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The Best Free Stock Portfolio Tracking Spreadsheet

January 18th, 2012 by Jae Jun

Written by

Jae Jun

A project that I’ve always had, was to improve on my stock portfolio tracking spreadsheets.

During this time, I’ve probably used 10 or so different portfolio trackers, but nothing met my needs. I don’t do complicated transactions, but still, nothing could really satisfy me.

But those four long years have passed, and I believe I finally have a version that will serve my needs and fulfill its purpose for a long time.

Main Needs from a Portfolio Spreadsheet

  • Enter transactions into a single column without splitting up different transactions
  • Spreadsheet should be able to automatically update how many shares I’m holding for any company
  • Account for dividends
  • Account for splits

I don’t do options so I have no need for such transactions. Don’t see why it would be hard for you to edit though.

Previous Versions

The original portfolio spreadsheet could only factor in simple buy and sell transactions and had to separate it.

Then a Google spreadsheet version was released which made it easier to track but not being able to automatically update the cumulative number of shares held for each position, made keeping track difficult.

The improved portfolio spreadsheet even had an interactive time line to track the portfolio growth but it never really took off. Too much hassle of having to update the portfolio values regularly. Also bad to look at your total portfolio that often as well.

Now this new stock portfolio tracking spreadsheet blows it all out of the water. It doesn’t solve everything but it does most of what I need.

New Stock Portfolio Tracker Spreadsheet

Full credit goes to Investment Moats for his amazing spreadsheet. See it in action.

The creator is a Singaporean investor and it will work right away with what he has, but I made some edits to tailor it for the US exchanges (including pink sheets, OTC and ADR’s) and to clean it up a little.

So you have two options. Use the original or use my edited version.

How to Use and Save a Copy

Full details and instructions can be found on Investment Moats’ website. Read the “Read me section” in the spreadsheet as well.

Yellow highlight cells is where you manually enter data. Aqua colored cells are formulas so do not overwrite.

To save a copy into your own account, do the following

How to Edit the Charts

I’ve added three charts to the summary tab. For every new position, you will have to edit the ranges for it to be reflected in the graphs. I will show you how here.

There is a tab called “ChartsData” which holds and sorts the data for the graphs by market value. No need to change anything in the “ChartsData” tab. This tab is only used to display and sort data. Do not enter anything in this section.

Below is one of the graphs/tables in the Summary section.

Click on the table once and a “Chart” menu will appear. Click that and in the menu you can edit the chart.

Select Edit Chart to bring up the chart editor.

The data range is: ChartData!B1:B11, ChartData!D1:D11, ChartData!M1:N11, ChartData!Q1:R11

Columns B, D, M, N, Q and R are used in the table with values from row 1 to 11. In the spreadsheet, I only have 10 holding positions where row 1 is the table headings and the data is contained within row 2 to row 11.

E.g. if you have 20 current holdings and need to update the graph, the data ranges would be

ChartData!B1:B21, ChartData!D1:D21, ChartData!M1:N21, ChartData!Q1:R21

To see the ranges in more detail, click the grid icon next to the range values to bring up this window.

You can add more detail to your table by adding another range.

Press ok and save.

The other two graphs you will need to update include a pie chart displaying sizing and gain/loss.

Another Portfolio Tracker made in Java

Maybe you don’t like the idea of storing your information on the cloud.

Then as an alternative, here is a free, lite, portable and java portfolio tracker that you can use. Again thanks to Investment Moats for bringing it to my attention.

You need to have Java installed on your computer for this to run though. It is still in beta stage so expect bugs and limited documentation but a very good freebie.

Import feature doesn’t work too well so if you have hundreds of transactions to enter, it will take you a long time. But still, better than most.

Truly the Best Stock Portfolio Tracker

After plugging in all my historical transactions, all I can say is that I’m hooked with this version. It has made tracking so much easier. I will continue to add good features when it becomes a need, but until then, enjoy.

Don’t forget to Like, share or tweet it if you like this.

