Blackstone Audio 401k (PCRA) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

This 401k (PCRA) Plan is by design aggressive and that shows in the 3D scan image this year. The aggressive funds did not have a good 2010 and the income fund options did which jerked the Balanced portfolio back to a lower risk asset allocation. That is what the Sharpe ratio is designed to do and it works.
Year-to-date in 2011 the Balanced portfolio is beating the S&P 500 but the aggressive portfolio is not. Keeping the focus on 5yr performance is the norm for retirement plans but an aggressive portfolio is almost by definition a volatile portfolio and it needs to have solid income options for balance.

Invesco 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Invesco 401k Plan Balanced portfolio improved significantly over last year thanks mostly to investment options that were not in the scan last year. The Plan is large with many investment options that have less than 1% of Plan invested in them and they were not in last years scan. Among them I noticed a gold fund and a PIMCO fund that were added to the scan this year. They helped increase the Balanced portfolio this year to a 5yr APR of 6.72% with a Sharpe ratio of 1.17. The employee portfolio still has very little invested in either of them with most of their money in Invesco mutual funds. Interesting.

Brinker International 401k (SP) PSDS Scan 12-31-201

The Brinker International 401k Plan Balanced portfolio 5yr return has improved to an APR of 5.40% with a Sharpe ratio of 1.36. The last scan was in 2008. That portfolio's 3 largest holdings are PTTRX, FRTXX and VIPSX all income investment options. The largest employee portfolio holdings are FCNTX, AEPGX and NBGNX all good equity funds. Company stock EAT is still recovering from the big losses of 2008 and 2009 and stll has a negative 5yr APR. It is up year-to-date and just might be in the Balanced portfolio next year. In the scan the only Target Date funds are STSVX and FFFDX by rule to keep from distorting the standard deviation benefit. Many plans limit participants to one Target Date fund for the same reason, they are highly correlated by design.

Unilever NV 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Unilever NV 401k Plan was helped a bit by company stock UN. Its has a 5yr APR of 10.36% but is volatile and has a Sharpe ratio of only 0.26. That kept the Balanced portfolio investment in the stock to 4.5% a little less than last year and it is only 3.75% of the hourly employee portfolio. The Vanguard Target Retirement funds are their largest holdings. The Balanced portfolio largest holding is still the GIC and it is the second largest employee holding. This a pretty good Plan and company stock in my opinion.

Mattel 401k (PIP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Mattel 401k Plan was definitely helped by company stock MAT which was up over 30% in 2010. The Balanced portfolio invested 10.1% of that portfolio in company stock and the employee portfolio had 4.3% in the stock. Interesting. Wells Fargo is the Plan trustee and most of the investment options are Wells Fargo funds. The top 3 holdings of the Balanced portfolio are the stable return fund WFSRF, the bond fund SSTBX and the Government bond fund PGOVX. This 401k is about average and the company stock is above average. The 3D scan image shows that well.

TERADATA 401k (SP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The TERADATA 401k Balanced portfolio improved to an APR of 7.11% with a Sharpe ratio of 1.73. That's without the benefit of company stock TDC which is doing very well but does not yet have 5yr Market
data and so was not in the scan. The company was founded in 2007. The employee portfolio invested 6.7% of their portfolio in company stock but the scan employee portfolio does not reflect that. This 401k Plan made a few changes over last year. It is better diversified than most plans but does have a few weak options. None the less the Plan should be in the running for the list of top 401k plans in 2010.

Computer Sciences 401k (MAP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Computer Sciences 401k once again was not helped by company stock CSC. It was down in 2010, has a negative 5yr APR and by rule is not in the Balanced portfolio. Company stock is 17% of the employee portfolio and is their largest holding. The Balanced portfolio 5yr APR of 4.16% is below average but does have a positive Sharpe ratio of 1.80 thanks to the stable value fund and other income investment options.  As the correlation chart shows the 401k equity options are have not done well the last five years largely because the S&P 500 has not done well the last five years. In the scan the SSgA Target Series Retirement funds are represented by the corresponding Vanguard fund that has 5yr Market data. That's all for now.

