Stock Update

Thought I'd update things.  I sold my position in CHRW at loss today after what I felt was a pretty bad conference call.  This company has been excellent in the past, and may be in the future, but I just didn't like what I was hearing.  I had waited a long time for it to come into price range and was thinking it'd be one I bought and held for a long time.

Overall I've added some positions since last time.  Here's what things look like now.


INTC Intel - still my largest holding, but it's just not moving, and seems like results keep getting pushed out into the future.  It pays a nice dividend, but I'm expecting some capital gains at some point.
BRK.B - Berkshire Hathaway
CMI Cummins
NEU NewMarket
CTSH Cognizant Tech
OUTR Outerwall (Coinstar) - recently announced very good results
QCOM Qualcom - I'm glad I picked them up as a rider to INTC.  They're executing better.
LQDT Liquidity Services.  A new position from a while back. Good report recently
CHKP Checkpoint software
GEOS Geospace - a new position from a while back.  I'm down on this one so far but like what I heard in the conference call.
VMI Valmont Industries
SNI Scripps Networks
CF   CF Industries
PETM PetSmart.  A new position from a couple weeks back.
AFL  AFLAC.  A new position.  I normally try to stay away from financial companies (with exception of BRK.B), but this looked good to me and I sortof understand the insurance market.
FFIV  F5 Networks
HFC  Holly Frontier
TCX  Tucows.  This was a small position for me that I hadn't listed, but it has grown into a decent size - enough to list it here.
 DE  Deere and co.  Relatively new addition.
GES  Guess.  I've had this a long time for dividend and what I thought would be cap appreciation, but it really hasn't done much and retail trends don't seem favorable to me.

Other smaller positions include: TIVO, CRUS, DHX, PETS

R&D tax credit quote in conference call

I thought this was a pretty funny quote in the recent NewMarket conference call.  

From the call: "That being said, as we speak, Congress has not yet renewed the tax credit for R&D for 2014. If Congress does not pass the credit, each quarter next year will have an additional tax, which represents the absence of that credit. We get about $3 million a year of R&D credits. This seems to be a bit of a pattern though, where Congress eventually passes the credit, but often is late in the year and made retroactive to the beginning."

It ties in well to how Lawrence Lessig says congress builds in dependencies in the tax code as opportunities to raise campaign money.  Instead of making something permanent in law, like a permanent "R&D" tax credit, congress will instead make it annually renewable and use it as a lever to raise money for campaign contributions.


Interesting - I didn't realize this, but Lessig did a TED talk on this very topic re: influence of money in campaigns.  Really good stuff starts around 7minute mark. 
http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim.html