Diane Windingland called the meeting of the Crow River Investment Club to order at 6:35 pm on August 12, 2008.
Lynn Ostrem, Carole Ripplinger, Marion Marshall, Sheryl Sostarich, Diane Windingland, Kim Windingland, Dan Vitez, Beth Silverwater, Mike Trisler and Gary Quernemoen were present with payment. Ron Thorson was absent with notice and payment.
The minutes of the July 8, 2008 meeting were approved as posted.
Carole made a dues deposit totaling $410 (including a forward payment from Ron Thorson). We received $500 in a transfer from the brokerage account. We paid $1,119.25 to Craig Block for his buyout from the club, leaving an ending bank balance of $114.88.
Carole transferred 19 shares of FactSet Research to Craig Block for his buyout from the club. We incurred a $20 stock transfer fee. We received dividend income of $9.92 and transferred $500 to the checking account, leaving an ending brokerage account balance of $332.05.
New Business
Quality Systems Corp has risen considerably since Diane’s presentation last month and we voted not to chase a hot stock. Quality Systems will be placed on our Watchlist.
BestBuy Company by Dan. BestBuy is the largest retailer of consumer electronics in North America. BestBuy is considered best of breed and is the envy of competitors for its measured growth strategy. A recent contract with Apple Corporation to sell the iPhone should help propel double-digit revenue growth. Dan chose judgments on the SSG as follows: 9% sales growth, 12% EPS growth, high P/E of 20, low P/E of 13.7, low price 20% below the 52-week low price. Dan recommends a buy.
Ron Thorson was absent from the meeting.
Dan prepared two challenge lists of ten stocks: one list filtered from the StockCentral (Roster of Quality) and the other list filtered from the Manifest database. Dan chose BestBuy from the StockCentral challenge list for his new stock presentation.
The following stock watcher assignments are effective in September: Diane Windingland – Abercrombie & Fitch and Carole Ripplinger – BestBuy.
Quarterly Stock Reports
Quarterly stock reports for Coach (Kim), General Electric (Mike), Infosys Technologies (Sheryl), Portfolio Recovery Associates (Dan), National Oilwell Varco (Gary), Stryker (Marion), and Wells Fargo (Beth) were posted to the message board.
After motions were made and seconded, we voted to sell $900 of Lowe’s and buy initial positions of Abercrombie & Fitch and BestBuy valued at $450 each.
We had open discussion of the responsibilities of a stock watcher. In addition to their quarterly report, stock watchers are to relay financial information for their stocks including quarterly sales, diluted earnings per share, pretax profit, and income tax figures to the portfolio manager.
Assignments for the September meeting:
1. Ron Thorson will give a new stock presentation.
3. Quarterly stock reports are due for Abercrombie & Fitch (Diane) and Lowe’s (Gary). Quarterly stock reports are to be posted to the message board no later than 2 days before the September meeting.
4. Carole will issue checks to Eric Chlan and Steve Smith for their buyouts from the club.
5. Carole will sell $900 of Lowe’s and buy initial positions of Abercrombie & Fitch and BestBuy valued at $450 each.
6. Each member is to email suggestions for a checklist of tasks that need to be completed prior to each club meeting.
7. Each member is to email suggestions for what items should be included in a new stock report.
8. In the education segment, Sheryl will explain The Manifest Quality Rating.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 pm.
Sheryl A Sostarich, Secretary
The next meeting will be at Kim & Diane’s in Rogers on Tuesday, September 9, 2008.