Bank of New York Mellon 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

The Bank of New York Mellon plan has 3o investment options including company stock, BK. The employees have a conservative portfolio that has a positive 5yr APR but only 1.42%. The Balanced portfolio is invested in the 5 options with positive 5yr Sharpe ratios; CWGIX, DFEVX, NBGNX, PFGAX and PTTRX. I was surprised the Mellon stable value fund was not an option.

Apache 401k (SP) Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

The Apache plan is invested heavily in company stock, APA, which like COP has done well but is very volatile, 5yr APR = 13.68% and STD = 35.85%. The Balanced portfolio has most of the plan money invested in FRTXX the money market fund. The employee portfolio 5yr return is APR = 7.41%, STD = 18.19% and PSR = 0.25. All in all one of the best 5yr returns for a plan.

ConocoPhillips 401k (SP) PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

The ConocoPhillips 401k Plan is rated among the best and the company stock, COP, has done well. They have money market options but no stable value option. The largest holdings are the money market, VMVXX, the bond funds, VUSTX, PTTRX and company stock.

Eastman Kodak 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

There is not much to say about this plan. Only one fund has a positive 5yr Sharpe ratio and company stock, EK, had a negative 5yr APR over -22%. The Balanced portfolio is all in Barclays Global Investor US Debt Index Fund. The employee portfolio using 12/31/2007 11-k data was off more than 1% on a 5yr APR basis.

Safeway 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

The Safeway plan has GICs and and a stable value invesment option but few mutual funds. The GICs were represent by a UBS GIC and FUND G from the US Government 401k represented the SEI stable asset fund. The Balanced portfolio is invested in these two options and PTTRX. Company stock, SWY, is the second largest investment in the employee portfolio as of the 12/31/2007 SEC 11-k filing.

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Thanks for the comment Chris. The UBS GIC portfolio is a proxy for all the GIC contracts in the plan. The proxy has 5yr data that provides information on the standard deviation and Sharpe ratio needed to do a design scan. In many plans there are hundreds of GIC contracts accumulated over many years and I use the UBS GIC portfolio as a proxy for them. Thanks again.

Dominion Resources 401k (SSP) PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

The Dominion Resources 401k scan was a bit different because two of the scan funds, REDFX and VTINX, had very small negative 5yr Sharpe ratios. This by rule excluded them from the Balanced portfoilo which was not the highest Sharpe ratio portfolio in the scan. That rarely happens. The ETF funds and AEPGX were proxies for trust funds and mutual funds without 5yr data. I put all the Target Retirment funds in VTXVX to compute the employee portfolio performance. It was about the only one with 5yr data.

Microsoft 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

The Microsoft plan in the 12/31/2007 SEC 11-k filing had 900M in company stock which along with all the equity mutual funds had a bad 2008 like most plans. The Balanced portfolio retreated to the money market fund and the PIMCO bond fund PTTRX. A stable investment option would have helped.

Chevron Texaco 401k (SIP) PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

The Chevron Texaco scan last year did not include company stock, CVX, and still had an APR of 15.06%. What a difference 2008 made. This scan includes CVX stock and updated the list of funds to match the latest SEC 11-k report with 12/31/2007 data. The Balanced portfolio has almost 23% of the fund in CVX which is higher than the 5% limit I like. The 3D scatter plot shows the Employee portfolio and the added return their heavy investment in CVX made as well as the added volatility measured by standard deviation.

Sempra Energy 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

This plan needs bond funds and a stable investment option. None of the funds in the plan have a positive 5yr Sharpe ratio or APR. Only company stock, SRE, has a positive 5yr return and by rule the Balanced fund has invested the entire plan in SRE. This is not prudent. ******************** 6/11/2009 Edit change to post correct 2D scan chart. Earlier post had South Carolina 2D scan chart.

Southern 401k (SP) Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

The Southern Co. employees have done very well. The company stock, SO, has a 5yr APR of 8.93% which is great but they have a lot more than 5% invested in the company stock according to the 12/31/2007 SEC 11-k report. The plan had a few Merrill Lynch funds and a trust fund. In the scan which includes company stock I used Northern Trust funds and ETFs as proxies for the Merrill Lynch funds. The 3D scan of the Southern 401k looks a lot like a healthy market.

Regency Centers 401k (PSP) PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

The Regency Centers 401k scan only has the funds with 5% or more of the plan and the scan only sampled 400 portfolios (normally 1000). The Wells Fargo stable return fund has a very high Sharpe ratio and the Balanced portfolio is almost all in WFSRF. The funds without 5yr market data as a registered investment fund but that do have 5yr market data are designated as WFVEF instead of WFVEX for example in the correlation chart. These are WFVEX and ABIVF.

General Dynamics 401k (SSP) Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

The General Dynamics plan funds are managed by Northern Trust and the few registered investment company funds are Northern Trust funds in the scan. The largest investment in the plan is company stock, GD. It had four great years and like most had a very bad 2008. The Balanced portfolio has most of the money invested in the GICs.

Johnson & Johnson 401k (RSP) Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

The JNJ 401k is very basic; company stock (JNJ), GICs , Government securities, a collective trust and short term investments. The Government securities I represented with FGOVX and VFIIX, the short term investments with VMVXX and the common collective trust with a Wells Fargo stable return fund designated WFSRF in the scan.

Target 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

The Target 401k plan has several thousand comingled investment contracts, GICs, that give the plan stability. Most of the plan is invested in company stock, TGT, and these contracts. There are a few SSgA funds available and several do not yet have 5yr data. They are represented by ETF index funds that the SSgA funds track. The plan also has a Wells Fargo stable return fund that I designated WFSRF in the scan.

International Paper 401k (SSP) Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

The International Paper 401k plan is invested in company stock, a master trust, a commingled group trust and an SSgA stable value fund. I used Fund G as a proxy for the stable value fund which does not yet have 5yr data and it is the largest investment in the plan at $1.692B as of 12/31/2007 the most recent SEC 11-k filing. The trust fund catagories were represented by ETF proxies as shown in the correlation chart.

Hartford 401k (ISP) Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

The Hartford Financial Services Group, HIG, like many were hit very hard in 2008 and their 401k plan was hit especially hard because their plan used Hartford mutual funds. The Balanced portfolio put all the money in a GIC and a money market fund represented by VMVXX. The employees in the 12/31/2007 SEC 11-k had most their money in a GIC and company stock HIG.

Kroger 401k (RSP) Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

Not a lot has changed since the last scan of the Kroger 401k except that I added a Blackrock fund I had missed earlier, MABAX. The company stock, KR, has been the best performer over the last 5 years and the Balanced portfolio asset allocation has 43.14% in the stock. That breaks my 5% rule but if I were younger I would consider a wee bit more.