Remembrance of Buy List Stocks Past

I’ve often cautioned investors not to worry over what happens to a stock after you’ve sold it. Just because it continues to rise doesn’t necessarily mean you made the wrong the decision. Our goal is be good investors, not perfect investors.

Having said that, I’m going to break that rule (hey, it’s my blog) and take a quick peek at how the five stocks we ditched at the beginning of the year are doing. Technically, I should say that I didn’t (and don’t) regard them as Sells. Instead, I thought the new additions were better buys.

As it turns out, the five stocks that got cut from the Buy List are doing very well.

The leader so far is Gilead Sciences ($GILD) which is up over 34% for the year. As I’ve said, I’m not a fan of the Pharmasset acquisition. It’s far too expensive for what they’re getting. Gilead also badly missed earnings the other day. The stock, however, jumped 11% in thanks to promising news of its Hep C treatment.

The second-best performer is Leucadia National ($LUK) which is up 29% in 2012. Much of Leucadia’s success is undoubtedly due to its holding of Jefferies ($JEF). While I believe that Jefferies had become undervalued, I think it’s fairly valued at $16 give or take. Now that it’s there, I don’t see much room for dramatic upside.

Deluxe ($DLX) continues to chug along. The stock is already up 14% for the year. Deluxe is almost a pure value play. I liked it last year because it was cheap and it paid a very nice dividend. We did OK with the stock but I had hopes for more.

Pulling up the rear are Becton Dickinson ($BDX) and Abbott Labs ($ABT). Becton is up 3.8% for the year while Abbott is down 1.4%. Becton had been doing well, but investors soured on today’s lowered guidance.

Posted by on February 7th, 2012 at 4:31 pm


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.