Posting a blog for Low-Income investors to get started investing. It is from a request on Facebook to Consuelo Mack's Wealthtrack page post to invite a guess to speak about low-income investing

Dow Jones Industrial Average 21,410  (UP ) Week ending 03/27/2020
S&P 500 2520.00

 The Wilson's, my dad, vintage 1919-1920

Social media is a great incubator of ideas. I was responding to a Facebook post under the WEALTHTRACK site from Carol C. from New York that was interested in Consuelo Mack inviting a guess to address investing for low income investors. So I thought I would give it a shot here. 
      I have a little first hand experience with low income. My father, who was a bus driver, died when I was 5.  I remember doing my mom's taxes back in the late 60's and her income came to $8000.00 a year plus Social Security for me. I had never realized that we were so poor. I never felt like it though,  because my mom Marie, was the best deployer of capital that I have ever known.

I posted a picture of my grandmother Wilson with my Dad and his brother and sisters back from 1920. I guess that most folks were low income during that time period. 

This week on Wealthtrack, Consuelo Mack invited 3rd generation investor Christopher Davis from the Davis Funds.  Wealth Track - Consuelo Mack - Christopher Davis interview click here .  

 Consuelo Mack 

Christopher Davis reflects on his family and how well that they have done with bank stocks which historically have been very good at compounding wealth.  So I will put my low income ideas about how you can get started buying bank stocks as a low income investor.  ****I should note*****  that I am not a Series 7 listed financial adviser , but low-income folks do not usually have a financial adviser ! , so I can only offer the ideas of an amateur investor with 40 plus years of investing experience. I should note, that I am a Value investor and follow that disipline.

So here we go with some low priced bank stocks.

KeyCorp (symbol KEY)  buy 5 shares @ 11.20 = $56.00 total. 
Currently pays a 6.61% dividend

Citizens Financial Group (Symbol CFG) buy 5 shares @19.96 = $99.80 total.  Currently pays a 7.82% dividend

Regions Financial - (Symbol RF) buy 5 shares @ 9.67 = $48.35 total. Currently pays a 6.41 % dividend

Bank of America (Symbol BAC) which was the first bank to let women open accounts!, Buy 5 shares @ $21.60 = $108.00 total

So those are the banking stock ideas to get started. If you want a couple different sector stocks to be diversified to balance out your risk, here are two that I like.

ADT Inc. (Symbol ADT)  Buy 10 shares @ $4.71 = $47.10 .  It pays a 2.97% dividend

Good Year Tire and Rubber Company (Symbol GT) Buy 10 shares @ $6.32 = $63.20.  It currently pays a 10.13% dividend.

Understand that these are turbulent times in the stock market so these prices may move up or down a bit. 

You can open up an account with one of the on-line investing companies. Some offer to give you the first few trades or all the trades free. You will have to do some homework on this.

 Picture of my hero Lou Rukeyser from "Wall Street Week". The reason I started this blog.

Have a wonderful Sunday,

Freewilly

The Perfect Storm - Covid 19 - Saudi-Russia oil dispute - Treasury bills - 10Year. - dropping below 1 percent. Just when you thought that you saw everything, now this rolls out

Dow Jones Industrial Averages 19,173.98  WAY >>>Down  - Week ending 03/20/2020
S & P 500  2304.92   

"The Perfect Storm" 

I have seen a lot of stuff over the last 50 years, but nothing ever that looked like this. Whole industries are being shut down for 30, 60 , 90 days, who knows?  New York, California, Pennsylvania shutting down whole states and people sheltering in place. You could never dream up anything like this. Risk tolerance?  That all went out the window. This was soul searching, gut checking survival mode. You better have had a plan coming into this. Value investing with a durable high quality line up of companies both in my 401K and IRA accounts was my plan. Very little in Bonds, safe liquid stuff all in money market instruments. Do not like bonds here. Rather S&P 500 Index funds.

Still in the short term,  I got crushed just like everybody else. As devastating as it all has been, it has been crazy interesting watching the rotations and movements on a daily basis.
New great deals popping up on a hourly basis with big flashing lights saying ,"buy me Now", then poof disappearing from sight. Extraordinary! 

Well right now , just like in the Perfect Storm movie, we are in a little calm spot in the eye of the storm. Maybe half-way, a little more, towards a market bottom. But those 80 foot waves will be back again on Monday, and this thing is all heading down further. Some will lose there nerve and capitulate and sell.  That will not be me or any of my Freewilly Stockpicker Blog followers. We will be be diving for pearls during the storm. 

