THE WIRED INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO
As the market wilts under a summer sell-off, I refuse to join the herd. Instead of selling anything, I'm going bargain-hunting. AT&T, in particular, looks cheap, so I'm deploying some idle cash to buy 3,000 shares.
CEO C. Michael Armstrong is to be commended for his broadband-savvy purchases of TCI and MediaOne. With TCI, AT&T also got 26 percent of the newly formed Excite@Home, making AT&T a safer way to ride the @Home roller coaster. Given Armstrong's track record and the impending broadband explosion, I see this as a great core holding.
Another great buy: Drug Emporium, the 140-store brick-and-mortar chain that has been selling prescription meds online since last October. Given the market's interest in online drugstores and Drug Emporium's $127 million market cap, I think the stock is poised for a nice upward pop. I'm in for 12,500 shares.
– Jeffery Wardell (jwardell@hamquist.com)
| Company| Primary Business| Symbol| Shares| Close 6/1| Current Value| Since Purchase
HOLDING
| Abbott Labs | Pharmaceuticals | ABT | 2,500 | 44 7/8 | 112,188 | – 2 %
| America Online | Online services | AOL | 5,000 | 113 1/8 | 565,625 | + 343 %
| AT&T-Liberty Media A | Cable programming | LMG/A | 3,000 | 66 1/4 | 198,750 | + 1 %
| Autoweb.com | Ecommerce | AWEB | 6,000 | 15 13/16 | 94,875 | – 34 %
| Cisco Systems | Network hw/sw | CSCO | 4,500 | 107 1/16 | 481,781 | + 166 %
| FDX* | Freight delivery | FDX | 2,500 | 56 7/8 | 142,188 | + 31 %
| Guidant | Medical devices | GDT | 2,500 | 49 9/16 | 123,906 | – 15 %
| Merck | Pharmaceuticals | MRK | 2,000 | 68 1/8 | 136,250 | – 15 %
| Microsoft | Software | MSFT | 4,000 | 78 1/2 | 314,000 | + 87 %
| Network Associates | Virus sw | NETA | 10,000 | 14 9/16 | 145,625 | – 34 %
| Pfizer | Pharmaceuticals | PFE | 1,500 | 106 3/8 | 159,563 | + 8 %
BUYING
| AT&T | Telecom services | T | 3,000 | 55 1/16 | 165,188
| Drug Emporium | Ecommerce | DEMP | 12,500 | 9 5/8 | 120,313
Cash| $| $712,248
Portfolio Value 6/1| $| $3,472,500
Portfolio Value 5/3| $| $3,692,251
One-Month Portfolio Performance-5.95%Russell 2000 Index| +0.960%
Legend: This fund started with $1 million on December 1, 1994. Profits and losses are reflected monthly. *Two-for-one stock split
The Wired Investment Portfolio (formerly TWIT$) is a model established by Wired, not an officially traded portfolio. Jeffery Wardell is a senior vice president in executive financial services at Hambrecht & Quist LLC and may have a personal interest in stocks listed in the WIP. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of H&Q's research department. H&Q has not verified the information contained in this article and does not make any representations as to its accuracy and completeness. Wired readers who use this information for investment decisions do so at their own risk.
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