General Dynamics 401k (SSIP.5) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2011

General Dynamics stock GD did not have a good year in 2011 and it is not in the Balance portfolio but it is the largest holding in the employee portfolio.The Balanced portfolio remains a lifeboat portfolio with only income funds having more than 5% of Plan. The best equity option this year was US Technologies IYT in the scan but it was only 2.2% of that portfolio. The Plan did win a law suit over fund fees and that money should help a bit. There is not much more to say.

PolyOne 401k (RSP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2011

The PolyOne 401k has a Balanced portfolio with an APR of 6.41% and a Sharpe ratio of 1.24 thanks to a strong collection of income funds. Company stock POL is in the Balanced portfolio but at less than 5% of Plan. The Plan also has a little Dow Chemical stock indicating it may have been a spin off. The last 5 years have not been kind to most Plan equity options and PolyOne is no exception. As a retiree the Balanced portfolio APR of 6.41% with very little risk is not so bad.

Nicor (Birdsall) 401k (RSP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2011

Nicor and AGL Resources merged in late 2011 with the NYSE ticker symbol changed to GAS the old Nicor stock symbol. Nicor owned several companies prior to the merger and Birdsall Inc. was one of them. This scan is for the Nicor (Birdsall) 401k Plan. It contains mostly Vanguard investment options and they are the "party at interest" options in the SEC 11-k report. Company stock GAS is in the Balanced portfolio but at only 2.6% of Plan. That portfolio 5yr APR of 4.96% is a little below the average for 401k Plans. The employee portfolio is a "best effort" sorting out of the SEC 11-k report data in light of merger changes.

Intel 401k (SP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2011

The Intel 401k Plan has about 50 investment options and 48 are in the scan this year. That is too many for the average employee to evaluate even just once a year. The Intel Plan as you know if you visit this site often has been a Top performer in spite of the Balanced portfolio not being helped by company stock INTC. The scan posted today using 12-31-2011 5yr Market data has only 8 investment options with over 5% of Plan assets. They are all income options. The employee portfolio's largest holdings are all equity funds; INTC at 9% of Plan, FCNTX at 7.7% and FLPSX at 7.3%. That suggests to me that employees near or in retirement may want to consider adding a few income options like PGOVX to balance their equity dominated portfolios.

Stanley Black & Decker 401k (VP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2011

Stanley Black & Decker's 401k Balanced portfolio's 5yr APR was not helped as much this year as last by company stock SWK. In 2011 SWK's total return was only 3.54% according to Morningstar and the Balanced portfolio's APR was down to 4.86%. The employee portfolio has over 50% of the Plan in company stock. Their 5yr APR is 5.43% but with much higher volatility. All in all a good Plan that is a little below last years in terms of Balanced portfolio performance.

2011 Top 401k Plans Balanced Portfolios

Compass Minerals International repeated this year as top 401k Plan led by company stock CMP producing a Balanced portfolio with a 5yr APR of 15.3% and an amazing 5yr Sharpe ratio of 3.26. Intel also repeats as a top performer again in second place with a very good 5yr Balanced portfolio without company stock. That is even more amazing in my opinion. New Jersey Resources, TERADATA and Range Resources round out the Top 5 performers with NJR and TDC new to the list this year. Although not a company 401k Plan the ProVise Management group in Florida had a model early retirement portfolio that was published in the WSJ on October 5th of 2011 worth considering and of course Stanton & Castleton has retirement portfolios (not just mine) worth considering too.

ONEOK, Inc. 401k (TP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2011

The ONEOK 401k Plan Balanced portfolio invested 8.95% of that portfolio in company stock OKE. This is a US natural gas company operating in the Midwest mostly. The employee portfolio invested 42.8% of Plan in the stock, too much for a retiree but it continues to do well. The 401k Plan has few investment options but they include PTTRX and a stable value fund that are over 80% of the Balanced portfolio. This is a small plan helped by a very good company stock the last 5 years.

Boeing 401k (VIP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2011

Boeing's 401k Plan Balanced portfolio was not helped by company stock this year because it has a negative 5 year Sharpe ratio. The stock BA was up 15% in 2011 but it was up 28% in 2007 and the 5yr APR came down in spite of a good 2011. That can be confusing. In the scan the stable value fund is still FUNDG and the investment options in the scan are the same as last year with 2 exceptions. The short-term investment option is SHY and the global equity option is VHGEX. These are better proxies than STIF and WGEF used last year in my opinion. All in all a good plan but company stock BA is still recovering from 2008.

Church & Dwight 401k (SPSP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2011

Church & Dwight had another good year in 2011 and their 401k Plan Balanced portfolio now has a 5yr APR of 8.0% with a Sharpe ratio of 2.22. Extraordinary. The employee portfolio's largest holding at over 40% of Plan is company stock CHD. Too much for a retiree in my opinion. I have CHD in my Stanton & Castleton IRA but only about 5% of Plan. This 401k also has several good equity funds like NBGNX and the PIMCO bond fund PTTRX. There is not much more to say. A good Plan and a very good company stock the last 5 years and longer.