Here is what to look for as they pop up at great prices:

Nvidia (Symbol NVDA) is like the Hope diamond of stocks. If you can grab 25, 50, 75 shares go ahead and do it as it dives down. 

Facebook, (Symbol FB).  They are stepping in as "lender of last resort" for the small businesses that are their customers. Friggin brilliant!  a Value stock here with lots of cash and growth on the horizon and Instagram. Damn right!

EOG Resources (Symbol EOG) is the "Apple" of the oil industry with a pristine balance sheet. They can make money with $30.00 WTI oil.  They just cut back on $2 Billion of CapEx spending. Hunker down to own this great company in the oil patch. 

Verizon Communications Inc. (Symbol VZ) - A low cost 5G play focused on wireless and has a rock solid dividend of 4.75%.  Use this stock as a bond yield proxy. Super safe.

Oshkosh Corporation (Symbol OSK) These guys have government contracts to build the replacement vehicle for the US Army and Marines that is replacing the Hummer. It is down 40% from its highs.  Consider this one "Shelter from the Storm".

Kinder Morgan Inc. (Symbol KMI)  They threw the baby out with the bath water. Rock solid company, good balance sheet and lots of insider buying. 

There are many more names that will flash up this week. Think long term, Quality, good Return on equity. The world is not going to end this week and you need to eventually retire , right?

 "Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. - (the dog in) - Everything is Illuminated"

Grab the Tums, Rolaids, Mylanta and Coca Cola syrup.  Fasten your seat belt, lock your doors, roll up the sidewalks,  it is going to be a wild ride. You will be fine.  Don't get scared and please do wash your hands and stay clear of this dreadful virus.

We are all in this together,

Peace

Freewilly

Lessons of a Value Investor. It all appears obvious to you , so sometimes you buy your value stock too early. It can be difficult to calculate timing in a market full of Long/Short Hedge funds.

Dow Jones Industrial Average:  28,992.41 Down Week ending 02/21/2020
S & P 500: 3337.75  Down.

This week's blog is to try to help you to avoid mistakes in buying a value stock too early. I want you to learn from my mistakes.

So I bought some Altria (Symbol MO, $45.89) which always pays a very nice dividend.  I was anticipating with the investment in Cronos, that they shortly would become the world's commanding commercial producer of marijuana cigarettes. The USA Federal legalization of the product must be imminent, with so many states moving to legalize and tax it. Colorado was already making millions in tax revenue, and the federal government would surely follow to help pay off the Federal budget deficit. Nope, still waiting and collecting my 7.32% dividend.  Altria got tangled up with their investment in JUUL the vaping product, which is now on its way to becoming an $8 billion right down for the company. So too early on this one.

Lesson 1:  You must take into account the whole company strategy when buying a stock. I bought MO as a marijuana investment stake and the politics came in and said that JUUL was marketing to children with all its flavors. Also knock off Vape brands were causing health problems with vaping. Altria had no way to see all this coming and either did I. So my mistake, not waiting until the US federal government actually legalized the product. 

Goodyear Tire & Rubber company, (Symbol GT, $10.85) was a value buy at $14.00.  2019 earnings were good, but now there is a dip down in 2020 earnings.  2021 earnings will be very, very good. I bought it too early,  not looking at the 2020 earning year dip down.  I am in it too early so now I need to wait.  It is my contention that Goodyear is a technology company and is worth more than it appears. Even electric cars have tires that will wear out and need to be replaced with new tires.  GT is a consumer goods company trading below its book value. I would buy it in a couple months.

Lesson 2:  Always be on the lookout for a temporary earnings dip down. Buy during the dip, not before it.

Three other stocks I bought too early: Gulfport Energy (Symbol GPOR, $1.26) need to wait for Natural Gas prices to recover. Stock has a PE of 1.

Orasure Technologies (Symbol OSUR, $6.09) has a pristine balance sheet. This company actually makes influenza test kits at a time when we have a large worldwide Coronavirus outbreak.  How can they not be capitalizing on this? They must have been caught flat footed. Earnings are actually suppose to be even or negative in 2021. Somewhere though there is a winner here. Where are the revenue gains? Again I must wait. 

Finally there is Dupont de Neumours Inc. (Symbol DD, $52.43).  Finally Breen is in charge! This one just needs to get on track. The earnings are coming. So I sit and wait. 

