Coca Cola 401k (TIP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Coca Cola 401k Plan has changed a few funds but company stock KO continues to be the best equity option in the plan. The Target Date Funds are now from American Funds and they do not yet have 5yr market data. In the scan they are represented by Wells Fargo Advantage and T. Rowe Price target date funds with 5yr data. Also the Bank of America Retirement Preservation Trust is represented by VRST in the scan. The Balanced portfolio has a 5yr APR = 5.91% with a Sharpe ratio of 1.73. The employee's largest holding by far is company stock at 50.8% of their portfolio which has a 5yr APR = 8.61% with a Sharpe ratio of 0.59. All in all a good 401k plan and a great old company stock. My only suggestion would be to prune some of the deadwood from the 34 investment options in the plan.

Dollar General 401k (RSP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

This 401k plan and the last one scanned make it easy to see why PTTRX is the largest mutual fund in the world. It has low risk and the highest 5yr APR of all the fund options in this 401k plan too including the stable value fund. That concerns me and others including PIMCO who know we cannot all get in the same lifeboat.

That said the Dollar General 401k has a Balanced portfolio with a 5yr APR = 5.72 and a Sharpe ratio of 1.75 well above average. Company stock DG does not have 5yr market data after its 2009 IPO by its parent company KKR. They bought it from Turner & Sons in 2007. Recently Berkshire Hathaway invested in the stock which piqued my interest. The 401k Savings and Retirement Plan does not have many options but PTTRX is one of them.  The employee portfolio invested 20.7% of their portfolio in company stock. Thats about all there is to say right now.

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

The last Amazon 401k scan was 4-30-2008. The Plan investment options are the same today as far as I know. In the scan posted today I compared the present Balanced portfolio to the 2008 Balanced portfolio using 12-31-2010 market data. I keep all the Thomson Reuters market data files for research like this. As the 2D comparison shows a buy-and-hold strategy performed badly. In antebellum 2008 the bond fund PTTRX was the second smallest holding at 7.9% of Plan and had the lowest 5yr APR of all the investment options. In the current 401k scan PTTRX is the largest holding at 84.2% and has the highest 5yr APR of all the options.

We all know rebalancing is important but this comparison reminds just how far out of balance no pun intended a 401k portfolio can get in less than 3 years and this 401k does not include company stock AMZN. I hope this reminder encourages plan participants to keep their portfolios rebalanced. I do this most quarters but it required more than rebalancing when the Capital Market Line inverted in late 2008.

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

In January 2009 the UPS 401k Plan added company stock UPS to the Plan. It is now the second largest holding of the employee portfolio. The stock is not in the Balanced portfolio because it does not have a positive 5yr Sharpe ratio. The 3 largest holdings of the Balanced portfolio are the benchmark for the State Street passive bond market index AGG in the scan, STWRX and TIP all 3 are income funds. The employee portfolio largest holding is SVSPX and it has not done well the last 5 years. SVSPX tracks the S&P 500 index. Check the 3D scan image for details on the Balanced portfolio asset allocation. This 401k Plan performance is about average with a healthy looking 3D scan to my eye.

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

The Time Warner 401k Balanced portfolio has a 5yr APR = 5.23% with a very high Sharpe ratio. This a lifeboat portfolio with 80% of the portfolio in the GIC and the Blackrock US Debt Index represented by FUNDF in the scan. This same fund is in the US Government 401k (TSP) Plan as FUND F. Company stock is not in the Balanced portfolio. The employee portfolio has a 5yr APR = 2.46% with high volatility. This plan could use a few better equity investment options.

Wells Fargo & Co. 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The Wells Fargo 401k Plan has 24 investment options and 2 of them, ESOP and Non-ESOP, are company stock WFC. The Balanced portfolio invested in most of the 23 options but WFC was not one of them. That portfolio has a 5yr APR = 4.60% up slightly from last year with a positive Sharpe ratio of 1.15. The employee asset allocation is not easy to sort into the Plan 23 options from the SEC 11-k report. The employee portfolio in the scan is my best effort. Not all the Wells Fargo Target Date Funds have 5yr data and the corresponding T. Rowe Price fund was used for them in the scan. This is an average 401k plan that would be helped by Berkshire Hathaway stock in my opinion. Just a passing thought.

John Deere 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2010

The John Deere 401k Plan restructured its investment line-up effective 2-25-2011 creating three-choices for a retirement savings plan.

Choice 1 Blackrock LifePath Index Target Date Funds
Choice 2 Passively Managed Funds
Choice 3 Other Funds and a Brokerage Link

Choice 3 was scanned this year. It has 12 investment options including company stock DE. The Balanced portfolio was helped by company stock DE and invested 5.4% of the portfolio in the stock which I own. That helped produce a 5yr APR = 5.23% with a positive Sharpe ratio of 0.97. This is an incremental improvement over last year. Only 6 of the 12 investment options are in the Balanced portfolio and I have no information on the employee asset allocation. Some of the old 401k plan better funds like FCNTX are no longer in the Plan but the BrokerageLink makes them available.