Lakshmi machine works
I have written on LMW earlier here. The domestic and export demand for the company has collapsed since then. The company is now running at 40% of its capacity. The company reported a 60% drop in topline and 76% drop in profits. Time to panic and sell the stock ? Not quite.

The market was pricing much worse earlier. For a period of few months, the company sold for almost its cash holdings without any value being given to any other assets.Now that the market has realised that the company is not headed for extinction, it has revalued the company to a certain extent.

At the same time, I do not have any illusions that the fundamentals of the company will suddenly turn completely. The company is in for some tough times till the demand returns back to the pre-crisis levels and accordingly the profit peak achieved over the last few years could take some time too.

However if one looks at the annual report, one can see that the company is doing a great job of managing the downturn. The company does not require much capex and has reduced the working capital too. The cash and equivalents are now up at almost 700 crs which comes to around 60% of the market. I personally don’t think the company is going bankrupt and hence plan to hold on.

Ashok leyland
I have written about the company earlier here and here. The company reported an almost 50% drop in sales and 80%+ drop in profits ( I like companies whose sales are dropping off the cliff 🙂 ).

If you are interested in the company, I would encourage you to see the latest presentation by the company here. The company has taken pains to detail out the problems and how they are coping with the recession.

Ashok leyland has also been hit severly by the downturn and credit crunch. Although the demand is now stabilizing, the current quarter and maybe the next will continue to be hit due to inventory liquidation. The company books sales when it sells to the dealers. The slowdown in the demand has resulted in high inventory with the dealers which needs to be worked out. The only worrying factor in the results is the loss of market shares in HCV, especially in the mid segment.

The company’s results will continue to be hit for atleast a few quarters due to the slowdown and due to the depreciation cost of the capex which was put in place for the expected demand last year. As in LMW, I don’t think the company is going bankrupt and hence plan to hold on. At the same time Ashok leyland is not as cheap as LMW

Hinduja global
I have written on Hinduja global earlier (see here and here). My main concern was the high cash holding of the company which is being maintained in foreign sub. The company has since then tried to clarify the above fact (details of the cash holding are provided in the last quarter’s result).

In addition the company came out with a higher dividend and fairly good results in Mar 2009. As a result the stock has almost doubled since then. In the current quarter, the company reported a topline growth of 30% and bottom line growth of almost 80%. The company continues to perform well. My hesitation in building a large position still continue to be the corporate governance issues, even though the company is cheap by objective standards.

Gujarat gas
I have written on gujarat gas earlier (see here ). The company reported Q2 numbers and i am fairly satisfied with the numbers. The company has been facing a supply issue due to lower level of supplies from two long term sources.

The Q1 results were hit considerably due to the above shortage. The company has been able to secure some supply in the spot market to meet some of the demand. The topline grew by around 10%, though the volume dropped by around 5% during the same period.The bottom line grew by more than 10% if one eliminates the one time gain in last year’s result.

The company is doing quite well and I expect the profit growth to improve once additional sources of supply are tied up. Finally, the company has declared a 1:1 bonus issue. This does not change anything fundamentally other than higher dividends in the future. However the market has reacted positively and pushed up the stock price.

Lets go over what the typical investor was thinking over the last 18 months, from the peak to the current recovery phase.

Jan 2008 – Whopee, I am getting rich. Just need to keep buying and selling and trading and I can retire! I am a genius!!!

March 2008 – I knew the market was overvalued, but then I am long term investor. So I am going hold onto my stocks during the this drop, maybe even buy more

Aug 2008 – The market is climbing again!! the bear market is over.

Nov 2008 – What happened ?!! oh boy, why did not sell in august. I have lost too much money. No point in selling

Feb 2008 – This is getting bad. Let me salvage whatever I can and move to fixed deposits. Even the CNBC guys are saying that

April 2008 – The market has risen a bit, but I am not worried. The market will drop once the election results are announced

May 2008 – The results were a surprise and missed the rally. I should have bought in Feb when the market was cheap. Let me wait

Jun 2008 – let me wait for the market to drop

July 2008 – Let me wait for the market to drop

….and the mental circus continues

I know I am exaggerating, but I know there are a lot of investors who went through the above mental roller coaster and will learn all the wrong things like

– The market is a casino and one has to be able to predict the market in advance to make money
– I should take more risk and should trade more frantically to make money
– One needs to be glued to the TV to make money
– All the losses are not my fault, though the gains were due to my brilliance

I have myself gone through some of the above emotions in the past. There is nothing wrong in experiencing all kinds of conflicting emotions during such volatile times. It will however not do an investor any good, if he or she does not learn the right lessons. Let me state a few things I learnt from bear markets in the past

– There is only one person to blame for your losses – you
– There is never a good or a bad time to buy stocks. If you can find a good company, which is undervalued, buying is a smarter decision than guessing what the market will do.
– Prepare in advance – I have been guilty of being timid in the previous bear market. During 2001-2003 bear market, I lacked the self confidence of investing a meaningful amount of money even though I realized that the market and stocks were cheap. The reaction is understandable if you are new to the market and have suffered losses. After the bear market ended, I realized my mistake and make a mental plan of how much capital I would commit when the inevitable downturn came. During the current downturn, I was prepared psychologically to go ‘all in’ when the valuations became cheap.
– Stop listening to markets forecast and silly predictions. They will cost you money in the long run
– Learn continuously. You may make money by luck in the stock market, but will not keep it.
– Stop looking backwards – I should have or would have done this, is not relevant. The question is – knowing what I know now, what do I plan to do?

VST
I wrote about VST a month back and got it perfectly wrong. The company has come out with a 60%+ topline growth and doubling of bottom line. I have not been find more details on the results, but need to figure out how the company has been able to increase topline so rapidly in a business with such a low growth.

Container corporation
The company reported a 10% topline growth and a flat bottom line. The bottom line is flat due to the 20% rise in the rail expenses. Although I don’t have the exact details, the rail charge hikes cannot be passed on the customers immediately and there is a lag in getting the price increase.
The overall results are good in view of the slowdown in the exim markets. Concor has been a long term holding for me and is a very profitable logistics company with a cash rich balance sheet, attractive margins and substantial competitive advantage.

Novartis
I wrote on Novartis earlier here. I have not completely exited the stock as I felt the buyback price was too low. The company has been able to increase the holding to 76.4% now. The company increased the topline by 7% and bottom line by around the same amount.
The performance is nothing out of the ordinary. The stock continues to be undervalued and will most likely remain so. The only upside is a possible buyback and delisting by the parent. However as there is no fixed timetable, it may not make sense to hold the stock for the long term. In my case, I will exit my position when I can find a better idea.

So how is your portfolio doing ?
I often get this question by email. The short answer is – as expected (around 10% in excess of the index returns). I started buying last year from march and went all in by Q4 of 2008. I have not been very active since the beginning of the year due to various reasons ranging from shortage of cash to lack of time.

I have been lucky that my wins generally end up more than compensating for my goof-ups. It is however difficult to know beforehand which idea would be a winner or a clunker. In the final analysis, though it is the portfolio performance rather than individual stock performance, which matters more.