(Note*** For some reason Blogger is not letting me upload any pictures. The spell checker is also not easily available for use. I am not sure what is going on????)

I would be raising cash right now because this CoronaVirus is causing major tie ups with people and merchandise movement in and out of Hong Kong. There will be at least a 2 quarter slow down with lot's of earnings and revenue misses. 

Have a great new week,

Freewilly

Finally a catalyst to pick up some shares of the perrenial value stock, FCAU, Fiat Chrysler Automotive. New partnership on the horizon.

Dow Jones Industrial Average 29,348.10  (UP) Week ending 1-17-2020 - S & P 500 Average 3,329.62

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. has been a very inexpensive stock here for years with a PE of 7.4 and a forward PE of 4.5.  (IBD has the Automotive Sector ranked at #number 3 currently.) FCAU has been touted and owned by value investors like Monish Pabrai of Pabrai Investments and also by Bill Nygren at OakMark Funds. Stocks in the automotive sector can move like molasses in January, but now I think there is an upcoming catalyst and an opportunity to move the share price substantially forward. 

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, (Symbol FCAU, $13.75) is in discussions with FoxConn Technology, the large Apple I-Phone manufacturer and assembler, to form a 50/50 partnership to build and sell electric cars to China. Voila!  I think this gives the stock the fuel to rise up in 2020. Varoom!

FCAU has many nice brands in house. It also has a sweet 5.26% dividend kicker for you while you wait for bigger things to happen.  I picked some shares up myself.

I also picked up some of one of my 2020 yearly picks,  Good Year Tire & Rubber, (symbol GT),  which was at a bargain price of $14.93.   I believe Good Year is moving towards being a technology company and offering other services, rather than just being a high end commodity tire company.  

Just remember whether your car runs on Gasoline, Electricity, Propane, or Hydrogen, it will still need tires,  which are a product that wears out over time and needs to be replaced.

 "January is a great time to review your 401K contribution. Pay yourself first!"

Be patient. Wait for the right price to buy.

Freewilly

2020 , a new year and decade and a list of selected stocks to get you started. Put a 20% money market fund base in first, then pick some stocks.

2020, moving to a bold new decade trying to figure out where to find value in these stock markets. I came up with a "diversified list of stocks that I feel have the best chance to give the highest total return including their dividend and that also provide you a margin of safety by either being really cheap or really "market tested" good". I am also suggesting this year that you put 20% of your funds in Money Market to be available for purchasing opportunities that will arise in what is expected to be a very volatile market year.

 Occidental Petroleum - (OXY) a merger asset value play

I had grouped stocks together in 4 groups of 4 stocks last year and it worked out really well so I am doing it again for the 2020 picks. I think an overriding theme this year  is ,"Quality and Opportunity" , with a fairly "Case-hardened" list of stock picks.

Group A
___________

Occidental Petroleum (Symbol OXY)
Boot Barn Holdings Inc. (Symbol BOOT)
Waste Management Inc. (Symbol WM)
Phillip Morris International Inc. (Symbol PM)

Group B 
___________

Paypal (Symbol PYPL)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (Symbol GS)
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (Symbol GT)
Progressive Insurance (Symbol PGR)

Group C
___________

Eli Lilly (Symbol LLY)
Nestle S.A. (Symbol NSRGY)
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. - B shares (Symbol BRK.B)
Timken Co. (Symbol TKR)

Group D
___________

Adobe Systems (Symbol ADBE)
Levi Strauss & Co. (Symbol LEVI)
Medtronic PLC (Symbol MDT)
Mylan Labs (Symbol MYL) -  ***(Merging with Pfizer's Upjohn division to form new company, "Viatris")

Those are my picks after about 5 revisions. I wanted to make sure that each pick was worthy to stand on its own.

I love these Memes with the cat! They were the best thing from 2019, aside from my stock picks!

I hope that 2020 brings you a healthy, happy and prosperous new year. I am making these picks on 12/30/2019, but the clock will start 01/01/2020 for calculating returns. 

This is the 11th year of Freewilly's Stockpicker Blog and my hopes are that these are my best suggested picks ever. As always, contact your licensed financial advisor to go over any investments you are going to make to be sure that they are appropriate for your particular financial situation. 