Verizon 401k (SP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Verizon 401k Plan was helped by company stock VZ, which had a very good year in 2010. The Balanced portfolio 5yr APR improved to 6.23% with a Sharpe ratio of 2.04. It invested 5.2% of the portfolio in company stock and the employee portfolio invested 27.7% in VZ. There were small differences in the Plan scan options this year; SIGVX instead of a money market fund was used for Cash equivalents. When the SEC 11-k report contains only category investment options it adds another layer of uncertainty to forecasting. The Plan trustee is Fidelity and most of the category options in the scan are Fidelity funds.

Goodrich Corp. 401k (ESP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Goodrich Corp. 401k Plan investment category options are Fidelity funds and collective trust funds. In the scan AWCX is represented by FDIVX, which has 5yr market data and all the Fidelity Freedom funds are represented by the 2020 fund FFFDX. Collectively the Freedom funds are 20.8% of the employee portfolio. This is now a strong trend in 401k Plans and Fidelity has worked to better diversify the Freedom funds in the last couple of years.

The Balanced portfolio has a 5yr APR of 5.93% with a Sharpe ratio of 0.75. Its three largest holdings are the stable value fund SVF.hpx in the scan, a bond fund FBIDX and company stock GR. This stock has a 5yr APR of 18.39% with a Sharpe ratio of 0.33 and it is 16.1% of the employee portfolio. All in all a good Plan with a well above average company stock the last 5 years. 

Allegheny Technologies 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

Allegheny Technologies files several 11-k reports every year. The scan this year is for "The 401k Plan" which is a little different from last years 401k scan. In this Plan the Self-directed accounts have different investment options and they are not in the scan.

The Balanced portfolio 5y APR at 4.61% is below average and the Sharpe ratio at 1.44 is above average. That is because the GIC is over 50% of the Balanced portfolio. Company stock ATI has a 5yr APR of 10.6% but is very volatile reducing the stocks Sharpe ratio to 0.089 and it is only 1.3% of the Balanced portfolio. In the scan VTXVX holds all the Target Date Funds to keep from distorting the standard deviation forecast. TDF funds are not diversified by design. The employee portfolio collective TDF funds holdings are more than the company stock ATI which is 12.5% of their portfolio. In my opinion anyone near retirement should have more in bond funds than this employee portfolio which has 5.3% collectively in VBMFX, VIPSX and VTINX. The Balanced portfolio has 27% invested in these funds.

AAII Model Mutual Fund Portfolio PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The AAII Model Mutual Fund Portfolio was published in the November 2011 Journal (page 34) where the annual performance since 2003 can be found. As the scan shows all the funds have positive 5y Sharpe ratios and are in the Balanced portfolio. That portfolio has a 5yr APR of 8.53% with a Sharpe ratio of 0.70. The AAII Portfolio with market weighted asset allocation has about the same 5yr APR but with very a different asset allocation. That portfolio invested over 90% of it in the Fidelity Capital & Income fund FAGIX. Interesting.

The AAII Model Mutual Fund Portfolio has better 5yr performance than almost all the 401k plans scanned this year. It may be of interest to 401k Plan Investment Committees. Of course if you add a strong company stock to the portfolio things get even better. That is what I did for my in-retirement portfolio which has a 5yr APR of 12.91% with Sharpe ratio of 2.25 for the same 5yr period.

General Dynamics 401k (SSIP-5.0) PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

General Dynamics 401k Plan has four plan groups with the same investment categories but different SEC 11-k reports. The SEC Reports are for Plans 5.0, 4.5, 3.0 and Represented Employees. This Scan is for the investment categories in the Master Trust and Plan 5.0 employee asset allocation.

