University of Oregon Investors Focus on Small-Caps
12/11/07 - 01:47 PM EST
Jonas Elmerraji
A Financially Healthy Financial?
Today, the UOIG does hold one financial-related stock. In fact, one they're quite proud of, FTI Consulting (FCN Quote - Cramer on FCN - Stock Picks). The company (one of those fee-based financials) makes its money consulting for companies with issues relating to (among other things) valuation
, fraud, anti-trust and contract disputes. The stock is up about 106% since January and about 230% since the group bought into it three years ago.
Other successful small-caps owned by the UOIG include technology stocks like Netgear (NTGR Quote - Cramer on NTGR - Stock Picks) and healthcare picks like ArthroCare (ARTC Quote - Cramer on ARTC - Stock Picks), up over 20% and over 30%, respectively, since January.
In the coming months, Brookins and his DADCO portfolio plan on stepping back from domestic stocks and looking toward emerging markets and commodities .
Sell the Losers
Regardless of the brand of investment strategy you subscribe to, Brookins offers a piece of advice worth listening to from his time with UOIG: "Sell the losers."
Brookins explains: "Most of our success has been in getting rid of the bad stocks. We take a lot of risk with this [DADCO] portfolio, and when we see that a stock looks like it's going to go down, we cut our losses. If we didn't do that, I don't think we would have performed nearly as well as we have."
The UOIG's Best Performers
Will the UOIG hold the top spot in the Davidson Student Investment Program? We'll find out next semester. Until then, here are the group's current five best-performing (portfolio-wide) stock holdings, with their original purchase dates and share prices:
- FTI Consulting (FCN Quote - Cramer on FCN - Stock Picks): Feb. 20, 2004; $16.30
- Deere & Co. (DE Quote - Cramer on DE - Stock Picks): Oct. 28, 2005; $29.64
- Baxter International(BAX Quote - Cramer on BAX - Stock Picks): Nov. 3, 2003; $27.39
- Tsakos Energy Navigation(TNP Quote - Cramer on TNP - Stock Picks): Oct. 28, 2005; $17.19
- ArthroCare Corp.(ARTC Quote - Cramer on ARTC - Stock Picks): Mar. 19, 2007; $36.30
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