it was a buy on the busted M&A deal with Office Depot (ODP, Financial). Guess what? It was not a great time to buy the stock. We thought the 5.27% dividend yield would buoy the stock price. We are down about 15%, not counting the dividend, since we bought the stock.
We were adamant about how now is not the time to buy agricultural equipment manufacturers. In our research, we have found slightly used farm equipment selling at half off at the auction. The first stock was CNHI (CNHI, Financial). We first wrote about CNHI on Aug. 9 back when the stock was $7.36. The stock today trades at $7.48. We also wrote about John Deere (DE, Financial) on Aug. 9 when the stock was $78.89. Now, it stands at $87.95. We were either early on our prediction or just flat out wrong.
We wrote on Canadian uranium miner Cameco (CCJ, Financial) just a month and a half ago on Sept. 14. We opined that it was still too early to buy shares. We happened to be correct in that assessment. Part of the reason simply was that the stock was headed in a downward trajectory. It was $8.68 then and now $7.57. It might be a buy at some point –Â like when it’s a penny stock.
The Chilean Coca-Cola bottler Andina (AKO.A, Financial) traded for $17.71 when we wrote about it on June 1Â and now trades at $22.34. Andina distributes Coke in Chile, Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. Part of the stock’s recent success is that it has bounced off a bottom due to economic and currency issues in Latin America. It could keep going.
We advised against buying shares in British supermarket Tesco (TSCDY, Financial) back on April 25. Management had to cut the dividend due to increased competition from Little and Aldi’s. We were correct. The stock traded at $8.06 at the time, collapsed to $6.01 and has since recovered to $7.79. Little has entered the U.S., too. Even Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) had to give up on Tesco.
We badmouthed German-based Neopost (NPACY, Financial). We claimed that the company is in a declining industry –Â mail solutions and metered mail. Guess what? We were wrong. Since the April 11 article the stock has risen 44%. First Pacific Crescent bought shares. It was right after all.
We advised buying Lionsgate Entertainment (LGF, Financial) after a big movie flop and selling it when it has a blockbuster. When we wrote about Lionsgate on March 15, the stock was $22.99. Now, it trades at $20.2. The interesting thing about the stock price is that it’s pretty much flatlined since the spring. A great time to buy a stock (sometimes) is when the price remains the same for a long time.
Credit Suisse (CS) is one that we wrote about on Feb. 18. We advised readers to eschew Wall Street research and look at the loan portfolio. “I'm not too impressed with the research that I've read, nor the articles that are out there. Too much of it focuses on profitability and not enough on the loan portfolio. I would need more information on the loan portfolio to come up with an opinion on the stock. Obviously, if I can't get enough information, I can't give a buy or sell recommendation. Every piece of information that you read on Credit Suisse that does not have to do with its loan portfolio is really a waste of time. That is the only thing you should focus on.” The stock is up slightly since we wrote the article. We still stand by our comments and if you don’t believe us, look what Deutsche Bank (DB) has done since then.
As GuruFocus.com leans toward value, many of our articles lean that way, too. There are some other ideas but for the most part, we’re looking at the financials and trying to understand the industry. Of course the short time frame is not a great gauge of ideas. We will continue to give updates to check our ideas and keep us humble.
Disclosure: We owns Staples and Impala Platinum and FPA Crescent.
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