Posted in Featured, Investment Tools | 12 Comments »

Top 10 Stocks for 2012

January 16th, 2012 by Jae Jun

Written by

Jae Jun

What a great turnout. More than 400 votes were tallied in selecting the best stocks for 2012.

Each position starts with an equal $10k allocation. Total starting portfolio is $100k.

You can see the details of each holding such as unrealized gain/loss figures in absolute dollar and percentage terms on the Top 10 2012 stocks page. I’ve put up a 20 minute delayed, auto updating graph and table you can follow.

2 brains are better than one and that is the main objective for tracking these stocks. Each submission is supposedly a best idea. I want to see whether voting for the best of the best ideas will “normalize” the bad decisions by an individual. Hopefully this will lead to an awe inspiring portfolio.

Don’t get the wrong idea that this is some sort of “herd” investing. Herd investing is where you mindlessly follow other picks. Here, it is a silent debate over the best idea. Just like a ballot.

Top 10 Stocks for 2012 as Voted by You

click image to go to the page

Below are the short elevator pitches for each submitted idea that made the top 10.

1. Oracle [ORCL] - Stock declined 18% in 2011. Sell-off on recent earnings miss is overdone. Has a wide moat. Larry Ellison is a good CEO. Stock currently appears in Greenblatt’s magic formula screener. Cash earnings yield over 9%.

2. Bank of America [BAC] – Most hated stock in the DOW. Big institutions are bound to realize that BAC is well funded and isn’t dying anytime soon.

3. Western Digital Corp [WDC] – Sells for a Fwd P/E=6 and BV=1.27. For a tech company it’s really cheap.

4. Gravity [GRVY] – Once they have their new game up and running it’ll start inching up to something at least more in line with book value.

5. Dell [DELL]- $15 stock with $7 in cash. Company moving away from PC’s and into higher margin enterprise solutions.

6. Corning [GLW] - A great innovative company. The stock price has taken a deep hit this year.

7. Microsoft [MSFT] – Appears in Greenblatt’s magic formula screener with FCF Yield 13.85% and EV/EBITDA for 2012 at 5.52

8. Forest Laboratories [FRX] – Solid 10yr growth rate, consistent earnings power, no debt, high earnings yield, consistently buying shares back.

9. Goldman Sachs [GS] – With share price at $90, company is buying back as much of itself as it can. All of that is accretive eventually and if anyone will find a way to make a good return on capital it will be GS despite obvious headwinds.

10. ADDvantage Technologies Group [AEY] – Profitable for last 25 years, Surplus Cash = 58% share price., TBV = 163% share price, NCAV = 127% share price. Avg. 10yr op. margin = 17%. ROA= 16%, Classic Graham Net-Net.

Disclosure

Long AEY, GRVY at time of writing

Posted in Featured, Ideas | No Comments »

3 Get to the Point Stock Analysis

January 12th, 2012 by Jae Jun

Written by

Jae Jun

What I’m going to try to do this year is to write more stock analyses. Whether it be official ones published on the blog or point form published on the forum, I want to keep training myself to continually read, write and come up with new and better ideas. I like to write in point form because it’s quick and straight to the point. I don’t have to worry about prettying it up like I do when writing on this blog.

Each of the below analysis was written after reading one 10-k or 10-Q. You know the 80-20 rule right? Well 80% of the information will come from one annual report which only takes 20% of the time.

Articles by other authors help to speed things up in getting to know the company. Financial analysis and stock valuation is then performed with the stock valuation tools.

So far, here are three that I have written.

1. ADDvantage Technologies Group (AEY)

2. Hibbett Sports (HIBB)

3. iGo Inc (IGOI)

ADDvantage Technologies Group (AEY)

ADDvantage Technologies Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, distributes and services a line of electronics and hardware for the cable television (CATV) industry. The products, the Company sells and services are used to acquire, distribute, receive and protect the communications signals carried on fiber-optic, coaxial cable and wireless distribution systems.

Why is it Cheap?