My Stanton & Castleton IRA 12-31-2011 PSDS Scan

This is the first scan posted using 12-31-2011 5yr Market Data from Thomson-Reuters. It is for my year-end changes to last years portfolio. The two stocks last year MCD and CHD helped performance and reduced risk so well I added two more OXY and CAT. They were both on sale late last year with low PEG ratios in fact CAT's was only 0.59 when I bought it and they pay a nice dividend. Berkshire Hathaway stock does not yet pay a dividend (I am still hoping) and it does not have a positive 5yr Sharpe ratio. It is not in the Balanced portfolio but it remains in my portfolio. Sharpe ratio is a good tool but in this instance I decided to over rule the tool, accept the volatility risk and keep the stock for my Grandchildren. No surprise there.

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

I have little new information since the last scan for the Texas Instruments 401k in August 2010. After looking at a few court documents I decided to replace STIF with NOFIX the Northern Trust fixed income fund. The Balanced portfolio is still a lifeboat portfolio with over 90% of the Plan in just two funds NOFIX and BBPAX both income funds. I ran scans with and without Target Date Funds and they made almost no difference in the Balanced portfolio 5yr APR of 5.31%. Company stock TXN has a negative 5yr Sharpe ratio and by rule is not in the portfolio because of the stock's high volatility. This is a good company but the 401k Plan needs work. The retirement committee may want to check out Intel's 401k or other Top Ten 401k Plans posted on this site.

Trinity Industries Inc. 401k (PSP) PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

Trinity Industries 401k Plan changed Trustees in 2010 to JP Morgan and almost all of the Fidelity fund options were changed to JP Morgan funds. In the scan Fidelity funds were used for the 2 Target Date Retirement  options instead of JSRAX and JTTIX which do not yet have 5yr market data. The Balanced portfolio was not helped by company stock TRN which has a small negative 5yr APR. The Balanced portfolio 5yr APR of 5.71% is about average for 401k Plans with a 5yr Sharpe ratio of 1.28. All in all a pretty good 401k but the stock has not done well the last five years.

Standard & Poor's 401k (S&PS) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

Standard & Poor's 401k savings and profit sharing plan for represented employees has McGraw-Hill Companies common stock MHP and 11 other investment options. The Plan trustee is Northern Trust and I used their funds for Plan category investment options as available. The Balanced portfolio is a lifeboat portfolio with over 90% of the Plan in just three options; a stable asset fund SVF.nti in the scan, a GIC and a money market fund VMMXX for NORXX. The employee portfolio asset allocation is my best effort after a reading of the SEC 11-k report and the Form 5500 report. As the charts show the Balanced portfolio 5yr APR is a bit below average and the Sharpe ratio is way above average because the Northern Trust Stable Asset Fund has a very high 5yr Sharpe ratio of 10.3. Interesting.

Eaton Corp. 401k (SP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Eaton 401k Balanced portfolio made a small improvement over last year but is still below average. This Plan has better income options than equity options. Company stock ETN is the best equity option for the last 5 year period but both the Balanced portfolio and the employee portfolio invested less than 5% of Plan in the stock. That's not good. In my opinion the retirement plan committee needs to consider making a few changes to strengthen the equity options in this 401k Plan.

Cameron International 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

Cameron International acquired NATCO in 2009 and in 2010 changed the Plan trustee to T. Rowe Price. These changes and others complicated the SEC 11-k report and I did not have time to sort them all out. No employee portfolio, only a uniform portfolio is provided here for comparison with the Balanced portfolio. The Balanced portfolio was helped by company stock CAM which is still the largest employee holding I think. The Balanced portfolio has a 5yr APR of 6.53% with a Sharpe ratio of 1.30 both above average. Like many plans there are too many investment options for the average employee to evaluate in my opinion. That can lead to investing by fund name "conservative growth" instead of fund risk adjusted performance.

Airgas Inc. 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Airgas 401k Plan has all Vanguard investment options and company stock ARG which is in the Balanced portfolio. Among the Vanguard options are a stable value fund VRST and a money market fund VMMXX which are the two largest holdings of the Balanced portfolio. This is a pretty conservation 401k Plan. My only suggestion would be to consider adding a Vanguard sector fund like VEIEX but the Plan is just fine with the current options for most.

Eastman Chemical 401k (ESOP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Eastman Chemical 401k continues to be helped by company stock EMN and the Balanced portfolio this year has a 5yr APR of 5.26% with 4.4% of the portfolio invested in company stock. That stock is the largest holding at 12.6% of the employee portfolio. At the category level according to the SEC 11-k report the Plan asset allocation is as shown below and I do not think the Managed Income investment is participant directed.  

Managed Income 41.6% (FMIP)
Mutual Funds 44.7% (Mostly Fidelity Funds)
Company Stock 12.6% (EMN)
Self Directed Accounts 1.1% (PCRAs and cash)

All in all a pretty good 401k Plan with good domestic equity options and the always popular PTTRX bond fund. This scan is still using 12-31-2010 Market data. I should have 12-31-2011 data in a week or two.