Company Stock - GD
Equity Securities
    U.S. Companies
            Services - IYC
            Financials - IYF
            Technology - IYW
Guaranteed Investment Contracts
            Index - GIC.ekx
Common Collective Trusts
            Large cap U.S. equity market - BDVAX
            Small cap U.S. equity market - IWM (Russell 2000)
            U.S. Gov Short Term investments - GSTIF
Registered Investment Company - DODGX
Fixed Income Securities
            Corporate - LQD
            Government - SHY
Cash & Cash Equivalents - SIGVX

The Balanced Portfolio 5yr APR is 4.36% almost the same as last year and the portfolio is still a lifeboat portfolio with everything in the GIC and Fixed Income investments. The 3 largest holdings in the employee portfolio are company stock GD, the GIC and the Large cap U.S. equity market option BDVAX in the scan. As you can see in the 2D scan image U.S. Financials did poorly the last 5 years especially Banks

Arch Coal 401k (ETP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Arch Coal 401k Plan is small and was not helped by company stock ACI that has a negative 5yr APR and high volatility. The Balanced portfolio has a 5yr APR of 5.01% with a high Sharpe ratio of 1.88 because the stable value fund SVF.hpx in the scan is its largest holding. Of the 14 Plan investment options in the scan 6 have negative 5yr Sharpe ratios. That is not good. The income options are fine but the equity options need work. The only one in the Balanced portfolio is a Target Date Retirement fund STNRX.

Panera Bread 401k (SP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Panera Bread 401k investment options are well diversified and the Balanced portfolio has a 5yr APR of 6.00% with a Sharpe ratio of 1.30. Its three largest holdings are PTTRX a bond fund, FRTXX a Fidelity money market fund and FGOVX a Fidelity government income fund. The employee portfolio's largest holding is a collection of Target Date Retirement funds represented by FFTWX in the scan. Interesting. Their next two largest holdings are FRTXX and company stock PNRA that has a 5yr APR of 9.03% with a Sharpe ratio of 0.16. Nice but volatile. This is an above average 401k Plan and stock.

Costco Wholesale 401k (RP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Costco 401k scan this year has only two Target Date Funds (TDFs) in the scan, the Retirement Income Fund TRRIX and the TDF with the largest employee investment TRRDX. Many company 401k plans now limit participants to a single TDF and I too think that is prudent because keeping all the TDFs in the scan distorts the diversification forecast for participants. This year the Balanced portfolio has a 5yr APR of 5.52% with a Sharpe ratio of 1.32 an improvement over last year. The three largest holdings of the employee portfolio are company stock COST, the stable value fund SVF.hpx in the scan and PMEGX a mid-cap growth fund. All in all a good Plan and company stock the last 5 years.

Paychex Inc. 401k (IRP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Paychex 401k Plan has not been scanned before. Company stock PAYX pays a nice dividend but the stock total return 5yr APR is negative. The Balanced portfolio 5yr APR of 4.93% is little below average and its largest holdings are all bond funds and income options. In the scan the ClearCourse variable annuity is represented by the Wells Fargo Stable Return Fund, WFSRF. The largest equity holding STCSX is only 4.8% of the Balanced portfolio. Company stock PAYX is the largest holding of the employee portfolio which has a 5yr APR of 3.22%. The Plan could use a few new equity options in my opinion.

H.J. Heinz 401k (ERSP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The H.J. Heinz 401k (ERSP) Plan has not been scanned before. The trustee is Bank of New York Mellon and the Plan has 16 investment options; 8 Vanguard, 2 Fidelity 4 from other Mutual Fund companies, company stock HNZ and  a stable value fund FMIP in the scan. The Balanced portfolio 5yr APR is 7.01% with a Sharpe ratio of 1.07 both above average. The 401k Plan was helped by company stock HNZ that has a 5yr APR of 11.85% with a Sharpe ratio of 0.403. The Plan has no Target Date Retirement funds and does not need them in my opinion. It is a well designed 401k Plan with good equity and good income investment options but like all Plans there is room for improvement. I changed the 3D scan viewing angle for this scan for a research study of mine.