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Update on Portfolio Percentages

This Alert updates portfolio percentages as they stand after five purchases today.
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Editor's Note: Because of an editing error, portfolio percentages were omitted from the Alert that was sent at 1:46 p.m. today. This version of the Alert includes the percentages. We regret the error.

-- Buying 100 shares of Linn Energy (LINE) .

-- Buying 100 shares of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) .

-- Buying 100 shares of Merck (MRK) .

-- Buying 100 shares of Waste Management (WM) .

-- Buying 100 shares of Oracle (ORCL) .

We are going to add to the positions that we didn't sell in the charitable distribution, in particular many of the recently added names.

After you have received this Alert, we will buy 100 shares of Linn Energy (LINE) at $38.19, 100 shares of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) at $81.72, 100 shares of Merck (MRK) at $44.14 and 100 shares of Waste Management (WM) at $38.46. And we'll also add 100 shares to Oracle (ORCL) at $32.30, now that our restrictions are finally cleared, and we will continue to buy the weakness.

Linn Energy is a conservative play on the exploration-and- production sector. It has a 100% hedged position, a strong balance sheet and an acquisition strategy that is favorable for long-term production growth.

Johnson & Johnson is a quality healthcare name that has a good pipeline in both its pharmaceutical and medical technology segments. Plus we see potential for shareholder value creation with a spinoff of one of the three segments, and we get a solid 3% dividend while we wait.

Merck has been a laggard, and since it has six drugs in the pipeline that are expected to get approval this year, this feels like the Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) story from last year (ahead of Eliquis). It has underperformed its peers, and it offers one of the better values in the industry, and it too has a strong dividend yield at 4%.

Waste Management is an industry leader in the trash business. It has a new restructuring under way, it gets 100% of its revenue in the U.S., and it offers a 3.7% yield.

Finally, we believe that the 12% decline in Oracle shares is overdone, and we believe that the company's miscues in its fiscal third quarter are fixable (sales force closure rates should tick higher), and its strong recurring revenue stream and new product cycle position it well going forward.

After our trades, we will own 1,200 shares of LINE, or 1.51% of the portfolio; 700 shares of JNJ, or 1.88%; 1,400 shares of MRK, or 2.03%; 2,000 shares of WM, or 1.64%; and 1,300 shares of ORCL, or 2.12%.

Regards,

Jim Cramer, Stephanie Link, and TheStreet Research Team

DISCLOSURE: At the time of publication, Action Alerts PLUSwas long LINE, JNJ, MRK, WM and ORCL.