It’s been almost 22 months since I introduced the World’s Greatest Retirement Portfolio to Foolish readers. This was, has been, and will continue to be my way of helping the world to invest better. Putting my money where my mouth is, I pledged to put at least $4,000 behind each stock and attempt to hold each one for at least three years — though I’ve already broken that promise.
Since I began, the market has returned 19.8%, which is pretty darn good by historical measures. Though this portfolio has been outperforming the market by double digits for well over a year now, it is currently ahead by just 5 percentage points.
| Company | Publication Date | Change | Vs. S&P 500 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) | 6/26/11 | 65.9% | 43% |
| Pricesmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) | 6/28/11 | 49.3% | 28% |
| Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU)* | 9/15/12 | (18%) | (37%) |
| Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) | 7/25/11 | 27.1% | 10% |
| National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV) | 7/28/11 | (15.2%) | (36%) |
| The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) | 6/21/11 | 21.8% | 1% |
| Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM) | 7/5/11 | 38.5% | 21% |
| Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) | 7/12/11 | 25.1% | 6% |
| Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) | 6/30/11 | 33.4% | 15% |
| Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) | 8/1/11 | 25.7% | 4% |
Source: Fool.com. All numbers accurate as of market close Jan. 31, 2013. *Returns are for position in ATVI held from July 15, 2011, to Sept. 9, 2012, and transferred over to BIDU on Sept. 15, 2012.
The downswing in performance was helped by several factors this month. Just last Thursday, the FDA announced that it had opened an inquiry into the types of training doctors received for Intuitive Surgical‘s da Vinci Robot surgical system, and which procedures were most appropriate for the use of the system. I’m not too worried for now, and will be waiting to see what the FDA reports.
On top of that, Whole Foods Market, Inc. took a fairly steep dive when its outlook foretold margin compression that would cramp earnings. More on how I feel about that below.
This month’s 3 best buys
As promised, more on Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM): The company is one of my three best buys for this month. Here are the bare bones of my reasoning. Last year, there was a confluence of factors — including crop yields, delivery schedules, and general climate conditions — that allowed Whole Foods to clock in net margins of 4.40% and 4.28% in the second and third quarters, respectively.
Management warned then that these margins — very high for the grocery industry — wouldn’t be sustainable. Apparently, that was lost on some analysts, as the stock took a dive when Whole Foods reiterated the point in the most recent earnings call. On the whole, the company continues to execute, and still has roughly 650 stores to open to reach its intended market. I think the company is a buy.
Next on my list of good buys for the month is National-Oilwell Varco. Though the company beat on both revenue and earnings marks in its latest release, the market hasn’t shown it too much love. As fellow Fool David Lee Smith shows, however, National Oilwell has superior margins (it’s efficient) and significantly less debt (it’s smart with money) than its rivals.
The bottom line with the company is this: As long as companies are searching for natural gas and oil — especially deep-water oil — they’ll be coming to National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV) to meet their parts needs. Though I’d love to see a reduction in overall energy consumption in the world, or a move to sustainable energy, I’m not a fool (lowercase “f”): Oil and natural gas will be around for a while. At just 12 times earnings, this company looks like a buy to me.
Finally, we’ve got a company that seems to always find a place on this list: Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU). The Chinese search engine produced results last year that speak for themselves: Revenue was up 54%, and net income increased by 58%. But because of worries about competition and increased spending to invest for the future, shares are trading hands for the cheapest (in terms of P/E) price ever!
The article 3 Stocks to Buy from “The World’s Greatest Retirement Portfolio” originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Brian Stoffel.
Fool contributor Brian Stoffel owns shares of Apple, Google, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Amazon.com, Baidu, National Oilwell Varco, Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ:WFM), Intuitive Surgical, and PriceSmart. The Motley Fool recommends Amazon.com, Apple, Baidu, Coca-Cola, Google, Intuitive Surgical, Johnson & Johnson, National Oilwell Varco, PriceSmart, and Whole Foods Market. The Motley Fool owns shares of Amazon.com, Apple, Baidu, Google, Intuitive Surgical, Johnson & Johnson, and Whole Foods Market.
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