  • Boring business
  • Reseller of equipment to companies such as Comcast, Direct TV, CenturyLink etc
  • Industry risk. Consolidation could mean loss in revenue. Customers have slowed down their network upgrades.
  • Builds up inventory of new and used equipment to sell
  • Not followed or held by any of the big boys

Management

  • Not much insider buying even at these low levels
  • Total exec compensation was 2.4% of revenue in 2010. Below my 3% threshold which is good.

Growth

  • Not much room for growth. But with such a healthy balance sheet, their returns do not have to be high to produce growth.
  • Market is assuming that the max it can do is 4% growth by reverse engineering prices
  • Acquisitions will help with growth. Their acquisitions are small and targeted based on the target’s distribution channel and product offerings.

Moat

  • Niche player. Can’t beat the OEM’s in providing equipment, but does take advantage of the many black holes left behind by them.
  • Sustainability is absent. A new competitor with money could come overnight and take them out.

Competitors

  • Competitive business
  • Trading at net net value means there are better competitors otherwise it wouldn’t trade below asset value

Risks

  • Inventory valuation. If it had to be liquidated, how much would it be worth?
  • Strategy of building up inventory – very low inventory turnovers. All costs money and working capital.
  • New agreement with CSCO isn’t the best. They now have to resell CSCO products which will lower margins.
  • No dividends. Just builds cash.
  • Don’t see much chance of buyout for such a company

Valuation

  • no matter what I try, I keep coming up with a low range of $2.80 to $3 which gives 34% upside potential as a minimum.
  • Operating at low end of business cycle as the industry has slowed down. Cash flow will reduce.
  • I’m estimating EPS of $0.28 for 2011 without doing much more work.

Catalysts

  • Industry starts spending for network upgrades
  • (hmm can’t think of many catalysts other than being cheap)

Conclusion

Quality net net currently operating at the down cycle. Room for revenue and cash flow growth if the industry picks up. A bit too reliant on external factors but management has been able to handle the business very well. Great ROE, CROIC for a net net. Not many profitable ones out there. Business is easy to understand and the biggest risk really comes down to whether the inventory is really worth what it is.

I wouldn’t call it a value trap because their business model is consistent.

Verdict

  • Management: B
  • Growth: C
  • Moat: C
  • Risk: A
  • Valuation: A
  • Total: B

Buy a small position and wait for a long time to play out.

Other links on AEY

http://www.whopperinvestments.com/addvantage-technologies-aey

http://seekingalpha.com/article/270351-addvantage-technologies-group-bad-quarter-good-price

http://seekingalpha.com/article/252702-the-safer-and-cheaper-addvantage

http://seekingalpha.com/article/237046-addvantage-technologies-high-quality-micro-cap

Hibbett Sports (HIBB)

Hibbett Sports, Inc. operates sporting goods stores in small to mid-sized markets, in the Southeast, Southwest, Mid-Atlantic and lower Midwest regions of the United States. The Company’s stores offer a range of athletic equipment, footwear and apparel.

Have to say that this is one of the best smaller cap retail businesses. Sports retail business just like Dicks, Big 5 Sports and Sports Authority.

Some highlights off the top of my head

  • Extraordinarily high ROE of 25% and above. Consistent as well.
  • Good steady margins
  • Good FCF growth
  • Tight inventory control
  • Strong balance sheet
  • No accrual build ups
  • No debt
  • Good growth in bad economies. Earnings revised up in 2011.

Strategic advantages

  • Shadows WMT. Wherever WMT is, HIBB tries to open a store within the vicinity PROVIDED that the demographic is their target
  • Won’t expand into bigger cities. Takes advantage of smaller population markets where bigger competitors wont do business
  • Has relationships with local schools to supply them equipment and gear
  • Customizes merchandise to match the target market. e.g. Shops in Alabama will have a lot of Alabama football team gear during football season while another store in Texas takes advantage of the Texas rangers world series games.
  • HIBB trains their employee to be sales professionals instead of just regular store helpers. They sell more technical sports gear which requires better explanations.

