NVT, ECL, SIAL, etc.

Sold some more NVT today -- this is the 2nd time I have taken profits on NVT -- the total sold is about 1/3 of my original position. That still leaves me with some skin in the game but I have reduced my risk a bit after this stock's run -- it is one of the best performing stocks in the Russell 1000 index -- especially AFTER the market peaked. Still love the story or I would have sold all of it. You will find over time that I generally take profits in the stocks I shouldn't and let ride the ones that I should take profits -- oh well, if it were easy they could teach a computer to do it (Doh! sorry about that quant funds He! He! He!)

Did some more thinking about ECL -- those who have read me for a bit now should be familiar with the fact that I do lots of reading on stocks and usually don't do anything about it. Its all good for learning more about business but one doesn't want to churn the accounts either.

I took another look using Factset -- an amazing tool -- of the performance of ECL and Sigma Aldrich (SIAL) and realized that while ECL outperforms over the longer term, that is because SIAL had huge outperformance from the 1970's till 1992 and then sucked until 2000. If you include any time from 92 to 00 in your comparison, then ECL wins hands down. If you just look at either the 70's to 92 or 00 till now, then SIAL wins hands down. So what happened? my guess is sloppy management on SIAL's part that was fixed with a change in strategic direction in 2000. Still, even though SIAL has done well and has pretty good numbers, they haven't grown revenues as well as they wanted based on their 2001 annual report.

ECL isn't much better -- that stock actually underperformed the market from the 1970's till around 2000 -- since then they have done really well. Now there are years in the 90's when they outperformed but overall it's kind of an index like stock. Graco is similar but that company was transformed starting in the early 90's to become an incredibly profitable company. So when I see that they didn't really outperform the market for most years until the last 10, I don't mind because its a different company now then it was pre-outperformance. ECL doesn't look any different. Its still about cleaning solutions and whatever other products they try to shove down the same customers (leveraging their relationships to boost profits without increasing investment). I still might end up buying ECL but for now I am continuing to read -- in this case I'm on to DCI. I looked at this one last year but passed on it. Not sure why. I also passed on Neogen but that wasn't exactly bright either -- ouch, it was up again today!

Those reading from the yahoo board --- I haven't been able to post under my CA-man ID so I haven't posted. Either I have been blocked due to posting a link, or I am a victim of a bug or I need to start posting using another ID. anyway, question for goutah3006 (the guy with experience in semiconductor packaging from the TSRA board) -- I was wondering if you have the expertise or if you asked around about the quality of micro pilr, TSRA's new packaging technology? Is it as much of a leap forward as the company's comparison's suggest? This new technology is critical because it opens up big new markets as well as provides an incentive for existing customers to renew their licenses. just post here or on the yahoo board -- thanks!