DIC Minutes for March 8, 2003
Meeting convened at 9:08am at the St. Thomas Parlor.
Present were: DCS, DJS, Bob, John, Keith, Michael.
Present by proxy were: Scott (DJS).
The minutes from the February 8, 2003 meeting were approved as presented.
The Financial Partner reported that the club had $12,996.42 in available cash. The financial report was approved as presented.
Stock Reports:
AFLAC – closed at $31.60. Still expected to outperform the market in the next 6 months. Several organizations rated AFLAC as on of the top 100 companies to work for. Schwab rates AFLAC an A.
CISCO – closed at $13.14 down .34. Analyst ratings have gone up to a strong buy. Exciting projects in the pipeline but will take time to develop. Cash rich. Sales will be down as they enter their slow season. Entering the telephone networking market. Schwab rates CISCO a B.
EQUITY – no report and not rated by Schwab.
GE – closed at $24.30, up from last month and their 52 week low. 900M in contracts with China for power plants. Investing in emerging companies that fit the GE family. Schwab rating a C.
HEINZ – closed at $29.94. Schwab rating a C.
INTEL – closed at $16.01. INTEL announced it expects quarterly sales of 6.6-6.8B, slightly down from previous estimates. Continues product development and partnering. Schwab rating a C.
LABCORP – Announced an agreement to buy certain Quest Diagnostic assets in Northern California and expects 2003 earning to be 22.5% higher than 2002. LABCORP is trading in the high 20’s with an analyst rating of 2.5. Schwab rating a B.
LINCOLN NATIONAL – no report. Closed at $27.50. Schwab rating a C.
MCGRAW HILL – closed at $55.37. Sales holding and growing slightly. Return on assets expected to be up. Long term debt continues to drop from it’s 2001 high and is currently 622M. Morningstar gives MCGRAW HILL high ratings and Schwab rates it a B.
MDC CONSTRUCTION – closed at $36.74. Rates a B by Schwab and value line rates MDC as top in its sector for the next 6 months.
NOKIA – closed at $12.95. In February they announced joint initiatives with Oracle, IBM, TI and Sun Microsystems to help deliver content on NOKIA mobile handsets. Also announced new initiatives in Chile, Columbia and Ecuador. Analyst rating a 2.3. Not rated by Schwab.
TARGET – closed t $26.75, down 38% from a year ago. Sales below plan. Continue to expand stores and credit card operations. Rated an F by Schwab.
Stock assignments were reviewed in order to assure coverage. Michael will be backup to watch EQUITY, Clarke will be backup to watch GE and Keith will be backup to watch HEINZ.
DCS will contact members who are not participating in the club to determine their intentions and encourage their involvement.
In a discussion of stocks to buy:
ACS – no action.
In a review of the Value Line Summary provided by John, the club decided to investigate the following stocks for possible purchase: Capital One Financial and Golden West Financial in the thrift sector. Avon in the toiletries sector. AETNA and Apria Healthcare in the medical services sector. Apollo Group in the educational services sector. And Omni Care in the pharmaceutical services sectors.
Members should plan on recommending stock purchases at the April meeting. Michael will give the club a presentation and exercise on reading financial statements at the next meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:17.
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