All the best.....  Freewilly

It is time to recap how I did on my 2019 Value stock picks. Blackstone (BX) lead the way with a 79.91% YTD gain

Dow Jones Industrial Average 28,135.28  Week of 12/13/2019 
S & P 500 3168.80

It is that time of year when I review how my 2019 stock picks did that I made at the beginning of the year.  I have been doing this for a number of years, however no year has ever done as well as this year. I broke the stock picks into four groups A-B-C and D with 4 stocks in each. 
      The top winner of all groups this year was Blackstone (BX) run by Stephen Allen Schwarzman an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. Blackstone which switched this year from being a REIT to becoming a Corporation killed this year with a 79.91% YTD gain. (He also gave you a truckload of dividends and I actually owned this one). 

Stephen Allen Schwarzman

Stephen is a graduate of Abington High School in Pennsylvania and his township actually borders with the township I live in. Even with such high returns he is a very conservative investor and is always guarding against undo risk in Blackstone's investments. 

So next I will give you the list of the 4 groups and their capital gains returns. There are no guarantees that I can do this again next year!!!

Group A

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA:NYSE) - Up 49.49%

United Rentals Inc (URI:NYSE) - Up 58.72%

Citizens Financial Group Inc (CFG:NYSE) - Up 34.95%

Altria Group Inc (MO:NYSE) - Up 1.56 % ( Altria had diversified into Juul and Cronos (Cannabis) and has written down $4 Billion of the investment.

Group B

Alphabet Class A (GOOGL:NASDAQ) - UP 28.89%

Capital One Financial Corp (COF:NYSE) - Up 38.07%

Penn Virginia Corp (PVAC:NASDAQ) - Down (51.37%)

AT&T Inc (T:NYSE) - Up 34.06%

Group C

Whirlpool Corp (WHR:NYSE) Up 38.88%

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY:NYSE)/Celgene Corp (CELG:NASDAQ) (Merger) - Up 22.78%

FedEx Corp (FDX:NYSE)  - Up 2.69%

Intel Corp (INTC:NASDAQ)- Up 23.14%

Group D

Micron Technology Inc (MU:NASDAQ) - Up 61.36%

Oshkosh Corp (OSK:NYSE) - Up 48.46%

ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc (ZTO:NYSE) - Up 36.26%

Blackstone Group LP (BX:NYSE) - Up 79.91%

My biggest loser Penn Virginia, (symbol PVAC), actually has a PE of 1.5 and a Return on Equity of 70.30%! Unfortunately it is in Wall street's hated sector of Natural Gas and is shorted by funds along with my Gulfport Energy, (stock symbol GPOR), that was one of my picks earlier in the year. I would wait one more year before investing in this group. (too early!)

If you merge all the numbers together overall I had a 31.74 gain average return and that beat the S&P 500. I used the cutoff date of 12/13/2019 to calculate all returns.

I apologize for the small number of post this year. It was frankly difficult to post value stocks that had a good margin of safety at the current prices.  I would recommend working towards a 25% money market base in your accounts in 2020, (cash not bonds), and then invest the rest in good quality value stocks. I should have my 2020 picks posted in a few weeks.

 31.74% Gain, not too shabby. Hope 2020 brings sunny skies!

Have a wonderful and joyous holiday season.  Please stay tuned for my 2020 stock picks.

Freewilly

Has the tide finally turned to Value stocks? Did I mention also that treasury bonds with their inflated asset value pose some risk here.

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 27,219.52       09/15/2019
S & P 500 Index: 3,007.39

We have been told our whole life to barbell bonds with our stocks to be the "safety" part of our portfolio. Most balanced funds traditionally are 60% stocks and 40% bonds. But maybe with the asset values of intermediate treasury bonds so inflated and their payment yields down in the 1's , we should be comparing them to money market funds instead of stocks.  Why be holding the bonds and assuming the risk of their asset value going down,  when you can have the safety of a Money Market fund with 1 to 1 and 1/2 % less yield, but with no risk at all and a tiny yield. Be Safe. Move some of your intermediate term bond asset holdings into money market to be exposed to less bond asset risk. Enough said.

First on the value stocks, I want to apologize for my Mallinckrodt pick (symbol MNK). I could  never have imagined that a company with $3 Billion dollars in revenue a year and the maker of Methadone that helps people with heroin addiction could be driven out of business by hundreds of states and counties attorney generals suing them for their production of pain killers. What about the DEA who monitored the production numbers of these pain killers and the doctors writing all these scripts for them?  Where is their culpability and responsibility in this?
The lesson learned?  Don't buy stocks with large debt loads that could get caught in a situation 
where they might not be able to get financing if surprise events occur. Avoid this risk.

