In the real-money portfolio I run for The Motley Fool, I’ve let cash build up to where it’s pushing 20% of the portfolio’s value. With the market trending down recently, I believe it’s now time to put some of that to work, so I’m going to add to a few of my current holdings. What you own already can be the best place to invest, often because you’re more familiar with the company and have a sense for how its share price behaves.
Cessna is not the whole story
Yet not all is bad at this diversified manufacturer. For instance, Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT)’s Bell division and its partner The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) were recently awarded a $4.9 billion extension to a $1.4 billion preliminary contract with the Defense Department to deliver 99 V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft to the Marine Corps and Air Force, with an option for an additional 22 aircraft. Plus, it’s widely expected that foreign militaries will be a source of sales for many in the U.S. arms industry, helping both Bell and Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) Systems (which sells, for instance, unmanned aircraft, surveillance systems, and intelligence software).
I’ll be adding to the position by the end of the week.
Digging deeper
When Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX) announced that it was purchasing McMoRan Exploration and Plains Exploration & Production for cash and stock last December, I really didn’t like it. However, often the best action with one’s investments is to not trade on news like that. (And you’ll save from not paying commissions or capital gain taxes.)
While the price of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX) is down about 11% since then, that is much more because of dropping copper prices for most of this year. Prices have fallen from about $4 per pound at the start of the year to about $3 per pound today. Freeport is still much more a copper company than an oil company. Offsetting these lower prices for copper is the expected improvement in the ore grade coming out of the Grasberg mine this year and next, which should lower the company’s average production cost per pound. (The company expects cash cost of $1.45 per pound for this year.)
For a long-term investor like myself (I’ve held Freeport in this portfolio since October 2011), the decline in the share price for this miner is, I believe, an opportunity. Copper is still one of the most highly used metals and the long-term-demand trend is upward. Copper prices have likely fallen because of China’s slowdown and Europe’s economic mess, but those areas will not always be that way. Plus, don’t forget about emerging countries that will need lots of copper themselves over time.
I’ll be adding to the position at this reduced price, while keeping an eye on the integration and performance of the oil business going forward.
Drilling to dividends
Long-time holding Transocean LTD (NYSE:RIG) – it was the first purchase in this portfolio – is continuing to improve. It paid a first installment of $400 million toward the $1.4 billion settlement with the Dept. of Justice arising from the Gulf of Mexico Macondo well incident. It had an incident off the shore of Brazil resolve in its favor. And, it now feels that it has enough certainty to reinstate its dividend (after an absence of over a year), pushed along by pressure from Carl Icahn, the company’s biggest shareholder.