Valuation

  • Reverse valuation show that the current stock price is expecting about 15% growth from the company. Too high for me.
  • Fair value is around current price of $40-50. Not much margin of safety.
  • Currently trading at much higher multiples than competitors. This could easily revert to the mean as HIBB is operating at max margins at the moment.

Risks

  • HIBB purchases majority of products from Nike. If their relationship fails, no more products to sell
  • Retail business could turn down any minute
  • Customized products means that they could be missing, or be slow, to a bigger trend
  • They have 800 stores. How many smaller markets are there that HIBB can take control of?
  • Centralized distribution strategy. If the warehouse gets hit by a hurricane, company will suffer.
  • Retail business has a lot to do with management and experience. But HIBB has been doing this with conservative smart growth and store openings.

Others

  • Good company to work for
  • No complaints from previous employees other than the pay was low. (glassdoor.com)
  • Joel Greenblatt has been a recent buyer (small  buyer)
  • Insiders consistently selling at current prices. Sign that stock price is fairly valued?
  • Executive chairman’s salary and stock option is enormous.

Verdict

  • Management: A
  • Growth: C
  • Moat: B
  • Risk: A
  • Valuation: C
  • Total: B

Time to start buying around $30 ~ $35, or lower if opportunity is given.

iGo Inc (IGOI)

iGo, Inc. (iGo) is a provider of accessories and power management solutions for the electronics industry. As of December 31, 2010, the Company marketed its electronics accessory products in three categories: power, protection and audio. It also markets other mobile electronic accessories, including laptop cooling stands, mounts, and mini-projectors (also known as pico projectors) that attach to mobile electronic devices for displaying video.

iGo primarily sells its products through retailers, such as RadioShack, Walmart, Office Depot, Hudson News and Inmotion Entertainment; resellers, such as Ingram Micro, Inc., Microcel, and Superior Communications, and directly to end users through its iGo and Aerial7 websites.

Business Overview

  • Company makes after market power (laptop power adapter, phone chargers), batteries, audio (ear phones), protection (skins, cases, screen protectors)
  • Highly competitive and commodity business. No moat or advantage in any of the products. Maybe the power adapter, but not really.
  • Theoretically for this type of business, the only competitive advantage would be distribution channels and pricing.

Risks

  • Wal-Mart is the biggest customer. Lose Wal-Mart and the company is finished. They already lost Belkin a few years back.
  • Revenue from Radioshack continues to decline
  • Commodity business. A better competitor could come along any time. Batteries, audio, protection products all suck.
  • Volatile business. Retail business. Subject to macro.
  • Recent acquisitions worth it? Will it work?

Management

  • Management compensation levels are fair. Does not exceed 3% of revenues.
  • Open market purchase by President/CEO Heil in Dec.

Financials

  • Historically lost more money than made
  • SG&A rising offset by cost of revenues
  • R&D expense decreasing
  • Bad returns. ROE in the low single digits, CROIC regularly in negative territory
  • DSO has increased dramatically
  • Inventory turnover decreased

Valuation

  • Same thoughts as when I held it in 2009. Business and management sucks.
  • Only thing going for it is the asset valuation.
  • NCAV is $0.88 vs current $0.77. Net net (NNWC) value is $0.62.
  • Wouldn’t buy IGOI at anything other than 10-15% below NNWC value.

Other

A lot of hope seems to be placed in the partnership with Texas instruments in energy saving chips, but that is too far down the road. Even if you try to put a value on that relationship and the growth that “could” come out of it, it isn’t worth it.

Verdict

  • Management: C
  • Growth: B
  • Moat: C
  • Risk: B
  • Valuation: B
  • Total: B-

Not a company to value based on earnings. Best play would be when it falls below NCAV or NNWC. Anything else is too risky.

Disclosure

Long AEY.

