Changes to portfolio
I haven't gotten around to writing up these two companies, but I just sold them ... will explain more in detail later.
Sold CNET on June 30, 2005 for $11.98
I had bought CNET at 9.20 on March 30 and 10.14 on April 28. I sold all my holdings in this one at 11.98 on June 30.
Why did I sell? Because I had been becoming uncertain about why I had bought. I'm a CNET user, but I bought it after reading up on some articles in Motley Fool and elsewhere and convincing myself that they had uniquely valuable web real estate (download.com, cnet.com, mysimon, etc.) which pulled in unusually high advertising revenues per user. This was and is true, but as I continued researching it after buying my two positions, I became more and more concerned about competition from Google and Yahoo (and others, I'm sure). CNET was a very early mover at supplying premium online content supported by advertising, but the more I read the less certain I was that they would be able to maintain their competitive advantage, and the premium price of the shares was making me a little nervous. I still think that the online delivery of premium (and bandwidth-intensive) content is a good business, but I no longer want to focus my money on CNET as an investment in this area. I'm keeping my investment in Akamai (AKAM) and would like to add to it, I see them as a better investment in the future of rich commercial internet content, since they enable reliable and fast delivery of content for any provider who wants to pay for that insurance (and their acquisition of their major competitor, Speedera, means they've got more growth potential and pricing power going forward).
When buyout rumors surfaced in the NY Post and quickly spread online last week, the stock shot up 10%. This was a good opportunity for me to sell out of a position that I had lost faith in and that I thought was becoming overvalued, so I sold. It might have been a mistake to sell, it's certainly possible that the analysts foreseeing a $14 takeover price for CNET by one of the big boys will be correct. I'll take my small profit for a couple months work and cheer it on from the sidelines.
Sold AAUK on July 7, 2005 for 23.44
I had bought Anglo American UK on January 7 for 22.50, so this is pretty much a wash. AAUK had held the position in my portfolio of being a commodity (precious metals/ore/diamonds/coal) play, and I decided this summer that this wasn't necessarily something I needed to have exposure to in an individual stock. I like a couple things about AAUK, including the fact that I still think they're generally undervalued because they don't get enough credit for their interest in DeBeers, but there are two basic things that made me sell: 1, I didn't think I wanted to buy a company just as a hedge without really understanding their business well or their prospects, which is what I had done when I bought AAUK; and 2, I had other areas I wanted to invest in and this was the only other holding (besides CNET) that was on my "think about selling" list.
Bought IFN on July 7, 2005 for $30.15
Bought EWY on July 7, 2005 for $31.90
These are two of a feather as far as my strategy goes, but are very different animals. IFN is the closed-end actively managed India Fund, while EWY is an ETF for the South Korean Index. I bought both to expand my international diversification in the two countries that I see as growing parts of the world economy with relatively low risk -- India because political risk is limited as their increasingly business-friendly government is stable and democratic, and South Korea because market risk is somewhat limited by the fact that South Korea is the bargain basement of the world's emerging markets, with growing and dominant companies that I believe are extremely undervalued. Will provide more of my thoughts on these purchases as I have time.
Technorati tags: anglo american, aauk, Akamai, AKAM, cnet, india, south korea
I haven't gotten around to writing up these two companies, but I just sold them ... will explain more in detail later.
Sold CNET on June 30, 2005 for $11.98
I had bought CNET at 9.20 on March 30 and 10.14 on April 28. I sold all my holdings in this one at 11.98 on June 30.
Why did I sell? Because I had been becoming uncertain about why I had bought. I'm a CNET user, but I bought it after reading up on some articles in Motley Fool and elsewhere and convincing myself that they had uniquely valuable web real estate (download.com, cnet.com, mysimon, etc.) which pulled in unusually high advertising revenues per user. This was and is true, but as I continued researching it after buying my two positions, I became more and more concerned about competition from Google and Yahoo (and others, I'm sure). CNET was a very early mover at supplying premium online content supported by advertising, but the more I read the less certain I was that they would be able to maintain their competitive advantage, and the premium price of the shares was making me a little nervous. I still think that the online delivery of premium (and bandwidth-intensive) content is a good business, but I no longer want to focus my money on CNET as an investment in this area. I'm keeping my investment in Akamai (AKAM) and would like to add to it, I see them as a better investment in the future of rich commercial internet content, since they enable reliable and fast delivery of content for any provider who wants to pay for that insurance (and their acquisition of their major competitor, Speedera, means they've got more growth potential and pricing power going forward).
When buyout rumors surfaced in the NY Post and quickly spread online last week, the stock shot up 10%. This was a good opportunity for me to sell out of a position that I had lost faith in and that I thought was becoming overvalued, so I sold. It might have been a mistake to sell, it's certainly possible that the analysts foreseeing a $14 takeover price for CNET by one of the big boys will be correct. I'll take my small profit for a couple months work and cheer it on from the sidelines.
Sold AAUK on July 7, 2005 for 23.44
I had bought Anglo American UK on January 7 for 22.50, so this is pretty much a wash. AAUK had held the position in my portfolio of being a commodity (precious metals/ore/diamonds/coal) play, and I decided this summer that this wasn't necessarily something I needed to have exposure to in an individual stock. I like a couple things about AAUK, including the fact that I still think they're generally undervalued because they don't get enough credit for their interest in DeBeers, but there are two basic things that made me sell: 1, I didn't think I wanted to buy a company just as a hedge without really understanding their business well or their prospects, which is what I had done when I bought AAUK; and 2, I had other areas I wanted to invest in and this was the only other holding (besides CNET) that was on my "think about selling" list.
Bought IFN on July 7, 2005 for $30.15
Bought EWY on July 7, 2005 for $31.90
These are two of a feather as far as my strategy goes, but are very different animals. IFN is the closed-end actively managed India Fund, while EWY is an ETF for the South Korean Index. I bought both to expand my international diversification in the two countries that I see as growing parts of the world economy with relatively low risk -- India because political risk is limited as their increasingly business-friendly government is stable and democratic, and South Korea because market risk is somewhat limited by the fact that South Korea is the bargain basement of the world's emerging markets, with growing and dominant companies that I believe are extremely undervalued. Will provide more of my thoughts on these purchases as I have time.
Technorati tags: anglo american, aauk, Akamai, AKAM, cnet, india, south korea
This article posted by One Guy @ 7/06/2005 02:33:00 PM 0 comments
Add to: del.icio.us *Furl *Google *Spurl *reddit *StumbleUpon *Yahoo MyWeb *
Add to: del.icio.us *Furl *Google *Spurl *reddit *StumbleUpon *Yahoo MyWeb *