So what stocks do I like here? :

ADT (Stock symbol , ADT, $5.94) is a stock liked by famed Value investor Bill Miller.  I am on board also for this alarm and security company that is in partnership interfacing their alarm systems with Amazon's Alexa. Good things should happen here and they pay a 2.36% dividend. 2020 earnings per share are projected at $1.08 per share.

I like a couple beverage stocks here. National Beverage (symbol FIZZ, $46.53) maker of the very popular La Croix beverage brand. 

 Also Monster Beverage  (symbol MNST, $58.86) , who is part owned by Coca-Cola is a stock I like here.  Both of these stocks have compressed a bit from their high points and present a rare opportunity to be purchased here at value prices for stocks in this hot beverage sector. 

I usually hate semiconductor stocks because I have been burned by this cyclical semiconductor industry in the past but right here I like Xilinx, (symbol XLNX, $105.24).  7 to 1 Current ratio here, (staying away from companies with debt), and a very good Return on Equity.  When things with China and the tariffs get sorted out a bit this company should be in great shape to take advantage of it. 

 "I'm dumping bonds and moving to large cap value mutual funds" 

Hope that you have a great weekend and a profitable Q4 in the stock market. 

Check the stocks you own for debt levels and move some money into some decent Value stocks.

Freewilly

TIMKEN - keeping the world in motion with its bearings, gears and power transmission products. A family business that runs smoothly and profitably.

Dow Jones Industrial Average  26, 599.96  (UP) Week ending 06/28/2019
S & P 500 - 2941.76

TIMKEN (Symbol TKR, $51.34) is a company we do not talk or think about much, but their products have a profound effect on everything around us. TIMKEN designs a growing portfolio of engineered bearings and power transmission
products. Agriculture, Automotive, Aerospace, Commercial vehicles, Construction, Defense, Energy, Food and Beverage, Industrial machinery, Metals, Mining, Outdoor Power Equipment, Rail and Wind Turbines all use TIMKEN products.

This company is ranked #1 in its area on IBD, (Investors Business Daily),  with a Rank 91 and A rating in their category. The company is very quietly up YTD 37.57% and pays a solid 2.18% dividend.

Current earning projections for the year are $5.25 with a PE of 9.58. Next years earnings for 2020 are projected at $5.62 and a Forward PE of 9.03, very reasonable in this market. 

2018 sales growth was 19.2%. Recent quarter over quarter sales were up 10.90%. (From one quarter to the next). The company did $3.58 Billion dollars in sales last year. 

On the financial side, the company has a Current Ratio of 2.53 and a very solid Return on Equity of 20.04.  I think even Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger would like this stock and its businesses, but probably would not be able to gain a large enough position in the stock with the market cap of only $4 Billion dollars. Good for us retail value investors.  

TIMKEN , buy it Monday to kick off the second half of your investing year.  The first half was sweet, with my 401K account being up 17.89% with a nice mix of stocks and bonds.

Enjoy your summer and 4th of July holiday in the USA.

Sincere regards,

Freewilly 

Gulfport Energy - Oppenheimer downgraded it with a target price of 14. The stock is at $6.67 and is trading at 0.34% of book value. The company has no debt and can buy back shares. I think I am getting the hang of this value investing thing.

Dow Jones Industrial Average 26,543.33   Week Ending 04-26-2019  (UP and very high)
S&P 500  2939.88


First good morning. I wanted to welcome value investors Mohnish Pabrai and Paul Lountzis to my side bar of important Value investors. They both should have been there long ago, and there are other folks that should also be added to this forum.

You have not heard from me much past my 2019 New year selections this year because these Value stock ideas are not plentiful at this time with the Dow at 26,543.33.

Let me first say that Natural Gas is a sector that wall street likes to ignore. It is not sexy.  Sometimes to the point where it becomes stupid. Gulfport Energy ( Symbol GPOR , (like "get poor") is trading at $6.67.  

What is it that I like?

In the last 12 months insiders have been buying the shares at a rate of approximately 10 to 1

The company did $1.36 Billion in sales last year and produce $430 in Income.

The current Book value of the company is $19.42 cents per share.

The company has very little debt, no leverage.

Sales the last five years are up 38.80%

Although earnings are coming down this year the company still has a forward PE of 5.13 in a stock market with a PE of 18. 

Management runs this company very well and is always looking to shareholder value.