Posted in Featured, Stock Analysis | 4 Comments »

Full 2011 Value Stock Screen Performance

January 9th, 2012 by Jae Jun

Written by

Jae Jun

Full 2011 Year End Value Stock Screen Performances

Compare with 2010 Value Stock Screens

Stock Screen Results Discussion

A much different story compared to 2010. It has been a brutal year for many investing strategies. Of the 13 value stock screens that I track, only two were positive for the year and one was breakeven. The remaining 10 value stock screeners underperformed by big margins.

I wanted to see whether it was just my strategies that did poorly but it seems like AAII didn’t have a good year as well. The most surprising difference between my screen results and AAII was the performance of the Piotroski stock screener. The standard version I have performed well again this year compared to AAII’s -36.7% return.

Screen Settings

For these performance measurements, I use just 15 stocks. On the screener pages, I list 30 just to keep ideas flowing for everyone. Certain volume and price requirements must be met and I’ve tried to weed out Chinese stocks. As always, I don’t include financial companies, REIT’s and holding companies.

Observations and Takeaways of each Stock Screener

Negative Enterprise: Companies that have negative enterprise value are always flush with cash. This criteria became a problem in 2011 when Chinese reverse mergers began popping up everywhere.

These Chinese companies were just loaded with cash and filled the screen. Since reverse mergers are not listed as ADR’s, I couldn’t find a way to weed it out. If this continues to happen, I am thinking of just deleting the screen entirely.

Altman Z Screen: Anything categorized as low quality took a big hit last year. Seems like the majority stuck with high quality stocks which Altman Z score screens for. The screen like all the others tend to focus on small caps and so a -5.8% is acceptable in my opinion.

CROIC and FCF Cows: I was surprised that these two did so poorly. Fundamentals of the companies were strong, returns high, cash flow is positive and strong. The end result was poor. I will have to take a look at the criteria and see whether I have to tweak it.

Graham Checklist & Graham Formula: Decent results. The best as the Graham checklist screen under performed and the Graham formula matched the S&P. Still did very well when compared to the others.

Graham emphasized that investing shouldn’t be rocket science and it was best to keep it simple. His methods are proving to be correct again.

Insider Buys: AAII also had a horrible year for their insider buy screen. Is it because management is over optimistic and that insiders do not analyze their own company objectively? One issue I found is that screens have a hard time of picking the difference between open market purchases and stock options.

NCAV, NNWC & NNWC incr: NCAV screen was actually a surprise this year. It was the best performer this year, partly due to the end of year run ups from PARL and other micro caps which even I find to be risky more than doubling in the year.

Seeing how NCAV did so well, I would have thought the NNWC stock screen would have done just as good, but since the companies on this screen are more asset based opportunities without a valid business model, it got crushed.

NNWC increasing stocks didn’t fair better. If tangible book value is increasing, then it is expected that the company would be able to earn a return off the increasing book value, leading to higher earnings and stock prices. Not true this year. More monitoring required on this.

Piotroski Screen: Has been a soldier. Consistent and steady. So far the screen has been able to outperform in the good years and not lose too much in bad years. Quality companies based on accounting figures seems to be working.

Share Buyback: Any stock that got hit hard bought shares. Some went onto to further losses. Remember what they say. “Just because it is cheap, doesn’t mean it can’t get cheaper.” How very true. A difficult lesson for me in 2011.

Low Expectations: The market may be expecting little from these companies, but as a contrarian strategy, it certainly did meet my expectations. Healthcare stocks which I would have avoided due to regulatory risk were some of the best performers. These cheap companies in out of favor industries looks like a good strategy to further enhance.

I have not published the low expectations screen yet. It’s on my todo list. Let’s see how these stock screens handle 2012.

Posted in Featured, Investing Strategy | 6 Comments »

One Characteristic Buffett’s Holdings All Have in Common

January 5th, 2012 by Jae Jun

Guest Post by

Daniel Sparks

Value Folio

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holdings (both subsidiaries and stocks) are all very different types of businesses. Consider these different industries which Berkshire has holdings in:

  • Insurance
  • Manufactured Homes
  • Jewelry
  • Fast Food
  • Aviation
  • Chemical
  • Underwear
  • Journalism
  • TV Networks
  • Furniture
  • Banking
  • Kitchenware
  • Railroad

This list, of course, is only touching the surface.

