BRK Top 15 Stocks PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

Another fan of Warren Buffet, Brandon Rowley, recently posted the top 15 partially owned companies of Berkshire Hathaway. It excludes companies like See's that are fully owned by BRK. All but one of the 15 stocks (PG) have had two or more years in the last 5 with negative returns, and only 6 had positve 5yr Sharpe ratios. They are in the Balanced portfolio. The largest holding in the actual portfolio is KO and it is also in the Balanced portfolio.

American Express 401k (RSP) PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

This plan was not helped by company stock AXP which had a 5yr APR = -2.28 even though the average 5yr APR was 14%. As a retiree volatiliy is always on my mind. The scan included only the investment options representing 5% or more of the plan. The Balanced portfolio had 70% of the portfolio invested in the stable value fund represented by the index SVF.hpx in the scan. The employee portfolio had 11.9% invested in company stock which reduced their 5yr APR to 1.58% with high volatility.

Unilever NV 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

This plan has few options but a large collection of GICs represented by the index GIC.ekx in the scan. The Balanced portfolio has 70.6% of the money in the GIC, 19.8% in PTTRX and 6.5% in company stock UN. This one of the few times the Balanced portfolio has more money in company stock than the employee portfolio at 4.4%. The employee portfolio has more money in Target Date retirement funds than mutual funds. That lowered their return a little and more than doubled their volatility risk. That risk is the focus of the TechNote posted this week. In the Unilever NV plan only 2 of the 4 Target Date retirement funds have 5yr data VTXVX and VTTVX.

Total Petrochemicals USA 401k PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

This plan Balanced portfolio has 41.4% invested in the stable value fund FMIP2 in the scan and 20.2 % in the bond fund PTTRX. It also has money invested in 10 other options shown in the 3D scan image. Money seems to be gradually moving from the lifeboat back into the market. The employee portfolio has 45.8% invested in company stock TOT, too much in my opinion. and the Balanced portfolio has 5.3% in company stock

State of Utah 401k (URS) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

This plan consists of 11 SMA funds and a group annuity. The scan included the 11 funds which are well documented for participants at http://www.urs.org/. The Balanced portfolio invested 67% of the plan in the income fund UTINF in the scan and 19% in the bond fund UTBDF in the scan. No information on participant asset allocation was available. My only suggestion would be to add a few sector funds for better diversification.

Becton Dickinson 401k (SIP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-09

This company did well in 2009 but not as well as 2004 and their 5yr perfomance is down. In this scan the Balanced portfolio invested 32.7% of the plan in BDX and 54.0% in the short term investment fund SHY in the scan. The plan has a large GIC not in the scan and it was not in last years BDX scan. The 2010 Life Path fund STLBX is no longer listed and is not in the scan.

ESURANCE 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

This company is a subsidiary of White Moutains Insurance and the stock in the plan is WTM. The Balanced portfolio largest holding is the stable value fund at 62.5% of the plan repesented by the index SVF.hpx in the scan. It is also the largest holding in the employee portfolio which has very little invested in company stock

FOX 401k (IP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

This company is owned by NEWS Corp. and company stock in the plan is NWSA. The scan included only investments that represent 5% or more of the plan. The Balanced portfolio has 87.4% of the plan invested in PTTRX and the performance is very similar to that bond funds perfomance which is quite good. The employee portfolio had FPURX as its largest holding.

Terra Industries 401k (SIP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

This company stock TRA is way off the chart but with a small positive 5yr Sharpe ratio. The Balanced portfolio has 4.2% of the plan in the stock and the largest holding is a Wells Fargo stable value fund represented by the index SVF.hpx in the scan. The employee portfolio largest holding is also the stable value fund with the company stock a distant second. The correlation chart is unusal in that virtually all the volatility is correlated with company stock.

SAIC 401k (RP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

This scan includes a Vanguard stable value fund VRST that was not in the 2008 scan. The Balanced portfolio has over 10 funds in the portfolio and the stable value trust is the largest holding. The largest holding in the employee portfolio is company stock SAI which does not have 5yr data and had a negative APR in 2008 and 2009. Their second largest holding is a collection of Target Retirement funds, only two of them have a positive 5yr Sharpe ratio.

Honeywell 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

This plan was helped by its trustee State Street Bank during 2008 to deal with asset liquidity issues. Read the latest SEC 11-k report for the details. Over 90% of the plan is in company stock HON and the GIC represented in the scan by the index GIC.ekx. The mutual funds account for a very small percentage of plan assets. Most of the mutual funds in the scan were taken from those of SSgA the trustee and ING the plan administrator for daily activity. I only have information on fund catagories and I used catagory proxy data in the scan.

Microsoft 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

This plan has improved year over year and company stock MSFT is now in the Balanced portfolio at just under 1% of the plan. The employee portfolio has way too much in the stock for anyone near retirement in my opinion. The Balanced portfolio now has 1o funds and MSFT in the portfolio as seen in the 3D scan image. The new fund that helped most was a Vanguard Short Term Bond Index Fund.

State of California 401k (457/Calpers) PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

This is a large plan and the design scan covers only the open fund options. The Balanced portfolio has just over half the money invested in the GIC and the stable value fund SVF.hpx in the scan. That portfolio also invested in more than ten other funds as seen in the 3D scan. Several of the Hartford funds are not in the Thomson file and were not in the scan but the money market fund HAYXX is in the scan.

State of Oregon 401k (457) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

The Oregon 457 plan has over 10 funds in the Balanced portfolio which has 71% of the plan invested in the stable value option, GIC in the scan, and the fixed income fund FUNDF. The Barclay US Debt index fund is the US government 401k FUNDF. The SSgA short term fixed income option is SHY in the scan and several other options without 5yr data are represented by the index they track.

General Mills 401k (PCRA) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

This plan was scanned last year. The Balanced PCRA portfolio still has almost all the plan in the Schwab GNMA fund SWGSX and company stock GIS. No data on employee asset allocation data were in the SEC 11-k report but it does now list all 16 funds in the plan by catagory. The plan trustee is Mellon. In the scan several Schwab funds were represented by ETF funds because the 12-31-2009 maket data file did not have all the Schwab funds.

COMCAST Spectacor 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

This plan COMCAST Spectacor 401k is the same plan scanned last year. The Balanced portfolio is more diversified in that the COMCAST Spectacor two largest holdings LEXNX and GVIXX account for only 43.5% of the plan. The return is similar APR = 5.73% compared to APR = 5.48% but the volatility risk is higher STD = 3.61 compared to STD = 1.04% for the COMCAST (RIP) 401k Plan.

COMCAST 401k (RIP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009

This COMCAST 401k Retirement-Investment Plan (RIP) is not the same as their SPECTACOR 401k plan scanned last year. The Balanced portfolio has 70% of the plan in two bond funds PTTRX and FBIDX and the rest distributed among 9 other funds in the plan. The employee portfolio was hurt by company stock CMCSK which had a negative 5yr APR = -5.54%. The Balanced portfolio had a nice 5yr return APR = 5.48% with a Sharpe ratio that was higher than I expected PSR = 3.77. Recently plans without a stable value fund have had smaller Sharpe ratios.