June 2017 in Review

If you’re feeling a little dizzy at the moment, that’s probably because I issued 16 alerts during the month of June; an average of four per week. That’s twice as many as the 8 alerts as I issued in May, which in turn was a third more than April’s total of 6.

June’s high level of trading activity was no accident. My intention all along was to expand the size of the portfolio while the stock market was riding in the slipstream of the “Trump bump” following his inauguration, then wind it down by the halfway mark of the year as the realities of generating economic activity via legislation set in.

That’s because I feel the second half of the year will be markedly different than the first half. I’m not expecting a crash, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a correction later this year if none of Trump’s major pro-growth legislative items are passed into law, which at this point is anybody’s guess.

As much as I’d like to see some form of income tax reform – something that appeared likely a few months ago – at this point it is not clear if both houses of Congress could agree on who is buried in Grant’s Tomb.

And if a tax cut isn’t forthcoming, then a massive infrastructure spending program might be sufficient to stimulate the economy and justify current stock valuations. But if neither of those things happens soon then we may see a pronounced spike in stock market volatility over the next six months.

That would be bad news for passive investors that rely on index funds to ensure they achieve average performance, since the average return may be negative over the remainder of this year. But that could be good news for traders that jump in and out of stocks as they vacillate in response to market dynamics and investor emotions.

For the record, we closed 9 trades during the month of June. Of those, 6 achieved an average gain of 8.95%, while 3 of them realized an average loss of 6.67%. The average return of all 9 positions was a gain of 3.74% over an average holding period of 80.2 days, which equates to an annualized gain of 17.03%.

Our biggest winner was Taiwan SemiConductor (TSM) with a gain of 11.37% over 62 days, followed closely by Hanesbrands at 11.31% in 100 days. Carbonite (+10.13%) and STMicroelectronics (+10.14%) also made it into the double-digit profit club. That gain was exactly offset by our loss in Argan (-10.14%), followed by Omega Protein (-5.26%) and Ford Motor (-4.61%). Ferrari (+6.31%) and Cisco Systems (+4.44%) netted decent profits after getting off to fast starts.

Our truncated portfolio now consists of 7 holdings, one of which, Vale S.A. (VALE) was only added yesterday so there is nothing more to say other than what is stated in the original alert.

At the other end of the recency spectrum is Facebook (FB), a position we opened on April 13 with a target holding period of three months. That means it is due to expire on July 13, just one week from today. But since we are only halfway to our target price of $147, I will make a decision next week whether or not to extend this trade to make it to its next scheduled earning release date after the market close on July 26.

All of our other positions have at least a month or longer until they expire, including Bank of the Ozarks (OZRK) which is halfway through its three-month target holding period. We have a gain of 5.2% thus far, most of which we lost and then regained over the last week when the company announced an increase in its regular dividend. Hopefully, that bodes well for next week’s quarterly earnings report, due out on July 12 before the market opens.

The news hasn’t been as good for REIT Jernigan Capital (JCAP), which crested above $24 two weeks ago before dropping below $22 after announcing it is increasing the size of its secondary offering to raise more working capital. This is good news in the long run since the company has an excellent track record of acquiring income-producing property, but in the near term it may take a strong quarterly earnings report and optimistic forward guidance a few weeks from now to push this trade back into the black.

We’ve seen a modest rise in United Therapeutics (UTHR) since adding it to the portfolio four weeks ago, and with three months remaining in our target holding period there is plenty of time for it to make it to our target price of $152. The stock got a small bounce after its presentation at the Jefferies 2017 Global Healthcare Conference in New York City on June 6, but may need more clarity on exactly what the Trump healthcare replacement plan will look like before it can move much higher.

We got off a great start in used car financing company Credit Acceptance Corp. (CACC), gaining nearly 10% in the ten days following its June 19th addition to our portfolio, but it has fallen back since then after announcing it completed a $450 million round of asset-backed financing. I don’t understand why that alone would knock 7% off of its market capitalization, but with two months remaining in our target holding period I expect it will recover all of that after its next set of quarterly results are released later this month.

It’s too soon to judge IPG Photonics (IPGP), which was added to the portfolio two weeks ago shortly after announcing its acquisition of Innovative Laser Technologies. But we may soon get a read on how it will perform once it releases sales figures for the month of June, coming on the heels of a very strong sales report for May.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not own up to the disaster that was last week’s 3TL alert on Nike (NKE). Contrary to my expectations and to its credit, the company managed to increase sales despite a weak retail environment as revealed in its fiscal fourth quarter report. But the news was not all good for Nike; its gross margin decreased by 160 basis points and inventories rose by 4%. That won’t matter much in the short run, but if you are still in this position then it may be worth waiting a while to see if some of the investor euphoria following last week’s news diminishes as the long-term implications of its new marketing partnership with Amazon for its profit margins are scrutinized.

As I mentioned at the start, I believe shareholders will be considerably less forgiving during the second half of this year than they have been over the past eight months. Companies that cannot live up to unsustainable expectations will be punished, while those that come through with solid results will be rewarded. For that reason, I am going to proceed cautiously through the remainder of this month to see if Congress can get something of substance passed before it adjourns for the remainder of the summer on July 28.

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