Benchmark Investing Update Dec 30, 2022

The Benchmark Investing board has been closed by TMF. Future updates will only occur here on the Mechanical Investing board. This update is to Kenneth Lee’s Benchmark Investing picks based on the latest Monday’s data release. Since our last update, the market (S&P500) took a turn for the better, advancing +4.1%.

This period there were five companies in the DJIA 30 that are below their downside price targets. They are CVX -26%, VZ -23%, DOW -15%, GS -42%, and WBA -34%. However, none would qualify as a BI pick because of either subpar EPS growth or volatile ROE estimates.

If you are interested in following along with this methodology against a broader range of stocks outside of the Dow30, these picks are posted in my Fool CAPS on a regular basis as trades occur. As an almost final update on the returns for 2022 BI Portfolio, with a few days left in the year stands at a small loss of -4.1%.

Market Valuation (Dow 30):

The DOW30 market is still overpriced according to the BI method of valuation by about 20%.

Downside: -35%
Upside: -5%

Long Buy Rules:

I am using the following TTD rules for Long position considerations:

  1. Year-over-Year EPS growth must > 10%, which are the next 4Q / current quarter + previous 3 quarters earnings results

  2. VL 3-5 Year price appreciation > average price appreciation of the market

  3. When calculating ROE and BV figures, ignore years when they are negative, but must have at least 7+ years of data to be included in final consideration

  4. Avoid erratic ROE ratios, that is where they are > 2std deviations = Curr ROE > (10 Year Avg + 2 * Std Dev)

  5. ROE and BV current figures must be updated by VL

Sell Rules:

I am using the following TTD rules to Sell Long positions:

Criteria (1 OR 2 OR 5, AND 3 AND 4):

  1. Price Appreciation < Market Average Appreciation
  2. Current Price > BI HiPrice
  3. Hold time > 365 days per cycle
  4. ROE & BV must be current
  5. No longer listed as a market average component

Summary of Results :

