The 2014 Buy List

The 2014 trading year is officially on the books. It was another profitable year for our Buy List. I want to thank everyone for your support. We again showed that a set-and-forget portfolio of high-quality stocks can do well.

Here are the final numbers. For the year, our Buy List gained 10.26%. Including dividends, we were up 11.80%.

Unfortunately, we were beaten out by the S&P 500, but it was close. For 2014, the S&P 500 gained 11.39% and 13.69% when you include dividends. The return from dividends for our Buy List was 1.39% while it was 2.06% for the S&P 500. This was the first time since 2006 that the S&P 500 outperformed our Buy List. For those who care about such things, the Buy List’s “beta” was 0.9361.

Nine of our Buy List stocks were up more than 20%. There was nearly a four-way tie for our top-performing stock of the year. Ultimately, Medtronic ($MDT) edged out Ross Stores ($ROST) 25.81% to 24.80%, while DirecTV ($DTV) and Stryker ($SYK) were right behind tied at 25.54%. Fifteen of our 20 stocks made money last year. The biggest loser was IBM ($IBM) which lost 14.46%.

Over the nine-year history of our Buy List, our total compounded gain, including dividends, is 151.28%. For the S&P 500, the nine-year total return is 99.66%.

The chart below details the Buy List’s performance. I’ve listed each stock, along with the number of shares and the starting and ending prices. For tracking purposes, I assume the Buy List is a $1 million portfolio that starts equally divided among the 20 stocks.

Stock	Shares	12/31/2013	Beginning	12/31/2014	Ending	Profit/Loss
AFL	748.5030	$66.80	$50,000.00	$61.09	$45,726.05	-8.55%
BBBY	622.6650	$80.30	$50,000.00	$76.17	$47,428.39	-5.14%
CA	1,485.8841	$33.65	$50,000.00	$30.45	$45,245.17	-9.51%
CTSH	990.2952	$50.49	$50,000.00	$52.66	$52,148.95	4.30%
BCR	373.3015	$133.94	$50,000.00	$166.62	$62,199.50	24.40%
DTV	724.0081	$69.06	$50,000.00	$86.70	$62,771.50	25.54%
EBAY	911.2448	$54.87	$50,000.00	$56.12	$51,139.06	2.28%
ESRX	711.8451	$70.24	$50,000.00	$84.67	$60,271.92	20.54%
FISV	846.7401	$59.05	$50,000.00	$70.97	$60,093.14	20.19%
F	3,240.4407	$15.43	$50,000.00	$15.50	$50,226.83	0.45%
IBM	266.5671	$187.57	$50,000.00	$160.44	$42,768.03	-14.46%
MCD	515.3045	$97.03	$50,000.00	$93.70	$48,284.03	-3.43%
MDT	871.2319	$57.39	$50,000.00	$72.20	$62,902.94	25.81%
MSFT	1,336.5410	$37.41	$50,000.00	$46.45	$62,082.33	24.16%
MOG-A	735.9435	$67.94	$50,000.00	$74.03	$54,481.90	8.96%
ORCL	1,306.8479	$38.26	$50,000.00	$44.97	$58,768.95	17.54%
QCOM	673.4007	$74.25	$50,000.00	$74.33	$50,053.87	0.11%
ROST	667.2895	$74.93	$50,000.00	$94.26	$62,898.71	25.80%
SYK	665.4245	$75.14	$50,000.00	$94.33	$62,769.49	25.54%
WFC	1,101.3216	$45.40	$50,000.00	$54.82	$60,374.45	20.75%
Total			$1,000,000		$1,102,635.22	10.26%

Note that Cognizant Technologies Solutions ($CTSH) split 2-for-1 on March 10.

Here’s how the Buy List performed throughout the year.

Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on December 31st, 2014 at 7:20 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.