GENZYME 401k Plan PSDS Scan

This plan was helped by company stock, GENZ, and the Balanced portfolio has 4.4% invested in the stock as of 12/31/2008. The SSgA funds in the plan without 5yr data were represented in the scan by the index they track. The GIC fund was represented by the EnnisKnupp GIC index.

Occidental Petroleum 401k (SP) PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

This plan's performance was great the last 5 years led by company stock OXY. It was nice to see the Balanced portfolio with only 15.2% in the money market fund PYAXX and the employee portfolio with a higher return 16.36% than the Balanced portfolio.

This will be the last scan for August and in the fall I plan to start using 6/30/2009 market data for most scans.

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

This company is a subsidiary of News Corp. and the 401k plan is small. The Balanced portfolio has most of the money in the money market fund FRTXX and nothing in company stock. The employee portfolio has for its top three holdings FRTXX, FUSEX, and FFFCX. This is the first time I have seen a target retirement fund in the top three investments. The employee portfolio had a negative 5yr APR 0f -0.33%.

Northrop Grumman 401k (FSSP) PSDS Scan 06/30/2009

This plan has the best online documentation of any plan with SMA funds and it is updated every quarter. The SEC filing however does not provide employee investment data by fund. The Balanced portfolio has most of the money in the stable value fund NGSVF in the scan. As of 12/31/2008 the employees had about one-third of their money in company stock NGSF in the scan and a third in the stable value fund. Many visitors to this site view the Northrop Grumman pages and I try to update the scan as often as possible.

New Jersey Resources 401k (RSP) PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

This plan was helped by company stock, NJR, and in my opinion hurt by the stable value fund's artificially high Sharpe ratio. WFSVX has a Sharpe ratio over 10 which acts like a money magnet.

The so called Balanced portfolio has 81.7% invested in WFSVX. The plan has several good bond and equity funds that would be in my portfolio like CWGIX and DODFX which have less than 1% of the Balanced portfolio. Keep in mind that you cannot reduce all decisions to a calculation.

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

This plan was hurt by company stock and 2008 like many others. The Balanced portfolio has over 88% invested in just two funds, VMMXX 64.4% and VBMFX 23.9%. The employee portfolio had almost equal amounts in VMMXX and company stock NEM as of 12/31/2008.

In the scan Vanguard target retirement funds without 5yr data were represented by their corresponding Fidelity Freedom fund.

Newport News Shipbuilding 401k PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

Newport News Shipbuilding is a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman and their 401k plan holds that company stock, NOC. The plan Balanced portfolio has a negative Sharpe ratio which I have not seen in over 200 scans. Even the plan money market fund, ETAXX, has a negative Sharpe ratio. Northrop Grumman has a good 401k plan with a good stable value fund. It would be nice if this plan could invest in the parent company 401k plan funds.

Waddell & Reed Financial 401k (TP) PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

This is an interesting plan. They have no stable value investments but the asset allocation funds and a government securities fund produced a Balanced portfolio with a 5yr APR of 8.24%. The Balanced portfolio has 12 funds but UNASX, UNGVX and WASAX are the top 3 investments. The employee portfolio has the money market fund UNCXX as its largest holding. In the scan the energy fund WEGAX was represnted by VGENX which has 5yr data.

This plan also is a large plan with 0ver 35 funds and that caused the posted correlation chart to clip the Legend display. Sorry about that.

Potash PCS US 401k (SP) Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

This plan was helped by company stock, I think. The stock, POT, has an 5yr APR of 39% and a 5yr STD of 96.5% and still has a positive Sharpe ratio. It is off the chart literally. The Balanced portfolio has 7.1% of the money in the company stock and the largest investment in the GIC repesented by the GIC index in the scan. Among the commodities potash beats oil for the volatility crown in my book at least for the last 5 years.

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

This plan Balanced portfolio is invested in the money market fund VMFXX and the bond funds VSGBX and VBMFX. Company stock was the largest employee investment and that hurt their 5yr return APR = -1.75%. The plan target retirment funds without 5yr data were represented by the corresponding Fidelity funds.

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

This plan was hurt by company stock DBD and of course 2008. It has a very good stable value fund, VRST in the scan, and that is where the Balanced portfolio has 95.3% of the money invested. As of 12/31/2008 the employees had VRST and DBD as their two largest investments. The plan is almost all Vanguard funds including the target retirement funds. Those without 5yr data were represented in the scan by their Fidelity equivalent.

Franklin Templeton 401k (PSP) PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

This is a good plan helped by company stock BEN and the employees as of 9/30/2008 had 14.6% of their money invested in the stock. The Balanced portfolio had only 2.9% in BEN and the largest investment in TPINX a very good global bond fund. I was surprised the employees had so little invested in this bond fund assuming they do not have to pay the load fee.

20 World ETF Portfolio PSDS Scan 6/30/2009

This is not a 401k plan scan. The portfolio was designed for grandchildren not grandparents. It is a growth portfolio with no fixed income or stable value investments. The same design tool used for "lifeboat" portfolios can be used for growth portfolios too. The portfolio consists of the 20 world ETF funds and the Balanced portfolio invested in 13 of them. As you can see they delivered good 5yr growth, APR over 15%, and a Sharpe ratio of 1.25. In the scan EEM is a proxy for EWX which does not yet have 5yr data.

Granite Construction 401k (PSP) PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

Another small plan helped by company stock, GVA, and the Balanced portfolio has 22.9% of the plan invested in company stock. The employee portfolio has 20.7% invested in the stock which is their largest holding and these two portfolios are close to each other. In the scan several T. Rowe Price retirement funds did not have 5yr data and the corresponding year funds from Fidelity and Vanguard were used in the scan. In all the scans to date I have never seen a target retirment fund in the Balanced portfolio.

Ashland Hercules 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

Hercules was bought by Ashland 11/13/2008 and Hercules stock converted to Ashland stock in their 401k plan. The plan has a very good stable value fund, Vanguard Retirement Savings Trust, VRST in the scan. The so called Balanced portfolio has 94.2% of the plan invested in VRST and the rest in bond funds. Ashland stock like most funds had a very bad 2008. The employee portfolio had VRST as their largest investment but with over two-thirds invested in equity funds their 5yr forecast return was APR = 0.85%.

Jefferies Group 401k (PSP) PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

Another good plan hurt by company stock and 2008. The Balanced (lifeboat) portfolio has almost all the money in Fidelity money market funds and there are lots of them. The plan does not have a stable value fund and that surprise because Fidelity has a good one, Fidelity Managed Income Portfolio. The employee portfolio as of 11/30/2008 had company stock, JEF, as its largest investment. All in all a good plan that could be better by adding a few other Fidelity funds.

Ruby Tuesday 401k (SDP) PSDS Scan 12/31/2008

This is not a S&P 500 company. It is a small company with a stock that has the worst 5yr APR I have seen and yet it is still in business and has a good 401k plan. The plan has a very good Wells Fargo stable retrun fund, DSVG1 and 20 investment options many of which I have owned. The Balanced portfolio asset allocation is similar to most of the plans scanned in 2009.