Ticker VL Date Current Price ROE/BV UpToDate Downside Price Upside Price %<10Y Downside %<10Y Downside : 4QAvg EPS Delta Div Yield % 3-5 Y Low VL Price 3-5 Y Hi VL Price VL 3-5Y Price %chg VL 18mo Price% Chg ROE >2SD Name
CAT 11-Nov-22 240 TRUE 170 257 41% 45% 14% 2.0 225 300 8% -11% FALSE Caterpillar Inc.
JNJ 11-Nov-22 177 TRUE 153 195 16% 16% 3% 2.5 215 260 33% 12% FALSE Johnson & Johnson
MCD 18-Nov-22 268 FALSE 5% 2.3 280 345 16% 19% TRUE McDonald’s Corp.
CVX 25-Nov-22 177 TRUE 241 334 -26% -8% 3% 3.3 250 380 80% 13% TRUE Chevron Corp.
BA 2-Dec-22 189 FALSE 112% - 225 335 42% 19% TRUE Boeing
TRV 2-Dec-22 189 TRUE 119 158 59% 54% 7% 2.0 225 275 31% -2% FALSE Travelers Cos.
UNH 2-Dec-22 531 TRUE 318 488 67% 70% 13% 1.3 490 600 3% 27% FALSE UnitedHealth Group
AMGN 2-Dec-22 264 FALSE 80% 2% 3.2 320 390 33% -7% TRUE Amgen
VZ 9-Dec-22 38.41 TRUE 50 63 -23% -23% 3% 6.9 90 115 171% 27% FALSE Verizon Communic.
CSCO 9-Dec-22 47.48 FALSE 37 52 29% 29% 6% 3.3 70 90 67% 10% FALSE Cisco Systems
HD 16-Dec-22 319 FALSE 3% 2.6 380 460 31% 7% TRUE Home Depot
PG 16-Dec-22 153 FALSE 105 139 46% 48% 2% 2.4 135 165 -1% 2% FALSE Procter & Gamble
INTC 23-Dec-22 26.09 TRUE 18 27 42% 0% -48% 5.4 55 65 123% 33% TRUE Intel Corp.
AAPL 23-Dec-22 132 FALSE 70% 2% 0.7 170 205 38% 44% TRUE Apple Inc.
IBM 23-Dec-22 142 TRUE 85 117 66% 55% 16% 4.6 125 190 10% -1% FALSE Int’l Business Mach.
DOW 30-Dec-22 50.86 TRUE 60 101 -15% -26% -18% 5.9 95 145 136% 26% FALSE Dow Inc.
MRK 30-Dec-22 112 TRUE 82 110 36% 38% -8% 2.6 115 140 14% 7% FALSE Merck & Co.
HON 7-Oct-22 214 TRUE 135 187 59% 56% 13% 1.9 225 280 17% 2% FALSE Honeywell Int’l
MMM 7-Oct-22 120 TRUE 112 155 8% -16% -21% 4.8 200 250 82% 22% FALSE 3M Company
GS 7-Oct-22 346 TRUE 599 913 -42% -8% -1% 2.9 470 635 57% 8% TRUE Goldman Sachs
CRM 7-Oct-22 129 TRUE 60 99 115% 52% 382% - 250 375 139% 48% FALSE Salesforce Inc.
KO 14-Oct-22 63.82 TRUE 45 57 41% 38% 1% 2.9 60 75 5% 13% FALSE Coca-Cola
WBA 21-Oct-22 38.63 TRUE 59 85 -34% -33% -7% 5.0 45 65 42% 21% FALSE Walgreens Boots
WMT 21-Oct-22 144 TRUE 91 123 58% 46% 4% 1.5 200 240 51% 16% FALSE Walmart Inc.
NKE 21-Oct-22 116 FALSE 98 150 18% 15% 11% 1.2 160 195 53% 20% FALSE NIKE Inc. ‘B’
DIS 28-Oct-22 88.01 TRUE 43 61 107% 35% 177% - 155 210 109% 47% FALSE Disney (Walt)
JPM 4-Nov-22 131 TRUE 98 142 34% 32% 5% 3.1 145 195 28% 7% FALSE JPMorgan Chase
AXP 4-Nov-22 147 TRUE 127 188 16% 17% 5% 1.4 175 235 39% 26% FALSE Amer. Express
V 4-Nov-22 206 FALSE 195 279 5% 11% 11% 0.9 285 345 52% 15% TRUE Visa Inc.
MSFT 4-Nov-22 239 FALSE 184 288 29% 29% 18% 1.1 320 390 45% 30% FALSE Microsoft Corp.
DJI 33,204 21,652 31,416 2.5 40,566 52,397 Dow Jones Industrial Avg
Appreciation Potential -35% -5% 22% 58% 52% 17%

AllTooFoolish’s CAPS Portfolio:

If you are interested in seeing this method applied to a broader universe of stocks, follow my actively managed Benchmark Investing portfolio using Fool CAPS. I have been using this methodology exclusively on Fool.com for many years with great success. In the Fool CAPS you will find my current portfolio and can see my most recent activities.

Notable activity in my CAPS portfolio over the past three months:

TAP, ADD, passes all rules for purchases. Added to position -26% downside price.

BALL, BUY, passes all rules for purchase. New entry to portfolio -20% downside price.

KMI, ADD, passes all rules for purchases. Added to position -47% downside price.

META, ADD, passes all rules for purchases. Added to position -62% downside price.

PXD, SELL, limited upside potential, less upside than overall market potential. Average total return +64% vs the market average return same time frame +20%. Held for 1238 days since initial entry.

