What was best stock pick in last five years?

[KMyer]

I was reading another thread where an individual was hoping to get a monthly return of 5% on a consistent basis. The expectation seems unreasonable but it did make me start thinking.

What was your best stock pick in the last five years?

For me, I purchased Tractor Supply Company (TSCO) at $19.48 per share on 2/04/2008. The stock now trades at $88.03 per share which equates to cummulative gain % of 352%, or an average monthly return of around 2.5%.

I've had my share of "dogs" too.

What was your best stock pick in the last five years?

[steelyman]

Mine were OXY and AMX but there are people who are wayyyy better stock pickers than I am.

I bought AAPL for a trust I manage when it was at about $80, and that's done well.

[braumeister]

I still have shares of AAPL I bought at 127.
Don't see myself selling them anytime soon.

But that's the exception. Normally I get nervous when something goes up a lot, so I sell it long before it peaks. Sometimes that's good -- I made money on Enron. Sometimes it's bad -- I made only a fraction of what I could have made if I had held on to some others.

[audreyh1]

Bought some AAPL in 2008/2009. Only stock we bought. Otherwise we own mutual funds.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KMyer What was your best stock pick in the last five years?

Berkshire Hathaway.

And during the five years before that.

And probably for the next five years, too...

[NW-Bound]

My best pick was WNR, bought at an average cost of $6.7 in 2009, which closes Friday at $28.35 or 4.23X.

Well, it still does not mean much as I only bought 550 shares.

[Dawg52]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KMyer ? For me, I purchased Tractor Supply Company (TSCO) at $19.48 per share on 2/04/2008. The stock now trades at $88.03 per share which equates to cummulative gain % of 352%, or an average monthly return of around 2.5%.

I've watched those stores pop up everywhere the last few years. Hate I didn't buy the stock. You did well.

No home runs like yours but a few steady one's. I've mainly been interested in blue chip dividend payers. I guess my best one is Chevron purchased in early 2009 and it has roughly doubled in value.

[Andre1969]

Dunno about the last 5 years, but here's a few winners I've had:

Google (GOOG): Paid $185.95 on 2/14/05, now trading around $715
Apple (AAPL): Paid $83.60 in 2/14/05, it did a 2:1 split on 2/28/05. Now trading around $515-520.
McDonalds (MCD): Paid $39.84 on 10/4/06. Now trading around $89.
Visa (V): Paid $58.08 on 3/19/08. Now trading around $150.
Nordstroms (JWN): Paid $10.09 on 11/25/08. Now trading around $52.
Cedar Fair (FUN): Paid $6.62 on 11/10/09. Now trading around $32.50. plus, in 2013 will pay $2.50 per year in distributions.


And yeah, I've had a few dogs here and there, as well.

[Donzo]

I love my funds, esp Wellesley....

But I bought a bunch of Pfizer about 4 years ago at 12.40 its at 25+ today.

[human743]

I don't have any really great winners. My boss talked me into buying sirius XM (SIRI) but i sold too soon. He bought at .06 in 2009 and just sold last month at 2.75. It paid for his new house. Of course now he wishes he had poured all of his cash, stock accounts, retirement accounts, and mortgaged the house, ranch, and businesses to buy more. Hindsight is 20/20 right?

[MDJO]

BAC, bought late last year at around $7

[Andre1969]

Quote:

Originally Posted by human743 I don't have any really great winners. My boss talked me into buying sirius XM (SIRI) but i sold too soon. He bought at .06 in 2009 and just sold last month at 2.75. It paid for his new house. Of course now he wishes he had poured all of his cash, stock accounts, retirement accounts, and mortgaged the house, ranch, and businesses to buy more. Hindsight is 20/20 right?

Yeah, I've played that game, myself. My version of it is that, if I maxed out my $175K HELOC and put it all into Apple back in 2005, rather than just buying a few shares, I'd now have 4,186 shares, which at today's close would be worth about $2,176,720. And on top of that, would now be paying about $44,371.60 per year in dividends.

Oh well, woulda, coulda, shoulda. And, looking back through history, I know I would've started freaking out in 2008, as I was watching it plummet from the $200/share it hit at the end of 2007, back down to about $85/share at the end of '08.

[foxfirev5]

As a plodder I have no home runs. Basically index funds with Wellesley and Wellington, REIT for a little spice. Pretty boring .

[MooreBonds]

Have had plenty of losers (and if this were the 5 worst stocks, they'd all be wipe-outs at 100% losses...actually more if you include income taxes paid on re-invested dividends that ultimately became worthless).

A good number of steady-eddies, but a few great ones (including DRIPed dividends)

EPD (Enterprise Partners-Oil pipeline) 288%*
HDB (bank in India) 162%
CEO (Chinese oil) 114%
MMP (Magellan-another oil pipeline) 107%
EWZ (Brazil ETF) 85%

*includes cost basis of 2 other pipelines I held which EPD bought out.

Also some preferreds that I picked up at firesale prices in 2009, many yielding 9%-11% at the time of purchase, like DRE-O (Duke Realty). Sitting on a 44% unrealized capital gain, yielding 11.9% off of cost, current yield 8.27%. Add up the 11.9% yield over 3 years, and that adds a decent bit to the total return.

Only 'problem' is that I keep nearly all of my preferreds/fixed income in my SEP IRA/ROTH IRA accounts, so I have decent unrealized capital gains all in my tax-advantaged accounts (which will ultimately be taxed as income). Whereas in my taxable accounts, I have buku capital losses to carryover for many years at $3k/year against ordinary income...which would have been great to offset my gains in those preferreds!

[bentley]

Linn Energy- bought at $17 in '09, tody it's $36 +/-
Chevron- bought at $57 in '09, today it's $107 +/-

[MDJO]

Best investment was not a stock - I have some silver bullion coins that I paid $600 for in 2005, now worth about $2,900

Guess I should have bought a lot more.....

[FinanceDude]

Silver and gold, silver and gold...........

[Badger]

Costco in early 2009 at $42.67 and now at about $97.

Then there is Best Buy I bought when Circuit City went out of business. Thought it would be a good move. Boy was I wrong. Sold it recently at a loss for tax purposes this year.

Cheers!

[ChiliPepr]

I purchased ALXN in October 2006 for $10 per share (split adjusted) and just sold most of it to this month for an average price of $94.00. I probably would have not sold as much if I was more sure of taxes next year. This is the only stock I have owned in the last six years (my company does not allow us to trade stocks)

[ScaredtoQuit]

At my wife's insistance, I purchased Ford on 11/19/2008. The cost was $1.28 then. I thought it was a loser so I only purchased 500 shares. Oh to do that one over again!!!