Point being, Berkshire owns businesses in many different industries.

How, then, does Buffett still claim to stay within his “circle of competence”?

There must be some common factor among his holdings. As successful as Buffett has been during his investing career, the common factor should be regarded with great reverence. So what is it?

Many of you, I’m sure, have already guessed it. There is nothing complicated here. The answer is so simple that it almost seems like a waste of time. But perhaps there is power in simplicity.

This time, take a look at a list of actual businesses in Berkshire’s portfolio (subsidiaries and stock). The list is made up of many of Berkshire’s largest holdings:

  • GEICO Auto Insurance
  • Coca-Cola
  • IBM
  • American Express Co
  • Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad
  • Wells Fargo & Co
  • Wal-Mart
  • Procter & Gamble
  • ConocoPhillips
  • Dairy Queen
  • Nebraska Furniture Mart

While I am sure it is possible to argue that there is more than one common characteristic between these businesses, the one screaming similarity is that they all have some sort of durable competitive advantage. None of these businesses would easily lose its competitive advantage overnight. Warren Buffett has clearly explained that he only invests in companies with an economic moat (his term for durable competitive advantage).

Recently, as Warren Buffett was justifying his $10 billion purchase of IBM stock, he used another word in place of economic moat. He explained that IBM has “continuity”. A close look at the definition shows a great resemblance to “economic moat” or at least it portrays the reason an economic moat is so necessary.

continuity: the unbroken and consistent existence or operation of something over a period of time

So for those of us Value Investors that are trying to emulate Warren Buffett, perhaps the most important question we could ask ourselves when considering our next purchase of a stock is

  • Do the economics and competitive landscape of this investment allow for continuity?
  • Does this business possess a wide and deep economic moat?

Answering this question, of course, is not easy. Two of the most common approaches include:

1. Looking for businesses that have higher gross margins than their competitors

2. Taking a good look at the business’ revenue stream, looking for (1) continuing demand, and (2) a promise of continuity. The best way to do this is to break down a business revenue stream by major products or services. Then you can get a better idea of where the revenue is coming from, how much demand there really is, and how sustainable it is.

Sometimes, however, just sitting back and thinking after you have done your research on the company might be your best option on deciding whether you think the competitive advantage is sustainable or not.

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have often said they spend much of their time simply thinking and reading. If the economic moat isn’t obvious, perhaps there is a good chance it doesn’t have an economic moat at all. That is at least the feeling I get when I look over Warren Buffett’s holdings.

About the author: Daniel Sparks is an MBA student at Colorado State University. He has a passion for value investing and runs a value investing blog at ValueFolio. He can be reached at danielsparks11@gmail.com

Posted in Featured, Guest Posts | 12 Comments »

Vote for the Top 10 Stocks of 2012

January 2nd, 2012 by Jae Jun

Written by

Jae Jun

Let’s try an interesting experiment in 2012. I don’t know whether this has been done before, but I’ve set up a voting system where you can submit a short analysis (max 350 characters) of any stock.

You can then vote up or down a submission. Depending on the numbers of submissions and votes, the top 10 stocks will be tracked in a portfolio for 2012 and beyond.

This is where we get to see whether a community portfolio will outperform an individual portfolio or the index.

You can copy and paste a URL of a good stock analysis if you wish. Just make sure to minimize the URL via bit.ly

Go submit your best idea and vote for others by clicking this link.

Click the image to go to the page.

I’ve gotten the ball rolling with DACHA which I voted down just to be fair.

Voting will remain open for a week, or until I get enough samples.

Be sure to tell your friends about it. Share it on Facebook or Twitter.

This will be a fun experiment.

Posted in Featured, Portfolio | 5 Comments »

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