Static 2022 BI Portfolio Holdings:

15 Holding in BI Portfolio: EOG, PFE, TAP, DXC, NWL, BEN, META, AMZN, PXD, WBD, MS, CAH, IVZ, LKQ, KMI

BI Portfolio Total Return -4.1%

S&P 500 Total Return -18.4%

The 2023 BI Portfolio Holdings will be:

15 Holding in BI 2023 Portfolio: CAH, EOG, KMI, DVA, LKQ, NWL, TAP, BEN, IVZ, WBD, PYPL, PTC, DXC, AMZN, META

BI Portfolio Total Return TBD%

S&P 500 Total Return TBD%

My overall Fool CAPS Rating at the time of this post was 55.5 (-2.5 points since previous update)

Score: 1529 (61%)

Accuracy: 46% (45%)

Disclosures and Useful Terms

VL Date is the date of the last summary report update from Valueline as indicated in the post’s subject line. All data sources from the Valueline Dow30 reports made publicly available on their website. https://research.valueline.com/research#list=dow30&sec=list

Current Price is the closing price of the stock as reported by VL, which is usually a few days behind the date
of the time period mentioned in this posting’s subject line.

ROE/BV Updated is an indication if the stock’s BV and ROE have been updated through the end of the Benchmark evaluation time frame.

10Yr Down is the 10 year downside price. The company must have at least 7 years of non-negative ROE data to qualify.

10Yr Down4Qs is the 10 year downside price averaged over the previous 4 quarter’s valuation price.

10Yr Up is the 10 year upside price. The company must have at least 7 years of non-negative ROE data to qualify.

Both upside and downside are calculated using method outlined in TTD book.

Also, a discussion of calculating the upside and downside can be found here:

http://boards.fool.com/Message.asp?mid=20916205&sort=who

%<10Y Downside is the current price divided by the 10 Yr downside expressed as a percentage.

EPS Future Delta is the projected growth in EPS for the next 4 quarters versus the last four reported quarters.

I use the latest EPS data from the VL spreadsheet which are updated as soon as new earnings are reported.

Div Yield is the current % dividend payout ratio per share.

3-5 Y Low/Hi Price Est. is the downside/upside price estimate which is calculated using the projections of Book Value

and ROE as discussed in TTD.

Min VL Price Appreciation is the expected change in price from current price to low end VL projected 3-5 year

appreciation price.

VL Price 18 Price Appreciate is the VL projected % change in price from the current price within the next 18 months.

ROE >2STD is part of a margin of safety consideration, which is briefly discussed in TTD on pg 70-71.

I compare the current year’s ROE versus the last 10 years of ROE data. If the current ROE is greater than average (10 Yr ROE) + (2 * stdev(10 Yr ROE)), than this column is TRUE, else it is FALSE. This tells me that the stock’s ROE is much higher than its historic average and should therefore be avoided.

15 Likes

Thanks, AllTooFoolish, for continuing to post here.

4 Likes

You also can post them on Manlobbi’s revived Old…Boards, where Mechanical Investing, Tax Strategies (boards which I follow), and several others have been recreated: Shrewdom.com Login at the top right; you also can create an account through that link.
On request, he’ll likely revive the Benchmark Investing board.
Eric Hines

6 Likes

Thank you for posting this.

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Thanks AllTooFoolish.

If I’m seeing things correctly, your CAPS listing doesn’t quite match up with the 2023 portfolio listed above.

I see that BLL has been added to the CAPS portfolio, but BEN and DVA don’t seem to be listed there.

14 stocks on the CAPS page. With the addition of BLL aren’t there 16 stocks for 2023?

You are correct, they don’t match. But they are two different approaches to the methodology.

The 2013 Portfolio is a fixed listing that is held static for one year based on the selections at that time. These are held for one year and the returns are tracked in my posting each quarter.

The CAPS portfolio is a dynamic portfolio using the same methodology but is permitted to add/buy new picks as they emerge and remove/sell stocks on a weekly basis. This more closely matches what I do personally.

It is a bit confusing for sure, but that is the explanation of the differences you see.

Thanks

3 Likes

Thanks for the explanation.

So, if I understand correctly, BEN and DVA have not been added to your CAPS portfolio. Will you be adding them later?

Both BEN and DVA received sell signals, so they were sold and therefore removed from CAPS since it is a dynamic portfolio. If the methodology triggers a new buy signal in the future they will be added, but that is the only way they would be added back to CAPS.

However, they will both remain on the static portfolio for the balance of the year.

2 Likes

Thanks for the clarification. To avoid confusion, I think I will just follow your CAPS portfolio.

1 Like