Benchmark Investing Update Jun 30, 2023 (attempt #2)

This update is to Kenneth Lee’s Benchmark Investing picks based on the latest Monday’s data release. Since the beginning of the year through last night, the market (S&P500) continues to advance and stands at a +14.0% total return.

This period there were five companies in the DJIA 30 that are below their downside price targets. They are CVX -27%, VZ -16%, MMM -11%, and WBA -38%. At this time none would fully qualify as a BI pick.

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.

Market Valuation (Dow 30):

The DOW30 market is still overpriced according to the BI method of valuation by about 25%.

Downside: -39%
Upside: -10%

Long Buy Rules:

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

  • Year-over-Year EPS growth must > 10%, which are the next 4Q / current quarter + previous 3 quarters earnings results
  • VL 3-5 Year price appreciation > average price appreciation of the market
  • 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
  • Avoid erratic ROE ratios, that is where they are > 2std deviations = Curr ROE > (10 Year Avg + 2 * Std Dev)
  • 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):

  • Price Appreciation < Market Average Appreciation
  • Current Price > BI HiPrice
  • Hold time > 365 days per cycle
  • ROE & BV must be current
  • No longer listed as a market average component
Summary of Results:

	VL	        Current	ROE/BV	Down	Up     %<10Y   %<10Y	EPS	Div     3-5Y   3-5Y   VL3-5Y   VL18mo   ROE	
Ticker	Date	        Price	Updated	Price	Price	Down	Down4Qs	Delta   Yield   VL L$  VL H$   % Chg   % Chg	<2STD    Name
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	12-May-23	234	TRUE	213	323	10%	42%	2%	 2.2 	260	350	26%	8%	FALSE	Caterpillar Inc.
JNJ	12-May-23	165	TRUE	167	212	-1%	8%	4%	 2.9 	210	260	43%	12%	FALSE	Johnson & Johnson
MCD	19-May-23	290	FALSE					9%	 2.2 	340	415	28%	10%	TRUE	McDonald's Corp.
CVX	26-May-23	151	TRUE	207	296	-27%	-21%	-5%	 3.9 	300	450	142%	33%	FALSE	Chevron Corp.
BA	2-Jun-23	205	FALSE					108%	 -   	295	445	74%	22%	TRUE	Boeing
TRV	2-Jun-23	174	TRUE	139	182	25%	41%	18%	 2.3 	255	315	62%	16%	FALSE	Travelers Cos.
UNH	2-Jun-23	477	TRUE	391	575	22%	52%	12%	 1.6 	540	660	25%	36%	FALSE	UnitedHealth Group
AMGN	2-Jun-23	227	FALSE				55%	9%	 3.9 	345	420	68%	18%	TRUE	Amgen
VZ	9-Jun-23	35.51	TRUE	42	55	-16%	-28%	-4%	 7.4 	90	115	186%	26%	FALSE	Verizon Communic.
CSCO	9-Jun-23	50.33	TRUE	42	60	20%	37%	13%	 3.1 	75	95	67%	8%	FALSE	Cisco Systems
HD	16-Jun-23	301	FALSE					-8%	 2.8 	385	470	41%	10%	TRUE	Home Depot
PG	16-Jun-23	148	TRUE	106	142	40%	43%	5%	 2.5 	135	165	0%	18%	FALSE	Procter & Gamble
INTC	23-Jun-23	33	TRUE	3.4	5.1	874%	26%	-43%	 1.5 	40	55	44%	-8%	TRUE	Intel Corp.
AAPL	23-Jun-23	187	TRUE	81	136	131%	141%	6%	 0.5 	195	240	18%	14%	FALSE	Apple Inc.
IBM	23-Jun-23	129	TRUE	85	118	52%	42%	4%	 5.0 	130	195	21%	1%	FALSE	Int'l Business Mach.
DOW	30-Jun-23	51.36	TRUE	30	50	73%	-25%	-4%	 5.6 	80	120	92%	-12%	FALSE	Dow Inc.
MRK	30-Jun-23	115	TRUE	79	107	46%	42%	11%	 2.6 	130	160	30%	20%	FALSE	Merck & Co.
HON	7-Apr-23	200	TRUE	146	202	37%	47%	4%	 2.0 	220	270	21%	11%	FALSE	Honeywell Int'l
MMM	7-Apr-23	101	TRUE	113	161	-11%	-33%	-15%	 5.9 	170	230	97%	28%	FALSE	3M Company
GS	7-Apr-23	315	TRUE	249	379	26%	-8%	25%	 3.1 	400	540	44%	11%	FALSE	Goldman Sachs
CRM	7-Apr-23	210	TRUE	158	268	33%	166%	321%	 -   	265	400	58%	14%	FALSE	Salesforce Inc.
KO	14-Apr-23	61.2	TRUE	49	62	24%	33%	6%	 3.0 	65	80	18%	12%	FALSE	Coca-Cola
WBA	21-Apr-23	31.4	TRUE	51	75	-38%	-44%	13%	 6.2 	45	70	82%	4%	FALSE	Walgreens Boots
WMT	21-Apr-23	155	FALSE				55%	-3%	 1.5 	200	240	42%	7%	TRUE	Walmart Inc.
NKE	21-Apr-23	110	TRUE	82	132	33%	13%	10%	 1.2 	150	180	50%	19%	FALSE	NIKE Inc. 'B'
DIS	28-Apr-23	88.1	TRUE	33	49	168%	48%	0%	 -   	140	190	86%	27%	FALSE	Disney (Walt)
JPM	5-May-23	139	TRUE	139	205	0%	34%	14%	 2.8 	155	205	26%	7%	FALSE	JPMorgan Chase
AXP	5-May-23	168	TRUE	124	185	36%	31%	12%	 1.5 	175	240	23%	16%	FALSE	Amer. Express
V	5-May-23	230	TRUE	213	301	8%	24%	15%	 0.9 	310	380	51%	26%	FALSE	Visa Inc.
MSFT	5-May-23	335	TRUE	201	316	67%	76%	7%	 0.8 	320	390	6%	14%	FALSE	Microsoft Corp.
Dow30		        33,727	       20,716  30,307	                         2.4  42,313  55,000			Dow Jones Industrial Average
Appreciation Potential		  	 -39%	   -10%				         25%     63%     52%     14%

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 dynamic portfolio and can see my most recent activities as they occur.
Notable activity in my CAPS dynamic BI portfolio over the past three months: 
•	TAP, ADD – Apr 14 2023, downside price target -27%. Meets all criteria.
•	NFLX, BUY – Apr 28 2023, downside price target -36%. Meets all criteria.
•	PYPL, ADD – May 5 2023, downside price target -43%. Meets all criteria.
•	KIM, ADD – May 26 2023, downside price target -55%. Meets all criteria.
•	TMUS, BUY – Jun 5 2023, downside price target -22%. Meets all criteria.
•	NWL, SELL – Jun 12 2023, overpriced. Entered 3/30/20, lost -37%.
•	BALL, ADD – Jun 12 2023, downside price target -21%. Meets all criteria.

2023 Fixed BI Portfolio Holdings:
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 Year-to-Date +10.6%
S&P 500 Total Return Year-to-Date +14.0%
The largest winner this year is META +123%
The biggest loser this year is NWL -37%

My overall Fool CAPS Rating at the time of this post was 56.8 (+2.3 point since previous update)
Score: 1453 (57%)
Accuracy: 46% (55%)

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)), then 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.


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