Their assets are in the safe confines of the USA in Ohio and Oklahoma.

Someday LNG will take off with a vengeance!

So Freewilly says buy this one now and hold it for a couple years.

Hope you had a better April than me. It was all funerals for me and my favorite cat Bowie passed away. To all we lost, hope you are all now in heaven.

 My Bowie boy. a friend to all people and animals.

Well on to May we go. Will the traders sell in May and go away? Maybe not.


Best Regards,

Freewilly

Sometimes when you are Value investing you need to go ugly. United States Steel Corp. is my offering up in that category and is trading below current book value - Stock Symbol " X"

03-17-2019

So if you always wanted to be like Andrew Carnegie or J.P. Morgan and wanted to own U.S. Steel,  now is your chance. After years of slumbering and having foreign countries dumping steel in their markets, United States Steel Corporation, Symbol X, $19.66, now seems to be able to compete on a leveler playing field in their business again.

Many of the "Value guys" have owned this stock and lost patience and moved on, including David Einhorn and Leon Cooperman. Currently David Tepper and Joel Greenblatt hold some positions in the stock. David Tepper is very familiar with this area in Western PA with his college Alma mater located there. 

So here is what I like about the stock. The stock currently has a breakup value of $23.86 per share or trading at 0.82% of current book value. 

The company currently offers a Return on Equity of 29.40%.

The PEG Ratio on the stock is currently 0.24

The Price to Cash flow is 3.39

The price to Sales is 0.24. 

If you were looking at these numbers without knowing the name or business of this company you would be jumping in quickly.  

Current Ratio  1.5 to 1.

Sales Quarter over Quarter up 17.80 %

am I starting to get your attention??

The earnings will be dropping from a spike up year last year with the tariffs helping them out and the tax breaks. But they, (X), is still sporting a Forward PE of 7.89.

I think there is a lot of headroom in this stock and if a favorable trade deal comes through there could be better times ahead.

So be like Andrew Carnegie and own US Steel!  Remember when Carnegie had that elephant walk across the new steel bridge to prove that it wouldn't collapse? 

Here are some of Andrew's old shares. 

Sometimes you just need to go ugly. Yeah you could buy NUCOR , (NUE) and snooze yourself to sleep. But we are here to make some real money. So buy some X , and then just wait awhile.

Have a great St. Patty's Day!  

Freewilly

So what lies ahead for the new year 2019. I will present what I think are the best value stock purchase opportunities for the year. Good Luck.

Dow Jones Industrial Average 23,995.95 (UP) Week ending 1/11/2019
S & P 500 2596.26  

Well here we are again,  resisting the call of those swanky growth stocks and bringing to the table the best ideas in the Value stocks, that I think that will present the best chance for you to make a very good return on your invested money.  

I decided to put them in groups of four this year because there are 16 stock picks. We will start the clock on Jan. 1st and end 12-31-2019.

So here they are stating with Group A:


Group A:

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA:NYSE)

United Rentals Inc (URI:NYSE)

Citizens Financial Group Inc (CFG:NYSE)

Altria Group Inc (MO:NYSE)

Group B:

Alphabet Class A (GOOGL:NASDAQ)

Capital One Financial Corp (COF:NYSE)

Penn Virginia Corp (PVAC:NASDAQ)

AT&T Inc (T:NYSE)

Group C: 

Whirlpool Corp (WHR:NYSE)

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY:NYSE)/Celgene Corp (CELG:NASDAQ) (Merger)

FedEx Corp (FDX:NYSE)

Intel Corp (INTC:NASDAQ)

Group D:

Micron Technology Inc (MU:NASDAQ)

Oshkosh Corp (OSK:NYSE)

ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc (ZTO:NYSE)

Blackstone Group LP (BX:NYSE)

Some of these names I have mentioned during the year and continue to support them in 2019,  while others are totally new ideas. Some like Altria , are disrupting into other businesses of Juul Vape and Marijuana. Some are merging into powerhouses like BMY/CELG and will be dominant leader in the cancer medicine business. Others like Whirlpool are strongly focused on creating shareholder value.

There were lots of automotive stocks that look cheap here like FCAU, GM, and KMX,  but I steered away from them this year for now. My concern is revenue growth with them. 

Well the other thing going on this afternoon is the Saints/Eagles football game. I think my cat Bowie has placed his vote for the winner.

I hope that you have a healthy and prosperous new year.

Freewilly