Yesterday was the tenth purchasing round of the 2021 investment schedule. I’ll first cover the positions and then go through a bit of the thought process behind it.
Main Fund Purchases
#. Company / Stock Name (Ticker) - $ Amount | $ Cost Basis / Share
Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LH) - $250 | $273.50
iRobot Corporation (IRBT) - $250 | $95.97
Residual Cash - $2000
Some Qualitative Thoughts
Well, it’s finally time to start moving some money into stuff, as I’ve built up a pretty huge cash pile. I can’t just hold it all forever!
I had four stocks I was looking to pick up with $250 each. Unfortunately, two of them just missed my limit and I’ve been conservative buying lately, so I just decided to save them for the next round potentially. The two that did hit were iRobot and Labcorp.
iRobot, to me, feels at first glance like some kind of joke stock. I basically just think about that Will Smith movie. And, they are still making a lot of vacuum cleaners instead of human-like robots. But, they have really good fundamentals (unlike some other joke stocks). Also, I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersection of manufacturing and technology ever since I saw a bunch of delivery robots happily doing their job on a recent trip I took. I really like the potential they have to eventually pivot into future business lines that may be coming in the next ten to twenty years.
Labcorp feels like one of those investments I’m going to be happy with but regret timing wise. This thing has been on a tear for a while. I’ve also had it on my list for a few rounds now, so I’ve only watched the price go up from the sideline. So, if it drops, I expect to invest more. Despite the price increase, the fundamentals continue to improve, which you usually wouldn’t expect from certain valuation metrics. I see that as a positive indicator. Also, despite the awesome run for this company, the overall market cap remains low compared to some other massive companies. Lab work will only continue to become more important as biotechnology grows, so even if there is a bit of a post-COVID testing slump, I think there will be solid long-term growth.
Other than that, just to comment on current market conditions, it’s been a bit choppy out there. I feel somewhat vindicated in my belief to build a little cash here but also the market really hasn’t had any sort of meaningful drop - it’s pretty much a wash for me so far.
Also, this little bit of cash holding only matters if I eventually deploy the cash during a dip. Which means, I don’t really see any positive yet except for the fact that I’m happy to hold cash, as I’ve said, if I don’t have really good ideas. Maybe between now and two weeks from now I’ll be ready to deploy a good bit of cash. But, if not, the portfolio has been doing pretty well versus the S&P 500 despite the heavy cash position. So, feeling good about where things stand! Here’s to another good two weeks for everyone’s investments.
Previous Investment Rounds
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